Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/57

Rh (KOI av) with a future or even an imperative, fa/ in place of ov, the particle av misplaced or wrongly added, and a subjunctive mood instead of an optative. 1 Nevertheless, he evinces a perfect mastery over a language as wonderful in its inflexions as in its immense and varied vocabulary ; and it is a well-merited praise of the author to say that to a good Greek scholar the pages of Lucian are almost as e isy and as entertaining as an English or French novel, lu this respect they form a contrast with the somewhat &quot; crabbed &quot; style of Plutarch, many of whose moral treatises aro by no means easy reading. Of course Greek, like every other language, is progressive, an;l the notion of fixing it to any given period as absolutely tho best is quite arbitrary. We shall not be surprised at finding in Lucian some forms and compounds which were not in use in the time of Plato or Demosthenes. Thus, he has ijTrepei Sets for v-rrepopas (p. 99), TreTre/x/teVcs as the participle of the perfect passive of Tre/rrrw (p. 240), evo-eWtKe the perfect of ej/creuo (p. 705), to which a purist would object ; and there are occasional tendencies to Latinism which can hardly surprise us. From a writer living under Roman rule we may expect some Latin words in his vocabulary, as SaKepSws for Sacerdos, and Roman names like Muyvos, KeXcro?, Ke A^p (CWer), PouTiAAiavos, &c. In the Lexiphanes a long passage is read from a treatise composed in words of the strangest and most out-of-the-way form and sound, on hearing which Lucian pretends to be almost driven cra?:y (p. 342). His own sentiments on the propriety of diction are shown by his reproof to Lexiphanes ( 24), &quot; if anywhere you have picked up an out-of-the-way word, or coined one which you think good, you labour to adapt the sense of it, and think it a loss if you do not succeed in dragging it in somewhere, even when it is not really wanted.&quot; The free use of such a vocabulary 2 even in satire shows Lucian s intimate knowledge of the spurious boaibast which had begun to corrupt the classic dialect. Lucian founded his style, or obtained his fluency, from the successful study of rhetoric, by which he appears to have made a good income from composing speeches which attracted much attention. 3 At a later period in life he seems to have held a lucrative office in Egypt. When he &quot;all but had one foot in Charon s boat &quot; (he says in Apologia, 1), &quot;he lent his neck to be bound by a golden collar.&quot; This office was to register the actions and verdicts of the law courts, -he was a kind of &quot; Master of the Rolls,&quot; who had the custody of the state documents, and received his salary directly from the king (ibid., 12). He speaks of the emoluments as ov cr/xtKpos /uto-$6s aXXa TroXvraXavros. We do not know the date of Lucian s death, but he may have lived till about 200 A.D. The extant works of this writer are so numerous that of some of the principal only a short sketch can be given. To understand them aright we must remember that the whole moral code, the entire &quot;duty of man,&quot; was included, in the estimation of the pagan Greek, in the various schools of philosophy. As these were generally rivals, and the systems they taught were more or less directly antagonistic, truth presented itself to the inquirer, not as one, but as manifold. The absurdity and the impossibility of this forms the burden of all Lucian s writings. He could only 1 Thus in p. 591, Trpoefj.evot riva ^| a.ira.VTiav OCTTIS &pi(rra Kar-rj- yopvjffai kv SoKrj, either SCTTIS &j/ apta-ra Soitrj or owns apurra av Soxolr) is required by the laws of Attic Gresk. 2 In describing a banquet Lexiphanes says ( 7), iror-fipia 8e fKftro Ttavrola S TT! rrs 5f&amp;lt;pivi?&amp;gt;os rpairffas, 6 Kpvl/tfj.eTcairos Kal rpvyXls pt-yropovpylis euAa/3f) ex oufra r ^) l/ Kfpov Kal (So/z/SuAios Kal Stipoicv- irov Kal yrjyti&amp;gt;ri iroAAa oTa TjpixrArjy &Trra, fvpvxatirj rf Kal aa fvffrofj.a, ra fj.fi&amp;gt; &amp;lt;f&amp;gt;a)Kar)0ej/, ra Se KviS66ev, TrdvTa/J.evroi ave/ji.oc(&amp;gt;6pTfjra Kal ii/iievoiTTpaKa. Bis accusat. ( 27), where Rhetoric declares she had enriched him, Trp.nxa ov fjiiKpav fTrtfffVfyKafjLfvt] iroovs Kal 6av/j.a(riovs oyovs. 43 form one conclusion, viz., that there is no such a thing as truth. One of the best written and most amusing treatises of antiquity is Lucian s True History, which forms a rather long narrative in two books. It is composed, he says in a brief introduction, not only as a pastime and a diversion from severer studies, but avowedly as a satire (OVK u/&amp;lt;w//,wS?7Tws, p. 71) on the poets and logograpliers who have written so many marvellous tales, -n-oXXa repao-ria KO.I /j.v6uOT]. He names Ctesias and Homer ; but Hellanicus and Herodotus, perhaps other AoyoTrotot still earlier, appear to have been in his mind. 4 The only true statement in his History, he wittily says (p. 72), is that it contains nothing but lies from beginning to end. The main purport of the story is to describe a voyage to the moon. He set out, he tells us, with fifty companions, in a well-provisioned ship, from the &quot; Pillars of Hercules,&quot; intending to explore the western ocean. After eighty days rough sailing they came to an island on which they found a Greek inscription, &quot;This was the limit of the expedition of Heracles and Dionysus &quot;; and the visit of the wine-god seemed attested by some miraculous vines which they found there. After leaving the island they were suddenly carried up, ship and all, by a whirlwind into the air, and on the eighth day came in sight of a great round island shining* with a bright light (p. 77), and lying a little above the raoon. In a short time they are arrested by a troop of gigantic &quot; horse-vultures &quot; (iTTTToyvn-oi), and brought as captives to the &quot; man in the moon,&quot; who proves to be Endymion. He is engaged in a war with the inhabitants of the sun, which is ruled by King Phaethon, the quarrel having arisen from an attempt to colonize the planet Venus (Lucifer). The voyagers are enlisted as &quot; Moonites,&quot; and a long description follows of the monsters and flying dragons engaged in the contest. A fight ensues, in which the slaughter is so great that the very clouds are tinged with red (p. 84). The long descrip tion of the inhabitants of the moon is extremely droll and original, and has often been more or less closely imitated. After descending safely into the sea, the ship is swallowed by a huge &quot;sea serpent&quot; more than 100 miles long. The adventures during the long confinement in the creature s belly are most amusing ; but at last they sail out through the chinks between the monster s teeth, and soon find themselves at the &quot; Fortunate Islands.&quot; Here they meet with the spirits of heroes and philosophers of antiquity, on whom the author expatiates at some length. The tale comes to an abrupt end with an allusion to Herodotus in the promise that he &quot;will tell the rest in his next books.&quot; The story throughout is written in easy and elegant Greek, and shows the most fertile invention. Another curious and rather long treatise is entitled Aowtos &amp;gt;? ovo9. The authorship is regarded as doubtful; the style, as it seems to us, does not betray another hand. Parts of the story are coarse enough ; the point turns on one Lucius visiting in a Thessalian family, in which the lady of the house was a sorceress. Having seen her changed into a bird by anointing herself with some potent drug, he resolves to try a similar experiment on himself, but finds that he has become an ass, retaining, however, his human senses and memory. The mistake arose from his having filched the wrong ointment ; however, he is assured by the attendant, Palaestra, that if he can but procure roses to eat, his natural form will be restored. In the night a party of bandits break into the house and 4 In p. 127 he says that he saw punished in Hades, more severely than any other sinners, writers of false narratives, among whom were Ctesias of Cnidus and Herodotus. Yet in the short essay inscribed Herodotus, p. 831, he wishes it were possible for him to imitate the many excellencies of that writer.