Dionysius (Epic)

Dionysios was a Greek epic poet . He was the author of a Bassarika ( Βασσαρικά ) in at least 14 books and a Gigantias ( Γιγαντιάς ) in at least 7 books. His works have not survived ; some fragments have come down to Stephanos of Byzantium .

The Bassarica , which deal with the Indian campaign of Dionysus , were a source heavily used by Nonnos of Panopolis for his Dionysiacs . Especially the Indian catalog of the 26th song owes its details mainly to Dionysius.

The Gigantias describes the struggle of Heracles with the giant Alkyoneus on Pallene , as well as its prehistory (Herakles journey from Troy to Kos , the rape of the cattle of Helios by Alkyoneus).

Nothing is known of his life data. His works date from the Hellenistic period at the earliest , at the latest from the 3rd or 4th century AD, as a papyrus with fragments of his work from this period exists. From the relatively ancient geography on which the Bassarika is based, however, it can be concluded that it originated relatively early in the Hellenistic period.

expenditure

• Ernst Heitsch : The Greek poet fragments of the Roman Empire. Volume 1. Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class, Volume 3, No. 49. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1961.

literature

• Rudolf Keydell : Dionysios (13). In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 2, Stuttgart 1967, column 68.
• Georg Knaack : Dionysios 95 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume V, 1, Stuttgart 1903, Col. 924.