Lucian: Alexander Or The False Prophet (Hardcover)

Lucian's Alexander Or The False Prophet is a satiric biography of the religious entrepreneur and career fraudster Alexander of Abonouteichos. It recounts how, during the reign of Antoninus Pius (AD 138-161), Alexander succeeded in setting up a fraudulent new oracular cult of the snake-god Glykon in his home-town of Abonouteichos in Paphlagonia. In the Alexander, Lucian sets out to debunk the oracle as a scam, its founder as a debauched crook, and its clients as gullible idiots. The Alexander is an extraordinary and unclassifiable work: part biography, part invective, part Epicurean critique of divination. It casts a uniquely vivid light on social mores and religious beliefs in the Antonine age, and was a major influence on Erasmus, Ben Jonson, and Henry Fielding. The present volume is the first full-length treatment of the Alexander in English, and includes an extended historical and literary introduction, a new English translation, and a detailed commentary on the text. The volume also includes a translation of the surviving fragments of Oinomaos of Gadara's The Exposure of Sorcerers, a contemporary Cynic attack on oracular divination. All Greek is translated throughout.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Clarendon Ancient History Series
Release date:	May 2021
Authors:	Peter Thonemann (Forrest-Derow Fellow and Tutor)
Dimensions:	223 x 145 x 24mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	256
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-886824-8
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: history & criticism > Literary studies > Classical, early & medieval Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Essays, journals, letters & other prose works > Classical, early & medieval Books > Humanities > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE Books > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE Promotions
LSN:	0-19-886824-3
Barcode:	9780198868248

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