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The Dionysiaca, opus magnum in 48 books, written by the Egyptian Greek Nonnus of Panopolis in the 5th century A. D., comprises a wide range of different mythical stories under the heading of the wine-god Dionysus. The poet traces way back to the god's ancestors, his birth and childhood and outlines his route to an accepted divinity of the Olympic realm. Within this scope Nonnus adapts all possible literary genres to his all-embracing epic, ranging from Homer to at least Hellenistic literary traditions, including also rhetorical techniques such as ecphrasis. Taking the appearance of the Four Seasons in book 11 of the Dionysiaca (Nonn. D. 11, 485–521) as an example it is the object of the present contribution to demonstrate the application of ecphrastic genre in this epic. It will be argued that the poet follows the rules of rhetorical handbooks in giving a particularly vivid portrayal of the Seasons. Moreover, appealing to all senses Nonnus ties the reader very close to his story and hence seeks to create a special relationship between narration and audience. With the ecphrasis of Autumn he foreshadows major developments of the narration and throws a glance at future events of the epic.
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