Lucian, Volume I (Loeb Classical Library No. 14)

THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY FOUNDED BY JAMES LOEB,

I.L.P.

EDITED BY fT. E. PAGE,

fE. CAPPS,

PH.D., LL.D.

L. A.

L.H.D. E.

POST,

H.

C.H., LITT.D.

fW. H.

D.

WARMINGTON,

LUCIAN I

ROUSE,

litt.d.

m.a., f.r.hist.soc.

LUCIAN WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY A.

M.

HARMON

or YALB UMVERSITY

IN EIGHT

VOLUMES

I

LONDON

WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS MOMLXI

First printed 1913

Eeprinted 1921, 1927, 1953, 1961

Printed in Great Britain

CONTENTS PACK LIST OF LUCIAN's

WORKS

vii

INTRODUCTION

jjj

NOTE TO SECOND IMPRESSION

xiu

BIBLIOGRAPHY

xiii

PHALARI8

HIPPIAS,

I

]

n

21

OR THE BATH [Hippias)

33

DIONYSUS (Bacchus) HERACLES (Nercuks)

47 61

AMBER, OR THE SWANS (De ehctro) THE FLY {Muscae laudatio)

•

"nigrinus

97

DEMONAX THE HALL [De (lomo) MY NATIVE LAND (Patriae OCTOGENARIANS A TRUE STORY "

73 81

')

14j

175

209

laxidatio)

221

(Lojigaevi) (

Verae Historiae) >>

>>

i

247

303

ir

SLANDER (Calumniae non temert credendum) ..... THE CONSONANTS AT LAW (ludicium vocalium) .... THE CAROUSAL, OR THE LAPITHS (Convivium) .

.

.

•

359 395 411

LIST OF LUCIAN'S

WORKS

SHOWIXG THEIR DIVISION INTO VOLUMES IN THIS EDITION Volume

I

—Hippias or the Bath —Dionysus— Phalaris I and Heracles —Amber or The Swans — The Fly — Xigrinus — Demonax— The Hall — My Native Land — Octogenarians —A True Story and II — Slander—The Consonants at Law—The II

I

Carousal or The Lapiths.

Volume

II

—

The Downward Journey or The Tyrant Zeus Catechized Zeus Rants The Dream or The Cock Prometheus Icaromenippus or The Sky-man Timon or The Misanthrope Charon or The Inspector Philoso phies for Sale.

—

— —

—

—

—

Volume

—

III

—The Double —The Ignorant Book Collector—The Dream or Lucian's Career—The Parasite The Dead Come

to Life or

The Fisherman

—On

Indictment or Trials by Jury

Sacrifices

—

=;:The Lover of Lies The Judgement of the Goddesses Salaried Posts in Great Houses.

— On

Volume IV

— — — — Portraiture Defended — The Goddess of Surrye.

Menippus or The Descent into Fimerals A Professor of Public Speaking Alexander the False Prophet Essays in Portraiture Essays Anacharsis or Athletics

Hades in

— On

—

vii

LIST OF LUCIAN'S VOLtTME

WORKS

V

—

—

The Passing of Peregrinus The Runaways Toxaris or Friendship The Dance Lexiphanes The Eunuch Astrology The Mistaken Critic The Parliament of the Gods The Tyrannicide Disowned.

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

Volume VI

—Dipsades—Saturnalia— Herodolus—Zeuxis—Pro — — Lapsu —Apologia Harmonides Hesiodus— Scytha — Hermotimus— Prometheus Es —^Navigium. Historia

VOLTIME VII Dialogues of the Dead Dialogues of the Gods (exc.

— Dialogues

of

the

Deorum Judicium

of.

Sea-Gods Vol. Ill)

— —

Dialogues of the Courtesans.

Volume VIII

—Lucius or the Ass—Amores—Halcyon—Demosthenes — Podagra — Ocypus — Cyniscus — PhilopatrLs — Charidemus —Nero. Soloecista

VIU

INTRODUCTION LuciAN was born at Saniosata calls

himself a Syrian

been of Semitic stock.

;

Commagene and he may or may not have The exact duration of his in

unknown, but it is probable that he was bom not long before 125 a.d. and died not long after 180. Something of his life-history is given us in his own writings, notably in the Dream, the Doubly Indicted,

life is

If what he the Fisher, and the Apology. the Dream is to be taken seriously (and it

so taken),

he began

is

us in

usually

his career as apprentice to his

uncle, a sculptor, but soon in

tells

became disgusted with

that calling and

gave it up for the branch of the Rhetoric, literary profession then most in favour. Theoretically the vocation of a

his

prospects

rhetorician

was

for others

and to teach the

to plead in court, to

practice his vocation

was

compose pleas

art of pleading

;

but in

far less

important in his own eyes and those of the public than his avocation, which consisted in going about from place to place Ik

INTRODUCTION and often from country

to country displaynig his

ability as a speaker before the educated classes.

In

way Lucian travelled through Ionia and Greece, to Italy and even to Gaul, and won much wealth and this

Samples of his repertory are still extant among works declamations like the Phalaris, essays on

fame. his

—

abstract themes like Slander, descriptions, appreciaBut although a field like this tions, and depreciations.

ample scope for the ordinary rhetorician, it could not display the full talent of a Lucian. His which for out even in bent his writings satire, crops

afforded

of this period, had to find expression, and ultimately found it in the satiric dialogue. In a sense, then,

what he says

is

true, that

he abandoned Rhetoric

:

but only in a very limited sense. In reality he changed only his repei'tory, not his profession, for productions continued to be presented in the same manner and for the same purpose as of old his

—

from a lecture-platform to entertain an audience. Rightly to understand and appreciate Lucian, one

must recognise that he was not a philosopher nor even a moralist, but a rhetorician, that his mission in life was not to reform society nor to chastise it, but

He himself admits on every simply to amuse it. page that he is serious only in his desire to please, and he would answer all charges but that of dullness

INTRODUCTION with an

ov

el