This book is the latest instalment in the series of Nonnus of Panopolis in Context edited volumes, growing from the biennial conferences of the same name. This volume contains papers from the 2015 conference, finally available after the typically lengthy editorial process of the series. Historically, the Nonnus in Context volumes have provided a valuable insight into the most recent trends in Nonnian scholarship, and this latest instalment is no exception. The world of Nonnian studies has grown rapidly in the last few years, rising from a marginal field to one of the more vibrant and exciting areas of scholarship, and this trajectory shows no signs of slowing in the near future.

While previous volumes in this series have occasionally felt like a disparate collection of papers with a loose theme wrapped around them, the polish and coherence on display in this latest instalment is notable. The theme of ‘old questions and new perspectives’ is a strong one and is reflected across the entire volume, from content to contributors. The volume combines papers from some of the most foundational writers on Nonnus with newer, fresher voices, and it is all the stronger for it. A number of the old guard are notable for their absence – most significantly, P. Chuvin, due to his death shortly after the conference. His presence is sorely missed, but even without him this is the strongest volume in the series so far.

The book opens with an introduction by G. D'Ippolito, the godfather of modern Nonnian scholarship, returning to the field he energised 60 years ago to provide some thoughts on the current state of affairs. He efficiently covers a number of the ‘great questions’ of Nonnian studies, ranging from chronology and authorship to intertextuality and linguistic knowledge, and effectively marks each one off as something settled that can be built on, pushing forward towards future growth on a solid foundation. This puts something of a cap on 60 years of scholarship, marking the past out as largely settled and pointing towards a bright future of new questions, new confidence and new maturity. This approach sets the tone for the rest of the volume, with its strong drive towards a future of new approaches and new ideas on a much more solid foundation than previous collections.

The volume is divided unevenly into five sections, each of which explores an overarching theme focusing on a different area of Nonnian studies. Part 1, ‘Nonnus and the Literary Tradition’, comprises six papers on topics ranging from narratology to Coptic literature. This attention to Nonnus’ sources and antecedents is the most traditional part of the collection, but the authors offer valuable new thoughts and push the field in exciting new directions. Particular mention must be made of K. Carvounis and S. Papaioannou's ‘Nonnus’ Dionysiaca and the Latin Tradition’ and G. Agosti's ‘Nonnus and Coptic Literature’ for exploring influences on Nonnus from languages and cultures outside of the more expected Greek background. This re-evaluation of previously accepted boundaries between cultures is also visible in A. Lefteratou's excellent ‘Aura's Metamorphosis in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus’, exploring the Christian elements of one of the most complex episodes in the Dionysiaca and incorporating discussion of the Paraphrase. Many of these papers tackle issues relevant to specific and often complex fields, such as Coptic and narratology, and the authors must be commended for their ability to ensure that all the chapters are accessible to the Nonnian scholar with minimal understanding of other fields. B. Verhelst's ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall’ stands out as a remarkably accessible introduction to the complexities of narratological study of Nonnus. Overall, this section comprises a good range of papers on several different aspects of the literary background to Nonnus’ writing and lays strong ground for new directions in the field.

Part 2, ‘Literary Structure and Motifs in the Dionysiaca’, contains seven papers focused primarily on the structure and composition of the Dionysiaca as well as on some of the stranger and more frequently overlooked episodes of the poem. This is an aspect of the poem that has been studied much, because of the traditional view that the Dionysiaca is something of a jumbled mess of a composition. All the papers in this section make it clear that this traditional approach is far from an accurate reading and that the principles of order and organisation underlying Nonnus’ poem are remarkably complex and carefully structured. The papers cover a wide range of the different structural and thematic motifs that recur across the Dionysiaca, from the specifics of D. Hernández de la Fuente's ‘The Awakening of Ariadne in Nonnus’ to the macro-view of N. Egetashvili's ‘Some Aspects of Nonnus’ Poetics: Antitypical Poetry in the Dionysiaca’. Several chapters focus on repeated themes, exploring the cyclical nature of the Dionysiaca, but some of them take a more complex, comparative view. The final two papers in this section, C. Cadau's ‘Female Characterization and Gender Reversal in Nonnus and Colluthus’ and F. Hadjittofi's ‘Nonnus’ Europa and Cadmus: Re-configuring Masculinity in the Dionysiaca’, tackle the difficult topic of gender roles in the Dionysiaca, effectively engaging with the unique nature of this poem and its position in the context of the fifth century.

Part 3, ‘Exegesis through Paraphrase’, is the part of the collection that directly tackles Nonnus’ other poem, the Paraphrase of the Gospel of John. Aside from A. Lefteratou's paper in the first section, this separate section is the sole home of the Paraphrase in the volume, a somewhat disappointing (if unsurprising) choice. The five papers are universally of a high standard, exploring specific aspects of the Paraphrase in detail, but this poem continues to seem like something of an afterthought to most scholars. Given the focus in the ‘Nonnus and the Literary Tradition’ section on a more cross-cultural approach to Nonnus, confining the Paraphrase to its own area reads as a reductive remnant of the earlier approaches this volume works so hard to escape. That being said, so much progress has been made on other aspects of Nonnian studies in the time between the previous volume of the series and this release that it is only a matter of time before exploration of the Paraphrase catches up and is fully incorporated into the wider field.

In another example of vital contextualising of the Nonnian poems in their wider cultural context, Part 4, ‘Nonnus and Late Antique Culture’, explores the complexities of late antique culture from both literary and social perspectives. It is a shame, given the importance of this topic, that this section contains only three papers. That brevity is felt all the more because of the choice of papers. K. Spanoudakis's ‘The Mystic Reception of Theocritus in Late Antiquity’ is an interesting exploration of Theocritus, but only really a background to Nonnus. This would not be an issue in a larger section, but having a full third of the section devoted to an only tangentially relevant topic has a major impact on this part's contribution to the volume as a whole. For a series entitled ‘Nonnus of Panopolis in Context’, it is somewhat ironic for the section explicitly contextualising Nonnus to be so slim.

The final section, ‘Reception of Nonnus’, represents perhaps the least developed area of Nonnian scholarship. Until relatively recently, the reception of Nonnus has been largely characterised by disinterest and occasionally disdain. As such, the papers in this part represent a disparate range of different topics, ranging from post-Nonnian late antique poetics through to nineteenth-century German academic writing about Nonnus. All these papers offer interesting insights into later literary cultures and the role of Nonnus in the centuries after publication. For the first time in this series, the topic of Nonnian reception seems like one ripe for a much larger, more dedicated study.

Overall, this is a strong collection of fresh, exciting perspectives on Nonnus and his work. The explosion of interest in Nonnus in the past decade is fully on display here, in a collection that, while imperfectly constructed, stands out above its predecessors in both content and coherence. The Nonnus of Panopolis in Context series has been, for a number of years, the largest gathering of interesting perspectives and ideas on Nonnus and his works, and this third volume continues that tradition while setting out directions for the future. With this volume, the field of Nonnian scholarship finally feels like a fully mature, confident academic space, rather than the more hesitant area of study striving for legitimacy and attention that it has been until recently. None of the hesitation or acknowledgement of older, extremely questionable theories and questions of minimal value that have been so prevalent in Nonnian scholarship can be found in this collection, which instead approaches the poems with fresh eyes and exciting ideas. The volume serves as an excellent overview of where the field stands in 2021 and sets out clear aspirations of where we should go next.