Nonnus

Nonnus of Panopolis (Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης, fl. 5th century AD) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era. He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Thebaid and probably lived in the 5th century AD. He is known as the composer of the Dionysiaca, an epic tale of the god Dionysus, and of the Metabole, a paraphrase of the Gospel of John. The epic Dionysiaca describes the life of Dionysus, his expedition to India, and his triumphant return. It was written in Homeric Greek and in dactylic hexameter, and it consists of 48 books at 20,426 lines.

Quotes

Greek text: W. H. D. Rouse, Nonnos: Dionysiaca, 3 vols. (LCL, 1940)

• Αἴθε βέλος γενόμην ἢ δίκτυον ἠὲ φαρέτρη,
  αἴθε βέλος γενόμην θηροκτόνον, ὄφρά με γυμναῖς
  χερσὶν ἐλαφρίσσειεν· ὀπισθοτόνοιο δὲ τόξου
  εἴην νεῦρα βόεια πολὺ πλέον, ὄφρά με μαζῷ
  χιονέῳ πελάσειε σαόφρονος ἔκτοθι μίτρης,
  ναὶ δαμάλη, ναὶ μόσχε, σαόφρονος ἔκτοθι μίτρης.
  • Oh might I be transform’d into a dart,
    Or net, or quiver! might I be the spear
    That slays the creatures of the woods, high-poised
    By her bare arm! or, more than all, the thong
    Of the slung bow, that o’er her back is cast:
    So might she draw me to her snowy breast,
    And to her modest girdle closely strain!
  • Dionysiaca, bk. 15, 258, trans. C. A. Elton, Specimens of the Classical Poets (1814), vol. 3, p. 323
  • Cf. Tennyson, The Miller's Daughter

• Χερσὶ γυναιμανέεσσιν ἐμῆς μὴ ψαῦε φαρέτρης·
  τόξον ἔχω, σὺ δὲ θύρσον·
  • Touch not my quiver with womanlickerish hands: I keep the bow, you the thyrsus.
  • Dionysiaca, bk. 16, 165, trans. W. H. D. Rouse (1940)

• Ὑπναλέην δὲ
  ἀθρήσας Διόνυσος ἐρημαίην Ἀριάδνην
  θαύματι μῖξεν ἔρωτα·
  • When Bacchus first beheld the desolate
    And sleeping Ariadne, wonder straight
    Was mixed with love.
  • Dionysiaca, bk. 47, 271, trans. Mrs Browning, Last Poems (1862)

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Nonnus on Wikipedia