Lucian. Volume VII - Lucian

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.