A True Story

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This article is about the novel by Lucian. For other purposes, see True Story (disambiguation).
A True Story (Ancient Greek: Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα, Alēthē diēgēmata; Latin: Vera Historia or Latin: Verae
Historiae) is a novel written in the second century AD by Lucian of Samosata, a Greek-speaking author
of Assyrian descent. The novel is a satire of outlandish tales which had been reported in ancient sources,
particularly those which 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. As such, A True Story has been described as "the first known text that could be
called science fiction".[1][2][3][4] However the work does not fit into typical literary genres: its multilayered plot
and characters have been interpreted as science fiction, fantasy, satire or parody, and have been the
subject of much scholarly debate

Plot[edit]
The novel begins with an explanation that the story is not at all "true" and that everything in
it is, in fact, a complete and utter lie.[5][6] The narrative begins with Lucian and his fellow
travelers journeying out past the Pillars of Heracles.[7][8] 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 Heracles and Dionysus have traveled to this point, and trees that look like
women.[8][9] Shortly after leaving the island, they are caught up by a whirlwind and taken to
the Moon,[8][10] where they find themselves embroiled in a full-scale war between the king of
the Moon and the king of the Sun over colonization of the Morning Star.[8][11] Both armies
include bizarre hybrid lifeforms.[12][8] The armies of the Sun win the war by clouding over the
Moon and blocking out the Sun's light.[8][13] Both parties then come to a peace
agreement.[14] Lucian then describes life on the Moon and how it is different from life on
Earth.[8][15]
After returning to Earth, the adventurers are swallowed by a 200-mile-long
(320 km) whale,[16][17] in whose belly they discover a variety of fish people, whom they wage
war against and triumph over.[17][18] They kill the whale by starting a bonfire and escape by
propping its mouth open.[19][17] Next, they encounter a sea of milk, an island of cheese, and
the Island of the Blessed.[20][21] There, Lucian meets the heroes of the Trojan War, other
mythical men and animals, as well as Homer and Pythagoras.[22][23] They find sinners being
punished, the worst of them being the ones who had written books with lies and fantasies,
including Herodotus and Ctesias.[24][23] 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.[25][23] They then discover a chasm in the ocean, but
eventually sail around it, discover a far-off continent and decide to explore it.[23][26] The book
ends abruptly with Lucian stating that their future adventures will be described in the
upcoming sequels,[27][28] a promise which a disappointed scholiast described as "the biggest
lie of all".[29]
Analysis[edit]
Satire[edit]

Seventeenth-century engraving by William Faithorne depicting a fictionalized portrait of Lucian

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".[30] 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."[31] 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 exists.
Science fiction[edit]
Contrary to some classicists, 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 rather be found in Lucian's specific, but effective approach
to identify false values and misidentifications in contemporary philosophy, which was very
much the general term of science then.[32] 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.[32] The estranging feel of the story as a defining SF element has also
been noted:
…True Stories may properly be regarded as SF because Lucian often achieves that sense
of "cognitive estrangement" which Darko Suvin has defined as the generic distinction of SF,
that is, the depiction of an alternate world, radically unlike our own, but relatable to it in
terms of significant knowledge.[33]
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:[34]
"The king of the inhabitants of the Sun, Phaethon," said Endymion king of the Moon, "has
been at war with us for a long time now. Once upon a time I gathered together the poorest
people in my kingdom and undertook to plant a colony on the Morning Star which was
empty and uninhabited. Phaethon out of jealousy thwarted the colonization, meeting us
halfway at the head of his dragoons. At that time we were beaten, for we were not a match
for them in strength, and we retreated. Now, however, I desire to make war again and plant
the colony."[32]
In sum, typical science fiction themes and topoi appearing in True Stories are:[33]

 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
 reflecting telescope
 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 the English critic Kingsley Amis, who
acknowledged the science fiction and satirical character of True Stories at the same time:
I will merely remark that the sprightliness and sophistication of True History make it read
like a joke at the expense of nearly all early-modern science fiction, that written between,
say, 1910 and 1940.[35]
Modern equivalents, combining science fiction and parody in equal measure, may be found
in Voltaire's Micromégas and the works of Douglas Adams.
In addition to the above, the book is an early expression of the idea of crossing
the Atlantic and exploring lands that might lie on its other side – some 1400 years
before Columbus.

See also[edit]
 History of science fiction
 Moon in art and literature
 Meropis
 The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, a 1988 film by Terry Gilliam with various plot
similarities.

References[edit]
1. ^ Grewell 2001.
2. ^ Swanson 1976, "Lucian of Samosata, the Greco-Syrian satirist of the second century,
appears today as an exemplar of the science-fiction artist. There is little, if any, need to
argue that his mythopoeic Milesian Tales and his literary fantastic voyages and utopistic
hyperbole comport with the genre of science fiction".
 3. ^ Georgiadou & Larmour 1998: "Lucian's Verae Historiae ("True Histories"), a fantastic
journey narrative considered the earliest surviving example of Science Fiction in the
Western tradition."
4. ^ Gunn 1988, p. 249: "Proto-Science Fiction"
5. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 13–15.
6. ^ Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 51–52.
7. ^ Casson 1962, p. 15.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 53–155.
9. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 15–17.
10. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 17–18.
11. ^ Casson 1962, p. 18.
12. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 18–21.
13. ^ Casson 1962, p. 22.
14. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 22–23.
15. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 23–25.
16. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 27–28.
17. ^ Jump up to:a b c Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 156–77.
18. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 27–33.
19. ^ Casson 1962, p. 34.
20. ^ Casson 1962, p. 35–37.
21. ^ Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 156–78.
22. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 35–45.
23. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 178–232.
24. ^ Casson 1962, p. 46.
25. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 45–49.
26. ^ Casson 1962, pp. 49–54.
27. ^ Casson 1962, p. 54.
28. ^ Georgiadou & Larmour 1998, pp. 232–233.
29. ^ Casson 1962, p. 57.
30. ^ Reardon, p. 619.
31. ^ Reardon, p. 622.
32. ^ Jump up to:a b c Swanson 1976.
33. ^ Jump up to:a b Fredericks 1976.
34. ^ Grewell, Greg (2001), "Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the
(Imagined) Future", Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, 55 (2): 25–47
(30f.)
35. ^ Kingsley, Amis (1960), New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction, New York, p. 28.
Bibliography[edit]

 Casson, Lionel, ed. (1962), Selected Satires of Lucian, New York City, NY: W.W. Norton &
Co, ISBN 0-393-00443-0.
 Fredericks, S.C. (Mar 1976), "Lucian's True History as SF", Science Fiction Studies,
Depauw, 3 (1): 49–60.
 Georgiadoum, Aristoula; Larmour, David H. J. (1998), Bremer, J.M.; Janssen, L.F.; Pinkster, H.;
Pleket, H.W.; Ruijgh, C.J.; Schrijvers, P.H. (eds.), Lucian's Science Fiction Novel True Histories:
Interpretation and Commentary, Supplements to Mnemosyne, Leiden, The Netherlands:
Brill, ISBN 90-04-10667-7.
 Grewell, Greg (2001), "Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the
(Imagined) Future", Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, 55 (2): 25–47.
 Gunn, James E. (1988), The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Viking, p. 249, ISBN 978-0-
670-81041-3.
 Reardon, B.P., Collected Ancient Greek Novels.
 Swanson, Roy Arthur (Nov 1976), "The True, the False, and the Truly False: Lucian's
Philosophical Science Fiction", Science Fiction Studies, 3 (3): 227–39.
Further reading[edit]
 Viglas, Katelis: “The Placement of Lucian’s Novel True History in the Genre of Science
Fiction”, Interlitteraria, Vol. 21, No. 1 (July 2016), pp. 158–172.

External links[edit]

 Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα
 The True History at sacred-texts.com
 The Works of Lucian of Samosata at sacred-texts.com
 Loeb Classical Library, vol. 3/8 of Lucian's works, with facing Greek text,
at ancientlibrary.com
 A.M. Harmon: Introduction to Lucian of Samosata at tertullian.org
 Lucian of Samosata Project – Articles, Timeline, Maps, Library, and Themes
 The book at Project Gutenberg
 The audio book at Librivox