The Cambridge Companion to Lucian

An innovative and exciting introduction to one of the most influential and controversial ancient authors. Explores Lucian's major contributions to the history of satire, comic dialogues, religion, art, and erotics against the background of the cultural politics of the Greek world in the Roman Empire.

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.