A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

816 ~LUCIANUS.'LUCIANUS.
proper head., The life of that philosopher must. ginning, to ridicule the authors of extriavagant
have been prolonged considerably beyond the reign tales, including Homer's Odyssey, the Indicua of
of Hadrian, since Lucian tells us that he was per- Ctesias, and the wonderful accounts of Iambunlus
sonally acquainted with him for a'long period. of the things contained in the great sea. Accord-:(~Eac'pQr U r l'm#sovacK-l, Kal E6l yziTcuOv eUve- ing to Photius (Cod. 166), Lucian's model was,yevdiinv, ~ 1.) Demonax was a philosopher after -Antonius Diogenes, in his work called Td Vrep
Lucian's own heart, belonging to no sect, though ~oeSAq'P aorLoa. That writer, however, was prohe had studied the tenets of all, and holding the bably later than Lucian. Still Lucian may have
popular mythology in profound contempt. His had predecessors in the style, as Antiphanes. The,chief leaning was to the school of*Socrates, though,'adventures related are of the most extravagant
in the unconstrained liberty of his way of life, he kind, but show great fertility of invention. Luseemed to bear some resemblance to Diogenes. cian tells us plainly what we have to expect; that.
-Demonax sacrificed to the Graces, and was equally he is going to write about things he has neither
averse from the austerity of the Stoics and the filth seen himself nor heard of from others; things,'of the Cynics. Had he been one of the latter, moreover, that neither do, nor can by possibility
Lucian would never have mentioned him with exist.; and that the only truth he tells us is when
praise. Of all the philosophic sects, Lucian de- he asserts that he is lying. He then describes how
tested the Cynics most, as may be seen in his he set sail from the columns of Hercules, and was
Peregrinus, Fugitivi, Convivium, &c.; though he cast by a storm on an enchanted island, which apseems to have made an exception in favour of peared, from an inscription, to have been visited by
Menippus, on account, perhaps, of his satyrical Hercules and Bacchus; where not only did the.writings, to which his own bear some resemblance. rivers run wine, but the. same liquid gushed from
Jt was for his account of Demonax that Eunapius the roots of the vines, and where they got drunk
ranked Lucian among the biographers. Ilepl ris by eating the fish they caught. On again setting
Iepeypriove'rAevT77s, De Morte Peregrini, contains sail, the ship is snatched up by a whirlwind, and
some particulars of the life and voluntary auto-da-fe carried through the air for seven days and nights,
of Peregrinus Proteus, a fanatical cynic and apos- till they are finally deposited in the moon by certate Christian, who publicly burnt himself from an tain enormous birds called Hippogypi (horse vulimpulse of vain-glory shortly. after the 236th tures). Here they are present at a battle between
Olympiad (A. D. 165), and concerning whom fur- the inhabitants of that planet and those of the sun.
iher particulars will be found elsewhere. [PE- Afterwards they prosecute their voyage through
REGRINUS.] Lucian seems to have beheld this the Zodiac, and arrive at the city of Lanterns,
singular triumph of fanaticism with a sort of bar- where Lucian recognises his own, and inquires the
barons exultation, which nearly cost him a beating news at home. They then pass the city of Nephefrom the Cynics, who surrounded the pyre (~ 37). lococcygia (Cloud-cuckoo-town), and are at length
The Matcp4cLO may also be referred to this head, deposited again in the sea. Here they are swalas containing anecdotes of several Greek and other lowed up by an immense whale; and their advenworthies who had attained to a long' life. tures in its belly, which is inhabited, complete the
4. ROMANCES. Under this head may be classed first book. The second opens with an account of
the tale entitled AovecK0r 4) Ovos, Lucius sive Asi- their escape, by setting fire to a forest in the
nus, and the'AAX10os io'eoplas A&yos a' Kal /s', whale's belly, and killing him. After several more
(Verae Historiae). Photius (Cod. 129) is inclined wonderful adventures, they arrive at the Isle of the
to believe that Lucian's piece was taken from a Blest (Maicdpapv vieros). Here they fall in with
fable by Lucius of Patrae, but does not speak very several ancient worthies, and Homer among the
positively on the subject. It has been thought rest, which affords an opportunity for some remarks
that Appuleius drew his story of the Golden Ass on his life and writings. Homer is made to confrom the same source [APPULEUS]; retaining, demn the criticisms of Aristarchus and Zenodotuls.
however, the lengthy narrative and fanatical turn He asserts, as Wolf and others have since done,
of the original tale; whilst Lucian abridged it, and that he began the Iliad' with the anger of Achilles
gave it a comic caste, especially in the denouiezent, merely from chance, and without any settled plan;
which, however, is sufficiently gross. M. Courier, and denies that the Odyssey was written before
on the contrary, who published an edition of the the niad, then a prevalent opinion. After this
piece with a French version and notes (Paris 1818, they again set sail, and arrive at the infernal
12mo), thinks that Lucian's is the original; and regions, where, among others, they find Ctesias and
this opinion is acceded to by M. Letronne in the Herodotus undergoing punishment for their falseJournal des Savaes, July, 1818. There are no hoods. The book is concluded with several more
means of deciding this question satisfactorily. The surprising adventures. That the Verae Historiae
story turns on the adventures of Lucius, who, from supplied hints to Rabelais and Swift is sufficiently
motives of curiosity, having arrived at the house of obvious, not only from the nature and extravagance
a female' magician in Thessaly, and beheld her of the fiction, but from the lurking satire.
transformation into a bird, is desirous of under- 5. DIALOGUVES. But Lucian's famerests chiefly
going a similar metamorphosis. By the help of the on his dialogues, by which term is here meant
magician's maid, with whom he has ingratiated those pieces which are of an ethical or mythological
himself, he gets access to her magic ointments; but, nature, as well as of a dramatic form; and which
unfortunately, using the wrong one, is deservedly were intended to ridicule the heathen philosophy
turned into an ass, in which shape he meets with and religion; for a few of his pieces which have
a variety of adventures, till he is disenchanted by not that scope are also in the shape of dialogue.
eating rose-leaves. The adventure with the robbers Lucian has himself explained the nature and
in the cave is thought to have suggested the well- novelty of his undertaking in his Prometheus (IlpIs
known scene in Gil Blas. The Verae Historiae ev e7ro'vTa fIpon710ers is AO'7oesi, ~ 5), where
-were composed, as the author tells us in the be- he tells us that it consists of'a mixture of the Pla