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A True Story

January 14, 2023

This article is about the novel by Lucian. For other purposes, see True Story.

A True Story (Ancient Greek: Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα, Alēthē diēgēmata; Latin: Vera Historia or Latin: Verae Historiae), also translated as True History, is a long novella or short novel[1] written in the second century AD by the Greek author Lucian of Samosata.[2] The novel is a satire of outlandish tales that had been reported in ancient sources, particularly those that presented fantastic or mythical events as if they were true. It is Lucian's best-known work.

A True Story
Illustration from 1894 by William Strang depicting a battle scene from Book One of Lucian of Samosata's A True Story
AuthorLucian of Samosata
CountrySyria, Roman Empire
LanguageGreek
GenreSatire, Fantasy, Science fiction
Publication date
2nd century CE

It is the earliest known work of fiction to include travel to outer space, alien lifeforms, and interplanetary warfare. It has been described as "the first known text that could be called science fiction".[3][4][5][6] However, the work does not fit into typical literary genres: its multilayered plot and its characters have been interpreted as belonging to science fiction, fantasy, satire or parody, and have been the subjects of scholarly debate.

Plot

The novel begins with an explanation that the story is not at all "true", and that everything in it is a complete and utter lie.[7][8] The narrative begins with Lucian and his fellow travelers journeying out past the Pillars of Heracles.[9][10] Blown off course by a storm, they come to an island with a river of wine filled with fish and bears, a marker indicating that Heracles and Dionysus have traveled to this point, and trees that look like women.[10][11] Shortly after leaving the island, they are caught up by a whirlwind and taken to the Moon,[10][12] where they find themselves embroiled in a full-scale war between Endymion the king of the Moon and Phaethon the king of the Sun over colonization of the Morning Star.[10][13][14] Both armies include bizarre hybrid lifeforms.[15][10] The armies of the Sun win the war by clouding over the Moon and blocking out the Sun's light.[10][16] Both parties come to a peace agreement.[17] Lucian describes life on the Moon and how it is different from life on Earth.[10][18]

After returning to Earth, the adventurers are swallowed by a 200-mile-long (320 km) whale,[19][20] in whose belly they discover a variety of fish people, against whom they wage war and triumph.[20][21] They kill the whale by starting a bonfire and escape by propping its mouth open.[22][20] Next, they encounter a sea of milk, an island of cheese, and the Island of the Blessed.[23][24] There, Lucian meets the heroes of the Trojan War, other mythical men and animals, as well as Homer and Pythagoras.[25][26] They find sinners being punished, the worst of them being the ones who had written books with lies and fantasies, including Herodotus and Ctesias.[27][26] After leaving the Island of the Blessed, they deliver a letter to Calypso given to them by Odysseus explaining that he wishes he had stayed with her so he could have lived eternally.[28][26] They discover a chasm in the ocean, but eventually sail around it, discover a far-off continent and decide to explore it.[26][29] The book ends abruptly with Lucian stating that their future adventures will be described in the upcoming sequels,[30][31] a promise which a disappointed scholiast described as "the biggest lie of all".[32]

Analysis

Satire

 
Seventeenth-century engraving by William Faithorne depicting a fictional portrait of Lucian

In one view, Lucian intended his story to be a form of literary criticism, a satire against contemporary and ancient sources which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth. He mentions the tales of Ctesias, Iambulus, and Homer and states that "what did surprise me was their supposition that nobody would notice they were lying." Many characters and events are exaggerated to ridiculous ends to mock the original tellings. As noted by classicist B.P. Reardon, "above all, it is a parody of literary 'liars' like Homer and Herodotus".[33] Consequently, Lucian goes on to state that the story recounted in A True Story is about "things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say."[34] He justifies the title by arguing that his is the only truthful mythological story ever written, inasmuch as it is the only one that admits that it is all lies. He also promises a sequel but it is not known if such a sequel existed.

Science fiction

Modern science fiction critics do not necessarily view the satirical streak of the story as conflicting with modern notions of science fiction. The defining element of science can be found in Lucian's specific and effective approach to identifying false values and misidentifications in contemporary philosophy, which was very much the general term of science then.[35] Additionally, they point out that A True Story was written in response to another work that also contained science fictional elements, that is Antonius Diogenes' lost Of the Wonderful Things Beyond Thule, whose protagonist also reached the Moon.[35] The estranging feeling of the story as a defining element of science fiction has also been noted:

...True Stories may properly be regarded as SF because Lucian often achieves that sense of "cognitive estrangement" which Darko Suvin has defined as the generic distinction of SF, that is, the depiction of an alternate world, radically unlike our own, but relatable to it in terms of significant knowledge.[36]

According to Grewell, whose definition of science fiction focuses on the struggle between supposedly superior and inferior life forms, "part of the tale that qualifies it as science fiction, rather than as fantasy or imaginative fiction, involves Lucian and his seamen in a battle for territorial and colonization rights."[37]

"The king of the inhabitants of the Sun, Phaethon," said Endymion king of the Moon, "has been at war with us for a long time now. Once upon a time I gathered together the poorest people in my kingdom and undertook to plant a colony on the Morning Star which was empty and uninhabited. Phaethon out of jealousy thwarted the colonization, meeting us halfway at the head of his dragoons. At that time we were beaten, for we were not a match for them in strength, and we retreated. Now, however, I desire to make war again and plant the colony."[35]

The typical science fiction themes and topoi that appear in True Stories are:[38]

A middle position seems to be taken up by critic Kingsley Amis, who acknowledged the science fiction and satirical character of True Stories at the same time:

I will merely remark that the sprightliness and sophistication of True History make it read like a joke at the expense of nearly all early-modern science fiction, that written between, say, 1910 and 1940.[39]

Modern equivalents, combining science fiction and parody in equal measure, may be found in Voltaire's Micromégas and the works of Douglas Adams.

See also

References

  1. ^ Doody, Margaret Anne (1996), A True Story of the Novel, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, p. 26, ISBN 0-8135-2168-8, retrieved December 16, 2020
  2. ^ "Lucian | Greek writer", Encyclopedia Britannica, retrieved 2021-08-05
  3. ^ Grewell 2001.
  4. ^ Swanson 1976, p. 228: "Lucian of Samosata, the Greco-Syrian satirist of the second century, appears today as an exemplar of the science-fiction artist. There is little, if any, need to argue that his mythopoeic Milesian Tales and his literary fantastic voyages and utopistic hyperbole comport with the genre of science fiction"
  5. ^ Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, Introduction: "Lucian's Verae Historiae ("True Histories"), a fantastic journey narrative considered the earliest surviving example of Science Fiction in the Western tradition."
  6. ^ Gunn 1988, p. 249: "proto-SF"
  7. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 13–15.
  8. ^ Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 51–52.
  9. ^ Casson 1962, p. 15.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 53–155[page range too broad]
  11. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 15–17.
  12. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 17–18.
  13. ^ Casson 1962, p. 18.
  14. ^ The names of the kings are based on the mythological characters Endymion and Phaethon, the lover of Selene the moon goddess and the son of Helios the sun god respectively.
  15. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 18–21.
  16. ^ Casson 1962, p. 22.
  17. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 22–23.
  18. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 23–25.
  19. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 27–28.
  20. ^ a b c Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 156–177[page range too broad]
  21. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 27–33.
  22. ^ Casson 1962, p. 34.
  23. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 35–37.
  24. ^ Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 156–178[page range too broad]
  25. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 35–45.
  26. ^ a b c d Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 178–232[page range too broad]
  27. ^ Casson 1962, p. 46.
  28. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 45–49.
  29. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 49–54.
  30. ^ Casson 1962, p. 54.
  31. ^ Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 232–233.
  32. ^ Casson 1962, p. 57.
  33. ^ Reardon 1989, p. 619.
  34. ^ Reardon 1989, p. 622.
  35. ^ a b c Swanson 1976.
  36. ^ Fredericks 1976, p. 54.
  37. ^ Grewell 2001, pp. 30–31.
  38. ^ Fredericks 1976.
  39. ^ Kingsley 1960, p. 28.

Bibliography

  • Casson, Lionel, ed. (1962), Selected Satires of Lucian, New York: W.W. Norton & Co, doi:10.4324/9781315129105-4, ISBN 0-393-00443-0
  • Fredericks, S.C. (Mar 1976), "Lucian's True History as SF", Science Fiction Studies, Depauw, 3 (1): 49–60, JSTOR 4238997
  • Georgiadou, Aristoula; Larmour, David H. J. (1998), Lucian's Science Fiction Novel True Histories: Interpretation and Commentary, Supplements to Mnemosyne, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, doi:10.1163/9789004351509, ISBN 90-04-10667-7
  • Grewell, Greg (2001), "Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future", Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, 55 (2): 25–47, doi:10.2307/1348255, JSTOR 1348255, S2CID 171048588
  • Gunn, James E. (1988), "The Journey", The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Viking, pp. 248–251, ISBN 978-0-670-81041-3
  • Kingsley, Amis (1960), "Starting Points: Definitions; beginnings; Verne and Wells", New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction, New York: Harcourt Brace.
  • Reardon, B.P. (1989), "Lucian: A True Story", Collected Ancient Greek Novels, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 619–649, ISBN 0-520-04306-5
  • Swanson, Roy Arthur (Nov 1976), "The True, the False, and the Truly False: Lucian's Philosophical Science Fiction", Science Fiction Studies, 3 (3): 228–239, JSTOR 4239038

Further reading

  • Viglas, Katelis (July 2016), "The Placement of Lucian's Novel True History in the Genre of Science Fiction", Interlitteraria, 21 (1): 158–172, doi:10.12697/IL.2016.21.1.13.

External links

  •   Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα
  • A True History at sacred-texts.com
  • Loeb Classical Library, vol. 3/8 of Lucian's works 2012-10-03 at the Wayback Machine, with facing Greek text, at ancientlibrary.com
  • Lucian of Samosata Project – Articles, timeline, maps, library, and themes
  • The book at Project Gutenberg
  •   True History public domain audiobook at LibriVox

January 14, 2023
true, story, this, article, about, novel, lucian, other, purposes, true, story, ancient, greek, Ἀληθῆ, διηγήματα, alēthē, diēgēmata, latin, vera, historia, latin, verae, historiae, also, translated, true, history, long, novella, short, novel, written, second, . This article is about the novel by Lucian For other purposes see True Story A True Story Ancient Greek Ἀlh8ῆ dihghmata Alethe diegemata Latin Vera Historia or Latin Verae Historiae also translated as True History is a long novella or short novel 1 written in the second century AD by the Greek author Lucian of Samosata 2 The novel is a satire of outlandish tales that had been reported in ancient sources particularly those that presented fantastic or mythical events as if they were true It is Lucian s best known work A True StoryIllustration from 1894 by William Strang depicting a battle scene from Book One of Lucian of Samosata s A True StoryAuthorLucian of SamosataCountrySyria Roman EmpireLanguageGreekGenreSatire Fantasy Science fictionPublication date2nd century CEIt is the earliest known work of fiction to include travel to outer space alien lifeforms and interplanetary warfare It has been described as the first known text that could be called science fiction 3 4 5 6 However the work does not fit into typical literary genres its multilayered plot and its characters have been interpreted as belonging to science fiction fantasy satire or parody and have been the subjects of scholarly debate Contents 1 Plot 2 Analysis 2 1 Satire 2 2 Science fiction 3 See also 4 References 4 1 Bibliography 5 Further reading 6 External linksPlot EditThe novel begins with an explanation that the story is not at all true and that everything in it is a complete and utter lie 7 8 The narrative begins with Lucian and his fellow travelers journeying out past the Pillars of Heracles 9 10 Blown off course by a storm they come to an island with a river of wine filled with fish and bears a marker indicating that Heracles and Dionysus have traveled to this point and trees that look like women 10 11 Shortly after leaving the island they are caught up by a whirlwind and taken to the Moon 10 12 where they find themselves embroiled in a full scale war between Endymion the king of the Moon and Phaethon the king of the Sun over colonization of the Morning Star 10 13 14 Both armies include bizarre hybrid lifeforms 15 10 The armies of the Sun win the war by clouding over the Moon and blocking out the Sun s light 10 16 Both parties come to a peace agreement 17 Lucian describes life on the Moon and how it is different from life on Earth 10 18 After returning to Earth the adventurers are swallowed by a 200 mile long 320 km whale 19 20 in whose belly they discover a variety of fish people against whom they wage war and triumph 20 21 They kill the whale by starting a bonfire and escape by propping its mouth open 22 20 Next they encounter a sea of milk an island of cheese and the Island of the Blessed 23 24 There Lucian meets the heroes of the Trojan War other mythical men and animals as well as Homer and Pythagoras 25 26 They find sinners being punished the worst of them being the ones who had written books with lies and fantasies including Herodotus and Ctesias 27 26 After leaving the Island of the Blessed they deliver a letter to Calypso given to them by Odysseus explaining that he wishes he had stayed with her so he could have lived eternally 28 26 They discover a chasm in the ocean but eventually sail around it discover a far off continent and decide to explore it 26 29 The book ends abruptly with Lucian stating that their future adventures will be described in the upcoming sequels 30 31 a promise which a disappointed scholiast described as the biggest lie of all 32 Analysis EditSatire Edit Seventeenth century engraving by William Faithorne depicting a fictional portrait of Lucian In one view Lucian intended his story to be a form of literary criticism a satire against contemporary and ancient sources which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth He mentions the tales of Ctesias Iambulus and Homer and states that what did surprise me was their supposition that nobody would notice they were lying Many characters and events are exaggerated to ridiculous ends to mock the original tellings As noted by classicist B P Reardon above all it is a parody of literary liars like Homer and Herodotus 33 Consequently Lucian goes on to state that the story recounted in A True Story is about things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else things what is more that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all So my readers must not believe a word I say 34 He justifies the title by arguing that his is the only truthful mythological story ever written inasmuch as it is the only one that admits that it is all lies He also promises a sequel but it is not known if such a sequel existed Science fiction Edit Modern science fiction critics do not necessarily view the satirical streak of the story as conflicting with modern notions of science fiction The defining element of science can be found in Lucian s specific and effective approach to identifying false values and misidentifications in contemporary philosophy which was very much the general term of science then 35 Additionally they point out that A True Story was written in response to another work that also contained science fictional elements that is Antonius Diogenes lost Of the Wonderful Things Beyond Thule whose protagonist also reached the Moon 35 The estranging feeling of the story as a defining element of science fiction has also been noted True Stories may properly be regarded as SF because Lucian often achieves that sense of cognitive estrangement which Darko Suvin has defined as the generic distinction of SF that is the depiction of an alternate world radically unlike our own but relatable to it in terms of significant knowledge 36 According to Grewell whose definition of science fiction focuses on the struggle between supposedly superior and inferior life forms part of the tale that qualifies it as science fiction rather than as fantasy or imaginative fiction involves Lucian and his seamen in a battle for territorial and colonization rights 37 The king of the inhabitants of the Sun Phaethon said Endymion king of the Moon has been at war with us for a long time now Once upon a time I gathered together the poorest people in my kingdom and undertook to plant a colony on the Morning Star which was empty and uninhabited Phaethon out of jealousy thwarted the colonization meeting us halfway at the head of his dragoons At that time we were beaten for we were not a match for them in strength and we retreated Now however I desire to make war again and plant the colony 35 The typical science fiction themes and topoi that appear in True Stories are 38 travel to outer space encounter with alien life forms including the experience of a first contact event interplanetary warfare and imperialism colonization of planets artificial atmosphere liquid air motif of giganticism creatures as products of human technology robot theme worlds working by a set of alternate physical laws explicit desire of the protagonist for exploration and adventureA middle position seems to be taken up by critic Kingsley Amis who acknowledged the science fiction and satirical character of True Stories at the same time I will merely remark that the sprightliness and sophistication of True History make it read like a joke at the expense of nearly all early modern science fiction that written between say 1910 and 1940 39 Modern equivalents combining science fiction and parody in equal measure may be found in Voltaire s Micromegas and the works of Douglas Adams See also EditHistory of science fiction Moon in science fiction Meropis The Adventures of Baron Munchausen a 1988 film by Terry Gilliam with various plot similarities References Edit Doody Margaret Anne 1996 A True Story of the Novel New Brunswick New Jersey Rutgers University Press p 26 ISBN 0 8135 2168 8 retrieved December 16 2020 Lucian Greek writer Encyclopedia Britannica retrieved 2021 08 05 Grewell 2001 Swanson 1976 p 228 Lucian of Samosata the Greco Syrian satirist of the second century appears today as an exemplar of the science fiction artist There is little if any need to argue that his mythopoeic Milesian Tales and his literary fantastic voyages and utopistic hyperbole comport with the genre of science fiction Georgiadou amp Larmour 1998 Introduction Lucian s Verae Historiae True Histories a fantastic journey narrative considered the earliest surviving example of Science Fiction in the Western tradition Gunn 1988 p 249 proto SF Casson 1962 pp 13 15 Georgiadou amp Larmour 1998 pp 51 52 Casson 1962 p 15 a b c d e f g Georgiadou amp Larmour 1998 pp 53 155 page range too broad Casson 1962 pp 15 17 Casson 1962 pp 17 18 Casson 1962 p 18 The names of the kings are based on the mythological characters Endymion and Phaethon the lover of Selene the moon goddess and the son of Helios the sun god respectively Casson 1962 pp 18 21 Casson 1962 p 22 Casson 1962 pp 22 23 Casson 1962 pp 23 25 Casson 1962 pp 27 28 a b c Georgiadou amp Larmour 1998 pp 156 177 page range too broad Casson 1962 pp 27 33 Casson 1962 p 34 Casson 1962 pp 35 37 Georgiadou amp Larmour 1998 pp 156 178 page range too broad Casson 1962 pp 35 45 a b c d Georgiadou amp Larmour 1998 pp 178 232 page range too broad Casson 1962 p 46 Casson 1962 pp 45 49 Casson 1962 pp 49 54 Casson 1962 p 54 Georgiadou amp Larmour 1998 pp 232 233 Casson 1962 p 57 Reardon 1989 p 619 Reardon 1989 p 622 a b c Swanson 1976 Fredericks 1976 p 54 Grewell 2001 pp 30 31 Fredericks 1976 Kingsley 1960 p 28 Bibliography Edit Casson Lionel ed 1962 Selected Satires of Lucian New York W W Norton amp Co doi 10 4324 9781315129105 4 ISBN 0 393 00443 0 Fredericks S C Mar 1976 Lucian s True History as SF Science Fiction Studies Depauw 3 1 49 60 JSTOR 4238997 Georgiadou Aristoula Larmour David H J 1998 Lucian s Science Fiction NovelTrue Histories Interpretation and Commentary Supplements to Mnemosyne Leiden The Netherlands Brill doi 10 1163 9789004351509 ISBN 90 04 10667 7 Grewell Greg 2001 Colonizing the Universe Science Fictions Then Now and in the Imagined Future Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature 55 2 25 47 doi 10 2307 1348255 JSTOR 1348255 S2CID 171048588 Gunn James E 1988 The Journey The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Viking pp 248 251 ISBN 978 0 670 81041 3 Kingsley Amis 1960 Starting Points Definitions beginnings Verne and Wells New Maps of Hell A Survey of Science Fiction New York Harcourt Brace Reardon B P 1989 Lucian A True Story Collected Ancient Greek Novels Berkeley University of California Press pp 619 649 ISBN 0 520 04306 5 Swanson Roy Arthur Nov 1976 The True the False and the Truly False Lucian s Philosophical Science Fiction Science Fiction Studies 3 3 228 239 JSTOR 4239038Further reading EditViglas Katelis July 2016 The Placement of Lucian s Novel True History in the Genre of Science Fiction Interlitteraria 21 1 158 172 doi 10 12697 IL 2016 21 1 13 External links Edit Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article Ἀlh8ῆ dihghmata A True History at sacred texts com Loeb Classical Library vol 3 8 of Lucian s works Archived 2012 10 03 at the Wayback Machine with facing Greek text at ancientlibrary com Lucian of Samosata Project Articles timeline maps library and themes The book at Project Gutenberg True History public domain audiobook at LibriVox Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title A True Story amp oldid 1124368499, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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