Poetry - Character - Design.Narrative Strategies in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis

The present application is designed to investigate the construction of the narrative of that fascinating and well composed but difficult to access piece of late antique poetry, the Dionysiaca by Nonnus of Panopolis. Nonnus of Panopolis in Upper Egypt (today Akhmim) is the author of the last large-scale epic poem of antiquity, the voluminous 48 books of the Dionysiaca. In it the wine-god Dionysus successfully accomplishes his expedition to India and his entry into Athens and Greece in order to teach mankind the cultivation of the vine. Furthermore, Nonnus is the author of an epic Paraphrasis of the Gospel of St John, thus being both a pagan and a Christian writer. In his poetry he combines traditional pagan literature with modern forms of story-telling applied by poets in antiquity since the times of Homer. The objective of the present application is to describe and to analyse significant passages by means of a close literary interpretation in order to perceive the plan and the structure of the epic, and to unveil the poets technique in constructing the storyline and in creating the characters of his narrative. The analysis of mythological figures, development of personas and stylistic elements of the poetry displays Nonnus connection with classical literature and the mythic past of the world of Homers epic as well as a close affiliation with Hellenic intellectuals in the cities of the eastern Roman empire in late antiquity. Application: Hertha-Firnberg-Position Mag. Dr. Nicole Kröll

In her Hertha Firnberg project "Poetry - Character - Design. Narrative Strategies in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis" (T-875, running time 2017-2020), Nicole Kröll dealt with the most comprehensive surviving epic of antiquity, the "Dionysiaca" by Nonnus of Panopolis. This epic, dating from the 5th century CE, is written in Greek and tells the story of Dionysus, who must find his way to recognition as the wine god through numerous challenges. The project dealt with selected passages and characters in the epic, with the narrative strategies used by the poet Nonnus, and with the general principles of composition of late antique Greek and Latin poetry. Particular attention was paid to special epic forms of expression, which go back to a long tradition starting with the Homeric poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey". The project elaborated the particular features of Nonnus' epic as well as of late antique poetry as a whole and highlighted the relationship between late antique and Homeric epic poetry. The aesthetic forms employed by the poet, including non-linear composition, mosaic-like arrangements of individual scenes, deviations from literary traditions and the creation of new myths, turned out to be specifically late antique phenomena, which can be observed not only in Nonnus, but also in works by other poets of the 5th and 6th centuries CE. Thus, the "Dionysiaca" can be located in the literary environment of late antiquity and the often idiosyncratic poetry of Nonnus can only be understood from its religious and cultural environment. Therefore, the project contributed to seeing the "Dionysiaca" in the light of late antique aesthetics, which do not follow the principles of classical Homeric poetry, but offer new narrative techniques. The project made further scholarly progress in analysing various characters that appear in the "Dionysiaca", such as the Cyclops and the goddess Athena, as well as in analysing the representation of the city of Athens, which serves as a metaphor for the cultural memory of the Greeks in the late antique Eastern Mediterranean. By creating new mythical figures and places compiled from familiar Homeric set pieces, the Nonnian epic enters into an active dialogue with the epic model of Homer and transfers the inherited literary traditions into a new cultural context shaped by Christianity.