This challenging series considers Greek and Roman literature primarily in relation to genre and theme. It also aims to place writer and original addressee in their social context. The series will appeal to both scholar and student, and to anyone interested in our classical inheritance. With the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman world in the fourth century AD, the role of the poet underwent a radical transformation. In place of the traditional poet of the Muses, there emerged a new figure, claiming inspiration and authority from Christ. The poet of Christ soon...
This challenging series considers Greek and Roman literature primarily in relation to genre and theme. It also aims to place writer and original ad...
Nonnus once vied with Homer for popularity; today his Dionysiaca languishes in obscurity. The Challenge of Epic offers a literary critical rehabilitation of Nonnus' fifth-century AD poem. It argues that modern neglect stems from a failure to appreciate the central position of allusion in late-antique poetry. Attention first focuses on intertextual allusion. It is argued that the poet draws on a plethora of allusions to the cycle of Greek mythology in order to imbue his specific narrative with a universal significance. Focus then shifts to metapoetic allusion: the way in which...
Nonnus once vied with Homer for popularity; today his Dionysiaca languishes in obscurity. The Challenge of Epic offers a literary critic...
