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Centaurs, Sophists and Satire: Hybridity in the Works of Lucian of Samosata

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Centaurs, Sophists and Satire: Hybridity in the Works of Lucian of Samosata Megan Campbell Abel BA (Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Humanities (Classics) University of Tasmania August 2018 Statements and Declaration This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution, except by way of background information and duly acknowledged in the thesis, and to the best of my knowledge and belief no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the text of the thesis, nor does the thesis contain any material that infringes copyright. The publishers of the paper, Ancient Narrative, comprising the second half of Chapter Two hold the copyright for that content, and access to the material should be sought from the respective journals. The remaining non-published content of the thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying and communication in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. Megan Abel ……………………. i Acknowledgements First and foremost, I wish to extend my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr Graeme Miles. His continuous support and assistance throughout my candidature has been invaluable, and his wealth of knowledge about my research topic and those surrounding it has been extremely useful in allowing me to develop and grow my ideas. His patience, guidance and confidence in my work cannot be overestimated, and without these, this dissertation could not have been possible. Against all odds, not once have I cried in his office, which is testament to his character and understanding. I also wish to thank Professor Dirk Baltzly for offering his insightful and informed philosophical eye, and for being a kind, but nevertheless accurate, critic of my excessive use of participles. Importantly, I wish to give my sincere gratitude to the anonymous reviewers who offered their extremely valuable suggestions. I’m very grateful for them taking the time to read and comment on my work, and their precision with which they considered my various arguments is very much appreciated. Secondly, I wish to thank Emma Donnelly, who has been a fantastic friend, housemate and colleague throughout my candidature. Without Emma, insanity would have struck a lot earlier, and I can’t thank her enough for being a support network for many struggles for the past three and a half years, be it in our studies, work or relationships.. Thank you, Em, for the pints, the laughs, and the mutual apathy. I also wish to thank my partner Steve, who has had the unrelenting job of dealing with the ups and lows of the past three and a half years. In being an emotional crutch, he has ensured my physical and mental wellbeing hasn’t completely disintegrated, and ensured that I at least manage to eat vegetables once a week. It is also crucial that I thank my local watering holes for their role in allowing me to see a life outside of the office. The World’s End Brewpub’s convenience and consistently cheap pints have been a great source of comfort during my candidature (for myself and many others), and the New Sydney Hotel has been a much-needed source of warmth and solace, especially during the cold and dreary winter months. ii Thank you too, to Mum and Dad, for being understanding for the past three years, and for being there whenever I needed them. I should also thank my cat, Juniper, for being an affectionate and much loved furry companion, despite her clear hatred of laptop cords and headphones. Finally, I wish to thank the countless people who have had to listen to me drone on about centaurs, and who have been extremely understanding when I very vehemently did not want to talk about it. Thank you for providing me with a very welcome distraction. iii Table of Contents Statements and Declaration ………………………………………………..…… i Acknowledgements ………………………..……………..……………………… ii Table of Contents ………………………..……………..………………………... iv Abstract ………………………..……………..………………………………….. vii Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 1 The Hybrid ……………………………………………………..…………. 3 Sophists, Philosophers and Philosopher-Sophists …………………..…….. 6 Who is This Lucian Person Anyway? …………………………………… 12 Lucian the Literary Cynic ………………………………………………... 14 Hybrid Sophists and φιλοδοξία …………………………………………... 21 Chapter One: Aesop and the Fable ……………………………………………. 26 The Fable ………………………………………………………………… 30 The Fable and the Golden Age …………………………………………... 31 Hesiod and Callimachus …………………………………………. 33 Aristophanes ……………………………………………………... 35 The Life of Aesop ………………………………………………………... 39 Aesop the Slave ………………………………………………….. 41 Fables, Aesop and Cynicism …………………………………………….. 46 Aesop and the Fable in the Second Sophistic …………………………… 50 Plutarch ………………………………………………………….. 51 Dio Chrysostom …………………………………………………. 54 Aelian ……………………………………………………………. 56 Philostratus ………………………………………………………. 59 Lucian and the Fable …………………………………………………….. 63 Chapter Two: Centaurs and Fishy Philosophers …………..………………… 69 iv Catching Sophists ………………………………………………………... 72 Plato’s Sophist …………………………………………………… 73 How Much for a Philosopher? ………………………….……....... 78 Centaurs at the Symposium ………………………………………………..86 Lucianic Hybrids …………………………………………………. 88 Centaurs ………………………………………………………........89 Zeuxis: Framing the Centaur ……………………………………… 91 Symposium ……………………………………………………....... 96 Centaurs at the Symposium ………………………………………. 100 Chapter Three: Pythagoras Rooster …………………………..………………. 105 Speech …………………………………………………………………..... 107 Animal Speech …………………………………………………… 110 Rejection of Animal Speech ……………………………………… 113 Imitators of Human Speech ……………………………………..... 117 The Philosophical Animal ………………………………………………… 119 Pythagoras as Rooster …………………………………………..… 121 Philosophical Truth? …………………………………………….... 122 Chapter Four: Viewing from Above with Icaromenippus and Charon.……… 129 Ascent as a Literary Trope …………………………………………………. 131 Icaromenippus and Charon ………………………………………………… 133 Means of Ascent and Sharp Sight …………………………………. 134 Icaromenippus ……………………………………………………... 136 Empedocles ………………………………………………………... 139 Homer ……………………………………………………………... 142 Inhuman Sight? ………………………………………………..…... 145 Dialogues from Above …………………………………………………..… 147 The Moon ………………………………………………………..… 148 Hermes …………………………………………………………….. 150 Vision and Blindness ………………………………………………………. 151 Chapter Five: Hybrid Gods …………………………………………………….. 156 Hybrid Deities …………………………………………………………….. 160 v Lucianic Hybrid Deities ………………………………………………….. 164 Jupiter Tragoedus ………………………………………………… 165 Cult and Morality ………………………………………………… 170 Parliament of the Gods …………………………………………… 173 Zeus ………………………………………………………………. 175 Icaromenippus ……………………………………………………. 176 Peregrinus ………………………………………………………………… 178 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….. 184 Bibliography ……………………………………………………...……………… 189 vi Abstract The following dissertation assesses the works of Lucian of Samosata, a satirist writing during the Second Century AD. It is proposed that in his satires, Lucian uses the theme of hybridity in order to critique contemporary philosophical ideals and practices, framing the philosopher-sophists of the period as hybrids through their unsuccessful melding of the virtues of philosophy with the power of rhetoric. The theme of hybridity is explored in multiple ways, and this dissertation recognises Lucian’s own hybridity, both in terms of his ethnicity and of his use of the serio-comic genre. Lucian, in a number of his works, underscores what a true hybrid and a false hybrid is, and the motif of the centaur serves to illustrate his point well, being simultaneously an admired figure through the mythical tradition surrounding Cheiron, while also being a source of violence and uncivilised behaviour, as evident in tales of the Centauromachy. It is proposed that Lucian, rather than dismissing his hybridity, acknowledges (Bis. Acc. 33) and utilises it to create a more informed critique of the philosopher-sophists, establishing a series of works that serve to address both elite and non-elite concerns simultaneously. This is explored through an Aesopic framework, as it reveals how many of the tensions of high and low culture are present throughout the fable, and within tradition surrounding Aesop himself. Using this framework, the theme of hybridity is explored through various examples of the human-animal hybrid; exploring physical hybridity through the centaur, while also discussing hybrid wisdom through modes of speech, and the capacity for hybridity to stretch across multiple spheres. In doing so, it is shown that Lucian frames the philosopher-sophists as hybrids who, through their concerted effort to appear as a source of wisdom, have in fact failed to reach such heights, merely becoming a source of corrupted, false wisdom. vii Introduction What is most monstrous of all, I have been turned into a surprising blend, for I am neither afoot nor a horseback, neither prose nor verse, but seem to my hearers a strange phenomenon made up of different elements, like a Centaur. (Bis. Acc. 33) Dialogue’s assertion that the ‘Syrian’ has transformed him into some form of monstrous hybrid summarises what is one of the core defining features of Lucian’s satires. Having taken inspiration from his spiritual predecessor Menippus1, Lucian is frequently charged with the crime of merging the genres of Dialogue and Comedy, genres that are wholly incompatible (Prom. Es. 6). Their incompatibility, states Lucian in his Prometheus es in Verbis, derives largely from the nature of their
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