Published | Parrésia - Ročenka pro východní křesťanství

Geografie a mýty v Dionysiakách Nonna z Panopole

Author: Růžena Dostálová

The book “Geography and Myths in the Dyonisiacs of Nonnus of Panopolis” deals with a prominent Greek writer of late antiquity. If the epic writer Homer in the 8th century B.C. stood at the beginning of Greek and, indeed, European literature, at the end of its antique period in the 5th century A.D. stands the epic writer Nonnus of Panopolis, writing in the self-same language and meter and drawing inspiration from the huge treasury of Greek mythology.  It is difficult to say of Nonnus – as in the case of a series of other writers of this era – with any certainty if he was a pagan or Christian. This fact caused his work to be admired as well as condemned. The present monograph examines Nonnus’ Dionysiaca – apparently the largest-scale epic of late antiquity – for the first time from the point of view of  the role played by geographical and mythical passages.