Greek biblical epic : Nonnus’ Paraphrase and Eudocia’s Homerocentones

Abstract

The term ‘Greek biblical epic’ is ambiguous because it suggests two concepts that have to be nuanced. It seems to refer to a subgenre of epic, but whether at all these poems can be considered as a group in terms of genre is doubtful. Alternative labels, which are sometimes used, are biblical paraphrase (which widens the scope to non-hexametric paraphrases) and cento poetry (which points out the formal relation with cento poetry on other topics, but separates Eudocia from Nonnus). One may also wonder to which degree the Greek examples of hexametric poetry with biblical topics indeed deserve the label ‘epic’ if at first sight their epic character is restricted to their versification and elements of vocabulary and style. Nonetheless, this chapter prefers the term ‘biblical epic’ over ‘biblical paraphrase’ because of the subtle presence of epic structural elements it aims to show in the two examples under consideration. The first part of the chapter focuses on microstructural elements in Nonnus’ Paraphrase, which give his Gospel narrative epic grandeur.Moving from very small to slightly larger such elements, the chapter presents an analysis of the function of epithets, the occurrence of semi-formulaic speech introductions, the use of colourful descriptions of the passing of time, and the presence of a full-blown ekphrasis of a lamp as the poem’s lengthiest ‘original’ passage (i.e. without direct equivalent in the Gospel of John). The second part of the chapter deals with the Homerocentones, which by definition consist of epic ‘building blocks’, i.e. of lines from Homerwhich are reordered to tell the story of the Old Testament and (mainly) the Gospels. This part of the chapter, therefore, necessarily focuses on different parameters. It looks at the overall structure of the Homerocentones (in the so-called ‘first redaction’), at the epic elements in the proem and at the way the centonist makes use of Homeric type-scenes (e.g. xenia and banquet) to give shape to similar scenes in the Gospels