Breakfast with Lucian
Title | Breakfast with Lucian PDF eBook |
Author | Geordie Greig |
Publisher | Macmillan |
Pages | 273 |
Release | 2013-10-22 |
Genre | Art |
ISBN | 0374116482 |
"A memoir about the author's relationship with renowned painter Lucian Freud that includes interviews with many close friends and family members as well as critical analyses of Freud's art"--Provided by publisher.
Lucian's Science Fiction Novel, True Histories
Title | Lucian's Science Fiction Novel, True Histories PDF eBook |
Author | Aristoula Georgiadou |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 280 |
Release | 1998 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9789004106673 |
This is the first substantial commentary on Lucian's fantastic journey narrative, the "True Histories" - the earliest surviving example of science fiction in the Western tradition. The Introduction situates the text in Lucian's oeuvre and offers a guide to its interpretation as allegory and parody.
The Loeb classical library
Title | The Loeb classical library PDF eBook |
Author | G. P. Goold |
Publisher | |
Pages | |
Release | 1912 |
Genre | Greek literature |
ISBN |
Dialogues of the Gods
Title | Dialogues of the Gods PDF eBook |
Author | Baudelaire Jones |
Publisher | |
Pages | 84 |
Release | 2008-11 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 9780578001678 |
By the time of Lucian, popular religion had ceased to hold much influence over the hearts of the cultured classes. Philosophy was the new God, but there were efforts in some circles to divert men's minds from the philosophical sects and restore a sort of unorthodox faith in the old religion. Against this artificial revival of mythological faith, Lucian pitted the influence of his tremendous satirical powers. In the "Dialogues of the Gods," he pulls the curtain aside-exposing the Gods as they engage in private disputes, domestic brawls, and love affairs, with their jealousies and scandals, their paltry strifes and petty motives. The lesson is simple: Can one worship beings with such weaknesses, such foibles, and such scandalous and immoral lives? This new translation by Baudelaire Jones breathes fresh life into ancient deities such as Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Aphrodite, Poseidon, and Athena, revealing complex, contradictory, sex-obsessed creatures that modern mortals can surely relate to.
Lucian’s Laughing Gods
Title | Lucian’s Laughing Gods PDF eBook |
Author | Inger NI Kuin |
Publisher | University of Michigan Press |
Pages | 305 |
Release | 2023-04-10 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 0472220977 |
No comic author from the ancient world features the gods as often as Lucian of Samosata, yet the meaning of his works remain contested. He is either seen as undermining the gods and criticizing religion through his humor, or as not engaging with religion at all, featuring the gods as literary characters. His humor was traditionally viewed as a symptom of decreased religiosity, but that model of religious decline in the second century CE has been invalidated by ancient historians. Understanding these works now requires understanding what it means to imagine as laughing and laughable gods who are worshipped in everyday cult. In Lucian's Laughing Gods, author Inger N. I. Kuin argues that in ancient Greek thought, comedic depictions of divinities were not necessarily desacralizing. In religion, laughter was accommodated to such an extent as to actually be constituent of some ritual practices, and the gods were imagined either to reciprocate or push back against human laughter—they were never deflated by it. Lucian uses the gods as comic characters, but in doing so, he does not automatically negate their power. Instead, with his depiction of the gods and of how they relate to humans—frivolous, insecure, callous—Lucian challenges the dominant theologies of his day as he refuses to interpret the gods as ethical models. This book contextualizes Lucian’s comedic performances in the intellectual life of the second century CE Roman East broadly, including philosophy, early Christian thought, and popular culture (dance, fables, standard jokes, etc.). His texts are analyzed as providing a window onto non-elite attitudes and experiences, and methodologies from religious studies and the sociology of religion are used to conceptualize Lucian’s engagement with the religiosity of his contemporaries.
Selections from Lucian
Title | Selections from Lucian PDF eBook |
Author | Lucian (of Samosata.) |
Publisher | |
Pages | 358 |
Release | 1882 |
Genre | Greek prose literature |
ISBN |
Studies in Lucian's Comic Fiction
Title | Studies in Lucian's Comic Fiction PDF eBook |
Author | Graham Anderson |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 149 |
Release | 2018-06-22 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9004327606 |