Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/833

Rh LUCIANTTS. tator. When Croesus and Menippus meet on the banks of the Styx, it is easy to see which will have the advantage. The disappointments of those who lie in wait for the inheritance of the rich, afford a fertile theme, which, however, Lucian has worn rather thread-bare. In a few of the dialogues it must be owned that some of the great men of antiquity are flippantly and unjustly attacked, and especially Socrates. Among the moderns these dialogues have been imitated by Fontenelle and Lord Lyttelton. The Meviinros ^ NeKi;oM«J'Teia, Necyomanteia^ bears some analogy to the Dialogues of the dead. Menippus relates his descent into Hades^ and the sights that he sees there, par- ticularly the punishment of the great and powerful. The genuineness of this piece has been doubted. Du Soul thought that it was Avritten by Menippus himself, who, as we learn from Diogenes Laeitius (vi. 101), wrote a Necyomanieia^ but Hemsterhuis discards this (>)njecture. It certainly wants Lucian 's pungency ; but arguments from style are not always safe. In the 'lKapof.i4vnnros rj 'TTrepye^eAoy, Icaro- Menippus^ on tLe contrary, which is in Lucian's best vein, and a master-piece of Aristophanic humour, Menippus, disgusted with the disputes and pre- tensions of the philosophers, resolves on a visit to the stars, for the purpose of seeing how far their theories are correct. By the mechanical aid of a pair of wings he reaches the moon, and surveys thence the miserable passions and quarrels of men. Hence he proceeds to Olympus, and is introduced to the Thunderer himself. Here he is witness of the manner in which human prayers are received in heaven. They ascend by enonnous ventholes, and become audible when Zeus removes the covers. Strange is the variety of their tenor ! Some pray to be kings, others that their onions may grow ; one sailor begs a north wind, another a south ; the husbandman wants rain ; the fuller, sunshine. Zeus himself is represented as a partial judge, and as influenced by the largeness of the rewards promised to him. At the end he pronounces judg- ment against the philosophers, and threatens in four days to destroy them all. Then he cuts Me- nippus's wings, and hands him over to Hennes, who carries him to earth by the ear. With a malicious pleasure Menippus hastens to the Poecile to announce to the assembled philosophers their approaching destruction. Xdpwu rj iTTiaKonovvTes, Co7item.platites, is a very elegant dialogue, but of a graver turn than the preceding. Charon visits the earth to see the course of life there, and what it is that always makes men weep when they enter his boat. He requests Hermes to be his Cicerone. To get a good view they pile Pelion upon Ossa ; but this not being high enough, Oeta must follow, and then Parnassus : a passage evidently meant to ridicule Homer. Parnassus being at top Charon and Hermes seat themselves on each of the peaks. Then pass in review Milo the wrestler, Cyrus, Croesus, and other celebrated characters. In this piece, as Hemsterhuis observes, our author has not been very scrupulous about chronology. In the interview between Croesus and Solon, Lucian follows Herodotus, but inverts the order of the happy. Of all Lucian's dialogues this is perhaps the most poetical : as in tlie description of the passions flying about ; the comparison of cities to bee-hives attacked b)^ wasps ; the likening of human lives to bubbles ; the death of cities as well as individuals. The whole is a picture of the LUCIANUS. 8W sraallness of mankind when viewed from a philo- sophic, as well as a physical height. Lucian seems to have put his own sentiment into the mouth of Charon (§ 16), Tray'yfKo7a Tawra, w 'Ep/xr}. The KaTctTrAous i? Tvpavvos, Catapliis sive Tyrannus^ is in fact a dialogue of the dead. The persons are Charon, Clotho, Hermes, a cynic philosopher, the tyrant Megapenthes, the cobbler Micyllus, and certain rich men. The reluctance of Megapenthes to obey the summons of Clotho, and his ludicrous attempts at evasion, are happily contrasted with the alacrity of Micyllus. The latter being left behind on the banks of the Styx, swims after Charon's boat, which being full, he finds a place on the shoulders of the tyrant, and does not cease tormenting him the whole way. There is consi- derable drollery in his pretended lament for his old lasts and slippers, when requested by Mercury to grieve a little, just for the sake of keeping up the custom. Megapenthes' description of the indig- nities which his hmisehold offer to his body while lying in state, and which, though conscious of them, he is powerless to resist, is very striking. "Oveipos rj *A€KTpvoov, Somnium sen Gallus. Here we have the cobbler Micyllus again, who has been dreaming that he has fallen heir to Kucrates, a nouveau riche. From this state of felicity he is awakened by the crowing of his cock, which he threatens to kill as soon as he gets up. The cock discovers himself to be Pythagoras in one of his transmigratory states, which gives occasion to some jokes at the expense of that philosophy. The cock then endeavours to persuade Micyllus that he is much happier than the rich men whom he envies, and in order to con- vince him, desires him to pluck one of the long feathers from his tail, which has the power of con- ferring invisibility. Micyllus, who has evidently a lurking spite against the bird, plucks out both his long feathers, much to the discomfiture of Pytha- goras, whom, however, the cobbler consoles by telling that he looks much handsomer so than he would with only one. Being now invisible, Py- thagoras and Micyllus go round to the houses of several rich men, and behold their miseries and vices. This piece may be reckoned among the best of Lucian's. Ais KaTrjyopovfMivos, Bis Accu- sutits, so called from Lucian's being arraigned by Rhetoric and Dialogue, is chiefly valuable for the information it contains of the author's life and literary pursuits. Zeus finds fault with Homer for calling the gods happy, when they have got so much to do, and when there are still so many un- decided causes on hand. To clear these oft' a court is appointed, at which Justice is to preside. The first cause is Drunkenness versus the Academy, for depriving him of Polemo. The plaintiff being naturally disqualified for pleading, the Academy undertakes both sides of the question. Next we have the Porch versus Pleasure, which is defended by Epicurus. After two or three more causes Lucian is accused by Rhetoric of desertion, and by Dialogue of having lowered and perverted his style. We may here also mention the KpovoaSAwv, Crone* Solon, and the 'EirKXToXal KpoviKal^ Epistolae Sa- turnales, which turn on the institution and customs of the Saturnalia. Amongst the dialogues which may be regarded as mere pictures of manners, without any polemical tendency, may be reckoned the "E^wres, to which allusion has already been made in a former part of this notice. The 'EraipiKoi AtdXoyoi, Dialogi 3g 2