Volume 1 - Nonnus - Dionysiaca - William Henry Denham Rouse

The Dionysiaca is an ancient Greek epic poem and the principal work of Nonnus. It is an epic in 48 books, the longest surviving poem from Greco-Roman antiquity at 20,426 lines, composed in Homeric dialect and dactylic hexameters, the main subject of which is the life of Dionysus, his expedition to India, and his triumphant return to the west.

00:00:00 - Book 1
00:31:16 - Book 2
01:12:02 - Book 3
01:37:30 - Book 4
02:04:05 - Book 5
02:38:41 - Book 6
02:59:53 - Book 7
03:20:47 - Book 8
03:44:39 - Book 9
04:02:14 - Book 10
04:25:46 - Book 11
04:54:48 - Book 12
05:16:27 - Book 13
05:47:34 - Book 14

SUMMARY OF THE BOOKS OF THE POEM:

(1) The first contains Cronion, light-bearing ravisher of the nymph, and the starry heaven battered by Typhon’s hands.

(2) The second has Typhon’s battle ranging through the stars, and lightning, and the struggles of Zeus, and the triumph of Olympos.

(3) In the third, look for the much-wandering ship of Cadmos, the palace of Electra and the hospitality of her table.

(4) Tracking the fourth over the deep, you will see Harmonia sailing together with her agemate Cadmos.

(5) Look into the fifth next, and you will see Actaion also, whom no pricket brought forth, torn by dogs as a fleeing fawn.

(6) Look for marvels in the sixth, where in honouring Zagreus, all the settlements on the earth were drowned by Rainy Zeus.

(7) The seventh sings of the hoary supplication of Time, and Semele, and the love of Zeus, and the furtive bed.

(8) The eight has a changeful tale, the fierce jealousy of Hera, and Semele’s fiery nuptials, and Zeus the slayer.

(9) Look into the ninth, and you will see the son of Maia, and the daughters of Lamos, and Mystis, and the flight of Ino.

(10) In the tenth also, you will see the madness of Athamas and Ino’s flight, how she fled into the swell of the sea with newborn Melicertes.

(11) See the eleventh, and you will find lovely Ampelos carried off by the manslaying robber bull.

(12) With the twelfth, delight your heart, where Ampelos has shot up his own shape, a new flower of love, into the fruit of the vine.

(13) In the thirteenth, I will tell of a host innumerable, and champion heroes gathering for Dionysos.

(14) Turn your mind to the fourteenth: there Rheia arms all the ranks of heaven for the Indian War.

(15) In the fifteenth, I sing the sturdy Nicaia, the rosy-armed beast-slayer defying Love.