The unsurpassed satirist of the ancient era was a young Syrian
named Lucian, who, writing in Greek in the second century a.d.,
combined wit, irony, fearless candor, and exuberant comic fantasy
to create the triumphantly irreverent dialogues and stories
contained in this book. His genial mockery, aimed at man's
omnipresent feelings, has never gone out of date. The jabs he gave
the hypocrites; grandstanders, fakers and boobs of the ancient
world can just as appropriately be administered to their
counterparts in the modern world.
Lucian's most typical genre is a parody of a Platonic dialogue,
in which Zeus, Hermes, Eros, and other Olympians jabber in undivine
harassment as some clever mortal (who very much resembles Lucian)
is about to make scandalous fools of them. He also excelled at
straight narrative, his two most famous tales being the elaborate
science fiction spoof; "A True Story," and an old folk tale retold
outrageously, "Lucius the Ass." His works were the product of an
unrelentingly rational and skeptical mind, and have had an
incalculable effect on writers and painters through the ages.
Until this volume, the English language reader of today to
appreciate the importance and intelligence of Lucian. No volume of
representative selections in translation is in print. There are
satisfactory versions of the complete works, but the reader who
takes this long will most likely lose a good deal of the sting of
Lucian's needle. Lionel Cassen also illustrates the full range of
Lucian's subject matter and various literary forms and when
translating tried to focus on the Greek spirit as opposed to the
literal meaning.
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