Lucian: Three Menippean Fantasies
A handful of fragments is all that remains of the writings of Menippus, the third-century BCE provocateur of the Greek Cynic movement. The Western literary tradition knows him through Lucian, the Greek satirist who lived and worked four hundred years later. Included in this book are Joel Relihan’s lively English translations of Lucian’s three reanimations of Menippus—fantastic narratives and comic dialogues set in heaven and hell: Menippus; or, The Consultation of the Corpses, Icaromenippus; or, A Man above the Clouds, and The Colloquies of the Corpses (Dialogues of the Dead).
“Professor Relihan’s translations of Lucian’s Menippus works are the best I know of in English. The notes, Introduction, and Afterword are models of concision and clarity. This volume will be enormously useful to anyone interested in Lucian, Menippus, or ‘Menippean satire’.” —R. Bracht Branham, Emory University
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A handful of fragments is all that remains of the writings of Menippus, the third-century BCE provocateur of the Greek Cynic movement. The Western literary tradition knows him through Lucian, the Greek satirist who lived and worked four hundred years later.
Included in this book are Joel Relihan’s lively English translations of Lucian’s three reanimations of Menippus—fantastic narratives and comic dialogues set in heaven and hell:
- Menippus; or, The Consultation of the Corpses
- Icaromenippus; or, A Man above the Clouds
- The Colloquies of the Corpses (Dialogues of the Dead)
For the first time in over fifty years, these works are assembled in a unified format to tell a particular story: Lucian’s evolving understanding of the philosophical and literary potential of the person, productions, and purposes of Menippus.
Not only is it time to give Lucian’s Menippus a fresh look and a thorough reevaluation, but also to consider how Lucian’s imitations and innovations adumbrate, illuminate, and complicate the history of that enigmatic genre, Menippean satire.
Reviews:
“Professor Relihan’s translations of Lucian’s Menippus works are the best I know of in English. The notes, Introduction, and Afterword are models of concision and clarity. This volume will be enormously useful to anyone interested in Lucian, Menippus, or ‘Menippean satire’.”
—R. Bracht Branham, Emory University
About the Author:
Joel C. Relihan is Professor of Classics at Wheaton College in Norton Massachusetts.
