Overview

Lucian is one of the most prolific and wide-ranging writers from antiquity and one of the most influential and controversial. His work is deeply embedded in the cultural and religious politics of the Greek world in the Roman Empire, but also played an important role in later periods, particularly during the Renaissance, and was considered a crucial example of the inherited wisdom of classical antiquity. Lucian's prose is limpid and elegant as well as sharply funny and full of great stories, dramatic dialogues, and brilliant satire. This Companion, written by world-leading scholars, introduces the major themes of his corpus and provides more detailed studies of individual works. Readers will be able to appreciate his major contributions to the history of satire, comic dialogues, religion, art, and erotics as well as being given a snapshot of the most important episodes in his work's reception in the West.

Full Product Details

Author:   Simon Goldhill (University of Cambridge)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.10cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.80cm
Weight:   0.670kg
ISBN:  

9781009170390

ISBN 10:   1009170392
Pages:   474
Publication Date:   21 November 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of contributors; 1. Introduction Simon Goldhill; Part I. 2. Lucian and the culture of criticism Richard Hunter; 3. Lucian's poetics Emma Greensmith; 4. Lucian and philosophy Peter van Nuffelen; 5. On believing in Lucian: the religious polemics Tim Whitmarsh; 6. Lucian and art history Jas Elsner; 7. Some queer entanglements in Lucian's Erotes Alistair Blanshard; Part II. 8. In praise of the fly Emily Kneebone; 9. Lucian's Phalaris Peter Thonemann; 10. Lucian the doorkeeper: inside and outside in Lucianic Poetics Marco Formisano; 11. Geographical authority and bodily entanglements in Lucian's True Histories Jason König; 12. Menippus goes to the moon: fantastical astronomy and Lucian's scientific imagination Karen ni Mhealligh; 13. Lucian and Christianity Eleni Bozia; 14. Identification and distance in Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans: subjects and their absences Dawn LaValle Norman; 15. 'Here's Looking at You…': the dialogues of the gods and the erotics of the visual Simon Goldhill; Part III. 16. Lucian of Samosata in renaissance Italy Irene Fantappié; 17. Lucian goes north: the Luciani opuscula of Erasmus and Thomas More James Romm; 18. From the eighteenth to the nineteenth century: Voltaire, Leopardi and a new avenue of philosophical critique Giacomo Loi; Bibliography; Index.

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Author Information

SIMON GOLDHILL is Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, and Foreign Secretary and Vice President of the British Academy. His books have been translated into twelve languages and won three international prizes. He has lectured and broadcast on radio and television all over the world. His most recent book is The Christian Invention of Time (Cambridge, 2022).

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