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Lucian
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Lucian of Samosata
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Lucian : in eight volumes. 8
LUCIAN (c. 120-190 A.D.) the satirist from Samosata on the Euphrates, started as an apprentice sculptor, turned to rhetoric and visited Italy and Gaul as a successful travelling lecturer, before settling in Athens and developing his original brand of satire. Late in life he fell on hard times and accepted an official post in Egypt. Although notable for the Attic purity and elegance of his Greek and his literary versatility, Lucian is chiefly famed for the dialogues in which he satirises human folly, superstition and hypocrisy. His aim was to amuse rather than to instruct. Among his best works are A True Story (the tallest of tall stories about a voyage to the moon), Dialogues of the Gods (a 'reductio ad absurdum' of traditional mythology), Dialogues of the Dead (on the vanity of human wishes), Philosophies for Sale (great philosophers of the past are auctioned off as slaves), The Fisherman (the degeneracy of modern philosophers), The Carousal (philosophers misbehave at a party), Timon (the problems of being rich), Twice accused (Lucian's defence of his literary career) and (if by Lucian) The ass (the amusing adventures of a man who turned into an ass).
The Works of Lucian
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Lucian of Samosata, Greek Writer and Roman Citizen
Lucian was a man of letters and thinker who stood at the meeting point of three cultures: the Oriental culture of the Roman province of Syria; Greek culture as a result of his own background and the cultural tradition of the education he had received; and Roman culture, since in his lifetime it was Rome that exercised political power and, even though it adopted Greek culture as its own, it still made a clear contribution to this world. This three-faceted cultural outlook to Lucian of Samosata is of great interest for the study of the Roman Empire, with all its implications for the coexistence of peoples, for preserving identities, for creating or recreating identifying traits, some of which separated peoples while others brought them together when faced with alien forces, as well as for fusion, osmosis and syncretism. Moreover, this ample series of data provides us with information not only about cultural aspects, but also as regards social behaviour, ways of exercising and understanding political power, customs, religion, spectacles and celebrations..The book is divided into two sections, one focusing on Lucian as a writer, and one dealing with Lucian as a citizen of the Empire.
Select Dialogues
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Lucian
Lucian lived in the second century AD and though his mother tongue was probably Aramaic he was famous for his witty satire and polished Greek. The aim of this selection is to produce a representative coverage of some of Lucians best work, particularly those pieces not available in recent editions or translations. Five of the nine works offered are examples of the comic, satiric dialogue as that was Lucians forte, but also included to illustrate the authors versatility are an autobiography, a satirical discourse, a description of a painting and a major work of literary criticism. Greek text with facing-page treanslation, introduction and commentary
Lucian's True History
Example in this ebook It is a commonplace of criticism that Lucian was the first of the moderns, but in truth he is near to our time because of all the ancients he is nearest to his own. With Petronius he shared the discovery that there is material for literature in the debased and various life of every day—that to the seeing eye the individual is more wonderful in colour and complexity than the severely simple abstraction of the poets. He replaced the tradition, respected of his fathers, by an observation more vivid and less pedantic than the note-book of the naturalist. He set the world in the dry light of truth, and since the vanity of mankind is a constant factor throughout the ages, t...
Lucian's Science Fiction Novel, True Histories
This is the first substantial commentary on Lucian's fantastic journey narrative, the "True Histories" - the earliest surviving example of science fiction in the Western tradition. The Introduction situates the text in Lucian's oeuvre and offers a guide to its interpretation as allegory and parody.
