The classical past and the Christian future of late antique Greek epic poetry: Eudocia, Nonnus, and their readers

• Applicant: Dr. Anna Lefteratou
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 290246115

Late Antiquity is one of the most intriguing milestones in the reception and refashioning of classical antiquity. The consolidation of Christianity as the Empire's official religion allowed for a revision of Classical literature through a Christian lens. This mix created experimental literary forms that were later bequeathed to the Middle Ages, Byzantium and the Renaissance. For example, the renewal of interest in epic poetry, the 'new style' that emerged around the third century CE, was further developed by Nonnus of Panopolis in the fifth century and continued until the age of Justinian. This project proposes to examine the Christianisation of epic poetry in the cultural and literary milieu of the fifth century CE. I will use as test-case texts Eudocia's Homeric Centos and Nonnus' Paraphrase of St. John's Gospel.The main points of my investigation are the following: (i) Eudocia's and Nonnus' audience and their generic expectations for an epic on Christian themes. (ii) The impact of monotheism on the teleological and narrative design of the epic genre in Late Antiquity. (iii) The Christianisation process of the epic genre in the Greek East, as opposed to its development in the West. In this study I suggest that Christian epic poetry was a conscious, albeit progressive, 'invention' of an elite Christian milieu that did not attempt to imitate, diminish or substitute the epic classics, such as Homer, Hesiod, or Apollonius of Rhodes. Rather, it was a poetic movement with a precise agenda that aimed to innovate the epic genre. The late antique epic challenged conventional readerly anticipations by broadening the horizons of its generic expectations. Thus, Christian epic poetry needs to not be examined as a sub-genre of the overall late antique poetic production, rich in mythological epics for example, but separately as a genre with its own artistic agenda. Further, I will argue that the mid-fifth century poetic experimentation with epic form and thematics created a more discursive and layered aesthetics. Eudocia's Homeric Centos and Nonnus' Paraphrase of St. John's Gospel are two key-texts that are characteristic of the cusp between classical education and Christianity.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants