VII_LUCIAN AND HIS SATIRIC ROMANCES: THE_ TRUE HISTORY _AND_ LUCIUS OR ASS
"Lucian of Samosata [was] surnamed 'The blasphemer,' because in his dialogues he alleges that the things told of the gods are absurd.... He was at first an advocate in Antioch, but, having ill success in that, he turned to the composition of discourses, and his writings are innumerable. He is said to have been killed by dogs, he having been rabid against the truth. For in his 'Life of Peregrinus' he attacks Christianity and, wicked man, blasphemes against Christ himself. Wherefore for his madness he suffered meet punishment in this life, and hereafter with Satan he will be inheritor of the everlasting fire."[291]
This is the meagre biography by Suidas of the great satirist who throughnearly all of the second century held up the mirror of his frankness toreflect images of the Greek and Roman world. Suidas' misrepresentationof Lucian's allusions to the Christians and his fanciful picture of thesophist's end vilify much of this traditional vita. From Lucian's ownwritings more facts may be assembled.
Syrian by birth, he wrote in Greek and became a master of an Attic prosestyle. As a boy he was apprenticed to a sculptor uncle, but quickly leftwork with his hands for work with his tongue, studied rhetoric andoratory, practiced as an advocate at Antioch, became a professionalsophist and travelled in Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, Italy, Gaul;about A.D. 165 settled at Athens where he lived twenty years, then nearthe end of his life took an official post in Egypt under the Emperor andwrote an Apology for so doing. Suidas' description of his writings as"innumerable" seems justified by the eighty-two prose works extant tosay nothing of two mock tragedies and fifty-three epigrams, nowconsidered spurious.
Though the great bulk of Lucian's writings consists of Platonic andsatiric dialogues, he enters into the scope of this book as a writer ofthe satiric or parody romance. For two of his writings, the _TrueHistory_ and _Lucius or Ass_, establish for us this new type of Greekromance. His _True History_ is a parody of all travellers' tales fromOdysseus' to such as those of Antonius Diogenes in _The Wonderful Thingsbeyond Thule_. Probably this work of Lucian had more literary influencethan any of his other writings. His other romance, of which we have onlyan epitome, _Lucius or Ass_, is, I believe, a parody of the romancemotivated mainly by religion. Its greatest value in its presentsyncopated form is that it outlines a contemporary Greek counterpart ofthe famous Latin novel, Apuleius' _Metamorphoses_, and furnishes us witha touchstone for testing the pure gold of Apuleius' originality.
Before, however, we can discuss Lucian's art of narration in his tworomances, we must reconstruct from his own writings his literaryautobiography and his conceptions of his literary art. Only then when wehave met the critic self-criticized will we be competent to appreciatehis brilliant imaginative flights in his novels.
A dangerous temptation at once assails any one who starts to write onany subject connected with Lucian. That is to attempt to cover the wholefield of his life and works because of the brilliancy of the many-sidedfacets of his genius. A forcible deterrent is the fact that a masterlyappreciation of _La vie et les oeuvres de Lucien_ has already beenwritten by Maurice Croiset in his _Essai_[292] which in richness andstyle alike is worthy of its great theme. All subsequent studies ofLucian are inevitably founded on M. Croiset's appreciation.
Gildersleeve, following Croiset, pointed out that Lucian's life must bereconstructed from his own writings. And this within the scope of abrief essay Gildersleeve did brilliantly for English readers fifty yearsago.[293] From another angle I am attempting to do this same thing nowin order to make us acquainted before we read his stories with Lucianthe story-teller.[294]
Lucian's early life is pictured in a brief speech called _The Dream_.This was probably delivered in his native Syria on his return after hisEuropean lecture-tour which made him famous as a Sophist. In a whimsicalmixture of fact and fancy he describes his choice of a career. As ayoung lad when he had just finished school, Lucian was apprenticed tohis mother's brother, a sculptor, to learn to be "a good stone-cutter,mason and sculptor." On his first day he struck a slab of marble so hardthat he shattered it. Whereat his uncle gave him such a violent beatingthat he ran home to his mother for comfort. That night he had a vision.Two women were struggling to get possession of him. They were vastlydifferent in appearance and in the appeals they made to him, for theywere Sculpture and Education. Sculpture, unkempt, speaking haltingly andlike a barbarian, told Lucian that if he came to her, he would livewell, have strong shoulders, would never go abroad, but would gain suchfame as surrounded Phidias, Polyclitus, Myron, Praxiteles. Education inher turn assured him that even if he became a famous sculptor, he wouldbe only a mechanic, living by his hands; she herself has much more tooffer him.
"If you follow my advice, first of all I shall show you many works of men of old, tell you their wondrous deeds and words, and make you conversant with almost all knowledge, and I shall ornament your soul, which concerns you most, with many noble adornments--temperance, justice, piety, kindliness, reasonableness, understanding, steadfastness, love of all that is beautiful, ardour towards all that is sublime; for these are the truly flawless jewels of the soul. Nothing that came to pass of old will escape you, and nothing that must now come to pass; nay, you will even foresee the future with me. In a word, I shall speedily teach you everything that there is, whether it pertains to the gods or to man."[295]
Moreover, he will dress with distinction, will speak with eloquence.Finally he may became as famous as Demosthenes or Aeschines. He mustrecall that Socrates left sculpture for philosophy.
Lucian on hearing these two appeals gave himself to Education, who thentook him in a car with winged horses and from the air showed him thecities and peoples of the world. After this vision she clothed himsuitably and returned him to his home. Lucian says he has told thisdream "in order that those who are young may take the better directionand cleave to education, above all if poverty is making any one of themfaint-hearted."[296]
Now although this choice of Lucian is based on the choice ofHercules[297] and although facts are clothed in fantasy, the picture ofLucian's early apprenticeship may well be true, for the boy's delight inmodelling little figures of wax seems to forecast Lucian's life-longinterest in sculpture and other art forms.
The next crisis in Lucian's literary life is depicted in _The DoubleIndictment_, a dialogue composed when the author was forty. In it Lucianappears in court to answer two charges: one of the rhetoricians, forgiving up speech-making and essay-writing; the other of thephilosophers, for using their sacred Platonic dialogue for satire.Lucian's trial takes place on the Areopagus with Justice presiding, butthe dialogue opens in heaven with a long complaint by Zeus about thehard life of the gods especially his own, no time for anything. Hermeswho is listening tells him frankly that there are many complaints amongmortals on earth because of the slowness of the law courts. Zeus thensends Hermes down to proclaim a session and orders Justice to preside atit.
At this court, after various cases have been wittily disposed of, theSyrian is called to face two indictments: Oratory versus the Syrian forneglect, Dialogue versus the Syrian for maltreatment. Oratory firstrelates how she found the plaintiff as a lad wandering in Ionia,speaking with a foreign accent, dressed as a Syrian. She educated himand at his eager request married him although all his dowry waswonderful speeches. Next she had him made a citizen and then wenttravelling with him to Greece, Ionia, Italy and Gaul. As he becamefamous, he grew indifferent to her, for he was enamored of a beardedman, Dialogue, said to be the son of Philosophy. Now he no longer makesspeeches, but has a strange way of using short questions. She sues himfor desertion. The Syrian replies that all her facts are true, but thereare others; she lost her modesty, made up like a courtesan, flirtedindiscriminately with many lovers. So he separated from her and went tolive with a respectable gentleman, Dialogue. The Syrian won the case.
Next Dialogue pleaded. His dignity, his cosmic thoughts, his tragic maskhave
all been stolen from him. He has been forced to associate withJest, Satire, Cynicism, Eupolis and Aristophanes, "terrible men formocking at all that is holy and scoffing at all that is right," finallytoo even with Menippus. He has been transformed into a monster nothomogeneous but Centaur-like. The Syrian in reply showed the benefitswhich he had bestowed on Dialogue: he taught him to walk like a man, toclean up, to smile, to be yoked with Comedy. Dialogue resents that theSyrian will not indulge in endless arguments on subtle themes. TheSyrian declares that he has not taken off Dialogue's Greek cloak and puthim into barbarian garb: Dialogue is still dressed in his native Greekcostume. The Syrian was unanimously acquitted much to the delight of theaudience. This mock-trial picturesquely portrays Lucian's change fromwriting the philosophical dialogues in the style of Plato to the satiricdialogue, influenced successively by New Attic Comedy, Menippus and OldAttic Comedy.[298] Lucian here is writing an Apology for the new styleof satire-dialogue which he created.
With similar wit but in various modes Lucian in other pieces satirizesnow Rhetoric, now Philosophy. An illuminating series of such dialoguesis _The Professor of Oratory_, _Nigrinus_, _Philosophies for Sale_, _TheFisherman_.
In _The Professor of Oratory_ ironic advice is given to a young man onhow to become an orator and a sophist. The quest is noble and the way tosuccess is not difficult. The Lady Rhetoric sits fair and desirable onthe top of a high mountain attended by Wealth, Fame and Power. Thithertwo roads lead. One is a narrow, steep and thorny path, the other aneasy slope amid flowers and fountains. Two guides will presentthemselves to you. One, vigorous and manly, will point out to you thehard way in the footprints of Demosthenes and Plato and will tell howsevere the training must be for their followers. He will wish, thesimpleton, to make you model yourself on the past.
The other guide is a pretty gentleman, daintily groomed and perfumed,with an alluring smile and a honey voice. He will tell you that you canbecome such an orator as he is if you carry as equipment ignorance,boldness, shamelessness; if you dress in bright, diaphanous robes andalways carry a book! Your course of study will be the memorizing of afew stock words, a few learned references for ornaments of yourdiscourse. He will teach you a high singsong chant and the art of alwaysbeginning with stories from the Iliad.
Your fame will be secured by a well-trained chorus of applauders in youraudiences and by slanders of all your rivals. In private life you mustlive fast with dice, wine and women, so you come to be talked of as adeuce of a fellow, and amours will increase your income. Thus you willbe fitted to be the bridegroom of Rhetoric by driving furiously thewinged chariot of which Plato wrote. Your adviser is already getting outof your way, for he was defeated when once you chose the primrose path.This picture of _The Perfect Rhetorician_ has been thought by somecritics to be a personal satire of the contemporary lexicographerPollux. However that may be, it is certainly a satire of anypseudo-professor of rhetoric who bases oratory on cheap externalitiesand superficial training.
At another time Lucian was to satirize pseudo-philosophers as he hadrhetoricians, but once, perhaps in the beginning of revolt againstrhetoric, he chose to picture a noble type in the dialogue on Nigrinus,a philosopher unknown except through Lucian. His great tribute toNigrinus may be set as a companion piece to the mocking praise of _ThePerfect Rhetorician_. The dialogue is prefaced by an introductory letterin which Lucian tells Nigrinus that he is not carrying owls to Athens inoffering him this book as if to display his use of words, but he issending it in thanks for Nigrinus' words. In the dialogue itself one manrelates to another how by talking with Nigrinus he was made free insteadof a slave, poor instead of rich. For Nigrinus praised philosophy andthe freedom it gives and ridiculed what men in general exalt: wealth,fame, power, honor. Nigrinus praised Athens because there Poverty andPhilosophy are foster-brothers; there life is free, noble, harmonious.Rome is the city for those who love wealth and luxury, wine and women.The Romans have given themselves over to the pleasures of the senses andhave every means of gratifying them. So Nigrinus in Rome leads a life ofretirement, conversing with Philosophy and with Plato, reflecting on theridiculous rich, the parasites, the pseudo-philosophers, thewill-hunters, the gourmands, the frequenters of the circus and thebaths. No wonder men come to him for healing.
The tribute to Platonism here, the tribute to Epicurus in _Alexander theFalse Prophet_,[299] might tempt readers to affiliate Lucian with one orthe other of these philosophical schools. But as if to forestall beinglabelled, in the spirit of Horace's famous line
nullius addictus iurare in verba magistri,[300]
Lucian turns his satire on all the leading creeds of the time in his_Philosophies for Sale_.
Zeus orders an auction of philosophies. Hermes acts as crier andauctioneer. The buyer questions each person who is put up for sale onhis knowledge, on his creed, on his use. A Pythagorean is put up firstby Hermes who asks: "Who wishes to know about the harmony of the worldand re-birth?" The Pythagorean attempts to expound to the buyer thecatharsis of the spirit, the need of music and of geometry, the flux ofthe cosmos, the divinity in numbers, the transmigration of souls. AnItalian bought him for a brotherhood in Magna Graecia for ten minas.
A Cynic is next displayed, dirty, morose, ready to bark at everyone. Hedeclares that Hercules is his model and that like Hercules he is amilitant reformer, working to clear the world of filth. He declares thathe will teach his purchaser to discard luxury, to endure hardship, todrink only water, to throw his money into the sea, to reject all familyties, to live in a tomb or a jar. So he will feel no pain even whenflogged and will be happier than the Great King. He will be bold,abusive, savage, shameless. For such a life no education is necessary.The Cynic is sold for two obols.
The third called is the Cyrenaic, who appears clad in purple and crownedwith a wreath. Hermes announces that his philosophy is the sweetest,indeed thrice blessed. As the Cyrenaic is too drunk to answer questions,Hermes describes his virtues: he is pleasant to live with, congenial todrink with, a companion for amours, and an excellent chef! There was nobid for him!
Next two are put up together, the one who laughs and the one who cries.The first explains his laughter on the ground that all men and all theiraffairs are ridiculous; all things are folly, a mere drift of atoms. Theweeper pities men because their lives are foreordained and in themnothing is stable; men themselves are mere pawns in the game of eternityand the gods are only immortal men. No one bids for the pair.
An Academic next advertises his wares as a teacher of the art of love,but claims that this love is of the soul, not of the body. He affirmsthat he lives in a city fashioned by himself, where wives are held incommon, fair boys are prizes for valor, and realities are ideas, visibleonly to the wise. He was bought for two talents.
A pupil of the laugher and the drunkard is now offered for sale, namelyEpicurus. The mere description of him as more irreverent than histeachers, charming, fond of good eating, sells him for two minas.
The sad philosopher of the Porch is now announced by Hermes whoproclaims that he is selling virtue itself and that the Stoic is "theonly wise man, the only handsome man, the only just man, brave man,king, orator, rich man, lawgiver, and everything else that thereis."[301] His talk about himself is full of hair-splitting dialecticsand subtle explanations of why man must devote himself "to the chiefnatural goods ... wealth, health, and the like"[301] and go through muchtoil for much learning. In spite of all this he is bought for twentyminas.
The Peripatetic is also sold for twenty minas because he knowseverything but the Sceptic brings in only one mina because he knowsnothing! The auction ends with the announcement by Hermes of anothersale the next day of plain men, workmen, tradesmen.
Inevitably this ironic treatment of the great philosophies of Greeceproduced a storm of criticism. This was answered by Lucian in an apologyof sorts under the title _The Resurrected or The Fisherman_. In it thesatirist under the pseudonym of Frankness faces his accusers. For upfrom the dead, led by a militant Socrates, come to Athens Em
pedocles,Plato, Aristotle and other phantoms to execute worthy dooms on the worstof maligners. Frankness by rhetoric and argument averts stoning orcrucifixion and secures a fair trial, presided over by Philosophy, whois attended by Truth, Investigation and Virtue. After Diogenes makes thespeech for the prosecution, Frankness replies in defense of himself--andLucian! He wins a unanimous verdict for acquittal by his claim that heauctioned off, not the great philosophers who now prosecute him, butbase impostors who imitate them. Syllogism now acts as herald and callsfrom Athens to court all the philosophers to defend themselves.Frankness by promising largess secures a crowd of them, Platonists,Stoics, Peripatetics, Epicureans, Academics. When Philosophy announcesthat they are to be tried as impostors by herself, Virtue and Truth,they all disappear in wild rout. To get them back, Frankness now becomesa fisherman and, with bait of gold, hooks and hauls back the cravencheats. The head of each school disowns his imitators and the discardedare thrown down over the cliffs. Finally Philosophy dismisses the courtwith an injunction to Frankness to keep investigating philosophers inorder to crown the true and brand the false.
The genial tone of _Philosophies for Sale_ has entirely vanished in theessay on _The End of Peregrinus_. The influence of New Comedy and ofMenippus with their ironic raillery is superseded by Aristophanicdenunciation. Bitter mockery, cruel derision are loosed upon one creed,the Cynic. Lucian directs his vituperation against the Cynic philosopherPeregrinus, whose career had been meteoric. In his early life he wasconverted to Christianity, and even went to prison for his faith. Later,beliefs of India so possessed him that he immolated himself at Olympiajust after the Olympic games of A.D. 165. Such self-sacrifice bycremation had been consummated at Susa by Calanus before Alexander theGreat and by Zarmarus after initiation into the mysteries at Athens inthe presence of Augustus.
Lucian saw only one possible interpretation of Peregrinus'self-sacrifice, desire for notoriety, but there have been many criticsof this motivation as Harmon points out:[302]
"Lucian believes himself to be exposing a sham, whose zeal was not at all for truth but only for applause and renown. Many notable modern critics, including Zeller, Bernays, Croiset, and Wilamowitz, dissent from his interpretation, discerning in the man an earnest seeker after truth; for to them thirst for glory is not an adequate explanation of his final act."
The piece is written as a letter to Cronius who is marked as a Platonistby the formula of greeting {eu prattein}. Lucian begins with the fact ofPeregrinus' self-imposed death and at once ascribes to him the motive oflove of notoriety. This, he says, is proved by the fact that Peregrinusselected for the time of his suicide the Olympic festival, which drawsgreat crowds. Lucian knows that Cronius will have a good laugh at thefoolishness of the old man so he will write his friend just what hehimself saw as he stood near the pyre.
His method is clever. First Theagenes a Cynic proclaimed in the streetsof Elis the glory of virtue and the glory of her follower Proteus(Peregrinus) and announced that Proteus was about to leave this life byfire in the manner of Hercules, Aesculapius, Dionysus and Empedocles.Theagenes' justification of the deed went unheard because of the noiseof the crowd, but another orator (clearly Lucian) stepped forth and madea speech reviewing Peregrinus' career. Beginning with Democriteanlaughter he narrated the life of Proteus accusing him of adultery as ayouth in Armenia, of corrupting a boy in Asia, of strangling his ownfather, of becoming a Christian in Palestine, of resigning all hisproperty in Parium on the Hellespont, of practicing the ascetic life inEgypt, of seeking notoriety in Greece by denouncing Herodes Atticus forhis aqueduct at Olympia and later recanting. Finally, says Lucian, thisProteus has announced his intention of cremating himself. The motive islove of fame though he claims that he wishes thus to teach men todespise death and endure torture. He plainly hopes that myths and a cultwill arise around his memory. Indeed Theagenes has quoted a prophecy tothat effect, but Lucian can match that oracle with another which ordersall the Cynic's disciples to imitate him even to the last leap into theflames.
After these speeches, Lucian was on hand when the pyre was kindled atHarpina near Olympia shortly after midnight. As an eye-witness he sawthe pyre in a pit six feet deep, Peregrinus in the dress of a Cynicbearing a torch, men lighting the fire, how then Peregrinus stripped tohis old shirt and after crying: "Spirits of my mother and my father,receive me with goodwill," leaped into the flames to be seen no more.Even when the other Cynics stood about the pyre in silent grief, Lucianfelt no sympathy, but taunted them brutally, and actually got into abroil with them before he departed to meditate on how strange the loveof fame is. Lucian had to tell the story of Peregrinus' death over andover until to amuse himself, he invented a vulture that he saw flyingfrom the flames to heaven, crying: "I have left the earth, I am going toOlympus." And this invention of his became part of the growing mythabout the hero.
"So ended (wrote Lucian) that poor wretch Proteus, a man who (to put it briefly) never fixed his gaze on the verities, but always did and said everything with a view to glory and the praise of the multitude, even to the extent of leaping into fire, when he was sure not to enjoy the praise because he could not hear it."[303]
Lucian concludes with anecdotes about Peregrinus sea-sick, in a fever,having eye-trouble and trying to cure fever and correct vision as thoughAeacus in the lower world would care about either ailment. He was simplyfurnishing Democritus with more cause for laughter. This heartlessridicule of the Cynic's action takes no account of the psychology offanaticism or the hysteria of martyrdom. Croiset points out thatLucian's insensitivity to all mysticism must be viewed with theknowledge that the satirist believed Peregrinus was a sham and that hewas unveiling an impostor. Lucian's consistent worship of veracity andfrankness then explain his derisive attitude towards the apotheosis of apretender.[304]
The savagery used in exposing a false philosopher was turned by Lucianupon a religious fraud, Alexander of Abonoteichus. The piece is a letterto a friend, Celsus, written after A.D. 180, ten years after Alexander'sdeath. Lucian's account gives almost all we know of this Alexanderalthough his existence and influence are attested by gems, coins andinscriptions. The letter, however, as Croiset points out, contains moresatire than history, for it does not attempt to distinguish scrupulouslybetween the false and the true; rather it presents in lively anecdotesand personal reminiscences a satiric portrait of an historicalprophet.[305] Cumont has commented on the unique features ofAbonoteichus' version of the worship of Aesculapius: the giving aserpent a human head and calling it the god incarnate; the issuing oforacles and advice instead of using incubation or dealing particularlywith healing.[306]
Lucian exposes all Alexander's shams and corruptions. He describes hishandsome appearance and education, his cleverness in purchasing a tameserpent and in selecting the site of Abonoteichus for his oracle. Hedescribes the installation of the serpent, the invention of the humanhead for it, the exhibition of it, the methods of giving oracles, theprices, the publicity, the "autophones," cunningly contrived to issuefrom the serpent's mouth, the spread of his fame even to Italy. Lucianpictures too the perils that menaced any critics of the oracle, theburning of the sayings of Epicurus, the personal danger to himself.Lucian was advised by the governor of Bithynia and Pontus not toprosecute Alexander for his attempted murder so after the prophet'sdeath he wrote this account to honor Epicurus and to present the truthto thinking minds. Personal revenge then as well as horror at religiousfraud motivated this biography. Lucian, who derided Epicureans in_Philosophies for Sale_, chooses now to revere their founder!
One of Lucian's greatest works bears the title _Parasites for Pay_. Itwas written and undoubtedly read to the public in the last part of hislife before he went to Egypt. It is not only very distinguished as asatire,[307] but in it as Gildersleeve points out[308] "hissensitiveness for Greek honor, for the honor of the people as well asfor the honor of the literary class, manifests itself in a way to doinfinite credit to Lucian's heart." Harmon calls it "a Hogarthian sketchof the life le
d by educated Greeks who attached themselves to thehouseholds of great Roman lords--and ladies."[309]
The satire is in the form of a letter addressed to a friend Timocles whois thinking of taking such a post. The case, says Lucian, is the samefor philosophers, grammarians, rhetoricians, and musicians. The motiveswhich apparently led men to accept such positions are poverty andpleasure, but their recompense is small and they have no share in theluxury that dazzled them. They overwork; their expenses in clothing andtips eat up their stipends. Moreover their humiliations are incessant.The first dinner given in their honor brings the strain of observingproper etiquette. Next morning the conference about salary disappointsall hopes by the pittance offered. But a man sells himself and neverafterwards can feel free or noble: he is a monkey with a chain aroundhis neck. For he was not engaged to discourse on Homer, Demosthenes,Plato, but because it looks well to have a distinguished Greekphilosopher with a long beard and a flowing robe in his master's suite.The day's routine of service is exhausting and humiliating, and thephilosopher's rivals for his lord's favor are a gigolo, a dancingmaster, an Alexandrian dwarf who recites erotic verses. The night'ssleep is shattered by meditations on lost freedom and present servitude.
Such is life in the city, but a trip to the country is worse.Thermopolis had to hold his lady's puppy for her in the jolting carriageand the miserable little dog kept licking his beard for relics ofyesterday's dinner and finally laid a litter of puppies in thephilosopher's cloak. Other services of the parasite include listening tothe rich man's literary compositions and delivering a lecture onphilosophy to the lady while her hair is being dressed or at thedinner-table. And in the midst of a discourse on virtue a maid bringsher a letter from a paramour which she answers at once with a yes.
In time, envy and slander or the disabilities of old age cause theparasite's downfall and he is discarded on the rubbish heap. Such acareer can best be depicted in a symbolic painting of a hill on whosesummit golden Wealth resides. Hope, Deceit, Slavery help the travellerstart on the ascent. But Toil then escorts him on. And finally Old Age,Insolence and Despair lead him until he is ejected by a hidden backdoor, naked, deformed, ruined. Repentance meeting him cannot save him.Timocles is urged before making his decision about the post offered himto meditate on this picture and on Plato's famous words: "God is not atfault; the fault is his who maketh the choice."[310] This essay alonewould justify Croiset's great tribute to Lucian's independence ofthought: "among his contemporaries Lucian stands alone as anintelligence of a remarkable force and independence which nothing couldtame."[311]
It was natural that, when later Lucian accepted a post in civil servicein Egypt, he should anticipate reminders of his essay on _Parasites forPay_ on the part of his friends and foes. His _Apology_[312] answerstheir imaginary criticisms of his inconsistencies. It is written in theform of a letter to a friend. Lucian assures this Sabinus that he knowsSabinus enjoyed his recent essay on Parasites, but now must be full ofamazement at his friend's accepting a salaried post in Egypt. Heimagines receiving an epistle from Sabinus to this effect:[313]
"The difference between your precept and practice is infinitely more ridiculous; you draw a realistic word-picture of that servile life; you pour contempt on the man who runs into the trap of a rich man's house, where a thousand degradations, half of them self-inflicted, await him; and then in extreme old age, when you are on the border between life and death, you take this miserable servitude upon you and make a sort of circus exhibition of your chains. The conspicuousness of your position will only make the more ridiculous that contrast between your book and your life."
Lucian in reply suggests various lines of self-defense: the compulsionof Chance, Fate or Necessity; admiration of his patron's character; thedrive of poverty, brought on by old age and ill health. But he rejectsall these pleas. His real defense is the difference between being aparasite and slave in the house of a rich master and entering civilservice to work for the state. Lucian explains the dignity and theresponsibility of the post he has accepted in the service of theEmperor.
"What better use can you make of yourself than if you join forces with your friends in the cause of progress, come out into the open, and let men see that you are loyal and zealous and careful of your trust, not what Homer calls a vain cumberer of the earth?"[314]
Even this brief review of the writings which make up Lucian's literaryautobiography shows the conflicting forces which strove for dominanceover his life. Sculpture and the Education of a Sophist first contendedfor his favor and his choice of the orator's training never destroyedhis life-long interest in art. Oratory which secured his service soondisillusionized him because of her cheap followers. Plato and hisphilosophical dialogues for a while controlled his mind and style, but,satire proving stronger in him than reflective thinking, he created anew form of dialogue allied to Comedy and Menippus for his medium ofcomment on the world. This form and the epistle he used for satirizingsophistry and oratory, philosophy and religion, always pointing out thecounterfeit and the sham and distinguishing them from the tested gold ofverities. This same sort of touch-stone he applied in his _Apology_ tohis own life to vindicate his maintenance of personal freedom. Thetraveller, the sophist, the satirist, now become civil servant of theEmperor, admits no chain about his neck.
As regards his literary art he has revealed that his main ideals arefrankness, truth and freedom. In his works he establishes warm humancontacts with his hearer or reader. His Greek style achieves a pureAttic simplicity of expression and by it, as Croiset says,[315] heclothes abstract ideas in words which give them body and form. The mainqualities of his style, spirit and imagination, unite in the effectivedescriptions and narrations which fill his works. His wealth of ideasfound expression in realistic details noted with keen observation andassembled in realistic series to give vitality to his prose.
One work by Lucian is a specific treatise on writing and peculiarlysignificant for his literary autobiography. That is the essay on _HowHistory Should Be Written_. It was composed as a letter to a friendPhilo in the time of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. The occasion wasthe sudden spawning of a whole shoal of would-be historians after theRoman victories in the war with the Parthians (A.D. 165). Outraged bythese scribblers, Lucian sets forth his thoughts on the True Historian.
Since the barbarian war began, says Lucian, everyone is writing history.It is just as when an epidemic of madness at Abdera made all the peoplechant tragedies. It recalls too Diogenes, who, when Corinth was indanger of a siege from Philip and the citizens were hurrying defensemeasures, kept rolling his jar up and down hill that he might seem asbusy as the rest of the world. Lucian's advice will include the faultsof historians which are to be avoided, the virtues to be cultivated.
History must not be written as panegyric. History must not be written aspoetry. Among the faults of contemporary historians are lack of taste,over-abundance of details, purple patches, inaccuracies about facts.
"There are some ... who leave alone, or deal very cursorily with, all that is great and memorable; amateurs and not artists, they have no selective faculty, and loiter over copious laboured descriptions of the various trifles; it is as if a visitor to Olympia, instead of examining, commending or describing to his stay-at-home friends the general greatness and beauty of the Zeus, were to be struck with the exact symmetry and polish of its footstool, or the proportions of its shoe, and give all his attention to these minor points."[316]
Indispensable qualities of the ideal historian are political insight andability in writing. His "one task is to tell the thing as ithappened."[317] He will be "fearless, incorruptible, independent, abeliever in frankness and veracity; one that will call a spade a spade,make no concession to likes and dislikes, nor spare any men for pity orrespect or propriety; an impartial judge, kind to all, but too kind tonone; a literary cosmopolite with neither suzerain nor king, neverheeding what this or that man may think, but setting down the thing thatbefell."[317] Thucydides fulfills this id
eal.
In diction and style, the marks of the true historian are frankness andtruth, lucidity and simplicity. The preface should be in proportion tothe subject. "The body of the history ... is nothing from beginning toend but a long narrative; it must therefore be graced with the narrativevirtues--smooth, level, and consistent progress, neither soaring norcrawling, and the charm of lucidity." "Brevity is always desirable.""Restraint in descriptions of mountains, walls, rivers, and the like, isvery important." If a speech is introduced, "the first requirement isthat it should suit the character both of the speaker and of theoccasion." "It may occasionally happen that some extraordinary story hasto be introduced; it should be simply narrated, without guarantee of itstruth, thrown down for any-one to make what he can of it." The historianshould write not for the present, but for eternity. He should hope tohave said of himself: "This was a man indeed, free and free-spoken;flattery and servility were not in him; he was truth all through."[318]
Gildersleeve was probably right in calling the _True History_ "a comicsequel to a brilliant essay entitled 'How to write History.'"[319] Thetraditional manuscript order which places the _True History_ after _HowHistory Should Be Written_ seems so aptly prompted by Lucianic irony.For this romance in two books is not history at all and has nothing ofLucian's primary requirement for history, that it should be true! It isa work of pure imagination, one of the earliest accounts of fictitiousvoyages and as such is part of the great tradition from the Odyssey to_Gulliver's Travels_.[320] Lucian's preface explains both the nature ofthe piece and his reasons for writing it.[321]
The _True History_ like many good stories is told in the first person byLucian himself. The author, moreover, preludes and interrupts thenarrative to get in direct touch with his reader. In his introduction,he states that his purpose in writing is to furnish to students somereading that will give relaxation, but at the same time "a little foodfor thought." The story is bound to charm, Lucian thinks, because of thenovelty of the subject, the humor of the plan, the plausible lyinginvolved and the comical parodies of such authors as Ctesias, Iambulus,and Homer in his Odyssey. Lucian confesses to being a liar with the bestof them, but affirms that his lying is unique in being honest because headmits it.
"Be it understood, then, that I am writing about things which I have neither seen nor had to do with nor learned from others--which, in fact, do not exist at all and, in the nature of things, cannot exist. Therefore my readers should on no account believe in them."[322]
In spite of this confession, Lucian here and there in his story tries tocreate an atmosphere of veracity by protestations of it. As he never sawthe Corn Sparrow forces or the Crane Knights, he does not venture torelate the marvellous and incredible stories told about them.[323] Whenhe describes the magic mirror over a well in the Moon which furnishedhim television of his family and country he says that disbelievers bygoing there will find he tells the truth.[324] In the Island of theWicked, Lucian finds all liars, both those who had told lies on earth orwritten them, among the latter Ctesias and Herodotus. "On seeing them,"he says, "I had good hopes for the future, for I have never told a liethat I know of."[325] The last sentence of the romance is: "Whathappened in the other world I shall tell you in the succeedingbooks."[326] This, a Greek scholiast comments, is the greatest lie ofall!
Now after having seen what a wag Lucian is from his own words, we mustdecide how we are going to take him. Are we to seek in him relaxationand entertainment (the gift of all true romance) or are we going tomarshal our "little learning" to meet his and study all his sources, hisparodies of historians and philosophers, or search for allegories in hisfantastic worlds? The happy way will be along the path of the goldenmean. Gildersleeve put up a sign-board to it and inscribed directionsfor future travellers.
"To enjoy the show properly, it is far better for the reader to give himself up to this play of Lucian's fancy than to endeavor to unriddle whatever satire of contemporary literature may lie concealed in its allegory.... There may be profound meaning in the war which breaks out between the Sunburghers under Phaethon, and the Moonburghers under Endymion, which begins with the attempt of the Moonburghers to found a colony on the desert planet of Lucifer, and which ends with the victory of the Sunburghers, Lucifer being declared common property and the vanquished compelled to pay an annual tribute of ten thousand _amphoreis_ of dew. But so elastic are all such allegories that they can be stretched to fit anything, and the war of these Heliotes and Selenites would answer to describe the conflict between orthodoxy and rationalism, and Lucifer would stand for the coming man. But how much better to look with childish interest on the marshalling of Horsevultures and Chickpeashooters and Garlickfighters and Flea-archers and Wind-runners, and to watch the huge spiders spin their web from the moon to Lucifer."[327]
So after realizing that we too may visit the Isles of the Blessed andthe Wicked, may soar up to Aristophanes' Cloudcuckooland or dive underthe sea in the brother of Jonah's whale, or see Sinbad's roc, let usbegin at the beginning. Let the lights go out and the curtain go up. Letus watch breathlessly an ancient Walt Disney fantasy rush across thescreen. The very names of countries and peoples add to the excitement asthe panorama unrolls. And so vivid are Lucian's descriptions that as inall good movies soon we find ourselves participating in his adventures.Having set out from the Pillars of Hercules with fifty men on a goodship, on the eightieth day we come to a wooded island. Here hugefootprints and an inscription reveal that Hercules and Dionysus werehere before us. And no wonder, for this is the Isle of Wines:grape-vines produce springs of wine, springs feed rivers, rivers producefish that eaten make people drunk. And there is a species of vine thatis half grape and half lady like Daphne turning into a laurel and thekiss of the Vine-woman brings intoxication and her embrace is a prison.We lost two of our men to that captivity.
As we set sail, a whirlwind lifted the ship and she became a hydroplane,sailing through the air for seven days and seven nights. The islandwhere then we landed proved to be the Moon. Endymion is the King so ofcourse he spoke Greek and we at once joined his forces for he had a waron with the Men of the Sun, whose King is Phaethon. It was all aboutwhich should colonize the Morning Star. Our fellow Moonites were asstrange as their names: Vulture Knights, Grass Plumes, Pea Shooters,Garlic Warriors, Flea Bowmen, Wind Aviators, Corn Sparrows and CraneKnights. And Phaethon's Heliotes were as fantastic: Ant Knights,Mosquito Aviators, Dance Aviators, Stalk Mushrooms, Dog-faced Knights,Cloud Centaurs. A fierce battle we had and the Men of the Sun wonbecause they cut off light from the Moon so Endymion surrendered. We sawstrange marvels in our stay on the Moon: how men are the child-bearers;how their clothing is made of glass or bronze; their eyes are removable;they have a mirror over a well in which they can see what happens in fardistant lands.
As we voyaged onward, we came to many other countries: to the MorningStar which was just being colonized, to Lamp Town where among theinhabitants Lucian found his own Lamp which gave him news of home, toCloudcuckooland which Aristophanes described so truthfully. But aftersuch interesting scenes, disaster fell upon us. A monstrous whale boredown upon us and in a trice swallowed us, ship and all.
When we recovered from our terror, we found that life inside a whale isconfined but not impossible. We discovered an island where we beachedour boat. The whale opened his mouth once an hour so we could mark timeand get the points of the compass. And we soon met other men there, aCypriote called Scintharus and his son. Scintharus told us about theother inhabitants of the whale, who were savage barbarians, and alwaysready to attack them. We thought best to join Scintharus in subduingthese enemies, but the fight was fierce for there were scores of theseLobsters, Crabhands, Tunnyheads, Seagoats, Crawfish Coots and Solefish.After our victory, we lived fairly well in the whale for a year andeight months. In the ninth month, we saw through the teeth of ourmonster the most terrifying battle, a sea-fight between men riding onhuge islands each of which carried about one hundred and twenty.
In spite of see
ing such dangers outside, we decided finally that we mustescape from our prison. We used fire as a weapon, set the forest at thetail-end aflame and after twelve days found that the whale was going todie. Just in time we propped open his mouth with huge beams and the nextday when he expired, out we went on our good ship and felt once more thewind in our sails. Fair weather did not last long. A terrible northerngale descended and froze all the sea to a depth of six fathoms.Scintharus, who was now our ship-master, saved us by directing us toexcavate a cave-home in the ice. In it we lived for thirty days,building a fire and cooking the fish we cut out of the ice. When foodgave out, we dug out the boat and sailed over the ice as though it werethe sea until on the fifth day we came to open water. Now we kept comingto various islands. We got water at one and at the next one milk, forthis island had grapes whose juice was milk, and its earth was cheese.It was easy to subsist there! Next we passed the Isle of Cork where thecity is built on a cork foundation and the men have feet of cork so thatthey can run over the waters as they will, buoyed up by their ownlife-preservers!
Happiest of all our stays was that on the Island of the Blessed. Here itis always spring. Every month the vines yield grapes and the treesfruit. It is a land flowing with milk and wine. Glass trees furnishgoblets which fill automatically at the banquet. Baked loaves of breadare plucked from trees. Beside the table are two springs, one oflaughter, one of joy, and with draughts from these the banqueters starttheir revels. Famous men dwell there. I saw Socrates surrounded by fairyoung men arguing with Nestor and Palamedes. Plato preferred to live inhis own Republic. The followers of Aristippus and Epicurus wereconsidered the best of companions, but Diogenes the Cynic had reformed,married Lais and taken to dancing. The Stoics had not yet arrived forthey were still toiling up the steep hill of virtue. Conversation withHomer was one of the greatest pleasures, especially as he settled thematter of his birthplace by declaring himself a Babylonian and solvedthe Homeric question by affirming that he had written all the linesattributed to him. Beside literary talks, there were games for the Dead.
Even the Island of the Blessed could not be free from wars, for theWicked invaded it and had to be expelled by force. Homer wrote a newepic on the fight of the dead heroes. The Island had its scandals tooall due again to Helen. For she bewitched Scintharus' son and tried toelope with him, but was caught. That episode caused our expulsion fromthe Island of the Blessed. Before we left, Homer wrote a couplet forLucian which he had carved on a stele of beryl and Odysseus secretlygave him a letter for Calypso.
We touched at the Isle of the Wicked and at the Isle of Dreams, where weslept thirty days and next we put in at Ogygia. Lucian read Odysseus'letter before he delivered it to Calypso and found he had alwaysregretted leaving her! For Odysseus' sake, Calypso entertained usroyally.
Next we fell into danger from the Pumpkin Pirates and the HardshellPirates and the Dolphin-Riders, but we escaped them all. One night weran aground on the marvellous and mighty nest of a king-fisher. And alittle further on in the sea we came to a forest of rootless trees whichwe could not penetrate. There was nothing to do but haul the ship up totheir tops and take "a forest cruise" across. More marvellous still wehad to cross a water-chasm on a water bridge, a river-way between twowater precipices. After that we came to the Isle of the BellowingBullheads, men like Minotaurs, and had some skirmishes with them. Andthen we came to an Island of Fair Ladies who wished to take us to bedwith them, but Lucian discovered that they all had ass-legs and thatthey ate strangers when they had cozened them to sleep. So we departedin haste. At dawn we saw the land which is on the other side of theworld from ours and there we were shipwrecked. What happened there willbe another story.
This review of the two books of Lucian's _True History_ reveals at onceits startling differences from the other Greek romances of the earlyEmpire. Romantic love does not figure in it. Religion has little or noplace in it. Adventures are its bones and sinews. These adventuresthough described realistically are all figments of the imagination,explorations of the Wonderful Things beyond Thule as much as those ofAntonius Diogenes must have been. The coloring of the pictures is anamazing mixture of realism and fantasy. The veracity of senseimpressions almost converts doubting Thomases. Lucian comes to seem nomean rival of Herodotus, the Father of Lies. Only occasionally somesatiric laughter betrays him.
It is perhaps easier for twentieth century readers to accept his wondersthan it was for his contemporaries of the second century. Science hasdeveloped so many of his imaginative forecasts. The monstrous footprintsof Hercules and Dionysus might be rock-prints of dinosaurs. The plungingwhale is a submarine. His ship lifting from the ocean to sail throughthe air has become the hydroplane. His island galleys bearing onehundred and twenty men each are our battleships. The Cloud Centaurs whofight in the air are our aviators. Arctic explorers have lived in hutsmade of ice-blocks. Ice-sailing is a recognized winter sport. Clothingis made not of glass or bronze, but of cellulose and steel. Removableeyes suggest spectacles, contact lenses and field-glasses. TheCork-footed Men must have resembled surf riders. And the magic mirrorover the well anticipated the perforated sphere of television.
But his contemporaries had the advantage of us in recognizing Lucian'ssources and parodies more readily than we can. For us, AntoniusDiogenes, Ctesias and Iambulus are lost. Yet Photius records that theromance of Antonius Diogenes, _The Wonders beyond Thule_, was the chiefsource of Lucian's _True History_. So many, however, are the sourceswhich Lucian used to forward his avowed purpose of furnishing relaxationaccompanied by some learning, that scholars have busied themselves foryears tracing parallels with Greek and Latin authors.[328] Allinsonremarks wisely: "In general, it seems safe to conclude that Lucianregarded the writings of predecessors and contemporaries as an openquarry from which he first built up his own style and then picked outmaterial to imbed, with an artist's skill, in the parti-coloured mosaicof his satire."[329]
Some idea of Lucian's parody of his sources may be gained, even thoughAntonius Diogenes is lost, from his incidental flings at great Greeksand from his constant references to Homer which are a mixture ofadmiration and irony. So when he saw Cloudcuckooland he rememberedAristophanes the poet, "a wise and truthful man whose writings aredistrusted without reason."[330] On the Island of the Blessed he did notfind Plato for he preferred to live in the city of his imagination underhis own constitution and laws. Yet he might well have been in Elysiumfor the inhabitants are most Platonic in sharing their wives.[331] Thesolemn treaty which ended the wars between the Men of the Sun and theMen of the Moon has a comical resemblance to the treaty between Athensand Sparta which Thucydides records though it is signed by Fireman,Hotman, and Burner, by Nightman, Moonman and Allbright.[332]
Herodotus comes in for more imitation, for he furnishes stories of antsbigger than foxes,[333] of dog-headed men,[334] of men who feed onodors,[335] of a feast of lanterns in Egypt,[336] of a floatingisland,[337] of the sea freezing,[338] of a breeze that bears theperfume of Arabia.[339] But when Lucian solemnly imitates theseexaggerations, we feel he has his tongue in his cheek and our suspicionis confirmed when he consigns Ctesias and Herodotus to the limbo ofLiars in the Island of the Wicked.[340]
Lucian's treatment of Homer shows his most genial irony. In his prefacehe makes Homer's Odysseus the guide and teacher of all historians ofimaginary travels, Odysseus "who tells Alcinous and his court aboutwinds in bondage, one-eyed men, cannibals and savages; also aboutanimals with many heads, and transformations of his comrades wroughtwith drugs," and with such marvels "humbugged the illiteratePhaeacians."[341] But in the Island of the Blessed, Homer is the shadein whose talk Lucian most delights. Homer indeed is most affable indiscussing all the literary problems of his epics, especially since hehad just won a lawsuit in which Thersites accused him of libel, throughthe aid of his lawyer Odysseus.[342] Homer as a shade is still writingfor when there was war in heaven, he produced a new epic about thebattle of the shades of the heroes,[343] which Lucian unfortunately loston the way home, and on Lucia
n's departure Homer composed acommemorative epigram which described him as dear to the blessedgods.[344]
Lucian introduces Homer's characters into his scenes. Achilles is one ofthe most honored heroes on the Island of the Blessed, serving as jointjudge with Theseus at the Games of the Dead.[345] Helen is the leadinglady in the court-room scene where Rhadamanthus had to decide whose wifeshe should be in Elysium. She has forgiven Stesichorus for saying shecaused the Trojan War.[346] But she creates a new scandal by trying todesert Menelaus again in an elopement with Scintharus' son.[347] Calypsoon receiving Odysseus' letter from Lucian's hand weeps as she reads thathe always regretted giving up his life with her, and then with truefeminine curiosity asks how Penelope is looking now and whether she isas wise as Odysseus used to boast. Lucian made such replies as hethought would gratify her![348]
Minor episodes are reminiscent of the Odyssey. Rhadamanthus gives Luciana talisman of mallow as Hermes gave Odysseus the moly.[349] To the Landof Dreams Lucian must erect four gates in place of Homer's two, one ofhorn, one of ivory.[350] And the Singing Sirens that tried to beguileOdysseus have been metamorphosed into fair young ladies in long chitonswhich conceal the legs of she-asses.[351] But whatever changes are madein the source-material taken from the Odyssey, Lucian's gentle raillerydoes not hide his admiration of great Homer. He gives the lie to themyth that Homer was blind.[352] And in the contest of the poets at theGames of the Dead in the Island of the Blessed, he ironically makesHesiod the victor though he affirms that in truth Homer was by far thebest of poets.
Lucian's style in his _True History_ illustrates many of his owncriteria for writing history. The short preface is in proportion to theshort two-book _True History_. The narrative is concise, rapid, lucidand shows consistent progress, one event following naturally and quicklyupon another without extravagant use of details. The few speeches areshort, lively and suited to the character of the speaker. Thedescriptions are realistic and pointed. Extraordinary stories are toldsimply with an appearance of veracity.
A few typical elements of the Greek Romances appear in the _TrueHistory_. There is a suggestion of a court-room scene where Rhadamanthusjudges Helen's accomplices in escape. One letter is inserted, Odysseus'to Calypso, for the purpose of ironic satire of Homeric characters. Aninscription on bronze is discovered and a laudatory couplet in hexameteris composed and inscribed on stone. But love and religion, the commonestthemes of the Greek Romances, are eliminated from this tale ofmarvellous adventures.
Satire though this story is, it ranks easily first among imaginaryvoyagings both in fantasy and style. In his narration Lucian pours allhis spirit, his liveliness of observation, his brilliant imagination,his vivacious wit. His own enjoyment in his facile, marvellousinventions is contagious. As he rushes his breathless readers over theearth, through the air, under the sea, as he introduces us toinnumerable natural phenomena and monstrous beings, he convinces us thatthis world of fantasy is a real world. He has made many others wish torecord similar travels, for the _True History_ is the model of all thoseimaginary voyages with which Rabelais, Cyrano de Bergerac, Swift,Voltaire and others amused their contemporaries. No work of Lucian foundso many imitators as this.[353]
The readers of Lucian's _True History_ on finishing it feel that theyhave drunk with him more from his eternal springs of joy and laughterthan from his irony, in fact that his irony gives only a few drops ofangostura bitters to the heady cocktails of his wit. And at the end thereaders of this romance are ready today to salute the shade of Lucian asAndrew Lang did:[354]
"In what bower, oh Lucian, of your rediscovered Islands Fortunate are you now reclining; the delight of the fair, the learned, the witty, and the brave?...
"There, among the vines that bear twelve times in the year, more excellent than all the vineyards of Touraine, while the song-birds bring you flowers from vales enchanted, and the shapes of the Blessed come and go, beautiful in wind-woven raiment of sunset hues; there, in a land that knows not age, nor winter, midnight, nor autumn, nor noon, where the silver twilight of summer-dawn is perennial, where youth does not wax spectre-pale and die; there, my Lucian, you are crowned the Prince of the Paradise of Mirth."
It may seem anti-climax to turn from the _True History_ to Lucian'sother romance, the _Metamorphoses_, for the second exists only in anepitome by another hand. Since however this epitome is included in allthe best manuscripts and has been proved conclusively by B. E. Perry tobe a condensation of an original _Metamorphoses_ by Lucian on the basisof spirit, vocabulary, syntax and phraseology, we must try to form someidea of this other romance.[355]
As the _True History_ is a satire of travellers' tales, this epitome,_Lucius or Ass_, is primarily a satire of magic and magic rites. Just asin the _True History_ not only epic poets and historians were parodied,but philosophers came in for their share of ironic comment, so in_Lucius or Ass_ satire is directed not merely against magicians, butalso against corrupt priests and frail women. The satire is of theearth, earthy, very near the folk-story from which it may haveoriginated. _Lucius or Ass_ is Everyman in his credulity, gullibilityand bestiality. The only heroines in his murky world are a witch-womanand a corrupt maid. This epitome has two great values: it gives us someidea of Lucian's lost _Metamorphoses_, and hence affords a basis forcomparison with Apuleius' great Latin novel _Metamorphoses_. It willprove convenient I hope, to have a rather full outline presented here inEnglish for purposes of discussion and comparison. This Greek _Lucius orAss_ like the _True History_ is written in the first person, but Luciusof Patrae, the hero, not the author, is the narrator. In my briefresume, I have found it clearer to write Lucius' account in the thirdperson.
Once upon a time on a journey to Thessaly Lucius inquires of some fellowtravellers whereabouts in the city of Hypata a man named Hipparchuslives, for he is carrying a letter of introduction to him. On hisarrival he stays at Hipparchus' house. Only his wife and a maidPalaestra lived with him. On his host's inquiring the object of histravels, Lucius says he is on his way to Larissa. He conceals the factthat he is searching for women who deal in magic. While walking aroundthe city, he meets an old friend of his mother named Abroea, who warnshim against the wife of Hipparchus because she is a witch. Lucius,delighted with this news, returns to Hipparchus' house and in theabsence of his host and hostess makes love to Palaestra with the purposeof persuading the maid to acquaint him with her mistress' magic powers.At the close of a night of revel, Lucius persuades Palaestra to show himher mistress at her magic rites.
A few nights later Palaestra fulfills her promise by leading Lucius atdead of night to the door of her lady's bedroom where through a crack hecan watch her proceedings. She mutters to her lamp. She strips. She rubsher naked body with ointment from a little box. Gradually she istransformed into an owl and flies away to her lover. Lucius thenprevails upon Palaestra to let him attempt the same transformation. Byill luck the maid brings him the wrong box of ointment so that he ischanged not into a bird, but into an ass. Palaestra soothingly assureshim that the antidote is simple, just a meal of roses, and if herdearest will pass the night quietly in the stable, in the morning shewill gather the flowers and recover her Lucius.
But this simple plan gangs a-gley, for in the night robbers raid thehouse, secure much booty and to carry it steal also the horse and thereal ass of Hipparchus and Lucius. So the man-ass, heavily burdened, isdriven to the robbers' home. One old woman is their care-taker. Severaldays later the robbers return from one of their forays bringing in asbooty a young woman whom they have kidnapped. Later on in the absence ofthe brigands the girl tries to escape riding on the ass, but both arecaptured by the robbers. On their return, they find that the old womanin terror has hanged herself.
The robbers plan a dreadful punishment for the culprits: to kill theass, disembowel him and sew the girl up alive in his paunch to die byslow torture. But before they achieve this horror, a company of soldiersarrives, captures the whole band and carries them off to a magistrate.They had been conducted to the r
obbers' den by the fiance of the girl.He now escorts her home on the honored ass Lucius.
After the wedding of the happy pair, the bride persuades her father toreward the ass her benefactor so he is to be turned out into pasturewith the she-asses. But the servant to whom the care of the ass isintrusted wickedly takes him home and makes him labor first in a mill,then carrying fagots on a steep mountain, where a cruel driver mistreatshim. In the midst of his sufferings, news comes that the bride and groomhave been drowned on the seashore. So since their new masters are dead,the servants all flee, taking the ass with them. They sell him in a cityof Macedonia to a eunuch priest of a Syrian goddess. In his life withthe priests, Lucius is so horrified by their impure practices that hebrays loudly in protest. The noise brings up some passing peasants whogo off to tell the village the obscenities they have witnessed. Thepriests have to flee for their lives, but first they nearly kill the assby beating him for his braying.
Lucius is in danger of his life again at the house of a rich man wherethey stop. For the servants who have lost the meat of a wild ass whichwas to be the dinner (the dogs stole it), plot to kill Lucius and serveup his flesh. He saves himself only by running away from the cook. Thepriests are now arrested because they are found in possession of agolden phiale which they stole from a temple, and the ass is sold to abaker. In the mill Lucius is so worn down by the hard work that he issold as worthless to an old gardener. On the way to town, this gardenerhas a quarrel with a soldier and nearly kills him so the gardener andthe ass have to go into hiding. Stupid Lucius betrays their hiding placeby putting his head out of an upper window to see what is going on.Captured he is given to the soldier, but he soon sells him to a cook.Now Lucius fattens on good food by surreptitious filching of choiceportions which the cook and his brother had reserved for themselves. Bya little detective work the brothers discover that the thief is the ass.They show him eating men's food to their master, who promptly buys theass, has a servant train him to act like a man (easy lessons forLucius!) and exhibits him for admission fees. A woman buys a night withhim and has intercourse with him.
Then his master purposes to exhibit him couched with a woman (acondemned criminal) at a public festival. The scene is all set when someone comes up to Lucius and the woman at the banquet table bearing, amongother flowers, roses. At last the ass has his meal of restorativeflowers and becomes once more Lucius. He appeals to the magistrate forprotection against those who cry he is a magician and must be killed. Heinforms the governor that his name is Lucius, he has a brother Gaius,both have the same two other names; that he himself is a writer ofstories and his brother is an elegiac poet and a good prophet. Themagistrate believing his story gives him hospitality. Lucius' brothercomes to take him home, but first Lucius thought it fitting to call onthe woman who had given him her love when he was an ass. He is chagrinedto find that as a man he has no charm for her! He sails with his brotherto Patrae and there sacrifices to the gods who have saved him.
No other work attributed to Lucian has aroused greater controversy than_Lucius or Ass_. All the literature about it is reviewed in Ben EdwinPerry's epoch-making book _The Metamorphoses Ascribed to Lucius ofPatrae_, which conclusively proves that _Lucius or Ass_ is an epitome ofLucian's _Metamorphoses_, made by another writer. Perry analyzesPhotius' description of the lost Greek _Metamorphoses_ with its theoryof the three versions of the ass-story,[356] and proves that Photius'one mistake was in thinking that the name Lucius of Patrae referred toan author of a third _Metamorphoses_, which was probably the original ofLucian's and Apuleius' stories: Lucius of Patrae in _Lucius or Ass_ isthe hero-narrator, not the author. Perry then with convincing logicreconstructs the probable content of the _Metamorphoses_ of which_Lucius or Ass_ is an epitome and with the same irrefutable reasoningdiscusses the nature of this original Greek novel. The basis of it was afolk-lore story of a transformation. The style was plain, the narrativerapid, the tone ironic. The narrator keeps the character of the hero ofthe adventures and never identifies himself with the author. Thecharacter of the hero is that of "an unique clown" with an absorbing andcredulous interest in strange phenomena especially transformations. Thefinal proof that the _Metamorphoses_ was satirical is "the simple factthat the _Eselmensch_ is a litterateur and an investigator of marvels.""The generic title shows that the author regarded his story as a kind ofcommentary on the subject of metamorphoses, and writers who interestedthemselves in such things."[357]
This author, "second century Atticist, humorist, and satirist," can benone other than Lucian himself, for the Greek _Metamorphoses_ isLucianic in type, is a relaxation from serious work as is the _TrueHistory_; it shows the same satire of credulity that other works ofLucian (for example the _Alexander_) did; and it is colored by the sameironic humor. The epitome contains a striking Lucianic element althoughthis is overlaid by philological errors. Perry also analyzesresemblances and differences between the reconstructed _Metamorphoses_of Lucian and Apuleius' novel, but this discussion I shall reserve forthe next chapter.
_Lucius or Ass_ is valuable in proving that Lucian wrote not one but tworomances; that in both he developed a new type of romance, the satiric;that in each he maintained the same great qualities which mark his otherwritings: the quest for truth, intolerance of fraud and credulity; keenobservation and realistic description; condensation, rapidity, clarity;dramatic irony. The two romances also show more than any other ofLucian's writings his brilliant imaginative powers.
A postscript to this discussion of Lucian's satiric romances may wellinclude an account of a novel in miniature which appears in one of hisdialogues. Writing in the second century he was of course thoroughlyfamiliar with the conventional type of the Greek romance. Though thisstatement might be accepted _a priori_, certain evidence of it isfurnished by his insertion in his _Toxaris_ of an epitome of a Scythianromance of love and adventure. The _Toxaris_ is a Platonic dialoguewritten probably about A.D. 165, in Lucian's period of transition frompurely rhetorical writings to those of moral or religious satire.[358]In it a Greek Mnesippus and a Scythian Toxaris discuss friendship eachgiving five illustrations of famous instances in his own country. Thelongest one related is a Scythian romance told by Toxaris.[359]Rostovtzeff has shown that Lucian probably had in his hands a Greekromance with a Scythian background, for papyri fragments furnishincontrovertible evidence of a similar Scythian romance in Greek datingfrom the second century A.D.[360]
The story as told by Lucian is melodramatic. It relates the devotion ofthree Scythians, Macentes, Lonchates and Arsacomas, who had pledged toeach other friendship for life and death in the old Scythian way ofshedding some of their blood into a cup and quaffing it together. NowArsacomas, who had gone on a mission to Leucanor, king of Bosporus,there fell madly in love at first sight with his daughter Mazaea. At abanquet when suitors were bidding for the hand of the princess withproud lists of their possessions, all Arsacomas could boast of was histwo fair, brave friends. The Bosporans laughed him to scorn and the girlwas awarded to Adyrmachus, who the next day was to convey his bride tothe land of the Machlyans.
The outraged Arsacomas rushing home told his friends how he and theirfriendship had been ridiculed and the three as one man planned immediatevengeance. Lonchates promised to bring Arsacomas the head of Leucanor.Macentes was to kidnap the bride. Arsacomas was to stay at home andraise an army on the ox-hide for the war that would surely follow. Allproceeded according to schedule. Arsacomas slew an ox, cut up and cookedthe meat, spread the hide on the ground and sat on it with his handsheld behind him. This is the greatest appeal for aid possible for a manwho desires to secure help for vengeance. His friends and kinsmen comingaccepted each a portion of the meat, set right foot on the hide andpledged as much aid as he could. So a goodly army was raised.
Lonchates went to Bosporus, pretending he had come as a friend to offeraid against Arsacomas' planned invasion. King Leucanor alarmed by thenews of an imminent Scythian attack was lured alone into the temple ofAres to take a secret oath of friendship with Lonchates.
There Lonchatesmurdered him, cut off his head and escaped with it under his cloakbefore the guards outside knew what had happened.
Macentes too used subterfuge, for hurrying to the Machlyans he reportedKing Leucanor's death, said falsely that the Bosporans called Adyrmachusas his son-in-law to be their king, and offered while Adyrmachus rode atfull speed to them, to escort after him his bride Mazaea in thewagon-train, for she, he claimed, was a relative of his own. This planworked so smoothly that Macentes, when night came on, took Mazaea fromher carriage, put her on his horse with himself and galloped off withher to Arsacomas. The horse dropped dead at the end but the kidnappedbride was delivered. Then all three friends united in the battle againstAdyrmachus, slew him on the field, and by nightfall had won a victory.The next day peace was negotiated. Such are the deeds of daring whichScythians perform for their friends.
In the papyrus fragments a lady in distress is weeping and lamenting inthe tent of a general Eubiotus. He clears his tent because of her woe,hears her declare that she wishes she had never seen Eraseinus(apparently her lover) and prevents her attempted suicide by wrestingher sword from her. She then tells Eubiotus that she is not the AmazonThemisto though she is so disguised, but a Greek girl Calligone. Herethe fragments end. The only points in common with Lucian's story are thegeographical background and the name Eubiotus (in Lucian theillegitimate brother of Leucanor and an aspirant to his throne),[361]but both stories as Rostovtzeff points out look to history forcharacters and setting as the Ninus Romance did.
In the _Toxaris_ the coloring is only quasi-historical through themention of names of kings and their lineage: the story is not history,but an historical novel. And the connection of the Scythians with theSarmatians, the Alans, the Maeotians and the Bosporans corresponds onlyin part with their actual relations at the time. The Sauromatians are arelic of the past; the Alans represent actual conditions in the time ofthe author. The geographical coloring is likewise only partlyhistorical. The picture of the Scythians even with its tendency toidealization represents the people fairly. They are nomadic, poor, witha free democratic political organization without kings, and they arewarriors. Their gods are the sword and the wind. Their customs areprimitive. They make war on their neighbors and have special relationswith the Greek states on the Bosporus and Olbia and visit those on thesouth side of the Black Sea.
Lucian in composing his _Toxaris_ probably had in hand a Greek romancewith a Scythian background, containing certain historical andethnographical material. This he worked over making his story representwhat his public then knew or could know of the Scythians and theirneighbors. The discovery of the papyrus fragments of the Calligone novelconfirms this thesis.[362] The type of the _Toxaris_ story and thepapyrus story is the same. Both were love romances, though in each theerotic motif is subordinated to adventure. The interest of the age inthe unfamiliar, the strange is manifested in the selection of Scythiafor the background.
Lucian's narrative is intensely exciting as well as picturesque andalthough it is only a miniature story it gives us an idea of anotherlove romance of a wild type with a king's head cut off for vengeance, abride kidnapped on horseback and an army raised on the ox-hide. Thewhole _Toxaris_ indeed, as Croiset remarked,[363] with its ten anecdotesfurnishes rich examples of Lucian's art of narration.