Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Loewen 4 antiquity was "not a fight to the death between Christianity and 'paganism.'"12 Instead, classicizing literature, rather than representing some straggling holdout of pre-Christian religion, was popular amongst Christian authors as well as non-Christian ones.13 To properly analyze Nonnus's Dionysiaca, it is necessary to understand this literary coexistence between classicism and Christianity as his environment.Nonnus wrote both the Dionysiaca and the Paraphrase of the Gospel of John, and, as a result of their relative chronology and the likely Christian origins of his name, Nonnus was a Christian when he wrote the Dionysiaca.The culture of late antique Egypt also allowed for the crossover between Christian and classical writing, and these traditions were not separated or only accessible to one group or another.Nonnus, throughout the Dionysiaca, thus borrowed from many of the sources and literary traditions available to him.His allusions to Homer especially in the two proemial sections and the Indian War section, in which Dionysus leads an army against the Indians in a pastiche of the Iliad, support his reliance on the Homeric epics.Additionally, he imitates and borrows from post-Homeric genres such as panegyric, praising Dionysus as though he were a king or a saint.The ancient Greek novel also influences Nonnus's digressions into erotic love stories, often alluding to and subverting the novel's generic expectations.However, more than just classical literature was available and desirable to him.Onto the clear foundation of Homer and post-Homeric genres, Nonnus adds Christianity, alluding to Biblical scenes and vocabulary, particularly through references to his Paraphrase.Through erotic scenes, particularly those depicting attempted or actualized rape, Nonnus also promotes a Christian view of sexuality, promoting perpetual virginity and the pathologization of sex for both men and women.Ultimately, Nonnus presents a panorama of the various genres and popular motifs from 13 Dijkstra, Jitse F.J. "The Religious Background of Nonnus," 83. 12 Dijkstra, Jitse F.J. "The Religious Background of Nonnus."In Brill's Companion to Nonnus of Panopolis, edited by Domenico Accorinti.(Leiden: Brill, 2016), 76. 49 Liebeschuetz, "The Use of Pagan Mythology in the Christian Empire," 76.48 Shorrock, The Myth of Paganism, 19.47 Shorrock, The Myth of Paganism, 16.
Author: Loewen, Arianna
Institution: Trinity University
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7057314418
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