Information concerning Nonnos

H & P , pp. 507-509, discuss a number of parallels between the worship of Dionysos and Christianity. Besides the New Testament parallels to Euripides, Bacchae, etc. which they cite, another very interesting indication of a kind of religious syncretism, or combination of different traditions, is to be found in the oeuvre - i.e., literary work - of Nonnos of Panopolis in Egypt, from around 450 CE. Not too much is available on the web from which can draw an overall impression of his Dionysiaca. Some idea of the content of this work, though, can be found at the advertisement for the Loeb series translation of Nonnos by Rouse (same translator as we are using for the full text of the Iliad)

More is available on the web in the way of translation for Nonnos' other work, Paraphrase of the Gospel of John. Seemingly very different from the Dionysiaca, this is a paraphrase of the New Testament Gospel of John in dactylic hexameter. (Nonnos' Dionysiaca is also in dactylic hexameter.) Tony Prost's website includes information about Nonnos and also an ongoing tranaslation of the Paraphrase of John.

Tony Prost writes as follows:

"Virtually nothing is known of Nonnos of Panopolis, except the attribution to him of the 48 book Dionysiaca, and the 21 Book Paraphrase of the Gospel of John. Some experts dispute that the same person wrote both poems. However there are enough unique words which appear in the Paraphrasis which have parallel citations only in the Dionysiaca to make the transmitted provenance convincing."

Prost also includes a translation of about 1/3 of Nonnos' Paraphrase. You should read the beginning of Chapter 2 (lines 1 - 57; down to "Galileans with long Hair".

In this selection, phrases in the first and last lines, viz., "Dawn painted rose the Rocks" and "Galileans with long Hair" pick up, with modification, well-known Homeric formulas. The first is illustrated at, e.g., H & P, p.439, line 104 (in Odyssey, Book 9), "As soon as Dawn's rose fingers touched the sky". The other formula (a modification of a Homeric reference to the Achaians) is illustrated at, e.g., H & P, p. 362, line 58 (in Iliad, book 8), "Akhaian fighting men with flowing hair".