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True History or True Story (Greek:
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ) is a fantastic travel tale by the Greek-speaking
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 Syrian
Assyrians

Assyrians or Assyrian people may refer to :*the Ancient Assyrians*the modern Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac peopleSee also*Assyrian ...
 author Lucian
Lucian

Lucian of Samosata was an Assyrian people rhetorician, and satire who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature....
 of Samosata
Samosata

Samosata was an ancient city on the right bank of the Euphrates whose ruins existed at the modern city of Samsat, Turkey, Adiyaman Province, Turkey until the site was flooded by the newly-constructed Atat?rk Dam....
, the earliest known fiction about travelling to outer space
Outer space

Outer space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
, alien life-forms and interplanetary warfare. Written in the second century AD, the novel has been referred to as "the first known text that could be called science fiction". The work was intended by Lucian as a satire against contemporary and ancient sources, which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth.

i>True History, Lucian and a company of adventuring heroes sailing westward through the Pillars of Hercules
Pillars of Hercules

The "Pillars of Hercules" was the phrase that was applied in classical antiquity to the promontory that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar....
 (the Strait of Gibraltar
Strait of Gibraltar

The Strait of Gibraltar is the strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain from Morocco. The name comes from Gibraltar, which in turn originates from the Arabic language Jebel Tariq meaning mountain of Tariq....
) are blown off course by a strong wind, and after 79 days come to an island.






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True History or True Story (Greek:
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 ) is a fantastic travel tale by the Greek-speaking
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 Syrian
Assyrians

Assyrians or Assyrian people may refer to :*the Ancient Assyrians*the modern Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac peopleSee also*Assyrian ...
 author Lucian
Lucian

Lucian of Samosata was an Assyrian people rhetorician, and satire who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature....
 of Samosata
Samosata

Samosata was an ancient city on the right bank of the Euphrates whose ruins existed at the modern city of Samsat, Turkey, Adiyaman Province, Turkey until the site was flooded by the newly-constructed Atat?rk Dam....
, the earliest known fiction about travelling to outer space
Outer space

Outer space comprises the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. Outer space is used to distinguish it from airspace and terrestrial locations....
, alien life-forms and interplanetary warfare. Written in the second century AD, the novel has been referred to as "the first known text that could be called science fiction". The work was intended by Lucian as a satire against contemporary and ancient sources, which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth.

Plot

In True History, Lucian and a company of adventuring heroes sailing westward through the Pillars of Hercules
Pillars of Hercules

The "Pillars of Hercules" was the phrase that was applied in classical antiquity to the promontory that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar....
 (the Strait of Gibraltar
Strait of Gibraltar

The Strait of Gibraltar is the strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Spain from Morocco. The name comes from Gibraltar, which in turn originates from the Arabic language Jebel Tariq meaning mountain of Tariq....
) are blown off course by a strong wind, and after 79 days come to an island. This island is home to a river of wine filled with fish, and bears a marker indicating that Heracles
Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
 and Dionysos have traveled to this point.

Shortly after leaving the island, they are lifted up by a giant waterspout and deposited on the Moon
Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
. There they find themselves embroiled in a full-scale war between the king of the Moon and the king of the Sun
Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
, involving armies which boast such exotica as stalk-and-mushroom men, acorn-dogs ("dog-faced men fighting on winged acorns"), and cloud-centaurs. Unusually, the Sun, Moon, stars and planets are portrayed as locales, each with its unique geographic details and inhabitants.

After returning to the Earth, the adventurers become trapped in a giant whale
Whale

Whales are marine mammals of order Cetacea which are neither dolphinsmembers, in other words, of the families Oceanic dolphin or River dolphinnor porpoises....
; they reach a sea of milk, an island of cheese and the isle of the blessed, where a whole host of heroes and literary figures are found.

At the end of the second book they discover a far off continent and set out to explore it. The book ends rather abruptly by Lucian saying that their adventure there will be the subject of following books.

Literary genre

Lucian's True History eludes a clear-cut literary classification. Its multilayered character has given rise to interpretations as diverse as science fiction
Science fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science fiction is found in books, art, television, films, games, theatre, and other media....
, fantasy
Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
, satire
Satire

Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic arts and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improv...
 or parody
Parody

A parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation....
, depending on how much importance scholars attach to Lucian's explicit intention of telling a story of falsehoods. Generally speaking, authors concentrating on science fiction topoi are more willing to classify True History as part of the former genres, while those stressing Lucian's satirical motives are more inclined to view his work under the latter premises.

Satire

In the later view, Lucian intended his story to be a form of literary criticism, a satire against contemporary and ancient sources which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth. He mentions the tales of Ctesias
Ctesias

Ctesias of Cnidus was a Hellenic civilization physician and historian from Cnidus in Caria. Ctesias, who flourished in the 5th century BC, was physician to Artaxerxes II, whom he accompanied in 401 BC on his expedition against his brother Cyrus the Younger....
, Iambulus, and Homer
Homer

Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek language epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns....
 and states that "what did surprise me was their supposition that nobody would notice they were lying." Many characters and events are exaggerated to ridiculous ends to mock the original tellings. As noted by classicist B.P. Reardon, "above all, it is a parody of literary 'liars' like Homer and Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
". Consequently, Lucian goes on to state that the story recounted in True History is about "things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say."

Science Fiction

Contrary to classicists, modern SF critics do not necessarily view the satirical streak of the story to conflict with modern notions of science fiction. The defining element of science can rather be found in Lucian's specific, but effective approach to identify false values and misidentifications in contemporary philosophy, which was very much the general term of science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
 then. Additionally, they point out that True History was written in response to another work which also contained science fictional elements, that is Antonius Diogenes
Antonius Diogenes

Antonius Diogenes was the author of a Ancient Greek literature Novel, whom scholars have placed in the 2nd century Current Era. His age was unknown even to Photius I of Constantinople, who has preserved an outline of his romance....
’ lost Of the Wonderful Things Beyond Thule
Thule

Thule is, in classical literature, a place, usually an island. Ancient European descriptions and maps locate it either in the far north, often Iceland, possibly the Orkney Islands or Shetland Islands or Scandinavia, or in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance Iceland or Greenland....
, whose protagonist also reached the moon
Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
. The estrangening feel of the story as a defining SF element has also been noted:

...True History may properly be regarded as SF because Lucian often achieves that sense of "cognitive estrangement" which Darko Suvin
Darko Suvin

Darko Ronald Suvin is a Kingdom of Yugoslavia-born academic and critic, who became a Professor at McGill University in Montreal — now emeritus....
 has defined as the generic distinction of SF, that is, the depiction of an alternate world, radically unlike our own, but relatable to it in terms of significant knowledge.


According to Grewell, whose definition of science fiction focuses on the struggle between supposedly superior and inferior life forms, "part of the tale that qualifies it as science fiction, rather than as fantasy or imaginative fiction, involves Lucian and his seamen in a battle for territorial and colonization rights:

"The king of the inhabitants of the Sun, Phaethon," said Endymion king of the Moon, "has been at war with us for a long time now. Once upon a time I gathered together the poorest people in my kingdom and undertook to plant a colony on the Morning Star which was empty and uninhabited. Phaethon out of jealousy thwarted the colonization, meeting us halfway at the head of his dragoons. At that time we were beaten, for we were not a match for them in strength, and we retreated. Now, however, I desire to make war again and plant the colony."


In sum, typical science fiction themes and topoi appearing in True History are:
  • travel to outer space
  • encounter with alien life-forms, including the experience of a first encounter event
  • interplanetary warfare and imperialism
  • colonization of planets
  • motif of giganticism
  • creatures as products of human technology (robot theme)
  • worlds working by a set of alternate 'physical' laws
  • explicit desire of the protagonist for exploration and adventure


A middle position seems to be taken up by the English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 critic
Critic

The word critic comes from the Greek language ' , "able to discern", which in turn derives from the word ' , meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation....
 Kingsley Amis
Kingsley Amis

Sir Kingsley William Amis, Commander of Order of the British Empire was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than twenty novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism....
, who acknowledged the SF and satirical character of True History at the same time:

"I will merely remark that the sprightliness and sophistication of True History make it read like a joke at the expense of nearly all early-modern science fiction, that written between, say, 1910 and 1940."


See also

  • History of science fiction
    History of science fiction

    File:Aerial house3.jpgThe literary genre of science fiction is diverse and since there is little consensus of definition among scholars or devotees, its origin is an open question....
  • Moon in art and literature
    Moon in art and literature

    The Moon has been the subject of many works of art and literature and the inspiration for countless others. It is a motif in the visual arts, the performing arts, poetry, prose and music....
  • Sun in art and literature


Further reading

  • Fredericks, S.C.: , Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1 (March 1976), pp. 49-60
  • Georgiadou, Aristoula & Larmour, David H.J.: , Mnemosyne Supplement 179, Leiden 1998, ISBN 9004106677
  • Grewell, Greg: “Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future”, Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, Vol. 55, No. 2 (2001), pp. 25-47
  • Gunn, James E.: “The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction”, Publisher: Viking 1988, ISBN 9780670810413, p.249
  • Swanson, Roy Arthur: , Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Nov. 1976), pp. 227-239


External links

  • at sacred-texts.com
  • at sacred-texts.com
  • , with facing Greek text, at ancientlibrary.com
  • at tertullian.org


it:La storia vera