frigid enthusiasts. lucian on writing history

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Originalveroffentlichung in : PCPhS 47 , 2001, 117-140

FRIGID ENTHUS I A S TS :

LUCIAN ON WR I T I N G H I S T O R Y *

Lucian's singular role within the socio-cultural context of th e period known as the Second

Sophistic has found increasing appreciation amongst scholars, particularly over the last

fifteen years.1 Al though not a sophist in th e true sense,2 Lucian can be regarded as an

outstanding pepaideumenos, meaning this: during an era in which being Greek was less

a matter o f political than o f cultural definit ion, and in which membership in the upper

administrative echelons was dependent on academic qualifications, on the mastery, that is, of a code which consisted of broad general knowledge and rhetorical activity partnered

by thorough conversancy with the literary heritage and language o f Attic Greece - during

this age, then, Lucian proved himsel f not on ly a worthy representative of such paideia?

but also contributed with his literary works to its development and adaptation.

This explains why Lucian frequently tenders criticism or good advice in his writings,

directing th e l ike at (more or less qual i f ied) contenders in th e paideia discourse, and

thus at th e greater part o f his intended audience.4 Whi l e most o f his texts deal with th e

exponents proper o f classical training - th e rhetors and phi losophers - , Luc ian ' s How to Write History is singular in three respects. First, the theoretical treatise is an unusual

choice o f genre for this author.5 Secondly , by singling out historians as a special group

* For their construct ive adv ice and he lp fu l discussions I wou l d l ike to thank th e f o l l ow ing fr iends and

colleagues: Nik las Holzberg , Martin Hose , Sven Lo r e n z , Ulr ich Riitten, and Sabine Vog t . I am a l so most

grateful to Christ ine J a ck son -Ho l zbe rg , w ho translated th e paper into Eng l i sh and contributed wi th her critical

queries to th e f inal cohes ion o f m y arguments, and to th e an on ymou s reader w h o imp roved it by acute remarks. 1 C f . f o r e xamp l e J a c q u e s Bompa i r e , Lucien ecrivain, Par i s 1958; S i m o n Swa i n , Hellenism and Empire.

Language, Classicism, and Power in the Greek World AD 50-250, Ox f o r d 1996, on Luc i an 2 9 9 - 3 2 9 ;

R. Brach t B r anh am , Unruly Eloquence. Lucian and the Comedy of Traditions, Camb r i d g e , Mass . etc. 1989; A n n a Be l t ramett i , 'M im e s i parod ic i e parod i a de l l a m ime s i ' , in : D . Lan za , O . L o n g o ( edd . ) , / /

meraviglioso e il verosimile tra antichita e medioevo, Florence 1989 , 2 1 1 - 2 5 . For a detai led study see

Thomas Schm i t z , Bildung und Macht. Zu r sozialen und politischen Funktion de r zweiten Sophistik in

der griechischen Welt de r Kaiserzeit, Mun i c h 1997 [= Zetemata 97 ] . C f . a l so the s umma r y in Peter v .

Mollendorff, Aufder Suche nach de r verlogenen Wahrheit. Lukians Wah r e Gesch i ch ten , Tub i n g en 2 0 0 0 ,

1-11, ( fur ther lit. there) , and A lb r ech t D i h l e , 'L i te ra turkanon und Schr i f t sprache ' , in : J . D umm e r , M .

Vielberg ( edd . ) , Leitbilder de r Spatantike, Stuttgart 1 9 9 9 , 9 - 3 0 . 2 C f . Sw a i n (n . 1 ) 31 I f . , 314 .

' Th i s seems to be the case even i f w e k n ow near ly noth ing about h is l i fe and h is career , apart f r om

occasional remarks in Eunap iu s , Lac tan t i u s and Ga l e n ; a l so the p o l em i c Vita in the Suda s. v . A o u x i a v o g .

His o w n remarks t o be f ound in h is texts shou l d not eas i l y , and surely not comp l e te l y , b e trusted, as has been s h ow n by B . B a l dw i n , Studies in Lucian, T o r o n t o 1973, 7 - 2 0 .

4 C f . fo r e xamp l e Mi ch ae l Wei ssenbe rge r , Literaturtheorie be i Lukian. Untersuchungen zum Dialog

Lexiphanes, Stut tgar t /Le ipz ig 1996, esp . 8 5 - 1 5 0 . 5 O n the f o rm see Margare te R iemenschne i de r , ' D i e Abhand l u ng Luk i a n s " W i e man Gesch i ch te schre iben

soil '" , in : Acta Conventus XI , 'Eirene', Wa r s aw 1971, 399^104. Tha t th is is a treatise is made c lear in

(6), immed i a t e l y af ter the i n t roductory anecdote , wh e n the ar rangement o f th e text to f o l l ow is presented:

6 -32 w i l l sh ow what the histor ian must a vo i d , 3 3 - 6 3 what he must ach i e ve .



118 PETER V O N M O L L E N D O R F F

amongst the pepaideumenoi he departs from the usual frame of reference. And, thirdly,

although Lu cia n's text is , in keeping with the dem ands o f paideia, decke d out with

allusions to older (historiog raph ical) li terature,6 his attacks against the infe rior

historians o f his o w n age can scarcely co nv inc e his m ode rn readers that the targets of

such ridicu le ever actually existed : none o f the accus ations he mak es or of the (few )

names he spe ci f ica l ly m ent ion s are borne out by other sources .7 It canno t, of course,

be ruled out that Lu cia n is referring here to ephem eral wo rks o f such inferior quality

that non e o f them saw the ancient l ight of day for ve ry lon g, and that the name s he cites

represent witty a l lus ion s to authors wh o, for his wel l -vers ed contem poraries , were

perhaps not the no -na m e writers they are for us today .8 Ev en so, one might sti ll wond er

whether such historians w ou ld hav e been at all suitable as objec ts o f Lu ci an 's ridicule

and addressees for his 'rules and reg ulatio ns' : he tel ls us him se lf in (5) that neither these

inferior pepaideumenoi nor their fol low er s wil l take his sugge stions to heart.Why Lu ci an c hos e this particular subject is a question that can perhap s be

approached by co nsidering the open ing and co nclu ding sect ions of the treat ise, wh ich

have to date been read s im ply as an am usin g fra m ew ork for the actual contents . A c loser

look cou ld, ho we ve r, shed new l ight on Lu cia n's intent ions .

'Ap6iiQ(,Tai5 cpao i A - ua iu dx ou 'HOTl Paa iA s -uovx og eu j tea etv T I vo crn ua , a )

nake, k>ikwv, x o io O x o ' JIUQEXXEIV \IEV yag x d J toarxa Jiav&T)u.El d i ta v x a g euro

xrjg jroobx-ng evQvc, EoocouEVCog x a l k j i a o E tx c p JtuQEXw, JTEQI be xriv kfib6\n\vxotg U£v at (xa KOXV E X Q I V & V Q U E V , to lg 6 ' LSowg E m y e v o u E v o g , TtoXvg x a l

oSxog, EX/UOEV x o v JTUQEXOV. Eg YE ô tov S E XI Jt& Bo g JCE Qiiaxa x d g yy(b\iaq

auxcov a i t a v x E g ya.Q Eg xgaytabiav j t a Q e x l v o w x a l i a u , | M a e< p0£YY Ovxo

x a l \ieya kftoutv \iakiaxa be xf]v E i>Qim5o 'u 'A v S o o | i £ 5 a v EHOVOJOOUV x a l

TT]V XOV nEQ OEW g QfjOlV £V [ji XE l 5 lE ^ £ O a V , X a l [XEOXT] f j v f| Tt6X.ig (b%Q<bv

d j r dv x o v x a l Xenx&v xo5v E p S o u m o r v EXELVOTV xgay(pb&v, 'av 6 ' d ) GEO&V

xugavvE xdv0 Qd)JC (ov "E ow g ' , x a l xd aXka [teyakq x f j tpurvrj dva|3oaVvx(ji>v

x a l x o w o em noXv, a%Q i br\ %ei\i(j)v x a l x g i j o g SE \ieya yevo\ievov eitavoeXrigoiivxag avxovg. a lx la v SE U.OI 5O XEI xov x o i o u x o u xaQao%elv

'AoÊtaxog 6 xqayipbog, evboxi\iG)v XOXE, ( j -Eoofivxog 0 £ o o u g EV noKkti x(p

(pXoy\x(p xoa Y0 )5 r |aag a i j xo lg XT]V ' A v o g o u i S a v , cbg jruoEâ i XE d j t o xoO

6£dxQou xo i i g KOKKOVC, x a l d v a a x d v x a g •UOXEQOV Eg XTJV xgaymbiav

6 Cf . Ger t Avena r ius , Lukians Schrift zur Geschichtsschreibung, Meisenheim 1956; Helene Hom eyer (ed . ),

Lukian. Wie man Geschichte schreiben soil, Mu nich 1965 ; Ar is tou la Georg iadou, Da v id H. J . Larmour ,

'Lucian and His tor iography : " D e h istoria conscr ibenda" and "Vera e h is tor iae ' " , in : AM ? W II .34 .2 1994 ,

1448-1509.7 Cf . the lis t based entirely on Luc ian in FGrHist 2 0 3 - 1 0 .

* Sic Riemenschneider (n. 5); for Crepereius Calpurnianus of Pompeiopolis (H C 15) see Christoph er P.

Jones, Culture and Society in Lu cian, Cam bridg e, Ma ss. etc. 1986, 161-5 (w ith further l it . ) , wh o argues

that this author is genuine . Ho me yer (n. 6) 2 1 -3 be lieves that the general target o f Lu cia n's cr it ic ism,

i.e. historiography on the Parthian War, is genuine, but that he invented the authors he mentions

specifically (and probably also the quotations he uses).

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FRIGID E N T H U S I A S T S 119

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auxcov x a i xov neooeoog ETI avv x fj M E& ou or j XT)V Exdaxoi) Yva)UT]v

JTEQOTEXOU.EVO'U. (2) cQ g ovv ev, cpaoiv, evi JtaQa|3a^sTv, T O 'ApSr)Qrax6v

EXEIVO xcdOog xai VTJV xoug jtoAloiig xcov jtejtai6E'U(XEva)v K£Qiek(\kvQev,ov%COOXE xQayipbelv - skaxxov y d o dv xovxo j taQEJta iov dM -oxgioig

ia[x(3EioLg, of) cpaxAoig xa xE axrp evo i , . alX dcp' ou 6T) xd EV J to ai t a u x a

xexLVT]xaL - 6 jt6^.E[xo5 6 JtQog xo i ig PagPdQouc ; x a l xo ev 'AgjiE via x g a C f i a

x a i al ovv£%£ic, v tx a i - o i )5elg ooxtg ov% l a x o Q i a v ouvYQCt^E1-' H-d^Xov 6 e

QouxajSiSai x a i 'H Q 6 5O X O I x a i SEvoqpcovxeg fm iv dm avxeg, x a i , d)g EOLXEV,

dA,T]8Eg d g ' f jv EXELVO XO TIo^Efiog d itavxcov jcaxriQ', EI' YE x a i ovyyQCKpeag

xoacvuxoug dvEcpuaev •uito (xig x'Q oo ^ fj .

Lucian, HC 1 - 2

They say, m y dear Philo, that in the reign of K in g Ly sim ach us the people of

Abdera wer e smitten by an epide mic. The se were its sym ptom s: at first every on e

of them fell i l l o f a fever , violen t and obstinate right fr om the start; about the

seventh day it was broken, in som e cases by a cop ious f low of blo od fro m the

nostrils, in others by h eav y swea ting; but their min ds were left in a ridiculou s

state; they all went mad with tragedy, shouting iambics and creating a din; and

they mostly sang solos from Euripides' Andromeda, rendering Perseus' speech

in song ; the city was fu ll o f these seventh -day tragedians, all pale and thin,

roaring, 'L ov e, yo u tyrant o f gods and m en ' and the rest in a loud v oice, hour

after hour, d ay after day, until winter and a severe cold sp ell stopped their noise .

Archelaiis the actor seems to me to be to blam e for such goings on. H e was pop ular

then, and in the m iddle of sum me r in the blazing heat had played the Andromeda

for them , so that mo st o f them brought their fever a w ay fr om the theatre with

them, and later whe n they left their beds relapsed in to tragedy; the Andromeda

kept haunting their memory, and his Perseus with Medusa's head still fl itted

round eve ryo ne's brain. T o make as they say a comp arison, that Abde ritecomplaint has no w taken hold o f most o f the l iterary w orld. T he y do n't act tragedy

- they w ou ld b e less out of their wits if they were in the grip of other m en 's verses,

not shoddy on es at that. N o, ever since the present situation arose - the w ar against

the barbarians, the disaster in A rm en ia and the run o f victories - every single

person is writing history; nay more, they are all Thucydideses, Herodotuses and

Xenophons to us, and ve ry true, it seem s, is the sa ying that 'W ar is the father o f

all thing s' since at one stroke it has begotten s o m an y historians.

(Loeb translation)

Let us first ask ourselves whether Lucian invented his Ab derite anecdote h imse lf, or

whether he took (and perhaps m od ifie d) it from a source . In order to answer this

question w e must consider whether the events in A bd era d isplay any parallels to the

historiographical status quo targeted by Lu cia n. A s it happens, there is am ple material




for com parison . Let us begin with the Ab der ites' rcdGog which can be divide d into two

phases. First, widespread fever , w hich leads after seven days to var ying crises: some

suffer he av y noseb leeds, others pro fuse sw eating. T h e illness then enters its second

stage, and here too the sy m pto m s diffe r. T he Abd erites start recit ing tragic verse, mainly

passages f rom Eurip ides ' Andromeda. Th e wo rd in g - [ i d k a T a be TT]V EVQUIUOOU

'AvSpousSav (1) - suggests that this wa s not the on ly tragedy to be declaim ed, but

that verses fro m other play s cou ld be heard too ; it po ssibly ev en indicates that the

Abderites co uld hen ceforth on ly converse in the style o f tragedies. Th is is significant,

because the cause of the epide mic w as, in conjunc tion with the excessive summ er

temperatures, a perform ance o f only that one single tragedy, Euripides ' Andromeda.

Whereas a somatic crisis ends the fever after seven days, the second stage, which could

be diagnosed as a for m of m ania, is on ly cured with the arrival of winter and the acc om

panying co ld weather ( xp i jo g ). O n the other side o f the analogy the Ab derites find theircounterparts in, of cou rse, the pepaideumenoi. Lu cian l ikens their pathos, i.e. their

history-writing habit, to the Abderites' recitation of tragic verse. The behaviour of the

latter - pranc ing about pale as their shirts and ba w ling verse - is, given their norma l

circumstances, neither be fitting for them nor fo r tragedy and its cultural status, and this

is the very po int being m ad e in the satirical aspersions cast by Lu cia n on historians: the

offerings o f these sup pos edly educ ated m en rise neither to the occ asion (the Parthian

War), nor to their classical m ode ls. It is noticeable, h ow eve r, that the attention to detail

displayed by Lu cian in his account o f the Ab der ites' sufferings is not quite aspronounced wh en it com es to the pepaideumenoi. The re are tw o possible explanations

for this. It is, of course, entirely conceivable that Lucian supplemented his anecdote

with details wh ich were m eant to ma ke events seem m ore realist ic, wh ich - rhetorically

speaking - served the purpose o f enargeia; in this case no parallels w ou ld ha ve to be

sought for such items in an applica tion o f the tale to the situation of historiograp hy.

Comparable to this wou ld be, for instance, Lu cia n's account of the Ga ll ic Hercules

{Hercules) or of D ion ysu s' Indian expedit ion {Bacchus). In these examp les too Lucian

does leave it to the discerning reader to draw the m ore s pec ific parallels (cf. e.g. Bacch.8), or provide foundering interpreters with a hermeneutic helper {Here. 4), showing

that he expe cts the reader to put som e personal effor t into solvin g the riddle.9 However ,

there still rema in certain features there wh ich can ce rtainly be taken as extra colour ing

for the picture presented, as details that hav e no allegorical fun ction. A noth er

explanation - and wh ich of the two is app licable cannot be determined a priori, but

only on the basis o f detailed analysis of each item - cou ld, on the other hand , be that

' In Here. 3, for instance, the chain l ink ing H ercule s ' tongue to his fo l lo we rs ' ears is descr ibed as being

made o f gold and amber, whils t the Cel t 's exege sis merely talks of the binding pow er o f the logos (5f . )

Gold and a mbe r, how ever , are not extra-thematic detai ls w hic h s lot nice and neatly into the overal l p icture

- they are con spicu ous an d require explan ation. T he text offe rs none, readers must therefore think for

themselves. Is this an al lus ion t o the fam ous poetolog ical di cho tom y between truth (clear , transparent

amber) and l ies (shining, bedazz l ing gold ), or more wide ly to the beguil ing pow ers o f language in general,

a theme w hich a lso crops up later in the interpretat ion of the ima ge? Lu cian occ asiona lly ma kes explicit

calls upon the readers" hermen eutic ca pab ilities, as in Ver. hist. 1.2.




Lucian wa s using a particular source. If the greater detail on the form er side o f the

equation were perhaps not eno ugh to upset the balance, but nevertheless found to be

unduly amp le, one might co nclude that Lucian fol l ow ed this source more or less

faithfully and then functiona lised on ly items suitable for his purposes. A s Lucian doe snot expre ssly de fine other quantities in the equation, w e mu st, in order to dec ide

between the two explana tions proposed a bov e, delve further and see whether any

present themselves logically and without discrepancy to the 'forward-thinking' reader,

or whether there are indeed rem ainders for w hic h no eq uivalents can be foun d.

First o f all, the locatin g o f the anecd ote in A bd er a clearly represents a satirical thrust

at the alleged educated elite of his day . Th e Abde rites were look ed upo n in antiquity

as 'Go tha m ites' , that is to say, the excep tiona lly foolis h citizens o f a chaotically

governed polis,10 so that, by com paring them to the pepaideumenoi, Lu cian is virtually

saying that theirpaide ia , their know ledg e of classical l iterature, is in fact a jtc uS eu oi a, 1 1

meaning - as w e can see in his Adversus indoctum - that they m ay indeed outw ardly

display a reverence o f classical authors (e.g. by collec ting b oo ks), but that they ha ve

not truly inw ardly digested these w ritings. T hi s tallies with later passages in HC where

Lucian criticises the wo uld -be historians for sim ply bo rrow ing specific expressions and

copying prom inent characteristic features from their m ode ls (especially Thu cyd ide s),

rather than attempting a mo re profo und for m o f imitat ion.1 2 Cont inuing our

comparison, we see that Lucia n offe rs a twofold explanation for the epidemic in Abder a:

a com bina tion o f extrem e heat and the recitation o f Andromeda. For the correspon ding

phenomenon am ongst the pepaideumenoi, by contrast, he seem ingly nam es only one

cause: 6 jtoXsu .0 5 6 JtQog xovc, p a o p d o o u g xcd TO ev 'Aou ,£v ia To a i iu a (2 ). But it

is quite evide nt that there is another 'craze ' behin d this too : the k in d o f paideia gained

from frequent and sustained study o f the classics, over and ab ove the on e- of f prescribed

reading as rhetoric students - in this case, then, close a cquainta nce w ith the cited

historians Herodotus, Thucyd ides , and Xe no ph on . Thi s constitutes the foundation on

which the obsess ion with histor iography triggered by the war rests : 0 o u x u 5 t 8 a i x a i

CHQ66OTOI x a i Sevotpff ivteg r |uJv Jtd vte g (2) . The analogy 'extreme heat/recitat ion'and paideia/polemos is in its corresponding terms not imm edia tely ob viou s, but

parallels co uld be drawn between the one -tim e-o nly recitation and the one occ asion o f

the Jt6A,E^iog 6 Jtoog xovc, pccopd oouc;, and between the extrem e heat - a clim atic

factor und erlying actual events in A bd era - and the form of l iteracy underlyin g current

10 T o our certain kno wle dge for the first t ime in the X g E la i of the comedian M acho n (3rd century BC ), in

Ath. 8 .3 4 9 b -c ; = X I (S t ra to n iko s ), 1 1 9 -3 3 G o w (A . S . F . Go w , Machon. The fragments, Cam b r id g e

1965); before th is poss ib ly in Herondas : c f . Rainer K l im ek-W inte r , Andromedatragiidien, Stuttgart 1993,

102f., w ho a lso discusses the wh ole tradition of A bder ite fool ishness , l is t ing further examp les and l it .See also K . Kraf t , Die Abderitenfabel, (ms. thes is ) Giesse n 1924, and the very informative survey of the

mot i f s history in Hans J i irgen Tschiedel, 'Hie Abdera. Gedanken zur Narrheit eines Gemeinwesens im

Altertum-oder: W ie d u m m waren d ie Abder i ten? ' , in : P . Kraf f t , H. J . Tsch iede l (edd . ) , Coneentushexa-

chordus. Beitrdge zum 10. Symposion der bayerischen Hochschullehrer fur Klassische Philologie in

Eichstatt (24.-25. Februar 1984), Regensburg 1986, 169-95.11

Cf.HC 32 , and Tsc hie de l (n. 10) 184, 186.12 C f . / / C 1 6 , 18, 1 9 ,2 3 , 2 6 .




historiographical activit ies. Suc h a parallel w ou ld only ha ve been possible if the ima ge

of great heat wa s at least pos sib le as a meta pho r used to refer to an emp hatic or even

passionate notion of paideia and l iterature. With the help of various examples from

early Gre ek poe try, R en e Nu nlist has been able to show that this wa s indeed the case.13

As regards the i l lness itself , Luc ian differentiates, as we ha ve seen, betwee n tw o

phases, but as far as the corresp ond ing 'a ff l ic tion ' of the pepaideumenoi is concerned

there seem s again at first glanc e to be on ly one effect, i .e. the production of historio

graphical texts. W e mu st therefore first establish whether or not the wo uld -b e historians

display a s ym pto m that could b e seen as equivalent to the Ab der ites ' fever and ensuing

nosebleeds/profuse swe ating. Lu cian d oes seem at least to hint at som e such sign in (2)

and again in (5). In (2) he talks o f cd OOTEXEI? v tx a t, w hic h to m y m ind suggests that

the learned contemp oraries appear to h im intoxica ted, as it were , with victory. T his

impression is corroborated in (5), wh ere L uc ian exp resses the ho pe that his treatise wil l

be in some measure ef fect iv e, i f only for h istor ians wh o ma y one day ha ve to write

about a war be twee n the Ce lts and the Getae or the Indians and the Bactrians: ov yag

ngbc, r\\iaq YE tokuT|a£ i£v av xiq, a i t d v r c o v r\bi) xsx£io«)|X£va)v.14 Lu cian w ill later

be stressing the need fo r historians to leav e em otio ns out o f their wr iting , thus the

heatedness w hich dr ives the pepaideumenoi to their desks co uld eq uate at least to the

Abderites' fever .15 Th e latters ' nosebleeds and sweating, how eve r - both com m on

enough in m ed ical l iterature as signs o f fever-aba ting crise s^ - remain , as far as I can

see, with out parallels on the other side o f the ana logy .

What ab out the outbursts of tragic ve rse ? It is striking that Lu cia n does no t have the

Abderites bring ing forth their ow n tragedies, but instead giv ing a poo r and inadequate

rendering o f others' verses or ma kin g a mo cke ry of the tragic m od e: in abstract terms,

then, an uns ucce ssful im itation. A closer lo ok at the w ord ing in (2 ) suggests that the

pepaideumenoi are being charged with the same 'cr im e' . Here Luc ian 's phrasing in (1)

reappears as a sort o f stretto. There he wrote : a j ta vrec ; ya q eg TQayq )6 iay

jtaQEXivo-uv nax i a f x |M a Ec peEyyovro x a t ( x sya E OCOV, \iakiaxabtxi\v E t j o i m o o u

' A v S p o u i o a v e u o v a i S o w a nd he re he sa ys : ovbek, banc, ovx l o r o Q i a vauYYQdqm, j i a U o v M 0 o u x u 5 i 6 a i x a i cHQ 66OTO I x a i EEVocptovceg r p lv

cmavreg (2). The correspondence between the genres mentioned (tragedy/histori

ography) is sustained in the mo re sp ecif ic reference to particular expo nents

(Andromeda and the three classic historians). A n d indeed on e o f the most serious accu -

13 R Nunl is t , Poetologische Bildersprache in der fruhgriechischen Dichtung, Stuttgart/Leipzig 1998,

162-77, esp. Pindar , 01 . 9.21 f . , Fr. 52b, 66 f . , Fr . 52s.4f . , Bacch. Fr. 4 .80 .14

Sw ain (n. 1 )3 13 detects no irony here, but a s incere personal identif icat ion with Ro m e on the part ofLucian, but this cannot a ccount for the apparent exaggeration.

15 JIUOETOS can refer to someth ing wh ich causes one to becom e hot with excitement, as for exam ple in

Arist. Vesp. 1038. .16 See Vo lke r Lan gho l f , 'Luk ia n und d ie Mediz in . Zu e iner t rag ischen Katharsis be i den Abd ente n (U e

historia conscribenda § 1 ) ' , ANRW I I .37.3 1996 279 3-8 41 , here: 2815f. On the associat ion of these

symptoms specif ica l ly with Ab dera see Tsc hied el (n. 10) 185f. and Hipp . Ep. 3.6 -10 , 13. Th e entire

pathology descr ibed by Lu cian can be fou nd in the Hippocra tic case-histor ies 3 .7 and 3.9.

http://iakiaxabtxi/v






sations Lu cia n w ill later variously brin g forw ard against contemp orary historians is, as

mentioned abo ve, that they consider th em selves in the sam e league as their great mo de ls

on the strength alone o f their crude imitations, or even just b y virtue o f quoting them .17

The different reactions amongst the Ab der ites co uld be a parallel to the different mo delsimitated - primarily just the classic tr iad, but occas iona lly or for m ore specialised areas

other historians too;18 alternatively they could func tion as equiva lent to Lu cia n's

contention that the pseudo-h istorians gene rally speaking produ ce travesties of goo d

historical prose. It rema ins unclear, how eve r, w hy Lu cia n is so keen to stress the tw o

phases o f the disease that he unde rlines the distinction again at the end o f the A bd er a

anecdote ( 1 ) : cog JTUQE^CCI TE &JC O TO V G E O I T Q O V XOVC, noXkovg xc d a v a o t d v T a c

UOTEOOV eg TT]V XQay(pbiav j ta r jo ^ iaB aiv et v . There is no imm ediate paral le l to th is

differentiation on the pepaideumenoi side o f the equation.

A version of the Abdera anecdote in Eunapius: a parody of enthusiasm

Whilst mo st elemen ts of the Ab de ra anecdote can be seen witho ut too ma ny contortions

to correspon d to the distressed state o f historiograph ical affairs targeted by Lu cia n,

there rem ain, nevertheless, a fe w co nsp icuo us quantities that cannot be explain ed as

part of the analogy .1 9 W e have seen that the m otif 'extrem e heat' can be interpreted

with a certain amo un t of effort , but that both the critical noseb leeds and swea ting, and

the two-p hase course, the 'develo pm ent ' , o f the i l lness have n o paralle ls on the w ou ld -

be historians ' side. Sim ilarly there is nothing that equates to the secondary m otif o f a

seven-day period b etween the outbreak o f the disease and the crisis,20 or to tragic actor's

presentation specif ical ly of Andromeda and the direct quota tion f ro m this tragedy.21

Some, althoug h not all , of these points cou ld be explain ed if w e assum e that Luc ian

did not m ak e this anecdo te up him sel f , but took it from an existing text. N o such source

actually surviv es, but we d o have another version of the story, one that is - in m y op inion

- not directly related to Lu cia n's text. Th is can be foun d amon gst the fragments o f theHistorika hypomnemata com pile d by the historian, Platonist and orator Eun apiu s of

Sardis (345 -abou t 420 A D ) : 2 2

17 See ab ove p. 120.18 See, for exam ple, G abrie le Mara sco, ' L o storico e i l suo pub lico: Lu cia no e gl i s torici del la guerra partica

di L u c i o V e r o ' , haca 9- 11 , 1993 -95 , 137^-9 , w ho supposes an af f in i ty between contemporary h is tori

ography and tragic-mim etic li terature to have been the background here. See also De lf in o Am ba gl io ,

'Luciano e la storiografia greca tradita per citazioni' , in: Melanges Gasco, Turin 1996, 129-36.

" For the s ignif ican ce of the kruos mot i f see be low pp . 138 -140 .20

Th e seventh day as turning-point is, how ever , a com mo npla ce in case-histor ies such as those descr ibedin the Corpus H ippocraticum; see Lan gh olf (n. 16) 2815.

21 Andromeda F 136 Kli m ek -W in ter (n. 10); see belo w pp. 128f.22 R. C . B lo ck le y , The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire. Eunapius,

Ohmpiodorus, Priscus and Malchus, I I , Liver poo l 1983 = Hist. Gr. Min. 1 .246-8 Din dor f = Exc. Sent.

Const. Porph. Fr. 52 (IV.87.21 Boissevain) = Test. IV b.2 Kl im ek -W int er (n. 10). For reasons of space

only a translation is offere d here, but with the Gre ek w ordi ng at crucial points. T h e translation is

essentially that of Blo ck ley , but var ious changes have been mad e.




It is said that something sim ilar happened in N ero 's reign, but in one w ho le city.

For they say that a certain tragic actor, hav ing been exile d fr om R om e on account

of N ero 's o w n am bitions in this area, decided to g o o ff <to .. .> and to exhibit his

outstanding voic e to men w ho w ere half-barbarian; and he cam e to this great and

populous city23 and in vited th em to the theatre. W he n they gathered o n the first

day the perform anc e was a failure, since the audience co uld not endure the sight,

which they then saw for the first time, but fle d, cr ushing an d tram pling each other

in the proce ss. Bu t whe n the actor had taken the leading m en aside and show ed

them the nature o f the m ask and the boots w hich increased his height

impressively, he persuad ed them in this wa y to endure the sight and he ca m e on

stage aga in. Sinc e the peo ple co uld still hard ly bear the spectacle, he at first very

properly ga ve them a m ild taste o f his vo ice and its repertoire (he wa s perfo rm ing

Euripides' Andromeda) and as he proceeded he increased his vo lum e, then

lowered i t , then introduced a severe ha rm ony , and conc luded w ith a sweet one.

It wa s one o f the hottest days of the summ er [ f io a 8s f j v eeg oug ], and the theatre

was fu ll y e xp os ed to th e sun [TO OEOITOOV xaxeixexo].24 [Th e actor offers to

interrupt his perform anc e, but the aud ience is utterly spell-b oun d and w ill not

hear o f an interval. T h e actor holds ba ck the fu ll blast o f his artistry in front o f

these avGoco ico i &OIJVSTOI after this, but eve n still they w ors hip him as if he w ere

a go d and show er him with gifts.] Afte r the seventh day o f this perform ance [[xetd

6E TT]V e p6 6n r|v x fjg EJttSei^ecog r i u io a v ] disease fell upo n the city, and, sinceit brough t w ith it an uncontrollable diarrhoea [8iaQQOi.ag axQ axo uc ;], they all

lay abo ut fe eb ly in the streets, sho utin g [8K|3ocbVT8g] not the actual w ords but

the tunes, as best they co uld . Th us they were hor ribly destroyed by the

Andromeda,25 and the city wa s denud ed o f its men and w om en , so that it had to

be repop ulated fr om the neig hbo urh ood . In their case [i.e. that of the semi-

barbarians] the [sc. actor's] voca l prowess and the excess ive warm th o f the air

[dEfjog {mEopd^Axyuaav 8£Q[I6TT|TOL] were to blame, which caused the singing

to dis solv e through the ears and burn into the seat o f the vital organs. B ut am ongstour contemp oraries / peop le in our part of the wo rld [ejt l 8e tcbv x a f f r\\iag

dv0Q(bjttov], the causes o f the ailme nt we re easy to see in that they w ere all

centred up on the intestines and the parts b elo w the b elly ; although the fac t that

some peop le w ho are by no means fo ols [x iva g xcbv ovn avor\x<ov] fall int o this

23 Bemays (based on Philostr . VA 5 .9 ; s ee b e lo w n. 5 8 ) " I o i t aX iv [Sevi l le ] , N ieb uhr T a o a o v , Me ineke

Tdutrfv; Blo ck ley (n. 22) 142, on the other hand, thinks it poss ible that Abd era cou ld be me ant here, but

that the nam e wa s not ment ioned at this particular point; it appeared , he think s, earlier, in the lost section

preceding this fragment. But see below n. 5 8.24 It is not clear exactly what the mean ing o f xocr ixetv is here; the context (summ er heat) w ou ld suggest

that we translate 'the theatre was ex pos ed to the sun wit h no co ve r', wh ilst the phrase TO GEOTOOV

xme%eiv could also mean 'to hold the audience under its spell' . Perhaps the reader is supposed to think

of both poss ible mean ings.:5 The phrase xaxibc; vxb x f jg 'A v& oo ue oa c; e J t iT0 i|56uEvo i sugges ts an obscene double entendre here,

which w ou ld be in keeping w ith the satirical tenor of the text as a wh ole.




[cbkoBriJievca] w ou ld reason ably be ascribed not to natural causes but to a m ore

divine m otion [BEIOTEQCCV... x iv r| ai v] : quite evide ntly m ank ind is being pursued

by the Furies [ jroivr|A.axE ia0ai aacpcbc; TO a vB oc om vo v] .

(Eunapius, Hist, hypomn . Fr. 48 Blockley)

The anecdote in Eun apius, the original context o f which w ou ld seem to have been a

condemnation of the theatre,26 displays prima facie so ma ny similarities to Luc ian 's

version that it has quite rightly l on g been regarde d as a twin o f sorts (for the first time

by Mii l ler FHG IV . 54 (p. 38)). Th e w hole course of events - a tragedy performed at

the height of su mm er before a semi-barbarian audience, the play in question being

Euripides' Andromeda, the outbreak o f a disease w ith som atic (diarrhoea) and mental

(pseudo-reciting) sym ptom s, po lem ic use o f the anecdote to criticise som e current

phenomenon - tallies to such a degree that it mak es little sense to read the tw o ver sion s

as otherwise unconnected examples of an itinerant narrative.27 In Eunapius, however,

there is no direct quotation fro m Andromeda - instead there is a length y descr iption o f

the tragic actor's art, with nothing cor respon ding to this in Luc ian ; instead of fev er,

nosebleeds and sweating it is uncontrollable b ow els; the il lness know s on ly one stage,

no crisis and a fatal outco m e, w hile in L uc ian there are tw o phases, a crisis and in the

end rec ove ry; f ina lly , in the place o f the seven d ays that pass in Lu cian between the

outbreak of feve r and the critical turning-p oint w e find in Euna pius a seven -day duration

of the perfo rm anc e, wh ich directly precedes the outbreak of disease.

Exactly ho w these tw o version s are related, then, is a question that cannot be properly

considered until we h ave established what the author o f the version in Euna pius is

actually trying to say.28 Th e inhabitants o f his unnamed c ity are semi-barbarians. Th ey

are therefore espe cially receptive as regards the emotion al and mental effects produc ed

by stage tragedy, b ecause they ab sorb all that is presented to them direc tly, withou t

filtering it through a m ind sc hoo led in the criticism o f art (a m ind , then, like the on e

mirrored here in the anon ym ous source author's observations). Bein g bom barded fo r

seven day s with ex treme sum mer heat and em otion-laden tragedy results for them in

an i l lness wh ich m anifests itself in diarrhoea and the bello w ing of snatches from the

play. T hi s is the death-kn ell for the entire po lis. T he e xplan ation for this particular

outbreak o f the disease is strictly phy sic al, an d it is not until the final sentence that the

mystery o f other such cases is solve d. For a m ore intelligent audience sim ilarly affected

by a play a ph ysical cause could not be assumed, but rather a 6 £io T£ oa xhm oLg: after

all, the wh ole hu ma n race is kn ow n to be pursued by the Furies.

This som ew ha t surprising parting shot can best be understood if w e assume that

the author o f this version intended the w ho le story as a parod y of the kvQovaiao\io^theory. H is use of the term xLvriotg, in ancient teachings the co m m on term f or

26 Bl oc kl ey (n. 22) 142 notes the paral le l in Zo sim us 4 .3 3. 3- 4 (d isapprova l o f the theatre's renew ed

popularity und er Theo d o s i us ) .17 B ut sic La ng ho l f (n . 16 ) 28 32 f „ n . I74 .28 See als o the ful ler d isc uss io n at n. 58.




'ecstasy',29 w ou ld already seem to suggest this. Th at the mo tion s of the aff l icted are

'divine' in origin also suggests an allusion to en thusiasm. T he con cept itself can be

taken to cove r a broad spectrum o f emotion al states:30 in the anecd ote related by

Eunapius i t is not so mu ch a religiou s p he no m en on that is the subject, but - and this

still quite in keep ing w ith ancient perceptions - an intense em otio n w hich exceed s all

norms and w hic h cou ld be brought o n by sudden and (in a nega tive or positiv e sense)

shocking occurrences,31 but w hich cou ld also b e the result of l istening to a speech or

a lecture.32 Su ch enthu siasm can m anifest itself in mental and phy sical signs. T h e latter

include bel lowing and shouting 33 (w hi ch w e find in the polls in Euna pius and in

Lucian's Ab de ra) . C lear ly , then, a fi t o f enthusiasm alw ays borders on the pathological ,

and i ts violen t phys ical reactions in particular can be diagnose d as sym pt om s of a

medical disorder .34 In Plat o 's Ion 53 3d -536 d the ev ec uo ia o^ og theory is app li ed in

detail to the prod uction and cons um ption o f l iterature. Th e co m m on term for such

'possession' is, as w e are told ibid. 5 3 6a 8 , x a x e x e a B a i 3 5 - a w or d w e find used in

connection wi th the BECCTQOV of the a necd ote in E una piu s. T h e aud ience arrested b y

the rhap sodist 's recitation is the last link in a chain wh ich jo in s the poetry-insp iring

Muses to the poets, the poets to the poetry-rec iting rhapsodists and, f in all y, the rhap-

sodists to their listeners. Th is is Pl at o's ex pla na tion f or the tears that fill not o nl y the

rhapsodist's eyes w hen he c om es to a particularly m ov ing part, but also those of his

audience. T h is last effect is portrayed qu ite clearly, in fact all but expre ssly both by

Lucian in h is Abd era anecdote, and in Eunapius.The an on ym ou s author of the anecdote in Eun ap ius is eviden tly critical in his view

of the theatre,36 and aims with his com po sitio n a doub le satirical b low , targeting two

types of theatre-goers.37 O n the one han d there are the uneducated Qeaxai, w ho mere ly

29 C f . RAC s .v . 'Eks tas e ' (F . P f i s ter ) 951 . S im i lar use o f ( jro tpoOx ive iv (c f . HC 1): P lato , Phdr. 245b 4 , P lu t .

Solon 8 . 2 , Quaest. Rom. 1 1 2 ( 2 9 I B ) .30 ' Th e mea n in g o f "en thu s ia sm " thus ranges - in anc ient and in mod ern usage - f rom fee l ings o f j o y , fear ,

and sadness to patho log ic a l madn ess and d iv ine posse ss ion in the re l ig ious sense ' (RAC (n . 29 ) 945. It

also c o v e r s P l a t o ' s S e t a i u a v t a i .

" RAC(n. 2 9 ) 9 6 4 .32 RAC (a. 2 9 ) 9 6 4 f . an d , f o r e x a m p le , Od. 1 1 . 3 3 4 = 1 3 . 1 ; P l a t o , Mx. 2 3 5 a 7 - b l , Phdr. 2 2 8 b 6 - 7 , 2 3 4 d 4 - 6 ,

Smp. 2 1 5 e l - 2 1 6 a 2 .33 R 4 C ( n . 2 9 ) 9 7 1 .34 Swe at ing as a s ign o f deep em ot io n brought on by som e d iv ine pow er perhaps in Eur . Bacchae 620 f . :

there Pentheus i s b reath ing heav i ly and sweat ing , foo led by D ionys ius ' op t ica l i l lus ions .35 x o d 6 U E V Td>v itoiriTwv S U r i s M o i i o t ig , 6 bi B | O M T I S E § r |p T r iT a i - 6 v o [ i d £ o u £ v 5E OTTO

xovc£)(£Tcct, T O 6E E O T I j i a p a j t M j a i o v - iyzxai y a p - . .. (P la to , Ion 5 3 6 a 7 - b l ) . F or t he P l a to n i c conceptof enthu s iasm c f . S te fan B i i ttner , Die Literaturtheorie bei Platon und ihre anthropologische Begrundimg,

Tubingen, 2 0 0 0 , 2 5 5 - 3 6 5 .36 See abo ve n . 26 .37 O r e v e n , i f o i i x av o r | TO £ i s to be unders tood in a broader sense (c f . Luc ian w h o com pare s theat re -goers

and pepaideumenoi), gene ra l ly educated pe op le . Bu t the narrator o f the anecdote do es no t seem to m e to

leave the them at ic field o f the theat re . A n d w hy s hou ld he? En thus ias t ic reactions to theat re - l ike

performances (no t on ly char io t - rac es but also c i t h a r o d e s ) w e r e co m m o n e n o u g h at th i s t im e , e v e n w i t h

a more soph is t icated aud ience ; c f , D . Chr . Or. 3 2 . 4 1 , 5 0 . 5 5 f . . 6 9 . an d 3 0 . 3 0 , 4 2 , 5 9 f . an d C h r i s t o p h e r P .

Jones, 77if Roman W orld of Dio Chrysostom. C am b r id g e , M as s . 1 9 7 8 . 4 1 f .




sense the beauty and art in the pe rform anc e, but cannot understand it; they are

nonetheless enthused - at cothurnus p oint, on e migh t say, after a seven-d ay tragedy

marathon in the hot sun. Th e author 's explanation f or this is purely m ed ical: the on ly

presence beh ind their raptures is not that of d ivin ity but o f sickness. T h e caricaturingeffect is ach ieved by g rossly exagg erating the reactions: not tears, but diarrhoea, not

quiet entrancemen t at hearing the wo rds, but inarticulate be llow ing o f the same. For

his account of the physical consequences the author even consulted a description like

that of the Morbus sacer - no w in the Corpus Hippocraticum - which a lso lists unc on

trollable diarrhoea38 and loud shouting39 as sym pto m s; the cause of such fits is nam ed

there as a sudden w arm ing of the brain due to an increase in the f lo w o f blo od , as

induced, for exam ple, by a shock.40 In Eu na pius the initial audienc e reaction is sho ck,

a m otif described at som e length, and only gradu ally g iving w ay to the equa lly intense

raptures. For the othe r targets o f satire here, the OVK a v o n x o i, matters are not quite the

same. T h e author ackno wled ges that a more intelligent, but similarly afflicted41 theatre-

audience must have m ore control over their bo dies than the not-too-bright rabble. O ne

must therefore 'naturally' (ei xo rw g ) assume that a x iv no ig o f a different kind is at

work in them: this is ecstasy of d ivin e origin. Bu t the hum oro us elem ent in the closer

definition of this kinesis actually lies not so m uc h in the cho ice o f 'di vin e' as attribute,

as in the notion that com parable ph ysical sym ptom s shou ld ha ve such diverse causes.

The author o f the anecdo te takes, then, a sarcastic vie w of the concep t of enthusiasm

right fr om the start, and his sarcasm is intensified b y the fact that it is not A p o llo a nd

the M use s w ho take hold of the ovn av oi rc oi : instead the divinities behind a form o f

enthusiasm wh ich has such extreme consequ ences are clearly harassing hu m anity,

pursuing it like the Fu ries (jroivT]}taTelG0oa).

Enthusiasm in Lucian: traces of parody

In Lu cian 's Abdera episode we also have, I believe, traces of an Eve ou aia au xjgparody, som ething w hic h, after al l, he does consider ably more ex plicit ly in

other places.42 A ll aspects of the A bd era ca se that hav e parallels in the version

found in Eun apiu s can therefore be seen to hav e a bearing on the theme o f

38 H p. Morb. sacr. 6.

*> H p. Morb. sacr. 1.7, 15.5.40 H p . Morb. sacr. 15 .5 -6 .41 I.e. with pathological enthusiasm, as is clear from the first sentence o f the fragment; this poss ibly refers

to a pr eviou sly reported fatal case of enthusiasm in a theatre-goer.42 Adv. Ind. 15: XeyeTai y d o xcd A io v w io v Toay wb tav no ietv (paukog J tdvu xcd yEXolcog, W O T E T O V

4>iX6!§evov i t o M d x t g 6 i ' avx\\v Eg t a g Xcao}wag EH H EOEI V ofi 5 w d | i e v o v XCITEXEIV t o y yeXtoxa.

ofoog xoivD V i re eo nE vo g a>s EyyEXcVrai,TO Aio%v'kov Jtugiov rig 8 exeivog f iypacpE, a w i t o U f j

ojtovfirj xxTioduEVog x a l OTTOS WETO EVOEOS E a e o B a i x a i x d t o x o g E X TO V nvQov, c t U ' 6p.cog ev

avxm EX EI V U ) tiax po i yeXoiOTspa Eyoatpsv and in th e critical discussion o f enthusiastic po etic

licence in Hes. 4f., 9. Enthusiastic fascination provo ked b y ph ilosophical teaching is - perhaps also pa ro-

dically - described in Nigr. See also belo w p. 136f.




enthusiasm.43 Furthermore, Lu cian uses the terminology of ecstasy: he talks in (1) o f

jtccoexivouv, in (2) he takes xa T E O xn ii i vo i for the Abd erites' obsession with tragic

verse.44 H e illustrates their beh aviou r with the ima ge o f Perseus and M ed usa fluttering

around in their heads, and this is po ssib ly a direct allusion to Pla to, w ho in Ion 5 3 4 M - 3

has the divinely possessed poets fluttering (JTETOLIEVOI). Just as the poet-bees fly from

the gardens o f the M us es to bring their p oe tr y-h on ey to their listeners, so the picture

of Perseus and M edu sa evok ed by the recitation hovers around the protractedly

enthused Ab derites. A ls o, the motif o f great external heat, doubled b y the m otif of

(internal) fever, could be a kind o f index to the concep t of enthusiasm, as used b y Ps.-

Longinus, De subl. 9.11.45

Finally, there are tw o mor e indications that Lucia n did m ean his Ab der a anecdote

to betray overtones o f an EvOouaiaOLiog p arod y. O ne is the direct quotation from

Andromeda, and, as luck w ou ld have it, we k no w a little more o f the original text here:46

av &' <x> 9ECOV TUQ CIW E X&VSQCOJTCOV " E o t o g ,

f\ [XT] o i 5 a o x £ t d xaX,a cpaivEoGai nolo.,

r\ t o i g EQWOLV evxvx&g OUVEXJTOVEI

LioxQwOai Lio /Go tc; a>v av b r\\iiovQy6 q EL.

The speaker has fal len v ictim to the go d Ero s, w ho is, in his eyes, responsible for him

seeing beauty in what appears to h im as bea utiful . In other w ord s, finding somethingso bea utiful that one can not free one self o f it is interpreted as being possess ed b y the

gods, as, then, a sort o f m ania. 47 W h e n the A bd erites rend the air in the streets with this

particular verse, then they d o so not sim ply bec ause it is goo d, stirring stuff.48 Seen in

43 W e noted above that the f)uif5dQPaQi in Eun apius w ere predestined to suffer an extreme reaction to

literary recitat ion on accoun t o f their naivety . W e can see a correspondence to this in L uci an , where the

Abderites' proverbial Goth am ite nature (see abo ve n. 10) and the ( in real ity deficient) paideia of the

pepaideumenoi ma ke both groups s imilar ly susceptible.44 Eun apius ' source and Lu cian use s imilar terms for the audien ce's captivat ion and from spellbou nd to

'enthused' reaction to the tragedy: &XioQf]xb/ai (Eunapius ' source) and jcctpoXiaOcdvEiv (Lucian).45 ' A X X d y& Q "OU.T|QOS u e v ivQabs o f to io g o uv eu j i v e t x o tg ay&aiv, x c d ovx akko t i COITOS j tEJtovftev

r\ ' u m v e t a i UK . . . 6 X . o 6 v m i o / OUOEOI u.a iv r|Ta i . . . ' ( / / . 15 .605f. ) .

* F. 136 Klim ek -W in ter (n. 10); cf . the other vers ion in A th . 13.561B C, w hic h offers seven verses and in

which the word-ord er is s l ightly dif ferent from the one cited by Luc ian.47 Eros is for Plato one of the theiai maniai, albeit as the philosoph ers ' Eros of the forms; cf . fo r example

Phdr. 24 9d 4-e 4. In ear ly Greek poetry we frequently f ind the Eros of pederasty or of heterosexual love

rendering vict ims 'possessed' : cf . Anacr. 3 1 , 5 3 , 6 8 , Theogn. 1231 . That Lo ngu s (Proem 4) prays to Eros

to let him write his story in a mood of aujtpQocruvri shows this to be exactly not the state o f mi nd Eros

usually provokes .48

Intense emotion al reactions to performa nces of E ur ipid es ' p lays in general are mentioned in Plut . Mor.33c (A eo lus ) , Mor. 756c and Lucian , JTr. 41 (Melanippe) , Sen. Ep. 105.12 (inc. fab .); see Nial l W . Slater,

'Making the A r is to p han ic A ud ien ce ' , AJP 120, 1999, 351 -6 8, here: 354 n. 5 , and Robert W . Wallac e,

'Poet, Publ ic , and "Theatrocracy" : Aud ie nce Per formance in C lass ica l A th ens ' , in : L . Edmun ds , R. W .

Wallace (edd.) , Poet, Public, and Performance in Ancient G reece, Ba l t im o r e /Lo nd o n 1 9 97 , 9 7 -1 1 1 ,

here: 102 and n. 20. For the ancient v iew o f the v io lent effect specif ical ly of the A nd rom ed a myth see

Heliod. Aeth. 4.8, and John Hilton, 'An Ethiopian Paradox: Heliodorus, Aithiopika 4.8 ' , in: R. Hunter

(ed.). Studies in Heliodorus, Cam bridge 1998, 79 -9 2, esp. 8 4- 9 (further li t . there).




its proper c ontext, it is rather a sort o f co ded cry f or h elp: as they are unab le to talk in

any other 'lang uag e' than tragic verse, this is the one w ay the Ab der ites can beg to b e

cured of their ecstatic ailment (o u ve xi to ve i . . .)• O nl y the reader w ho kn ow s how

Euripides' text continues w il l recognise this shift into the implicit m ode , a m ov e characteristic of Lu cia n's m ethod o f al lusion. Similarly im plicit , and also sarcastic, is the

parallel - never actually dra wn, b ut perhaps left to the reader to guess - between the

Abderites and the pepaideumenoi: they too s hou ld be be ggin g E ros either not to thrust

upon them an y longer the ecstatic, but un fulfi l le d and therefore hopeless, love of

classical m ode ls, or at least to g ive them a han d w ith their courtship (in this case the

pursuit of historiographical m ime sis).

The second, l ikew ise disguised, indication that enthousiasmos is lurking behind al l

this is itself hanging over the whole anecdote, since we ought not to suppose that, when

Lucian picked Ab de ra as his setting, he did not have a pe rfectly good reason for doing

so. I be lieve that a line can be traced from the openin g introduction o f the Ab derites to

the end of the anecdote. Luc ian says there that 'war is the father of all thin gs ', quoting

Heraclitus 22 B 53.49 For the educated reader this reference co uld no w h ave rung the

other bell associated with Abde ra: the city's fam ous son, De m ocritus. 50 Herac litus and

Democritus were paired before Luc ian 's day as the 'we epin g' and the ' laugh ing'

philosopher,51 but Luc ian too introduces them him self at some length as the 'od d

couple' in Vit. auct. 13f.52 Th ere b oth declare the w orld and all that goes on in it to be

totally pointless, w ith the one differ enc e that this insight causes De m ocr itus to break

out in uncon trollable laughter, wh ile He raclitus is reduced b y it to unstanchable tears.

Their imp licit convergen ce in EC co uld therefore be taken to suggest that one m ay b e

unhappy about the sound and fu ry o f the history-w riting practised among st the

pepaideumenoi, or laugh at it, but that it is de finitely m ere soun d and fu ry. B ut, ov er

and abo ve this, Dem ocritus is, o f course, Plato's crucial forerunner for the theory of

enthusiasm;53 w e still have faint traces o f his thoughts on this in Fragm ents 68 B 17

45

I t is the cont inu at ion o f this f ragm ent that provides the satir ical twist here: war prove s so m e to be gods,others mo rtals , som e it turns into slaves, others it sets free - and others , w e m ay su rm ise, it turns into

historians. Th e irony in Luc ian cou ld a l so be l inked to Herac l i tus ' we l l -kn ow n avers ion to j t o )o ju .a 9u i

(22 B 40: the me nt ion o f Hecataeus here does indicate that histor ians too perhaps have m ore kno wle dg e

than sense) .50 Th e al lus ion w ou ld perhaps expla in the (pseu do-)d at ing o f the anecdote to the reign of one o f the

Diadochi, Lys im ac hu s o f Thrace and Ma ced onia ; w e encounter ne i ther Abdera nor Lys ima chu s in the

other extant vers ions o f the story , but both cou ld, o f course, have appeared in a co m m on source; cf . be low

n. 5 8 . W he n Luc i an men t i o ns A b d e r a e ls ew her e (Macr. 18 , Vit.auct. 13, Philops. 3 2 , Fug. 9) , the subject

is always Dem ocr i tus ; o f the o ther 'great ' Abder i t es ( see Tsch iede l (n . 10) 181) Luc ian m ent ions on ly

Anaxarchus (Par. 35) , but wi thout nam ing h i s hom e c i t y . Lys ima chu s i s o therwise ment ioned on ly in

Icar. 15 and Macr. 11. Democ r i tus an d Lysimachus feature together in Macr., wh ich cou ld mean that themention of the forme r in HC i s to be read as an auto ma t ic al lus ion to the latter , for Lu cia n: the Abder i t e .

51 C f . D em o cr i t u s 6 8 A 21 [ = So t i o n n e o i o o y f j c ,p< (= Stob . Eel. 3 .20 .53 ) ] .52 C f . Sacr. 15 and Peregr. 7, also Fug. 9. For this argumentat ion see also belo w n. 61. On ' laug hing

Democritus' cf . be low n. 60, on 'we ep ing Hera cl i tus ' cf . M . Fat tal , 'L a Figure d 'H erac l i te qui p leure

chez Luc ien de Samosa te (Les sectes a l 'encan 14 ) ' , in : M . Gug l ie lm o , G . F . G ianot t i (edd . ) , Filosofia.

storia. immaginario mitologico, Alessan dr ia 1997 , 175 -8 0 .53 C f . f o r ex amp l e H o r . AP 2 9 5 - 3 0 1 , 3 0 9 .




and 68 B 18. Th e cho ice o f Ab de ra as setting, together with the quotation from

Heraclitus, is therefore perhap s me ant to ensure that the text w ill be read as it is meant

to be, i.e. that the un derly ing allus ion to the theory o f enthusiasm w ill be prop erly taken

into account.

The voca bula ry, the al lusion to Plato, the reference to the enthusing pow er of Eros,

the particular choice of a Euripidean tragedy with its typical strongly emotive effect,

the doub le mo tif o f heat and fever rem inding us of the ' fervent' emotion o f enthusiasm,

finally the connection (via Ab der a and Heraclitus) with De m ocritus , the philosopher

of enthusiasm - all o f these provid e, taken separately, cautious indications and , taken

together, am ple eviden ce o f the underlying conc ept o f enthusiasm. Luc ian is clearly

addressing here - as consider ed b riefly a bo ve and n ow a pparen tly substantiated -

readers l ike those he assum es in the proem to A True Story w ill be reading his work:

readers wh ose kn ow ledg e and education w il l enable them to solve a (not too taxing)

enigma. T he intellectual standards set by the Sec ond S ophistic w ou ld create active

pepaideumenoi w hos e ever-present learning meant that they could respond im m e

diately even to al lusions w hich d id not take the form of direct, l iteral quotations, wh ose

ability to abstract w ou ld leave them equipp ed to decipher classical m otifs transposed

into new settings and also to transpose motifs themselves. 54 A n d such readers wou ld

represent genuine pepaideumenoi, not merely pseudo-scholars like the historiographers

ridiculed in the fol lo w ing w ho o nly kn ow ho w to misuse their classical m ode ls, rifl ing

through the texts for quo table loot. W e shall be lo ok ing presently at another reason forLucian's m ask ing o f this allusion . Let us first, how ev er, app ly the pattern of enthusiasm

discovered in the ane cdo te to the situation o f the pepaideumenoi. Th e picture that

presents itself is as fo l low s. A s we have already seen,55 the extreme sum mer heat behind

the epid em ic corresponds for Lucian to the paideia of contempora ry historians, whilst

the recitation of Andromeda, w hic h actua lly triggered the outbreak, correspon ds to the

Roman wars in the East, these hav ing p rov ok ed historiograp hical mania. In terms of

the enthousiasmos pattern, paideia is the equ ivalent o f a certain natural 'disp ositio n'

without wh ich the 'possession ' inspired by a specific occurrence could not com e aboutat all.56 Paideia is, how ev er , an artificially created dispo sition, a state whic h is caused

by repeated contact with c lassical literature, and w hic h is ma nifested in a sort of habitual

tendency towards exc itabil ity and ensuing prod uction o f on e's ow n literature. The

notion that a fam iliarity w ith authors per ceived as classical and ideal can bring on a

sort of latent chron ic enthusiasm in their imitators is eloque ntly corroborated in Ps.-

Longinus, De subl. 13.2-3: ... auto xfjg tobv ao%amv i xEya kKp m ag eig t r ig x&v

t,r\kov\xwv Ex eiva g tyt>xag cbg d ito tegcov oTOfjicov caroog otaL u ve g cp eoovra t , £cp'

dry e i tu rvEouxvo i xa i oi u i | liav cpoipacrt ixot x& e t so tov ovvevQovaiwai ixeveSei(13.2). In 13.4 Ps .-L on gin us calls such contact ctJtoxTJJtcooig, differen tiating it quite

54 On this act ive aspect of paideia cf . the concept of askesis in A True Story 1.1 as in Dom. 2 f .55 See a bo ve p. 12 I f .?" For this d ist inct ion see RAC (n. 29) 959f . and esp. P lato , Lg . 7 .790e8 -791 b2 , P lut . Pyth. orac. 4 0 4 F - 4 0 5 E ,

Quaest.Rom. I 1 2 ( 2 9 1 B ) .



FRIGID E NT H U S IAS T S 131

clearly, then, from nkonr], mere cop ying : an ' imp ression ' , broadly speaking the

moulding, adap ting, and adjusting o f one 's ow n creative abil ities in imitation o f the

great ideal. There can therefore be no doubt that he means c ruv Ev So uo iav not as a on e-

off transport, but as a mo re perm anen t state wh ich pe rmits flas hes of true greatness.

57

And, jus t as the Abd erites, already swe ltering under the summ er sun, fell victim to

sickness and m an ia on exp erien cing a stirring recitation, the victorie s at wa r inspire in

the pepaideumenoi, w ho are already 'psy che d up ' from all that reading o f the histori-

ographical classics, a rush of enthusiasm a nd p romp t them to write their history boo ks.

Before consid ering all this with in a wider conte xt, w e must take a loo k at one

significant differen ce between the course o f events in Ab de ra and the pattern of enthou-

siasmos upon wh ich these are based. It is an elemen t w hic h Lu cian stresses suff iciently

to ma ke it noticeable, and one in wh ich he also diverges fro m the version of the anecdote

found in Eun apius - t w o reasons for th inking that it mig ht lead us to an understanding

of the true purpos e behind Lu ci an 's parodistic colou ring o f the und erlying enthou-

siasmos theme. There can be no doubt, especial ly when on e compares the Ab de ra

anecdote to the events described in Eun apius, that Lucia n watered do w n the parody of

enthused audiences con sidera bly. T he A bde rites are not such dullards that goin g to the

theatre actually kil ls them in the end. T he y d o not bab ble unintell igible snatches o f

words in wh ich o nly the m elo dy is at all reminiscent o f the tragic iamb ics these are

meant to be; they man age instead to utter w ho le verses and h ave even understood parts

of the contents. A b o v e all , there is for them no s eve n-d ay sustained f ir ing w ith tragic

ammunition such as the city-dw ellers in Eunap ius have to endure. Theirs is a two -pha se

disorder, the first stage o f w hic h is m uc h m ilde r than the diarrhoe a that prostrates the

victims in Eunap ius: Lu cia n's A bde rites are, phy sica lly at any rate, more or less up and

about again after seven day s and on ly suffer nosebleeds and swe ating for a l imited time.

And the secon d stage does not end f ata lly, nor does it seem to prevent the 'pat ients'

from go ing about their usual daily business o f staying alive. A ls o , the very pronounce d

differentiation between physica l and mental sy m pto m s does m ake it at the very least

more di ffic ult to interpret events here as an outbreak o f enthusia sm . A two -stag e strain

of this div ine ly transmitted 'i l lnes s' is un like ly to have been a familia r pheno m eno n.

No, the wh ole course of events in Lucia n reads, as La ng ho lf (n. 16) has demon strated,

like the account o f a curable ep ide m ic, and its author incidentally says as much h im self

at the end o f HC 5, directly before the be ginn ing of the treatise proper. Lucian notes

that he w ill be desc ribin g a standard to wh ich potential historians can adhere: el 8E ur|,

CU&TOl (XEV X Cll TO TE TO) CXVX& ltf\X£l OJOJtEQ KOI VVV (XETQOTJVTC0V TO J T Q a y ^ a - 6

iaiQoc, 6E oi) navv d v i d a E x a i , r\v navxec, ' A p S f j o l T c a EXOVTE? ' A v 6 Q o u £ & a v

XQaywbtioi. T he pepaideumenoi co uld , then, be cured by tak ing to heart the rules aboutto be set forth; if they neglect to do so, it w ill not matter to the ph ysic ian L uc ia n: fo r

him it is eno ug h to k no w that his patients co ul d be h elpe d, but do not want to be - the

responsibility l ies with them.

57 Cf. for example Ps.-Longinus, De sitbl. 33.5.




This representation o f the beh aviou r o f the pepaideumenoi as curable is, in m y opinion,

the reason w hy L ucia n dilutes the enthousiasmos parody. It is not his intention to c onde mn

ardent dev otion to the fine arts, as the author o f the version in Euna pius does. L uc ian 's

criticism is rather that mo st writers seem to think that history m ore or less writes itself

(5): XOITOL oi )5 s jtccoaiveoECDS o i j t o U o i SEIV OLOVTOU o q ia iv e m TO jt o a y ^ a , ov

| i aUov f\ TCXVT)5 nvbg EJtl t o (3a5i^Eiv r\ filmsiv f\ eo9i£iv , akka ir dvu Q^CTTOV x a l

iteoxeiQov x a i a j ra vr og E i va i l a ro Q ia v ouyvQ a ipa i , f j v Tig Eourrvsf joa iTO exekQbv

bvvrytai- TO SE o io 8 d J tou xcd a frrog, & ETCUOE, &g ov T<BV ei) |i£Ta xe i£iO Ta )v OI>6E

Qg6i3u.tt>g cruvTEefjvai 5uvau.eva)v xovif e a u v , aXka, & TL EV Xo yoig xc d aXko,

jtoMfjg Tfjg (p oo vu S og 6E6(XEVOV, r\v Tig, (bg 6 G ou xu 5i5 r|g qm orv, eg del XTfju.a

OTJVTLGEIT]. T he notion that one on ly needs to sit do w n and w rite the first thing that comes

into on e's head is, says Luc ian , a dangerous fallacy , but one that m ost believe; wh at really

is needed, ho w eve r, is on the one side TEJcvn and on the other cpo ovu g. A n d these are the

two very aspects omitted as a matter o f principle fro m the poetics o f enthousiasmos, as

once noted at various points b y Plato in his Ion. A caricature of such poetological notions

is therefore eminently suitable as back drop for L uc ian 's criticism. H ow ever , his goal is

to cure the condition, and so the caricature cannot, like the one in Eunapius, be so cruel

as to make things appear irreversibly catastrophic.58 Lucian has to dilute the individual

58 T he relationship between the two texts remains unclear, even i f my choic e of w ordi ng has already betrayed

my ow n personal opini on - found ed on all the evidence here - that Lu cian ba sed HC 1 on a text which

either corresponded to the version in Eun apiu s, or was ve ry similar to it. Matters are further complica ted

by the existence in Ph ilostratus, Vita Apollonii 5.9 o f a narrative w hic h is in parts com para ble. It is set, like

the version in Eun apiu s, in the reign of N ero and tells o f a wan dering tragic actor wh o gives recitations from

tragedies (poss ibly N eronian ones) for a barbar ian audience in Ipola (S evil le?), and w hose appearance,

cothurni, and voic e prompt his l is teners to f lee. K l im ek- W inte r (n. 10) 104f. assumes that Eunapius , w ho

knew both Lu cian and Philostratus ' Life of Apollonius (cf . Eun. VS 2.1.9 and 2.1.4), comb ined the tw o

accounts (and thus imp lies, o f course, that Lucia n, bein g the earlier of the two, is the original author of the

story). Altho ugh Eunap ius cou ld con ceivably have used Philostratus , I consider it highly u nlikely that he

drew on Lucian ' s concealed allusions to the EVOO W IC«JU .6S o f poetics - conce aled in particular by the tw o-

phase course of the e pide mic - to create this almo st grotesque satire on a sp ecific interpretation o f audience

reactions, i. e. one based entirely on the theory of EvG oDO iaonog . I f we assum e that he did, then we also

have to assum e that Eun apiu s himse lf added the reference to 6EIOTEQCI xivnoig (wh ich Luc ian does not

mention at all), that he turned Lu cia n's elaborate and subtle com parison o f the Abd erites and the

pepaideumenoi into the s im pl e seque nce f|ni(3cto(3c(eoL and ov xOVOTVCOL, and, fi na lly, that he changed the

familiar, even almost com mo npla ce case-history with seven -day fever , cr is is , and second stadium, into the

daring construction o f a seven-d ay drama recitation. These m odifica tions see m, by contrast, even quite

logical if on e assume s that they were m ad e, as it were, the other way rou nd, i.e. by Luc ian (and if one

assumes that his intentions really were the ones I have postulated for hi m) : the 'typical' case-history in

particular w ou ld actually have been necessary in order for Luc ian to introduce him self metapho rically as

physician (see Tschiedel (n. 10) 185f. , wh o r ightly rejects Ho me yer 's interpretation). Kl i me k-W int erd oe s

not mention, for exa mple , the aetio logy of the disease given in Eunapius , wh ich, in this form , could be

derived neither from Philostratus nor Luc ian . Th e cit y's inhabitants in Euna pius do not fall il l of fever

(although Kli me k-W inte r seems to think otherwise), as they do in Lu cian, but of diarrhoea (w hich L ucian 's

Abderites are spared entirely). T he differen ces between P hilostratus' restrained description o f the tragic

actor's perform ance and E una pius ' very detailed accoun t are striking. Th e actor's attempt to win his

audience over by letting their leaders in on his theatrical secrets is only found in Eunapius, not in Lucian

or Philostratus. Th is all leaves m e co nvin ced that the three versions are based on one source (second h alf

of the 1st cen tury) to w hic h the account in Eunapiu s is probably m ost similar, wh ilst Philostratus reduced




components o f the caricature: he chan ges the entire outbreak o f enthusiasm into a

controllable epid em ic and inserts the seve n-da y period betw een the primary and

secondary reactions, thus allow ing the initial sym ptom s gradu ally to let up and pass. T he

onset of m ania, wh ich in the case of the Ab der ites is perhaps excu sable, is, then, for thepepaideumenoi really and truly, as it says in (1), a y e^ olo v u jtd6oc ;: it cou ld, after all,

be avoide d b y taking the proper remedy, w hich L ucian w il l administer in the form of

his treatise, even i f he doe s foresee that his patients w ill hard ly be inc lined to try it.59

Another odd cou ple: enthousiasmos parodied an d a m odel for literary rhetoric

In the light of these findin gs a reconsidera tion o f the instructions given b y Lu cian in

his treatise w ou ld be the next step, but that obv iou sly cann ot be executed w ithin the

bounds of this paper. Before ending this study for the m om ent there remains, howev er,

one question to be answered. If Lu cia n's express purpose is to provid e a cure, wh y then

it to the simple barb about un-Hellenic barbarism - which f its nicely into his narrative proper: cf . Philostr.

VA 5.8 and 5 .10, wh ere this very 'barbar ian ignorance ' m ot i f is introduced and later taken up again. Luc ian

changed the sett ing in the source to the Abde ra o f Lys im ac hu s (Kl im ek -W int er 's idea (103) that this has

something to d o with later cr i t ic ism o f t ragic-m imet ic tendencies in contemporary histor iography - see

above n. 18 - wo uld m ak e sense here), and mo dif ie d as descr ibed above. L an gh ol f (n. 16) 2834f . n. 174

rejects the possibil ity o f a definite l ink betwee n Lu cia n and Euna pius , postulating instead an it inerant

narrative - consistent with his theory (here n. 59, with som e argum ents to the contrary) that L uc ian 's

Abderite anecdote is based o n a Hel lenist ic catharsis parody whic h Lu cian did not actual ly recognise as

such: this could scarcely apply to Eunap ius as we l l .59 Th is interpretat ion ma kes La ng ho l f s very luc id ly presented argument (n . 16 ; 281 4 -2 2 ) that the Abd era

anecdote i s an ear ly Hel len ist ic parod y of the Ar isto tel ian th eory of cathars is hard to accept . True, the

course of the i l lness as descr ibed by Lu cia n wo uld f it in with this reading: the fever caused b y extrem e

summer temperatures is , wri tes Lan gh ol f , purged w ith a dose o f tragic reci tat ion (purging too soon can

be ha rmf ul and worse n the sym pto m s, as is noted at var iou s points in the Corpus Hippocraticum). and

after the crisis on the seventh day the body rids itself of undigested cathartic substances, i .e. bits of tragic

verse (at the risk o f appear ing peda nt ic, I wou ld l ike t o ask whether these bi ts should not then hav e been

from Andromeda alone ?) . For h i s argumen tat ion , how ever , L an gh o l f has to deny any l ink between theanecdote in Euna pius and the Abd era ve rs ion , but , as w e saw a bo ve (p . 125 and n. 58) , an ( indirect )

connection must ex ist ; he also has to assu me the ex isten ce o f a lost and, in terms o f context , not very

easily imag inab le parod ist i c anecdote whic h cou ld on ly ha ve been apprec iated by readers wi th ex t remely

specialised knowledge; he has to see Lucian's vers ion as the only ancient response to Ar istot le 's theory

of cathars is (2836 ) , but at the same t im e maintain that Lucian h as absolu tely no idea what this theory

actually means - a n d th i s entang les La ng ho l f in the rek ind l ing o f so me w el l -n ig h anachron ist i c pre jud ices

about the standard of the author 's educat ion (28 10) : here La ng ho l f fai ls to appreciate that Luc ia n's

mimetic aesthetics require the reader to be able to iden t i fy his (L uc ia n' s ) mod els , wh ich w ou ld seem

unlikely in the case o f Ar istot le 's Poetics (as Lan gh ol f adm its) , but l ikely as far as Dem ocr i tus and Plato

are conc erne d, not to men t ion the fact that enthousiasmos wa s com m on poeto log ica l currency (c f . , f o r

example, ab ove n. 42 an d p. 130f) . Lan gh ol f does not take into accou nt the wid er context o f the quotat ionfrom Andromeda or the poss ibi l i ty o f an al lus ion to De mo cri tu s . Fina l ly , at one cruc ial point , he interprets

Lucian in my o pin ion w ron gly : the theatr ical perform anc e in Ab de ra is not , as he suggests , a cathart ic

event, but i t is instead the com bina t ion of inner e m ot i on , and thus inner heat , caused by the reci tat ion,

and the outer bod y temperatures ca used by the hot weather that t r igger the outbreak ( n v g e ^ a i c m o t o i j

OEdTQO-u in HC 1 is to be read in the tem pora l an d in the causa l sense) . Th e arguments which Lan gh o l f

bases on the nam ing o f Lys im ach os ( see above n . 50 ) and o f the (now u nkn ow n) actor Arche laus have

little weight here (28 13 f . ; c f . K l im ek -W inte r (n . 10 ) 103).




does he co lou r his entire undertaking in shades o f senselessness? Not on ly does he -

at least im plic it ly , as sho w n ab ove - fram e the anecdote and the situation il lustrated by

it with allus ions to (the laug hing ) Dem ocrit us and (the w eep ing ) Heraclitus, both of

whom voice in Vit. auct. their disdain fo r the w orld and its senseless me chan isms :

Lucian also a llo w s him se lf no i l lusion s about his targets here, mo st of w ho m are neither

interested in nor capable of im pro ving their writ ing ski lls . A nd , f inal ly , he puts down

the value o f his ow n contribution b y adding, after the allusion to Heraclitus, another

anecdote: wh en C orinth w as fac ing a siege and its inhabitants were all rushing around

preparing to defend the city, the Cy n ic Dio ge nes began roll ing his tub up and do w n the

Craneum; asked w hy , he answered: xuAlco . . . xa yc b x o v JTLOOV, (be, [xf] uovog agyelv

ooxoiriv EV TOOOT3TOI5 E rj ya t; o| ji v oi g (3). Lu cia n finishe s in (6 3) w ith an allusion to

this and to the above -c ited physic ian metaphor in (5) : o u to g o o i xo vr ov xcc i 0Td8u,r |

lotooiag S i x cu a g . x a i el \iev OTa9(xr|aovT:ai TivEg ca rtf j , ev a v EXOL x a l Eig 6EOV

rptv Y e y g a i t T a i , el be \ir\, xe xu X io xa i 6 m 6 o g EV Koa vE i to . Te l l i ng peop le how to

write history is, then, pointless and supe rfluous. Furthermore, he kn ow s - as he explains

in (4) - how f l im sy his ow n advice is .

For an answer to this question w e must take another look at Lu cia n's im plicit al lusion

to Dem ocritus. T he Ab der ites m ay be the imm ediate cause of the phi losophers '

eternally ech oin g laughter, but it is then directed at the hum an race in genera l. T he

reasons for his mirth are described in detail in an epistola ry no ve l written before or

during Au gu stu s' reign and purporting to be the correspond ence o f Hipp ocrates,60 andespecially in Letter 17. Hippocrates is asked by the Abderites to cure Dem ocritu s, w ho

has apparently gone m ad . Ho w eve r, in his consultation with the patient Hipp ocrates is

forced to ackn ow led ge that it is not Dem ocrit us w h o is insane, but his fello w hum ans.

Their actions and b eha viour are all r iddled with con tradictions, they strive for things

which are o f no imp ortance and cannot recognise what is really important. Som etim es

they act one w ay , the next minute they are doin g the very oppo site. Th ey nev er allow

in their schem es for wh at experience and history pr ove to be the very real possibil ity

of fai lure. De m oc ritu s' reaction is to laugh and twid dle his thumb s, and Hippo cratesagrees with h is assessm ent o f the situation. T h u s on the one side it is very m uch in

keeping with this tradition for Luc ian to hav e the Abd erites (!) suffer fro m a genuine

form of ins anit y, the result of w hic h is that they d o not kn ow w hat they are doing and

imitate in their actions and beh aviou r useless mo de ls and notions.61 O n the other hand,

" ' See N. Holzberg, 'Der gr iechische Br iefroman. Versuch einer Gattungstypologie ' . in: N. Holzberg (ed.) ,

Der griechische Briefroman. Gattungstypologie und Textanalyse, Tu bing en 1994, 1-52 , on the

Hippocrates novel 2 2- 8. O n Demo critus as laughing philosopher see Th . Riit ten. Demokrit - lachender

Philosoph und sanguinischer M elancholiker. Eine pseudohippokratische Geschichte, Lei den etc. 1992,

and Reima r Mi i l ler, 'Dem okr i t - der " lachende P hi lo sop h" ' , in : S . Jake l (ed . ), Laughter down the

Centuries I, Turk u 1994 , 39 -51 .

'•' T h e tenth epistle o f the nov el - the first letter from the coun cil and peopl e of Ab der a to Hippo crates with

their urgent request for him to help D em oc ri tu s - also contains some detai ls which match Luci an 's Abdera

anecdote, but this observatio n doe s not, as far as I can see, seem to lead to any further concl usio ns. T he

Abderites identify themse lves ful ly with Dem ocritus . His il lness is an il lness of the polis : to i i c vo u. ou ;

ijfiEtuv 6 o x o v ) | i ev v o o e lv , ' t a o x o c r t e g , TOTJC v 6 ( t cwc i r ao ux o j r t e i v . . . J t oX tv . oim ctv&oa




Lucian's dem onstrative reserve as far as his chances o f curing the pepaideumenoi are

concerned reflects both De m ocr itus ' and Hipp ocrate s' f inal inaction. Th e foolishne ss

of ma n cannot be cured, o nly laug hed at, as - and again the puz zle o f allusions f its

togetherperfectly - the Dio ge nes anecdote also il lustrates. A n d when Lu cian sudd enlycalls him sel f a phy sician at the end o f his preliminaries (5), then this too can perhaps

be accounted for by the Hipp ocrates n ove l and its protagonist w ho , in the end, is on

Democritus' side, but does not - so it seems in 17.10 - really enlighte n the Ab de rite s,

preferring sim ply to rub their noses in their mistake: "Avbgeg, eq>r)v, xf\g JTQOC; EU.E

jTQEo(3£LTj5 / d o i g v\xlv noXkr\. A r p o K Q i x o v yaQ e lSov , av6f ja aoqpcbtaTOV,

aoocpQOVi^Eiv av6Q(0JTO'uc; [xoCvov bvvaxmxaxov.

On the face of it , then, and esp ecially if seen onl y in the context o f historiograph y,

the ad vice Lu cian is givi ng in his treatise ma y appear unimportan t, and he him self seems

to unde rline this, refusing to write historiography h im se lf (H C 4), wh ich, o f course,

would be the best w ay to pro ve the valid ity o f his suggestions. Instead he admits that

his treatise me rely scratches at the surface o f history-w riters' ofoio 6ofx ia, meriting n o

mention of his n am e in the EmyoacpTi (H C 4): d)g xoivo)vr|ao :iu. i auxoTg xf\q

oixodouiag, E I x a l yd] xx\c, EJUYeacpfjc;, cbcpo) y e x& ba% xv\(p xov Tci]kov

jtQoaaajjdu.EVOc;. But on a m ore profo und level Lu cian does assign greater s ignif icance

to his wo rk, as beco m es clear at the end o f the text. Th ere , in (62), he brings up the

Pharos l ighthou se, the architect of w hich ha d the kin g' s nam e put on the f inishe d

structure as Em yoa cpri, but his ow n carved d irectly in the stone under the plaster; this

layer crum bled aw ay w ith the years, bringing the architect's name to l ight, thus he

attained belated, but mo re lasting fam e. T he anecd ote is em bed ded in the suggestion

that historian s sho uld think o f future genera tions and stick to the truth for their sake ;

but the them atic l inking with (4) 6 2 and the prom inent pos itionin g o f the Pharos anecdote

at the very end of the treatise, sho w that Lu cia n is thinkin g here - over and ab ove its

9EQajiEiiaEig, p o u M | v 6E v o a o C a a v xc d x i v 6 u v e i > o u 0 a v a jt o x A e i a O r i v ca u iM t E ig a v o t y v u v c a

(10.2).Ho we ver , the Abder ites see themselve s as representat ives of

paideia,wh ich they value more thanmoney and w hich they end eavour to express in their thinking and sty le. An d, in fact , their beha viour

towards Hippocrates is more f itt ing than, for exa mp le, that o f the Pers ian king w ho. as show n in earl ier

letters, thought he co uld br ibe and threaten the physician into b ecom ing h is obedient servant. At the same

time, the Ab der ites fai l to appreciate the reality o f the situation: their paideia is inferior to that o f

Democritus, he is sane, they are the true mad men . T hi s matches in m y opin ion the portrayal intended by

Lucian, in wh ich the Abder ites , with their love o f theatre, are not wh olly barbar ian, but merely of l imited

paideia, l ike his pepaideumenoi, w ho - as their historiogra phica l writing sh ow s - are not truly educ ated.

When the Abder ites o f the Hippocrates novel decide that Demo critus is suffer ing from an excess of

wisdom (10.1: vnb jr oA Ar jg t f j c x c r o x o w t i g d k o v o oc ptt is VEVOOTIXEV), then it is really their o w n

inadequate paideia that prevents them from seeing the truth. Comparable to this in Lucian is, perhaps,

the fact that the ane cdote is used to illustrate the discrepa ncy be twee n true and false paideia. Th e searchfor such parallels produc es n o further results in terms o f content, but there are no contrad ictions to be

found either: proo f that Lucian wa s extremely careful when com bin ing his sources . Just for the record,

Horace, Ep. 2.1 .19 4-2 00 l inks Dem ocritu s ' laughter with the subject of 'theatre performanc es ' for his

own pole mic : theatre no w on ly serves to sat is fy a craving for sh ow y pageantry , it no longer l is tens to the

words o f the poet; for Dem ocritus , then, as for Lucian , the audience represents a public display of h um an

foolishness (Mii l ler (n. 60) 43 ), i tself s tupid and deaf to the meaning o f the words.62 Marked by the echo o f o tx o8 ou ia g (4 ) in orxo&o u.r |aas (62) .




immediate and ex plicit fun ctio n - of the fate of his ow n text, the special quality o f

which goes far bey on d its superf icial content.

What I think L uc ian tries to do in HC is not to present a pattern for h istoriogr aph ical

composition but to assign to historiograph y a place w ithin the fram e of the rhetorics of

prose-writing under the Em pire. Prose-w ri t ing has , in L uc ian 's opin ion, in the fi rst p lace

to be aesthetical ly acceptable, that is: i t mu st be for m ed ac cording to the terms o f an

aesthetic of ha rm ony , wh ich are not spel led out in HC but in other plac es as Prom, es

2 -5 or Dom. 2 - 9 : evQvQ\iov, ev\ioQ(pov, e v o c p u m a o v and OV\I\IEXQOV.63 It seem s

understandable that Luc ian sho uld b e interested in al lott ing to evQovaiao\i6c, a we l l -

defined role w ithin the actual pro duc tion o f such an aesthetical ly acceptable writ ing.

Even i f Lu cian doe s so in HC itself - I shall turn to this passag e prese ntly - , it f irst

might be i l lustrative to addu ce here the exp lana tion he gives in Prom, es 3 : xc d TO u i v

oA,ov aQxi-csbacov avxbg f j v , a u v E i g y d t e t o 6 E x i x c d f) ' A O r i v a E N j t v E o u a a x o v

jr/nôv x c d £.\ityv%a j t o i o O o a E i v a t x d jT X.dau.axa. Li ke Prom etheus , Luc ian has

divine help w ith his potte ry, and it is this help that mak es his f igures appear so l i fe

like, althou gh they are not actua lly taken f ro m real l i fe, as are the subjects chosen by

forensic orators wh om Lu cia n presents at the beginning o f his wor k as anti thes is (Prom,

es 1): x a ix o i JTOOO) 6 ix ca 6x eo ov v[ielg a v E i xd t ; o i a8 e xa» noou . r |8 £ i , o i t o a o i s v

SLXCUS euSox i f xe txe % i)v d ^ S E t a Jt o i o t i fiEvo i xo i ig dy to vag ; ^c i vxa yovv d>g

dXr|0cog x c d eyi^vâ vydv x d e rj y a, x cd vr| A La xc d x o 8EQ|XOV aiixcov EOXL

o id j r uo o v x a l x o i j x o EX TOV I leo[xr |8£a)g d v m\, nXi\v si fxf] 6LaXX,dxxoiXE, oxi \ir\EX jtriXo-O 3rX.dxxETE, d U d XQvaa v\ilv xotg xolXov; x d Klaa\iaxa. A n i m a t i o n ( x o

£\ityv%ov Et va i) is , then, in the case o f l i terary produ ction the result of div ine he lp, of

the ' inspired-ne ss ' of the wor k. T he p oetolo gical m ode l of inspirat ion thus takes i ts

proper place w ithin Lu ci an 's li terary theory . It no longer stands at the beg innin g o f

literary creation as p rim e m ov er , but is an aid, a rxu vE eyia : it is not the trigger that

renders the a ctiv itie s, the XEXVT) o f the dQXLXEXXOV64 po ssib le, it is not a substitute

for his o w n cpQOVXig, it is the c ro w nin g tou ch, p rov idin g the true effect.6 5 T h e

ability to en do w a l iterary figure w ith anima t ion, to mak e it e\i^v%oq, is attributed b yLucian to som ething l ike inspirat ion, but to si t dow n and write with, so to speak, d ivine

f ire b laz ing me rri ly aw ay ins ide as the wo uld -be historians do (cf . HC 5) is pure

madness.

Lucian also a l lots to Ev 8o ua ia0 (x6 g a we l l -de f ine d role within the actual product ion

of aesthetical ly acceptab le writ ing (H C 4 5 ): x c d f | U,EV yvcbu,r| XOLVCOVELXCO x c d

jtoooajtitEoea) xi xcd jtoiTytixf ig, JTCXQ' OOOV [leyak^yogoi; x c d 5ineu.Ev ri « a i EXEIVT],

xcd (xdXLo8 ' o K o x a v j tagaxdÊOL x a l [xdxoug x a l vav\ia%iaic, ov\mlE%r\Tav SErjOEi

63 More on th is in James S. R om m , 'W ax , Stone , and Promethean Clay : Luc ia n as P las t ic Ar t is t ' , CA 9 ,

1990, 74 -9 8 ; v . Mol len dor f f (n . 1 ) 17 -23 .M It might perhaps be s ignif icant that in the Pharos anecdote Lu cian seems to comp are h ims elf with the

dpxiTixTWv o f the lightho use. It is not by ch an ce that in the four other instances where L uc ian uses the

term architekton he is alw ays descr ibing the planning an d wo rking of an art ist : cf . HC 12 (= Pr. im. 9),

Herm. 20 and esp. Char. 4, where it is Hom er him self w ho is cal led architekton.65 Cf . the discuss ion of enthusiasm in oratory in the early chapters of (P s . -)L uci an, Dem. enc. ( 5 - 8 ) .

http://jtx.dau.axa/

http://jtx.dau.axa/




yag TOTE jtotr|Tixo'f) t iv o g dvE u,ov movQiaoavxog xa d x d x i a x a i a u v & io t ao v r o c;

vtyr\kr\v x a i e rr ' d x p o r v TCOV x v j ^ d T C O v TT ]V VO CU V. f | XeE,iq be 6\i(oq E J U Y H S P E P T JX E T C D ,

. . . ^ E v i ^ o v o a 5 E JXT]5' U JTEQ T O V X O LQ O V E v G o w u S a c r x l v 6 u v o c ; y A Q a u T f j T O TE

[isyioxoc, Tt ao ax Lv f jaa i x a i xaTe vEx GT jva i eg TOV xf jg j to tnT ix f ig x o o u P a v t a , COOTE^dkcrra JTEIOTEOV T T) vt xa ijT a x(b xa M vo ) x a i a cocpoovnTeov , E iooTag d>g urtJtoTOcpia

Tig x a i. EV A.OYOig Jtd G og ov j t ix o o v yl yv sT ai . T his passage is interesting because in

it Lu cian n ot only ex pl ic i t ly focu ses on £v8 ouoiaau x>g as a theme, but a lso represents

it as a co m ple tel y co ntr olla ble e m oti on (fxr|5' IJJCEQ TOV XOUQOV E V0 ou ot (o oa ). 6 6

Controllability here m ean s that, w he n the yvco^T] inspire d in certain situations - e.g.

where a nav al batt le is to be described - by the Jtotn Tix og dvE ^o g 6 7 is conv erted into

the written wo rd, langu age and style are not to exce ed the appropriate bound s with

high-flown af fectat ion. A l ively im agina t ion, w hic h is f i red by such inspirat ion and canquite fea sibly en thuse the reader too , hardly interferes w ith the actual prose.68 I f a l low ed

to do so , then it runs the risk of brea king elem entary rules ( just as the Abd erit es' ye l l in g

of verse is in every respect inappropriate and un suitable) and thus layin g itself op en to

ridicule: Y E ^ ° I ° V XL J t d 9 o g (H C 1), or, as Ps. -Lo ng in us puts it in De subl. 3.2 ,

noKkaypv yag e v B o u a ta v EcmTotg SOXOCVTEC; OV |3axxeiJOuai ,v , aXXa j t a i ^ o u o i v .

Lucian uses a comp arison w ith urJ tOTUcpia , wher e an unbridled style can eas i ly be com e

unsaddled.69 Th is refers to a general rhetorical vitium: exaggeration, styl ist ic inf lat ion,

bombastic po m pos ity that exce ed the harm onio us measure (part icularly in the choice

of dic tion ) and offe nd s TO JCQEJTOV. En thu sias m is thus mo ve d by Lu cia n to a new p e n

ological loca tion entirely w ithin the realm o f style. Th is is a quite logica l step on the

path already (as we saw a bov e) s ignposted ironice by P lato, later taken by A risto tle

and fo l lo w ed into the Imperia l A g e by post -Ar istotel ian theorists: by associat ing

enthusiasm ever closer with poetic techne, i .e. wit h wh at is ( large ly) an acquired ski l l ,

it co uld be watered d ow n on the one hand to a special abil i ty o f the talented dispo sit ion,

on the other to a rheto rical officium, i .e . the appropriate dep loym ent of j tdO og ( im pa s-

sionedness).70 Lu cia n m ay not actual ly have taken this any further than, for ex am ple,

Ps.-Longinus did, but to set forth this poe tolog ical notio n with in the discussion o f a

f ield wh ere on e w ou ld least exp ect to f in d it - historiograph y - is , in m y op inio n, an

unusual and origina l idea.

Lucian's reference here to this con cep tion o f enthu siasm is very m uc h in l ine with

the genera l character of the treatise, whi ch o ffer s li ttle in the w ay o f historiographical

theory, but ass igns to history-wri t ing a w el l -d ef in ed place w ithin the rhetorica l

66 See Ho m ey er (n. 6) 259f. ; on Lucian's disapproval of Corybantic s ty le Lex, 1 6 , 2 0 , 2 4 - c f . W e i ss e nb e rg e r

(n. 4) ad lo c. - and Bacch. 5. For the treatment of the E V0 ov oxa o|t 6s theory in Pythagorean and Per ipatet icthought see Hermann Ro l le r , Die Mimesis in der Antike, Bern 1954, 21 9 -2 1 . Re ject ion o f ' insp ired '

poetry-writing that neglects its TEXVn als o in Hor ace , AP 29 5- 30 1. 309 ; for other paral lels between

Lucian's and Horace ' s th ink ing here c f . Home yer (n . 6 ) 6 3 -8 1 .67 Cf . v . Mo l lendo r f f (n . 1 ) 73 - 6 .68 Cf . e .g . C ic . De orat. 2 . 1 9 4 - 9 7 .69 C f . H o m e y e r (n . 6 ) 2 6 0 .70 Cf . here B. Kos i tzke , 'Ar t . "Enthu s iasm us" ' , in : HWRh 2 (Tubingen 1994) 1185-97. esp. 1185-9.




system.71 T h e biggest pro ble m for histo rians (then as no w ), i.e. finding the truth, is not

neglected by L uc ian , but he has a sim ple so lution fo r it : the historian only need s to be

unbiased an d fo nd of the truth, the material is there or can at least be eas ily fo un d (H C

51), and wh en in doubt, the historian may ap ply the pr inc iple of m 9a vo Tr |5 (H C 11,

20,25,47).72 T h e real diff icu lty in com po sin g a historical work l ies not in the question

of ethics, it is a matter o f rhetoric:73 ov yag SOTEQ To lg Qr rcoga i YQaqpoua iv , d U d

tot [LEV XexBi]o6\ieva fori x a i EIQT\0£XCIV J i E i t o c o c t c a yaq r\br\- 6B T be xa%ai x a i

sbtEiv avxa. .. -toio vT O 5r) xi x a i TO XOV ovyyQacpemc, egyov, e i g x a X o v S i a 8 £ a 6 a i

TO i tE Jteay ixEva x a i sic, bvva\av svagyeaxaxa enibe&,ai a u r a (51 ) . W hat is

required is a style that corresponds to the ethical ideal of J ta oo ri a ta and dA/neE ia, a

style characterised a bo ve all b y aacprrvEia and the genus medium.14 Histor iography

being in rhetorical terms purely narratiolb\,x\yr\o\c, (HC 55 ), it mu st kee p to the rules

of style fo r this pars o rationis.75 Suc h observa nce - genera lly speaking - of wha t is

JTQEJTOV includ es a harm on ious arrangem ent, in whic h each part has its properly

measured port ion of space.76 Histo riogra phy is thus allotted a spe cif ic place w ithin a

rhetorical system that cove rs all genera dicendi.11

Frigid enthusiasts

Now, infr inge me nts o f these rules, particularly those with regard to diction and style,

can be l isted under the heading i ^ Q O V . A n d indeed Lucia n singles out th is particular

vitium strikingly ofte n in HC- three time s in all:78

a) A certain phy sic ian, K al l im orp ho s, w ho is supposed to have written about the

Parthian W ar , is cr i tic ised by Lu cian for , amongst other th ings, the fo l low ing : x a i v f]

71 See E M att io l i 'Re tor ica e stor ia nel Quomodo Historia Sit Conscribenda di Luc ian o ' , in : A . Pennacin i

(ed ) Retorica e storia nella cultura classica, Bolog na 1985 , 89 -10 5 ; F . Montanar i , 'Ekphras is e ven ta

storica nella cr it ica di Luciano' , Ricerche d i filologia classica 2, Pisa 1984, 111 -23 ; F. Montana r i ,

'Virtutes elocu tionis e narrat ionis nel la s tor iografia secon do Lu cia no ' , Ricerche di filologia classica 3 ,

Pisa 1987, 53 -6 5. O n paral lels between L uc ia n's no tions o f the ideal orator and the ideal histor ian see

Homeyer (n. 6) 251 f .72 O n the latter see Monta nari ((n. 71) 1987 ) 59f.73 See Ma tt io l i (n. 71) lOOff .74 See Matt io l i (n. 71) 94; cf . also Luci an , Pr.im. 20f . and Ger l inde Bretz ighe imer , 'Luk ians D ia loge

EixovE? - ' Y n e o tcf iv ebcovcov. Ein Beitrag zur Literaturtheor ie und Hom erkr i t ik ' , Rh M 135, 1992,

161-87.75 See Matt io l i (n. 71) 98 f.7" See Matt io l i (n. 71) 96f . and Montan ar i « n . 71) 1984) 116f. On al l problem s regarding the confl ict

reality/fiction in historiography, the selection of historical facts and their organic arrangement, andrhetoric and eth ics see M. J . Wh eeld on 's carefu l ly cons idered ' "True Stor ies ' " : T he Recept ion o f

Historiography in Ant iqu i ty ' , in : A . Cam eron (ed . ). History As Text: The Writing of Ancient

Historiography, Lo nd on 1 98 9, 36 -63 , w ho al lots to Luc ian 's treatise its proper place within this debate.77 Montanar i ((n._71) 1987) 62 , Mattioli (n. 71 ) 100.

™ On T jmxe ov see L . van Ho ok 's in format ive 'yvxQ6xx)g r\ TO tpDXQov ' , CPh 12, 1917, 68 -7 6; on the

metaphorical use of the frigus 'm ot i f see K irk Freudenburg , The Walking Muse. Horace on the Theory

of Satire, Pr inceton, N J . 1993 , 19 l f . and , for example , Hor . Sat. 1 .1 .80 -3 , 2 .5 .39 -41 .




ALa x a i TO J I QO OL I U O V •U TCEQI|JI>XQOV E J t o i T ]0 8 v oikoog ovvayay(hv O L X E I O V e l v a i

LatQw l o T O Q i a v ouyYea cpeiv, s i'ye 6 'A ax X rim og (lev 'AitoMicovog uiog, ' A J I O X X C O V

5E MouaTiyeTTis x a i Jtdar|g jtaiSE tag dQ xoa v x a i STI do£;du,£vog EV T fj 'Id6L

yodcpeiv oi>x 018 a o TL 86i§a v a u u x a |.idA.a ejttTTrv xoivr\v jxerfjX9£v, ir|TQ£U]v \ikv

keywv x a i Jt£i,QT]v x a i o x o a a x a i V O T J O O I , T a 8' dW ta 6[x o6 ia ita Totg jtoAAolg x a i

xd Jt^e tata o l a e x TQI66O-U (16). W hat is co ndem ned here as 'co ld' is the argument

that, because A po llo is the god o f the Mu ses, a follower of the god 's son Asclep ius

should be particularly go od at writing h istory - reasoning that is more than far-fetched

and w ho lly inappropriate. Regarding the style of the writing, Lucia n notes as inap

propriate that Ka llim orp ho s seems to consider a few scraps of Ionic sufficient to ma ke

him a second H erodotus, even if he lapses into the co m m on koin e for the rest.

b) In (19) L ucia n men tions another historian, this time o ne w ho thought himse lf

comparable to Th ucy dide s because he w as lavish in h is use of ecphrasis: TO 6e Eg

exOocQv xecpaXdg 6 dXeS jixaxog TQSipeiE- xooaiJTT] ipi)XQOTr)g E v f j v I I JTEQ TTJV

K a a m a v x io va x a i xov xouaTaXX ov xov K E A T I X O V ; samples follow . The connection

between such excursus and the actual historical facts, wh ich ought to stand in the

foreground, is, according to Lu cian , com pletely lost in this author: hence his 'frig idity'.

c) A third case: Eycb yovv r ixo ua d u v o g xfiv (ievETC' Eiiotbirxo fidxTv kv ovb' 6A,oig

ETtxd EJIEOT i r a o a o o a u o v T o g , E L X O O I 8 E n i T Q a f\ hi nXsid) uoa Tog dvaX coxoTog eg

tyuxodv xai ovbev r)urv jt o o a ri x o u o a v 8tf|YTioiv, (ibg M aC go g Tig hntEug

Mavadxag Totivofxa vxo 5iij>oi>g jrAava)|.iEvog dvd Ta ogr\ xaTaX d(3oi S/uooug

Ttvdg TU>V aYQO ixcov ... (28). A n inserted narrative, nothing to d o with the main line of

events, and far too protracted for som ething s o trivial - a classic exam ple of inventio

missing the aptum mark and of incongruous imbalance between res and verba.™

Even in passages where the terms I J T O X O O V or ^V%Q6X^ do not occur, Lucian still

very often com pla ins that the selection o f material and its expression in w ords are not

appropriate to the genre chosen, i.e. historiograp hy. 'F rig idity ' in quite a broad sense80

is, then, one general target o f his criticism .

In declaring tyuxQO TTig in its diverse fo rm s a widespread vitium, Lucia n, it seemsto me , returns to our as yet unexplained m otif fro m the A bderite anecdote: \izya xovjog.

The 'big chill ' had put an end to the Abderites T o a yi p o o n a v ia ; a direct analogy to this

cure - a spectacular one , even if it is reported in a no-non sense, matter-of-fact (co ol! )

manner - is, how ever , nowhere to be found in HC 2 w ith its account of the

pepaideumenoi situation, and neither the vers ion in Eunapius nor Philostratus offe r any

parallels. Bu t, just because o f the m otif be ing spectacular and, as it seems to me ,

enigmatic, the reader shou ld and w ill feel engaged in trying to provide the analogy

himself.*' A nd , I th ink, it must be the treatise proper - the disc ussion that nam es the

7" C f. here tor the basic aspects o f ipuxp, 6v in the sense o f exaggerated ampUficatio H. Lausberg, Handbuch

der literarischen Rhetorik, ed. 3, Stuttgart 1990, sec. 1076.

*" The terms can also be applied to shallow, fatuous and insipid literary products or their authors: see LSJ

s.v. ipu^Qov I I .4 ; s .v . api!x e o T 1 l?

*' Cf . a bove n . 9 .

http://izya/

http://izya/

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historians' vitia by n am e (in the f irst place by the nam e o f i jwxQ OT ng) and w ill thus

silence the perpetrators - that is an alo go us to the \ieya KQ VOC, in Ab de ra: there is hope

that the historia ns' ijJVXQO'CTlS w il l be cured b y be ing na m ed - or that they w ill be

silencedforever .

82

The open ing sections of HC prove, then, to be no mere 'teaser': they are instead

closely interw ove n with the ma in bo dy o f the treatise by wa y of tw o thematic threads

- the parody o f k.vQovoiao\io<; and the KQVOCJ^V%Q6V strands. Lu cia n not on ly

presents a plea for l iterature based o n his aesthetic of h arm on y, he also practises what

he preac hes - and this eve n, or perhaps w ith a veng ean ce, in a theoretical treatise.

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