The perioche of the Dionysiaca as means of Self-presentation

Since there does not exist any comprehensive study of the perioche of the Dionysiaca, a hexametric summary transmitted together with the actual text of the epic, the present article aims to close this gap by investigating the question of authorship and function. In contrast to the communis opinio, which considers the passage to be supplemented by a later editor, this paper shows that the perioche has been composed by Nonnus himself, who consciously imitates the genre of the metric hypotheseis. By prefixing such a metric summary (which was normally written only for the works of the canonical authors) to his own work Nonnus lays claim to a similarly canonical place in literary history.