Beskrivning
Beskrivning
Antiquity’s satirist supreme.Lucian(ca. AD 120–190),the satirist from Samosata on the Euphrates, startedas an apprenticesculptor, turned to rhetoric and visited Italy and Gaulas a successfultraveling lecturer before settling in Athens anddeveloping hisoriginal brand of satire. Late in life he fell on hardtimes andaccepted an official post in Egypt.Althoughnotable for theAttic purity and elegance of his Greek and his literaryversatility,Lucian is chiefly famed for the lively, cynical wit of thehumorousdialogues 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.
