Satire blends with comic art in Lucian's tales, fantasies, and dialogues. With ebullient wit he mocks teachers of literature, the various philosophical schools, popular religions, historians and writers, the Olympian gods, and the foibles of mortals. In "The Dream" he jocularly recounts his own career. Native of Samosata on the Euphrates, Lucian traveled widely in the Roman Empire as far as Gaul. His 80 extant works (published here in 8 volumes) offer insight on the intellectual world of the second century A.D. along with mischievous and sophisticated entertainment.
From Lucian comes a...
Satire blends with comic art in Lucian's tales, fantasies, and dialogues. With ebullient wit he mocks teachers of literature, the various philosophic...
Lucian (ca. 120190 CE), 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 lively, cynical wit of the humorous dialogues in which he satirises human folly, superstition and hypocrisy. His aim was to amuse...
Lucian (ca. 120190 CE), the satirist from Samosata on the Euphrates, started as an apprentice sculptor, turned to rhetoric and visited Italy and G...
