Lucian

Alexander Or The False Prophet

By: Peter Thonemann

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Hardcover | 14 July 2021

At a Glance

Hardcover
288 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
14.5 x 22.2 x 2.3

Hardcover

$372.75

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Lucian's Alexander Or The False Prophet is a satiric biography of the religious entrepreneur and career fraudster Alexander of Abonouteichos. It recounts how, during the reign of Antoninus Pius (AD 138-161), Alexander succeeded in setting up a fraudulent new oracular cult of the snake-god Glykon in his home-town of Abonouteichos in Paphlagonia. In the Alexander, Lucian sets out to debunk the oracle as a scam, its founder as a debauched crook, and its clients as gullible idiots.

The Alexander is an extraordinary and unclassifiable work: part biography, part invective, part Epicurean critique of divination. It casts a uniquely vivid light on social mores and religious beliefs in the Antonine age, and was a major influence on Erasmus, Ben Jonson, and Henry Fielding. The present volume is the first full-length treatment of the Alexander in English, and includes an extended historical and literary introduction, a new English translation, and a detailed commentary on the text. The volume also includes a translation of the surviving fragments of Oinomaos of Gadara's The Exposure of Sorcerers, a contemporary Cynic attack on oracular divination. All Greek is translated throughout.

Industry Reviews

his [Thonemann's] commentary is a pleasure and instructive to read because of his full command of the epigraphical and numismatic sources combined with a judicious judgement. * Jan N. Bremmer, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
a ... fluent and inventive translation * Malcolm Heath, Greece & Rome *
Without doubt, Thonemann's book is a substantial commentary on Lucian's Alexander or The False Prophet, and a valuable study of the religious history of the second century AD Greco-Roman World. * Orestis Karavas, Arctos *

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