Anacharsis or Athletics. Menippus or The Descent into Hades. On Funerals. A Professor of Public Speaking. Alexander the False Prophet. Essays in Portraiture. Essays in Portraiture Defended. The Goddesse of Surrye ISBN: 9780674991798 Platform/Publisher: Loeb Classical Library / Harvard University Press Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: One Page at a time; Download: One Page at a time
Antiquity's satirist supreme.
Lucian (ca. AD 120-190), the satirist from Samosata on the Euphrates, started as an apprentice sculptor, turned to rhetoric and visited Italy and Gaul as a successful traveling 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 lively, cynical wit of the humorous dialogues in which he satirizes 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 tales 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 or Symposium (philosophers misbehave at a party), Timon (the problems of being rich), Twice Accused (Lucian's defense of his literary career) and (if by Lucian) The Ass (the amusing adventures of a man who is turned into an ass).
The Loeb Classical Library edition of Lucian is in eight volumes.
Lucian, the wit and satirist, was a brilliant Greek writer in the time of the Roman Empire. He was born in Samosata, Syria. He traveled and lectured in Italy, Asia Minor, and Gaul; and in later life, held a government position in Egypt. Of nearly 80 works, the most important and characteristic are his essays written in dialogue form. "Dialogues of the Gods," which satirizes mythology; "Dialogues of the Dead," which are expositions of human vanity; and "The Sale of Lives," which satirizes various schools of philosophy. He is a good critical source for ancient art and for information about his literary contemporaries. "The True History," a nonsense fantasy and parody of adventure stories, influenced Rabelais, Swift 1), and Voltaire.
