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Lucian

By Peter Thonemann

Lucian

By Peter Thonemann

0 - Default Title
Description
Lucian's Alexander Or The False Prophet is a satiric biography of the religious entrepreneur and career fraudster Alexander of Abonouteichos. It recounts how, during the reign of Antoninus Pius (AD 138-161), Alexander succeeded in setting up a fraudulent new oracular cult of the snake-god Glykon in his home-town of Abonouteichos in Paphlagonia. In the Alexander, Lucian sets out to debunk the oracle as a scam, its founder as a debauched crook, and its clients as gullible idiots. The Alexander is an extraordinary and unclassifiable work: part biography, part invective, part Epicurean critique of divination. It casts a uniquely vivid light on social mores and religious beliefs in the Antonine age, and was a major influence on Erasmus, Ben Jonson, and Henry Fielding. The present volume is the first full-length treatment of the Alexander in English, and includes an extended historical and literary introduction, a new English translation, and a detailed commentary on the text. The volume also includes a translation of the surviving fragments of Oinomaos of Gadara's The Exposure of Sorcerers, a contemporary Cynic attack on oracular divination. All Greek is translated throughout.
Product details
Number of Pages:
252
Release Date:
2021-07-14
Publication Date:
2021-07-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press(UK)
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
0198868243
ISBN13:
9780198868248
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Weight:
453 g
Height:
145 cm
Width:
222 cm
Thickness:
17 cm
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