Information AboutLucian |
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Lucian of Samosata (, Latin, Lucianus; c. AD 120 - after 180 ) was a Rhetoric ian and Satirist , writing in the Greek Language , noted for his witty and scoffing nature. He was born in s attest to his continued popularity. The first printed edition of a selection of his works was issued at Florence in 1499. His best known works are ''A True Story'' (a Romance , patently not "true" at all, with its trip to the Moon ), and ''Dialogues of the Gods'' and ''Dialogues of the Dead''. Lucian was trained as a Rhetoric ian, a vocation where one pleads in court, composing pleas for others, and teaching the art of pleading, but Lucian's practice was to travel about, giving amusing discourses and witty lectures improvised on the spot, somewhat as a '' Rhapsode '' had done in declaiming poetry at an earlier period. In this way Lucian travelled through Ionia and mainland Greece , to Italy and even to Gaul , and won much wealth and fame. Lucian admired the works of Epicurus , for he breaks off a witty satire against ''Alexander the false prophet'' , who burned a book of Epicurus, to exclaim what blessings that book creates for its readers and what peace, tranquillity, and freedom it engenders in them, liberating them as it does from terrors and apparitions and portents, from vain hopes and extravagant cravings, developing in them intelligence and truth, and truly purifying their understanding, not with torches and squills and that sort of foolery, but with straight thinking, truthfulness and frankness. In his ''Symposium'', far from Plato 's discourse, the diners get drunk, tell smutty tales and behave badly. In ''A True Story'' he parodied some weird tales told by Homer in the '' Odyssey '' and some feeble fantasies that were popular in his time. He anticipated "modern" fictional themes like voyages to the moon and Venus, Extraterrestrial Life and wars between planets centuries before Jules Verne and H. G. Wells . He could actually be called the ''Father of Science Fiction .'' Lucian also wrote a satire called ''The Passing of Peregrinus'', in which the lead character, Peregrinus, takes advantage of the generosity and gullibility of Christians . This is one of the earliest surviving pagan perceptions of Christianity . His ''Philopseudes'' (Greek for "Lover of lies") is a Frame Story which includes the original version of " The Sorcerer's Apprentice ". The Amores transmitted among the works of Lucian is probably not a genuine work. Reference
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