Original language: Koine Greek (same language as the New Testament).
Samosata was, at the time of Lucian’s birth, in the Roman province of Syria. Today it’s Samsat, in southeast Turkey.
I read the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Lucian’s Selected Dialogues, translated by C.D.N. Costa, published 2005.
The dialogue “Charon or the Observers” is so terrible, I am going to skip through it.
Lucian is a terrible writer, there is nothing else for it.
Last thoughts on Lucian
Most of his writing was just not good. “A True History” is a traveler’s tale in the (later) vein of Gulliver’s Travels, but Lucian is no Swift. I think the piece I liked best was “Hermotimus or on Philosophical Schools.” It’s a dialogue in which Lycinus convinces Hermotimus that he shouldn’t be devoting his entire life to the Stoics.
I have no desire to read more Lucian.
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