Analysis of deforestation scenes in Nonnus' epic reveals environmental themes in ancient literature, linking trees to conflict.
This article examines the depiction of deforestation in Nonnus' Dionysiaca, a Greek epic on the god Dionysus dating from the fifth century CE. Exploring the ancient association of Dionysus with mountainous rural spaces, it brings together three key scenes in the epic in which pine trees are uprooted, tracing the resonance of deforestation in the gathering of wood for a heroic funeral pyre, in the murder of one of Dionysus' hubristic opponents and in the sudden vulnerability of tree nymphs whose 'homes' are cut down. This nexus reveals the ancient significance of trees and their removal for both the epic tradition and the god Dionysus. Nonnus' Dionysiaca, it is argued, is a poem that not only builds on the Homeric model of frenetic deforestation, but that also reflects on the profound environmental disturbance created by the archetypal epic drive for conflict and conquest.
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Emily Kneebone (2025) studied this question.