Nonnus of Panopolis ( Ancient Greek : Νόννος ὁ Πανοπολίτης , Nónnos ho Panopolítēs , fl. 5th century CE) was the most notable Greek epic poet of the Imperial Roman era . He was a native of Panopolis (Akhmim) in the Egyptian Thebaid and probably lived in the 5th century CE. He is known as the composer of the Dionysiaca , an epic tale of the god Dionysus , and of the Metabole , a paraphrase of the Gospel of John . The epic Dionysiaca describes the life of Dionysus, his expedition to India, and his triumphant return. It was written in Homeric Greek and in dactylic hexameter , and it consists of 48 books at 20,426 lines.
30-638: There is almost no evidence for the life of Nonnus. It is known that he was a native of Panopolis ( Akhmim ) in Upper Egypt from his naming in manuscripts and the reference in epigram 9.198 of the Palatine Anthology . Scholars have generally dated him from the end of the 4th to the central years of the 5th century CE. He must have lived after the composition of Claudian 's Greek Gigantomachy (i.e., after 394–397) as he appears to be familiar with that work. Agathias Scholasticus seems to have followed him, with
60-740: A biological anthropologist also reviewed studies on the biological affinities of the Ancient Egyptian population and characterised the skeletal morphologies of predynastic southern Egyptians as a "Saharo-tropical African variant". Keita also added that it is important to emphasize that whilst Egyptian society became more socially complex and biologically varied, the "ethnicity of the Niloto-Saharo-Sudanese origins did not change. The cultural morays, ritual formulae, and symbols used in writing, as far as can be ascertained, remained true to their southern origins." The proto-dynastic kings emerged from
90-608: A suffragan of Antinoë in Thebais Prima , is included in the Catholic Church 's list of titular sees . Among the bishops of Panopolis, Le Quien mentions Arius, friend of Saint Pachomius who had built three convents in the city, Sabinus, and Menas. Excavations at Akhmim have disclosed numerous Christian manuscripts, among them fragments of the Book of Henoch , of the Gospel, and of
120-520: A 2005 study on mummified remains found that "some Theban nobles had a histology which indicated notably dark skin ". In the eleventh century, large numbers of pastoralists , known as Hilalians, fled Upper Egypt and moved westward into Libya and as far as Tunis . It is believed that degraded grazing conditions in Upper Egypt, associated with the beginning of the Medieval Warm Period , were
150-500: A Greco-Roman period temple with colossal statues of Ramesses II and Meritamen was discovered in 1981. Of Akhmim, in 1818 Jacques Collin de Plancy wrote in his book, the Dictionnaire Infernal , that the city "formerly had the reputation of being the abode of the greatest magicians. Paul Lucas speaks, in his second voyage, of the marvelous serpent of Akhmin, which Muslims honor as an angel, and which Christians believe to be
180-499: A historical region even after the classical period. The main city of prehistoric Upper Egypt was Nekhen . The patron deity was the goddess Nekhbet , depicted as a vulture. By approximately 3600 BC, Neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile based their culture on the raising of crops and the domestication of animals. Shortly thereafter, Egypt began to grow and increase in complexity. A new and distinctive pottery appeared, related to
210-623: A mid-6th-century reference to him as a "recent author". He is sometimes conflated with St Nonnus from the hagiographies of St Pelagia and with Nonnus , the bishop of Edessa who attended the Council of Chalcedon , both of whom seem to have been roughly contemporary, but these associations are probably mistaken. Nonnus's principal work is the 48-book epic Dionysiaca , the longest surviving poem from classical antiquity . It has 20,426 lines composed in Homeric Greek and dactylic hexameters ,
240-571: A very early date. Pachomius the Great founded a monastery known as Tkahshmin in the area. Shenouda the Archimandrite (348–466) was a monk at Athribis near Akhmim. Some years earlier Nestorius , the exiled ex-patriarch of Constantinople , had died at an old age in the neighborhood of Akhmim. Nonnus , the Greek poet , was born at Panopolis at the end of the 4th century. The bishopric of Panopolis,
270-602: Is also known as Middle Egypt . It is believed to have been united by the rulers of the supposed Thinite Confederacy who absorbed their rival city states during the Naqada III period (c. 3200–3000 BC), and its subsequent unification with Lower Egypt ushered in the Early Dynastic period . Upper and Lower Egypt became intertwined in the symbolism of pharaonic sovereignty such as the Pschent double crown. Upper Egypt remained as
300-438: Is an acquired taste for a modern reader. His versification invites attention: writing in hexameters he uses a higher proportion of dactyls and less elision than earlier poets; this plus his subtle use of alliteration and assonance gives his verse a unique musicality. His Paraphrase of John ( Metabolḕ toû katà Iōánnēn Euaggelíou ) also survives. Its timing is a debated point: textual analysis seems to suggest that it preceded
330-617: Is called Sa'id or Sahid, from صعيد meaning "uplands", from the root صعد meaning to go up, ascend, or rise. Inhabitants of Upper Egypt are known as Sa'idis and they generally speak Sa'idi Egyptian Arabic . Upper Egypt is between the Cataracts of the Nile beyond modern-day Aswan , downriver (northward) to the area of El-Ayait, which places modern-day Cairo in Lower Egypt . The northern (downriver) part of Upper Egypt, between Sohag and El-Ayait,
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#1732848763764360-499: Is located on the east bank of the Nile , four miles (6.4 km) to the northeast of Sohag . Akhmim was known in Ancient Egypt as Ipu , Apu (according to Brugsch the name is related to the nearby village of Kafr Abou) or Khent-min . It was the capital of the ninth (Chemmite) nome of Upper Egypt . The city is a suggested hometown for Yuya , the official of Tuthmosis IV and Amenhotep III . The ithyphallic Min (whom
390-524: Is not altogether a coincidence that the cemetery of Akhmim is one of the chief sources of the beautiful textiles of Roman and Christian age, that are brought from Egypt . In the Christian Coptic era, Akhmim was written in Sahidic Coptic : ϣⲙⲓⲛ/ⲭⲙⲓⲛ/ⲭⲙⲓⲙ Shmin/Kmin/Kmim but was probably pronounced locally something like Khmin or Khmim . Monasteries abounded in this region from
420-616: Is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel N. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake Nasser (formed by the Aswan High Dam). In ancient Egypt, Upper Egypt was known as tꜣ šmꜣw , literally "the Land of Reeds" or "the Sedgeland", named for the sedges that grow there. In Arabic , the region
450-656: The Apocalypse of Peter , the Acts of the Council of Ephesus , as well as numerous other Christian inscriptions. In the 13th century AD, a very imposing temple still stood in Akhmim. Today, little of its past glory remains. Nothing is left of the town, the temples were almost completely dismantled, and their material reused in the later Middle Ages . The extensive cemeteries of ancient Akhmim are yet to be fully explored. The destroyed corner of
480-548: The 11th , 12th , 17th , 18th and 25th dynasties, reunified and reinvigorated pharaonic Egypt after periods of fragmentation. For most of Egypt's ancient history, Thebes was the administrative center of Upper Egypt. After its devastation by the Assyrians, the importance of Egypt declined. Under the dynasty of the Ptolemies, Ptolemais Hermiou took over the role of the capital city of Upper Egypt. Shomarka Keita reported that
510-461: The Dionysiaca while some scholars feel it unlikely that a converted Christian would have gone on to devote so much work to the Dionysiaca ’s pagan themes. The terminus post quem for its composition is the commentary on the Gospel of John written by Cyril of Alexandria (i.e. 425–428), since the theological layer of Nonnus' Paraphrase is clearly dependent on it. A more difficult issue is to determine
540-491: The Eritrean coast) climbing up poles before the god Min. Min was especially a god of the desert routes on the east of Egypt , and the trading tribes are likely to have gathered to his festivals for business and pleasure at Coptos (which was really near Neapolis ) even more than at Akhmim. Herodotus perhaps confused Coptos with Chemmis. Strabo mentions linen-weaving and stone-cutting as ancient industries of Panopolis, and it
570-568: The Levantine ceramics , and copper implements and ornaments became common. Mesopotamian building techniques became popular, using sun-dried adobe bricks in arches and decorative recessed walls. In Upper Egypt, the predynastic Badari culture was followed by the Naqada culture (Amratian), being closely related to the Lower Nubian; other northeast African populations, coastal communities from
600-584: The Maghreb , some tropical African groups, and possibly inhabitants of the Middle East . According to bioarchaeologist Nancy Lovell, the morphology of ancient Egyptian skeletons gives strong evidence that: "In general, the inhabitants of Upper Egypt and Nubia had the greatest biological affinity to people of the Sahara and more southerly areas", but exhibited local variation in an African context. S. O. Y. Keita,
630-733: The Delta cultures, where the direct Western Asian contact was made, further vitiates the Mesopotamian-influence argument". Similarly, Christopher Ehret , historian and linguist, stated that the cultural practice of sacral chiefship and kingship which emerged in Upper Egypt in the fourth millennium had originated centuries earlier in Nubia and the Middle Nile south of Egypt. He based this judgement on supporting, archaeological and comparative ethnographic evidence. These cultural advances paralleled
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#1732848763764660-486: The Greeks identified with Pan ) was worshipped here as "the strong Horus ." Herodotus mentions the temple dedicated to Perseus and asserts that Chemmis was remarkable for being the hero’s birthplace, wherein celebrations and games were held in his honour after the manner of the Greeks; at which prizes were given. As a matter of fact, some representations are known of Nubians and people of Punt (southern coastal Sudan and
690-695: The Naqada region. Excavations at Hierakonpolis (Upper Egypt) found archaeological evidence of ritual masks similar to those used further south of Egypt, and obsidian linked to Ethiopian quarry sites. Frank Yurco stated that depictions of pharonic iconography such as the royal crowns , Horus falcons and victory scenes were concentrated in the Upper Egyptian Naqada culture and A-Group Lower Nubia . He further elaborated that " Egyptian writing arose in Naqadan Upper Egypt and A-Group Lower Nubia, and not in
720-694: The city. Akhmim maintains a weekly market, and manufactures cotton goods, notably the blue shirts and check shawls with silk fringes worn by the poorer classes of Egypt . Outside the walls are the scanty ruins of two ancient temples. On the west bank of the Nile opposite of Akhmim, there is railway communication with Cairo and Aswan . 26°34′N 31°45′E / 26.567°N 31.750°E / 26.567; 31.750 Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( Arabic : صعيد مصر Ṣaʿīd Miṣr , shortened to الصعيد , Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [es.sˤe.ˈʕiːd] , locally: [es.sˤɑ.ˈʕiːd] ; Coptic : ⲙⲁⲣⲏⲥ , romanized: Mares )
750-521: The demon Asmodeus." Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies its climate as hot desert (BWh). Akhmim is the largest town on the east side of the Nile in Sohag Governorate . In 1907, the population of the city was 23,795, of whom about one third were Copts . Akhmim has several mosques and two Coptic churches. The Monastery of the Martyrs is located about 6 km northeast of
780-452: The main subject of which is the life of Dionysus , his expedition to India, and his triumphant return. The poem is to be dated to the 5th century. It used to be considered of poor literary quality, but a mass of recent writing (most notably in the Budé edition and commentary on the poem in 18 volumes) has demonstrated that it shows consummate literary skill, even if its distinctly baroque extravagance
810-495: The political unification of towns of the upper Nile River, or Upper Egypt, while the same occurred in the societies of the Nile Delta , or Lower Egypt . This led to warfare between the two new kingdoms. During his reign in Upper Egypt, King Narmer defeated his enemies on the delta and became sole ruler of the two lands of Upper and Lower Egypt, a sovereignty which endured throughout Dynastic Egypt. In royal symbolism, Upper Egypt
840-562: The terminus ante quem. Perhaps it is the time of the composition of Pseudo-Apollinaris' Metaphrase of the Psalms (c. 460), which seems to refer to Nonnus' poem. A complete and updated bibliography of Nonnus scholarship may be found at Hellenistic Bibliography's page at Google Sites. Editions and translations of the Dionysiaca include: Editions and translations of the Paraphrase include: A team of (mainly Italian) scholars are now re-editing
870-534: The text, book by book, with ample introductions and notes. Published so far: Akhmim Akhmim ( Arabic : أخميم , pronounced [ʔæxˈmiːm] ; Akhmimic Coptic : ⳉⲙⲓⲙ , Coptic pronunciation: [xmiːm] ; Sahidic/Bohairic Coptic : ϣⲙⲓⲛ Coptic pronunciation: [ʃmiːn] ) is a city in the Sohag Governorate of Upper Egypt . Referred to by the ancient Greeks as Khemmis or Chemmis ( Ancient Greek : Χέμμις ) and Panopolis ( Ancient Greek : Πανὸς πόλις and Πανόπολις ), it
900-489: Was represented by the tall White Crown Hedjet , the flowering lotus, and the sedge. Its patron deity, Nekhbet, was depicted by the vulture. After unification, the patron deities of Upper and Lower Egypt were represented together as the Two Ladies , to protect all of the ancient Egyptians, just as the two crowns were combined into a single pharaonic diadem. Several dynasties of southern or Upper Egyptian origin, which included
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