RT Book, Section
T1 Nonnus and the novel
A1 Miguélez Cavero, Laura
A2 Accorinti, Domenico
AB Nonnus’ productive interaction with the novel has been a given in Nonnian studies since Rohde related the descriptions of the rape of Europa (Nonn. Dion. 1.46–136 ~ AT 1.1.2–13) and the discovery of the purple (Nonn. Dion. 40.304–310 ~ AT 2.11.4–8) by Nonnus and Achilles Tatius (AT). The twentieth century was fertile in joint approaches to Nonnus and his novelistic readings, coming to a number of general conclusions: Nonnus’ poetics of poikilia, as launched in the proem (esp. 1.13–15), are put into practice by interspersing in the epic narrative samples of fashionable genres such as the novel; Nonnus shows a distinct preference for AT when treating erotic episodes, as well as for his excursuses of geographic or historical content, natural history or paradoxography. The connection is not restricted to specific passages. Some shared stylistic and narrative strategies have emerged: emotional speeches (with the rhetorical progymnasma of the ethopoeia perhaps as an intermediary), the interweaving of primary and secondary narratives, the deployment of description under the influence of rhetorical ekphrasis, the generous use of (paradoxical) antithesis, and the insertion of contemporary morsels in the literary recreation of the distant past. The twenty-first century has seen a notable improvement in the studies on the topic with the detailed commentaries on relevant passages in the now complete Budé edition and in the Italian series BUR Classici Greci e Latini, to which we should add the publications by Faber (2013), Fayant (2003a), Frangoulis (2006, 2009, 2013b, 2014), Giraudet (2011, 2012) and Hadjittofi (2014). This chapter offers an introduction to the subject, focusing primarily on AT’s Leucippe and Clitophon (L&C), the main novelistic referent of the Dionysiaca, as well as Longus’ Daphnis and Chloe (D&C) and Heliodorus’ Aethiopica. The influence of the last two seems at first less visible, but they are essential to an understanding of the novelistic discourse that forms the background of the Dion. I shall proceed from the analysis of how Nonnus relies on the novel in his initial programmatic space, especially in the episode of Europa (1), to two more general topics: the reception of the novel as the genre of narrative eros (2), and Nonnus’ use of the novels as models for rhetorical and literary success (3).
PB Brill
SN 978-90-04-31011-7
YR 2016
FD 2016
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/100678
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/100678
LA eng
NO Miguélez-Cavero, L. (2016). "25 Nonnus and the Novel". In Brill’s Companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004310698_027
DS Docta Complutense
RD 18 dic 2025