A True History by Lucian
"A True History" by Lucian is a second-century satirical work that can be considered an early example of science fiction. The narrative follows Lucian and his crew as they embark on an adventurous voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, facing fantastical challenges and bizarre encounters. After enduring a fierce storm, they arrive on a mystical island inhabited by women with human upper bodies and vine-like lower bodies, leading to a series of surreal experiences.
Throughout their journey, the travelers encounter a variety of extraordinary beings and landscapes, including a war on the moon with an army of vulture-riding soldiers and bizarre creatures like centaurs and vegetable-armored fighters. Lucian's account humorously critiques and parodies elements of mythology, philosophy, and contemporary society, blurring the lines between truth and fiction.
The story culminates in a series of escapades, including battles with strange inhabitants and navigation through whimsical realms like the Isles of the Blessed and a land of dreams. Ultimately, Lucian's narrative serves as both an entertaining tale and a commentary on the nature of storytelling itself, inviting readers to reflect on the relationship between reality and imagination.
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A True History by Lucian
First transcribed:Alēthōn diēgēmatōn, second century c.e. (English translation, 1634)
Type of work: Short fiction
Type of plot: Satire
Time of plot: Second century
Locale: The universe
Principal characters
Lucian ,Endymion , the king of the moonPhaethon , the king of the sunScintharus , an inhabitant of the whale’s belly
The Story:
Heading westward from the Pillars of Hercules, Lucian in his sloop and with a crew of fifty finally reach the Atlantic Ocean. Filled with a thirst for adventure and an intellectual restlessness to see what is on the other side of the world, he finds the first day of the voyage delightful. Then comes a terrible storm that drives the ship before it for seventy-nine days. On the eightieth day, the adventurers come to a lofty wooded island and go ashore.
After resting, twenty sailors accompany Lucian on an exploration of the island. They discover a bronze tablet announcing that Hercules and Dionysus were there, and they see two huge footprints. They also discover that the river has its source in a grapevine and contains Chian wine. Eating the fish that swam in it makes them drunk.
The inhabitants of the island are women, human from the waist up, but growing on vines. Several of the crew, who become too friendly with these creatures, soon find themselves entangled in the vines and taking root. They have to be left behind. The others fill their casks with wine and water and set sail, but they run into a whirlwind that whips the sloop hundreds of miles into the air. A week later, the ship is thrown upon the moon, which is inhabited by men riding vultures. The king of the moon, Endymion, enlists the service of the Greeks in his war against Phaethon and his people of the sun.
The mighty invasion force is made up of eighty thousand vulture-riding cavalry and twenty thousand troops riding birds covered with grass who have lettuce leaves for wings. This vegetarian force has armor of vegetable husks but Greek swords. Among their allies are fighters from other constellations astride monster fleas.
The army of the sun rides flying ants, gnats, and mosquitoes. Some hurl giant radishes; others wield asparagus spears. They are nevertheless no match for the lunar troops until so many centaur reinforcements arrive that the number cannot be set down for fear of creating incredulity. When the moon army is put to flight, Lucian and his friends are captured and bound with spider webs.
To bring the moon people to terms, Phaethon erects a cloud screen, and, cut off from sunlight, the moon troops soon surrender. The terms of capitulation are inscribed on a slab of electrum. With the coming of peace, Lucian has the opportunity to explore the moon and note its wonders.
On the way home, the Greeks pause at Lamptown, which is inhabited by lanterns, and at Cloud-Cuckooland, where Lucian verifies the details of Aristophanes’ comedy Ornithes (414 b.c.e.; The Birds, 1824). Finally the travelers reach the ocean again, only to have their sloop swallowed by a huge whale. In its belly, amid a clutter of wrecked ships, they find Scintharus, who is raising vegetables on an island. He has lived there for twenty-seven years, ever since leaving Cyprus.
There are many other inhabitants, all quarrelsome and unjust. Some have eel eyes and lobster faces; others are half human and half animal. Since their only weapons are fish bones, Lucian decides to attack them. The creatures are all slain in two battles in which the Greeks suffer only one casualty; the sailing master is stabbed with a mullet spine.
One day, after living in the whale for one year and eight months, the Greeks hear a loud uproar in the outside world. Peering between the whale’s teeth, they watch a naval battle of giants who man floating islands and fight with oysters and sponges.
At last, the Greeks conceive a scheme to gain their liberty. They set fire to the forest inside the whale; then, as the creature is about to suffocate, they wedge open its jaws and sail out, with Scintharus as pilot. They do not get far, however, for a north wind freezes the ocean. They find refuge in a cave they hollow in the ice until, after a month, it occurs to them to hoist the sails and let the ship glide across the smooth ice to open water.
Sailing in a sea of milk, they take on provisions at a cheese island. They stop at the Isles of the Blessed and watch a lawsuit between Theseus and Menelaus for the custody of Helen. While the hearing is in progress, Helen runs off with a new sweetheart, aided by some of Lucian’s crew, and the tourists are deported. Lucian, however, has time to consult Homer on moot points concerning his life and writing and to catalog the famous Greeks who inhabit the isle. Also, he witnesses a prison break by the damned and watches the heroic exploits of Achilles in recapturing them.
On their voyage once again, the travelers pass a place of punishment for liars. Herodotus is there, but Lucian knows that he himself is safe because he never writes anything but the truth. The company spends a month at the Port of Dreams and also pauses briefly to deliver a note to Calypso from Odysseus. Pirates attack them several times and their ship is destroyed, but the travelers finally reach safety in a land that Lucian recognizes as the continent facing his world.
Bibliography
Baldwin, Barry. Studies in Lucian. Toronto, Ont.: Hakkert, 1973. An evaluation of Lucian and his works by an expert scholar. Chapter 5 includes comments on Lucian’s view of the writing of history. Contains a useful bibliography.
Fredericks, S. C. “Lucian’s True History as SF.” Science Fiction Studies 3 (March, 1976): 49-60. Suggests that A True History is an early instance of science-fiction writing. The landscape of Lucian’s journey can be seen as an “alternative world” through which the author explores the features and problems of the real world.
Georgiadou, Aristoula, and David H. J. Larmour. Lucian’s Science Fiction Novel, “True Histories”: Interpretation and Commentary. Boston: Brill, 1998. Includes an introduction placing A True History within the context of Lucian’s oeuvre, particularly his concern with distinguishing truth from fiction and exposing philosophers’ lies. The commentary traces the sources and meanings of the numerous allusions and parodies of philosophers, poets, historians, and others contained in the text.
Jones, C. P. Culture and Society in Lucian. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986. A good general study of Lucian’s many works. Locates them in the social and intellectual conditions of his time, the Greco-Roman imperial age. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss A True History in connection with Lucian’s views on truth and lies.
Marsh, David. Lucian and the Latins: Humor and Humanism in the Early Renaissance. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998. Describes how European authors in the fifteenth and sixteenth century rediscovered Lucian’s comic writings, tracing how the themes and structures of his works were adapted by Renaissance writers. Chapter 6 focuses on A True History.