The Youth of Dionysus. The Ampelus-Episode in the Dionysiaca

Nonnus of Panopolis (today Akhmim) in Upper-Egypt is the author of the 48 books Dionysiaca, the voluminous late antique mythological epic poem, in which the winegod Dionysus successfully accomplishes his expedition to India, his entry into Athens and Greece and, finally, into the Olympic pantheon. Furthermore, Nonnus is the composer of the 21 books hexameter-Paraphrasis of Saint Johns Gospel. In his uvre he combines traditional pagan literature with recent forms of story-telling applied by his forerunners and contemporaries in the 5th century C. E. as well as by his successors. It is the aim of this thesis to determine and highlight the poetic language, literary style and composition of the Dionysiaca through a close reading of a selected episode. The detailed analysis of books 10 to 12 presents the mythological character Ampelus who is almost unknown in the literary and artistic tradition before Nonnus. The poet designs his key character by drawing on a wide range of mythological and literary traditions which he not merely reproduces and duplicates but rather remodels and integrates into his all-embracing Dionysiac poetics. Ampelus engages a central position within this poetic concept: his death and metamorphosis into the grape-vine provide Dionysus with his most significant attributes, vine and wine, both of which will play a decisive role in the following books of the epic in determining the narrative design and outcome of many later episodes. Special heed is payed to Nonnus application of traditional literary techniques in the setting of both late antique classicism and innovation. The analysis of further mythological figures, literary landscapes and late antique stylistic principles displays Nonnus close touch with classical literature and the mythic Greek past as well as his socio-cultural affiliation with intellectual circles of Hellenes in the eastern cities of the late antique Roman empire. Nonnus creative contest with poets like Homer, Pindar or the Hellenists, his adaptation of rhetorical devices and topoi as well as his sophisticated play with generic models places the Ampelus-episode at the peak of late antique literary production.