Resumen de Nonnus of Panopolis. Paraphrasis of the Gospel of John XI by Konstantinos Spanoudakis (review)
The comments are two-fold and complement each other: one, which is more general, refers to whole line(s); the other refers to the specific part of the line.Since Spanoudakis's book is the first volume of the Livrea project that has been published in English, an important advantage of the Introduction is that it does not restrict itself solely to Par. 11 but may serve as a short yet comprehensive Einführung for all those taking their first steps in the world of Nonnus's biblical epic.[...]to Pentheus, who θεομαχεῖ ("fights against the god," Ba. 45), does not believe in Dionysus's divinity, and presents himself as the voice of reason even if everyone else says the opposite (e.g. 268-71, 309-13, 480, 490), the leaders in Par. 11 are called ἀντίθεοι ("God-opposing," 186), ἀπιστότατοι ("most unbelieving," 187), and ἄφρονες ("senseless," 188), although according to Caiaphas the plan to sacrifice Jesus in order to save the Jewish nation is reasonable (202-5).[...]while in the Bacchae Dionysus's wine is offered to humanity as ἀντίπαλος ("a match," 278) to the gift of Demeter, and as the only true remedy against all troubles (283), in Par. 11 Jesus is seen by the Jewish leaders as ἀντίπαλος ("a rival," 191), whose single death will make "the whole state peaceful" (206; no direct equivalent in John 11.50).[...]read against the Bacchae, Par. 11 shows Jesus as παῖς θεοῦ ("God's child," 182; cf. Διὸς παῖς ["Zeus' child"] in Ba. 1) who, being himself the true wine and the true bread, comes to his people as a perfect "match" to the law of the Old Testament yet is met with hostility, incredulity, and rejection.
