A True Story

A True Story (Alēthē diēgēmata; or ), also translated as True History, is a long novella or short novel written in the second century AD by the Syrian author Lucian of Samosata. The novel is a satire of outlandish tales that had been reported in ancient sources, particularly those that presented fantastic or mythical events as if they were true. It is Lucian's best-known work.
It is the earliest known work of fiction to include travel to outer space, alien lifeforms, and interplanetary warfare. It has been described as "the first known text that could be called science fiction". However, the work does not fit into typical literary genres: its multilayered plot and its characters have been interpreted as belonging to science fiction, fantasy, satire or parody, and have been the subjects of scholarly debate.
Plot
The novel begins with an explanation that the story is not at all "true", and that everything in it is a complete and utter lie. The narrative begins with Lucian and his fellow travelers journeying out past the Pillars of . Blown off course by a storm, they come to an island with a river of wine filled with fish and bears, a marker indicating that and Dionysus have traveled to this point, and trees that look like women. Shortly after leaving the island, they are caught up by a whirlwind and taken to the Moon, where they find themselves embroiled in a full-scale war between Endymion the king of the Moon and Phaethon the king of the Sun over colonization of the Morning Star. Both armies include bizarre hybrid lifeforms. The armies of the Sun win the war by clouding over the Moon and blocking out the Sun's light. Both parties come to a peace agreement. Lucian describes life on the Moon and how it is different from life on Earth.
After returning to Earth, the adventurers are swallowed by a whale, in whose belly they discover a variety of fish people, against whom they wage war and triumph. They kill the whale by starting a bonfire and escape by propping its mouth open. Next, they encounter a sea of milk, an island of cheese, and the Island of the Blessed. There, Lucian meets the heroes of the Trojan War, other mythical men and animals, as well as Homer and Pythagoras. They find sinners being punished, the worst of them being the ones who had written books with lies and fantasies, including Herodotus and Ctesias. After leaving the Island of the Blessed, they deliver a letter to Calypso given to them by Odysseus explaining that he wishes he had stayed with her so he could have lived eternally. They discover a chasm in the ocean, but eventually sail around it, discover a far-off continent and decide to explore it. The book ends abruptly with Lucian stating that their future adventures will be described in the upcoming sequels, a promise which a disappointed scholiast described as "the biggest lie of all".
Analysis
Satire
In one view, Lucian intended his story to be a form of literary criticism, a satire against contemporary and ancient sources which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth. He mentions the tales of Ctesias, Iambulus, and Homer and states that "what did surprise me was their supposition that nobody would notice they were lying." Many characters and events are exaggerated to ridiculous ends to mock the original tellings. As noted by classicist B.P. Reardon, "above all, it is a parody of literary 'liars' like Homer and Herodotus". Consequently, Lucian goes on to state that the story recounted in A True Story is about "things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." He justifies the title by arguing that his is the only truthful mythological story ever written, inasmuch as it is the only one that admits that it is all lies. He also promises a sequel but it is not known if such a sequel existed.
Science fiction
Modern science fiction critics do not necessarily view the satirical streak of the story as conflicting with modern notions of science fiction. The defining element of science can be found in Lucian's specific and effective approach to identifying false values and misidentifications in contemporary philosophy, which was very much the general term of science then. Additionally, they point out that A True Story was written in response to another work that also contained science fictional elements, that is Antonius Diogenes' lost Of the Wonderful Things Beyond Thule, whose protagonist also reached the Moon. The estranging feeling of the story as a defining element of science fiction has also been noted:
According to Grewell, whose definition of science fiction focuses on the struggle between supposedly superior and inferior life forms, "part of the tale that qualifies it as science fiction, rather than as fantasy or imaginative fiction, involves Lucian and his seamen in a battle for territorial and colonization rights."
The typical science fiction themes and topoi that appear in True Stories are:
travel to outer space
encounter with alien life-forms, including the experience of a first contact event
interplanetary warfare and imperialism
colonization of planets
artificial atmosphere
liquid air
motif of giganticism
creatures as products of human technology (robot theme)
worlds working by a set of alternate 'physical' laws
explicit desire of the protagonist for exploration and adventure
A middle position seems to be taken up by critic Kingsley Amis, who acknowledged the science fiction and satirical character of True Stories at the same time:
Modern equivalents, combining science fiction and parody in equal measure, may be found in Voltaire's Micromégas and the works of Douglas Adams.
Reception
Some Roman readers believed that the events in A True Story actually occurred, although Lucian was trying to parody untrue accounts of voyages.
See also
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, a 1988 film by Terry Gilliam with various plot similarities.
History of science fiction
Meropis
Moon in science fiction
References
Citations
General and cited references
.
Further reading
External links
A True History at sacred-texts.com
Loeb Classical Library, vol. 3/8 of Lucian's works , with facing Greek text, at ancientlibrary.com
Lucian of Samosata Project – Articles, timeline, maps, library, and themes
The book at Project Gutenberg
2nd-century novels
Ancient Greek novels
Novels set on the Moon
Satirical works
Science fiction novels
Fiction about the Sun
Novels set on Venus
Works by Lucian
Novels set on fictional islands