114-734: The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri or simply the Chester Beatty Papyri are a group of early papyrus manuscripts of biblical texts . The manuscripts are in Greek and are of Christian origin. There are eleven manuscripts in the group, seven consisting of portions of Old Testament books, three consisting of portions of the New Testament (referred to with the Gregory-Åland no. (a list of New Testament manuscripts) 𝔓 , 𝔓 , and 𝔓 ), and one consisting of portions of
228-460: A framing story in which the main narrator, a skeptic named Tychiades, goes to visit an elderly friend named Eukrates. At Eukrates's house, he encounters a large group of guests who have recently gathered together due to Eukrates suddenly falling ill. The other guests offer Eukrates a variety of folk remedies to help him recover. When Tychiades objects that such remedies do not work, the others all laugh at him and try to persuade him to believe in
342-486: A "eulogy of Platonism", but may, in fact, be satirical, or merely an excuse to ridicule Roman society. Nonetheless, at other times, Lucian writes approvingly of individual philosophies. According to Turner, although Lucian makes fun of Skeptic philosophers , he displays a temperamental inclination towards that philosophy. Edwyn Bevan identifies Lucian as a Skeptic, and in his Hermotimus , Lucian rejects all philosophical systems as contradictory and concludes that life
456-479: A barbarous manner and all but wearing a caftan [ kandys ] in the Assyrian fashion". Rhetoric states that she "took him in hand and ... gave him paideia ". Scholars have long interpreted the "Syrian" in this work as Lucian himself and taken this speech to mean that Lucian ran away to Ionia, where he pursued his education. Richter, however, argues that the "Syrian" is not Lucian himself, but rather
570-461: A book that was questioned canonically and not considered authored by Paul , is notable. The placement of it following Romans is unique against most other witnesses, as is the ordering of Galatians following Ephesians. P. III is the last New Testament manuscript, 𝔓 , and contains 10 leaves from the Book of Revelation , chapters 9–17. This manuscript also dates to the 3rd century, and Kenyon describes
684-525: A century or more earlier than the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus . Although some of the scholars who first studied the collection considered some of the New Testament manuscripts, especially P. Chester Beatty I ( 𝔓 ) to be of the apparent Caesarean text-type , this has little support today. The textual character is generally described as being eclectic, mixed, or unaligned. The manuscripts provided many new textual variations, especially since
798-610: A comedic routine. Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead ( Νεκρικοὶ Διάλογοι ) is a satirical work centering around the Cynic philosophers Diogenes and his pupil Menippus , who lived modestly while they were alive and are now living comfortably in the abysmal conditions of the Underworld, while those who had lived lives of luxury are in torment when faced by the same conditions. The dialogue draws on earlier literary precursors, including
912-558: A corresponding Roman numeral between I-XII, one for each manuscript. The term Chester Beatty Papyri can also generally refer to the collection of manuscripts that Alfred Chester Beatty acquired over his lifetime, which include non-Biblical papyri such as the Chester Beatty Medical Papyrus . At the time of their discovery, biblical scholar F. F. Bruce stated they "may fairly be claimed as the greatest discovery of Biblical manuscripts since Tischendorf discovered
1026-472: A fictional narrative work written in prose, he parodies some of the fantastic tales told by Homer in the Odyssey and also the not-so-fantastic tales from the historian Thucydides . He anticipated modern science fiction themes including voyages to the moon and Venus, extraterrestrial life , interplanetary warfare, and artificial life, nearly two millennia before Jules Verne and H. G. Wells . The novel
1140-448: A generally negative opinion of Herodotus and his historiography, which he viewed as faulty. Over eighty works attributed to Lucian have survived. These works belong to a diverse variety of styles and genres, and include comic dialogues, rhetorical essays, and prose fiction. Lucian's writings were targeted towards a highly educated, upper-class Greek audience and make almost constant allusions to Greek cultural history, leading
1254-409: A hard surface with their edges slightly overlapping, and then another layer of strips is laid on top at right angles. The strips may have been soaked in water long enough for decomposition to begin, perhaps increasing adhesion, but this is not certain. The two layers possibly were glued together. While still moist, the two layers were hammered together, mashing the layers into a single sheet. The sheet
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#17327810613431368-553: A higher education, so, after he completed his elementary schooling, Lucian's uncle took him on as an apprentice and began teaching him how to sculpt. Lucian, however, soon proved to be poor at sculpting and ruined the statue he had been working on. His uncle beat him, causing him to run off. Lucian fell asleep and experienced a dream in which he was being fought over by the personifications of Statuary and Culture. He decided to listen to Culture and thus sought out an education. Although The Dream has long been treated by scholars as
1482-475: A highly paid government official in Egypt , after which point he disappears from the historical record. Lucian's works were wildly popular in antiquity, and more than eighty writings attributed to him have survived to the present day, a considerably higher quantity than for most other classical writers. His most famous work is A True Story , a tongue-in-cheek satire against authors who tell incredible tales, which
1596-481: A lawyer, but that he had become disillusioned by the deceitfulness of the trade and resolved to become a philosopher instead. Lucian travelled across the Empire, lecturing throughout Greece, Italy, and Gaul . In Gaul, Lucian may have held a position as a highly paid government professor. In around 160, Lucian returned to Ionia as a wealthy celebrity. He visited Samosata and stayed in the east for several years. He
1710-659: A literary device Lucian uses to subvert literary and ethnic norms. Ionia was the center of rhetorical learning at the time. The most prestigious universities of rhetoric were in Ephesus and Smyrna , but it is unlikely that Lucian could have afforded to pay the tuition at either of these schools. It is not known how Lucian obtained his education, but somehow he managed to acquire an extensive knowledge of rhetoric as well as classical literature and philosophy. Lucian mentions in his dialogue The Fisherman that he had initially attempted to apply his knowledge of rhetoric and become
1824-624: A loanword of unknown (perhaps Pre-Greek ) origin. Greek has a second word for it, βύβλος ( byblos ), said to derive from the name of the Phoenician city of Byblos . The Greek writer Theophrastus , who flourished during the 4th century BCE, uses papyros when referring to the plant used as a foodstuff and byblos for the same plant when used for nonfood products, such as cordage, basketry, or writing surfaces. The more specific term βίβλος biblos , which finds its way into English in such words as 'bibliography', 'bibliophile', and 'bible', refers to
1938-453: A long roll, or scroll, was required to create large-volume texts. Papyrus had the advantage of being relatively cheap and easy to produce, but it was fragile and susceptible to both moisture and excessive dryness. Unless the papyrus was of perfect quality, the writing surface was irregular, and the range of media that could be used was also limited. Papyrus was gradually overtaken in Europe by
2052-633: A marker indicating that Heracles 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 the king of the Moon and the king of the Sun over colonization of the Morning Star . Both armies include bizarre hybrid lifeforms. The armies of
2166-681: A matter of decades; a 200-year-old papyrus was considered extraordinary. Imported papyrus once commonplace in Greece and Italy has since deteriorated beyond repair, but papyri are still being found in Egypt; extraordinary examples include the Elephantine papyri and the famous finds at Oxyrhynchus and Nag Hammadi . The Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum , containing the library of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus , Julius Caesar 's father-in-law,
2280-457: A morally constructive discipline, but he is critical of pseudo-philosophers, whom he portrays as greedy, bad-tempered, sexually immoral hypocrites. Lucian was not known to be a member of any of the major philosophical schools. In his Philosophies for Sale , he makes fun of members of every school. Lucian was critical of Stoicism and Platonism , because he regarded them as encouraging superstition. His Nigrinus superficially appears to be
2394-520: A native Syrian. Scholars dispute whether the treatise is an accurate description of Syrian cultural practices because very little is known about Hierapolis other than what is recorded in On the Syrian Goddess itself. Coins minted in the late fourth century BC, municipal decrees from Seleucid rulers, and a late Hellenistic relief carving have confirmed Lucian's statement that the city's original name
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#17327810613432508-500: A promise which a disappointed scholiast described as "the biggest lie of all". In his Double Indictment , Lucian declares that his proudest literary achievement is the invention of the "satirical dialogue", which was modeled on the earlier Platonic dialogue , but was comedic in tone rather than philosophical. The prolaliai to his Dialogues of the Courtesans suggests that Lucian acted out his dialogues himself as part of
2622-573: A pyre at the Olympic Games of AD 165. The letter is historically significant because it preserves one of the earliest pagan evaluations of Christianity. In the letter, one of Lucian's characters delivers a speech ridiculing Christians for their perceived credulity and ignorance, but he also affords them some level of respect on account of their morality. In the letter Against the Ignorant Book Collector , Lucian ridicules
2736-436: A rival writing surface that rose in prominence known as parchment , which was made from animal skins . By the beginning of the fourth century A.D., the most important books began to be manufactured in parchment, and works worth preserving were transferred from papyrus to parchment. Parchment had significant advantages over papyrus, including higher durability in moist climates and being more conducive to writing on both sides of
2850-562: A sculptor, but, after a failed attempt at sculpting, he ran away to pursue an education in Ionia . He may have become a travelling lecturer and visited universities throughout the Roman Empire . After acquiring fame and wealth through his teaching, Lucian finally settled down in Athens for a decade, during which he wrote most of his extant works. In his fifties, he may have been appointed as
2964-430: A summarized version of a story by Lucian, and contains largely the same basic plot elements as The Golden Ass (or Metamorphoses ) of Apuleius , but with fewer inset tales and a different ending. Amores is usually dated to the third or fourth centuries based on stylistic grounds. Lucian is mentioned only sporadically between his death and the ninth century, even among pagan authors. The first author to mention him
3078-678: A truthful autobiography of Lucian, its historical accuracy is questionable at best. Classicist Simon Swain calls it "a fine but rather apocryphal version of Lucian's education" and Karin Schlapbach calls it "ironical". Richter argues that it is not autobiographical at all, but rather a prolalia ( προλᾰλιά ), or playful literary work, and a "complicated meditation on a young man's acquisition of paideia " [i.e. education]. Russell dismisses The Dream as entirely fictional, noting, "We recall that Socrates too started as sculptor, and Ovid 's vision of Elegy and Tragedy ( Amores 3.1)
3192-530: Is Lactantius . He is made a character in the sixth-century letters of Aristaenetus . In the same century, portions of his On Slander were translated into Syriac as part of a monastic compendium. He was reassessed positively in the ninth century by the first generation of Byzantine humanists, such as Leo the Mathematician , Basil of Adada and Photios . In his Bibliotheca , Photios notes that Lucian "ridicules pagan things in almost all his texts",
3306-450: Is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface . It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus , a wetland sedge . Papyrus (plural: papyri or papyruses ) can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined side by side and rolled up into a scroll , an early form of a book. Papyrus was first known to have been used in Egypt (at least as far back as
3420-544: Is all too similar to Lucian's." In Lucian's Double Indictment , the personification of Rhetoric delivers a speech in which she describes the unnamed defendant, who is described as a "Syrian" author of transgressive dialogues, at the time she found him, as a young man wandering in Ionia in Anatolia "with no idea what he ought to do with himself". She describes "the Syrian" at this stage in his career as "still speaking in
3534-627: Is in P. VI which contains portions of the Old Testament. The name Joshua which relates linguistically to Jesus was considered a sacred name and abbreviated as such. Since all but two (P. XI, XII) of the eleven manuscripts are dated before the 4th century, they present significant textual evidence for the Greek Bible as it existed in Egypt prior to the Diocletian persecutions, where Christian books are said to have been destroyed and
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3648-682: Is never serious and never reveals his own opinion. In the tenth century, Lucian was known in some circles as an anti-Christian writer, as seen in the works of Arethas of Caesarea and the Suda encyclopedia. The authors of the Suda concludes that Lucian's soul is burning in Hell for his negative remarks about Christians in the Passing of Peregrinus . In general, however, the Byzantine reception of Lucian
3762-442: Is of highly rot-resistant cellulose , but storage in humid conditions can result in molds attacking and destroying the material. Library papyrus rolls were stored in wooden boxes and chests made in the form of statues. Papyrus scrolls were organized according to subject or author and identified with clay labels that specified their contents without having to unroll the scroll. In European conditions, papyrus seems to have lasted only
3876-474: Is often regarded as the earliest known work of science fiction. 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. The narrative begins with Lucian and his fellow travelers journeying out past the Pillars of Heracles . Blown off course by a storm, they come to an island with a river of wine filled with fish and bears,
3990-539: Is recorded as having been in Antioch in either 162 or 163. In around 165, he bought a house in Athens and invited his parents to come live with him in the city. Lucian must have married at some point during his travels because in one of his writings, he mentions having a son at this point. Lucian lived in Athens for around a decade, during which time he gave up lecturing and instead devoted his attention to writing. It
4104-427: Is regarded by some as the earliest known work of science fiction . Lucian invented the genre of comic dialogue, a parody of the traditional Socratic dialogue . His dialogue Lover of Lies makes fun of people who believe in the supernatural and contains the oldest known version of " The Sorcerer's Apprentice ". Lucian wrote numerous satires making fun of traditional stories about the gods including The Dialogues of
4218-480: Is shown to be a "feckless ruler" and a serial adulterer. Lucian also wrote several other works in a similar vein, including Zeus Catechized , Zeus Rants , and The Parliament of the Gods . Throughout all his dialogues, Lucian displays a particular fascination with Hermes , the messenger of the gods, who frequently appears as a major character in the role of an intermediary who travels between worlds. The Dialogues of
4332-630: Is significant variation between the construction of each manuscript. Page size ranges from about 14 by 24.2 cm (P. III) to 18 by 33 cm (P. VI). Some of the manuscripts were constructed of a single gathering (quire) of papyrus sheets (Pap. II, VII, IX + X), while in others the gathering varies from a single sheet (I) to five (V) or seven (VII). The largest codex (P. IX/X) is believed to have contained roughly 236 pages. The manuscripts employ nomina sacra , special abbreviations for names/words considered sacred in Christianity. One notable example
4446-501: Is too short to determine which of them comes nearest to the truth, so the best solution is to rely on common sense, which was what the Pyrrhonian Skeptics advocated. The maxim that "Eyes are better witnesses than ears" is echoed repeatedly throughout several of Lucian's dialogues. Lucian was skeptical of oracles , though he was by no means the only person of his time to voice such skepticism. Lucian rejected belief in
4560-403: Is used to manufacture items that are sold or used locally. Examples include baskets, hats, fish traps, trays or winnowing mats, and floor mats. Papyrus is also used to make roofs, ceilings, rope, and fences. Although alternatives, such as eucalyptus , are increasingly available, papyrus is still used as fuel. Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, c. 125 – after 180)
4674-457: The nekyia in Book XI of Homer's Odyssey , but also adds new elements not found in them. Homer's nekyia describes transgressors against the gods being punished for their sins, but Lucian embellished this idea by having cruel and greedy persons also be punished. In his dialogue The Lover of Lies ( Φιλοψευδὴς ), Lucian satirizes belief in the supernatural and paranormal through
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4788-696: The Apocryphon of Ezekiel , although it is cited by Clement of Alexandria ( Paedagogus I. ix. 84.2–4). Overall, the handwriting is rough and most likely from a scribe who did not know Greek well. Campbell Bonner of the University of Michigan published this manuscript in his 1937 The Last Chapters of Enoch in Greek and 1940 The Homily on the Passion by Melito Bishop of Sardis . Papyrus Papyrus ( / p ə ˈ p aɪ r ə s / pə- PY -rəs )
4902-604: The Book of Enoch and an unidentified Christian homily. Most are dated to the 3rd century CE. They are housed in part at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland, and in part at the University of Michigan , among a few other locations. The papyri were most likely first obtained by dealers in illegal antiquities . Because of this, the exact circumstances of the find are not clear. One account states that
5016-680: The Cambridge Antiquarian Society , one of the Papyri Graecae Magicae V, translated into English with commentary in 1853. Papyrus was made in several qualities and prices. Pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville described six variations of papyrus that were sold in the Roman market of the day. These were graded by quality based on how fine, firm, white, and smooth the writing surface was. Grades ranged from
5130-477: The Codex Sinaiticus ". All of the manuscripts are codices , which was surprising to the first scholars who examined the texts because it was believed that the papyrus codex was not extensively used by Christians until the 4th century. Most of the manuscripts dated to the 3rd century, with some as early as the 2nd. The manuscripts also helped scholars understand the construction of papyrus codices. There
5244-611: The Early Modern period . Many early modern European writers adopted Lucian's lighthearted tone, his technique of relating a fantastic voyage through a familiar dialogue, and his trick of constructing proper names with deliberately humorous etymological meanings. During the Protestant Reformation , Lucian provided literary precedent for writers making fun of Catholic clergy . Desiderius Erasmus 's Encomium Moriae (1509) displays Lucianic influences. Perhaps
5358-629: The First Dynasty ), as the papyrus plant was once abundant across the Nile Delta . It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region. Apart from writing material, ancient Egyptians employed papyrus in the construction of other artifacts , such as reed boats , mats , rope , sandals , and baskets . Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the third millennium BCE. The earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus
5472-587: The Islamic world , which originally learned of it from the Chinese. By the 12th century, parchment and paper were in use in the Byzantine Empire , but papyrus was still an option. Until the middle of the 19th century, only some isolated documents written on papyrus were known, and museums simply showed them as curiosities. They did not contain literary works. The first modern discovery of papyri rolls
5586-548: The Merovingian chancery was with a document from 692 A.D., though it was known in Gaul until the middle of the following century. The latest certain dates for the use of papyrus in Europe are 1057 for a papal decree (typically conservative, all papal bulls were on papyrus until 1022), under Pope Victor II , and 1087 for an Arabic document. Its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by less expensive paper introduced by
5700-558: The Second Sophistic period). Everything that is known about Lucian's life comes from his own writings, which are often difficult to interpret because of his extensive use of sarcasm. According to his oration The Dream , he was the son of a lower middle class family from the city of Samosata along the banks of the Euphrates in the remote Roman province of Syria . As a young man, he was apprenticed to his uncle to become
5814-586: The University of Michigan and a few other collectors and institutions. The papyri were first announced on November 19, 1931, although more leaves were acquired over the next decade. Biblical scholar Frederic G. Kenyon published the manuscripts in The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri: Descriptions and Texts of Twelve Manuscripts on Papyrus of the Greek Bible , in an 8-volume work that spanned 1933–58. The papyri are usually catalogued as P. Chester Beatty followed by
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#17327810613435928-444: The paranormal , regarding it as superstition . In his dialogue The Lover of Lies , he probably voices some of his own opinions through his character Tychiades, perhaps including the declaration by Tychiades that he does not believe in daemones , phantoms , or ghosts because he has never seen such things. Tychiades, however, still professes belief in the gods' existence : Dinomachus: 'In other words, you do not believe in
6042-566: The 18th century, a library of ancient papyri was found in Herculaneum , ripples of expectation spread among the learned men of the time. However, since these papyri were badly charred, their unscrolling and deciphering are still going on today. Papyrus was made from the stem of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus . The outer rind was first removed, and the sticky fibrous inner pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips about 40 cm (16 in) long. The strips were then placed side by side on
6156-578: The Centaur are both based on descriptions of paintings found in Lucian's works. Lucian's prose narrative Timon the Misanthrope was the inspiration for William Shakespeare's tragedy Timon of Athens and the scene from Hamlet with the gravediggers echoes several scenes from Dialogues of the Dead . Christopher Marlowe 's famous verse "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships/And burnt
6270-591: The Christians. Lucian's treatise On the Syrian Goddess is a detailed description of the cult of the Syrian goddess Atargatis at Hierapolis (now Manbij ). It is written in a faux-Ionic Greek and imitates the ethnographic methodology of the Greek historian Herodotus, which Lucian elsewhere derides as faulty. For generations, many scholars doubted the authenticity of On the Syrian Goddess because it seemed too genuinely reverent to have really been written by Lucian. More recently, scholars have come to recognize
6384-497: The Courtesans is a collection of short dialogues involving various courtesans. This collection is unique as one of the only surviving works of Greek literature to mention female homosexuality. It is also unusual for mixing Lucian's characters from other dialogues with stock characters from New Comedy ; over half of the men mentioned in Dialogues of the Courtesans are also mentioned in Lucian's other dialogues, but almost all of
6498-610: The Cynic philosopher Peregrinus Proteus in his letter The Passing of Peregrinus and the fraudulent oracle Alexander of Abonoteichus in his treatise Alexander the False Prophet . Lucian's treatise On the Syrian Goddess satirizes cultural distinctions between Greeks and Syrians and is the main source of information about the cult of Atargatis . Lucian had an enormous, wide-ranging impact on Western literature. Works inspired by his writings include Thomas More 's Utopia ,
6612-574: The False Prophet as "truly holy and prophetic". Later, in the same dialogue, he praises a book written by Epicurus: What blessings that book creates for its readers and what peace, tranquillity, and freedom it engenders in them, liberating them as it does from terrors and apparitions and portents, from vain hopes and extravagant cravings, developing in them intelligence and truth, and truly purifying their understanding, not with torches and squills [i. e. sea onions] and that sort of foolery, but with straight thinking, truthfulness and frankness. Lucian had
6726-469: The Gods , Icaromenippus , Zeus Rants , Zeus Catechized , and The Parliament of the Gods . His Dialogues of the Dead focuses on the Cynic philosophers Diogenes and Menippus . Philosophies for Sale and The Carousal, or The Lapiths make fun of various philosophical schools, and The Fisherman or the Dead Come to Life is a defense of this mockery. Lucian often ridiculed public figures, such as
6840-578: 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 then 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,
6954-490: The Old Testament manuscripts predated the revision activity of Lucian and Origen and others, and the New Testament manuscripts are some of the earliest yet quite extensive examples of the corresponding books. Originally, there were believed to be eight manuscripts in the Chester Beatty collection containing portions of the Old Testament. However, what was believed to be two different manuscripts actually belonged to
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#17327810613437068-410: The Sun win the war by clouding over the Moon and blocking out the Sun's light. Both parties then come to a peace agreement. Lucian then describes life on the Moon and how it is different from life on Earth. After returning to Earth, the adventurers are swallowed by a 200-mile-long whale, in whose belly they discover a variety of fish people, whom they wage war against and triumph over. They kill
7182-523: The Syrian author "has somehow outraged the purity of Greek idiom or genre" through his invention of the comic dialogue. British classicist Donald Russell states, "A good deal of what Lucian says about himself is no more to be trusted than the voyage to the moon that he recounts so persuasively in the first person in True Stories " and warns that "it is foolish to treat [the information he gives about himself in his writings] as autobiography." Lucian
7296-415: The antithesis of true philosophy. His Symposium is a parody of Plato's Symposium in which, instead of discussing the nature of love, the philosophers get drunk, tell smutty tales, argue relentlessly over whose school is the best, and eventually break out into a full-scale brawl. In Icaromenippus [ fi ] , the Cynic philosopher Menippus fashions a set of wings for himself in imitation of
7410-400: The author. Daniel S. Richter criticizes the frequent tendency to interpret such "Lucian-like figures" as self-inserts by the author and argues that they are, in fact, merely fictional characters Lucian uses to "think with" when satirizing conventional distinctions between Greeks and Syrians. He suggests that they are primarily a literary trope used by Lucian to deflect accusations that he as
7524-439: The book as satirical and have restored its Lucianic authorship. In the treatise, Lucian satirizes the arbitrary cultural distinctions between "Greeks" and "Assyrians" by emphasizing the manner in which Syrians have adopted Greek customs and thereby effectively become "Greeks" themselves. The anonymous narrator of the treatise initially seems to be a Greek Sophist, but, as the treatise progresses, he reveals himself to actually be
7638-568: The classical scholar R. Bracht Branham to label Lucian's highly sophisticated style "the comedy of tradition". By the time Lucian's writings were rediscovered during the Renaissance , most of the works of literature referenced in them had been lost or forgotten, making it difficult for readers of later periods to understand his works. Lucian was one of the earliest novelists in Western civilization. In A True Story ( Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα ),
7752-504: The common practice whereby Near Easterners collect massive libraries of Greek texts for the sake of appearing "cultured", but without actually reading any of them. Some of the writings attributed to Lucian, such as the Amores and the Ass , are usually not considered genuine works of Lucian and are normally cited under the name of "Pseudo-Lucian". The Ass ( Λούκιος ἢ ῎Oνος ) is probably
7866-475: The courtesans themselves are characters borrowed from the plays of Menander and other comedic playwrights. Lucian's treatise Alexander the False Prophet describes the rise of Alexander of Abonoteichus, a charlatan who claimed to be the prophet of the serpent-god Glycon . Though the account is satirical in tone, it seems to be a largely accurate report of the Glycon cult and many of Lucian's statements about
7980-502: The cult have been confirmed through archaeological evidence, including coins, statues, and inscriptions. Lucian describes his own meeting with Alexander in which he posed as a friendly philosopher, but, when Alexander invited him to kiss his hand, Lucian bit it instead. Lucian reports that, aside from himself, the only others who dared challenge Alexander's reputation as a true prophet were the Epicureans (whom he lauds as heroes) and
8094-517: The customers to buy his philosophy. In The Banquet, or Lapiths , Lucian points out the hypocrisies of representatives from all the major philosophical schools. In The Fisherman, or the Dead Come to Life , Lucian defends his other dialogues by comparing the venerable philosophers of ancient times with their unworthy contemporary followers. Lucian was often particularly critical of people who pretended to be philosophers when they really were not and his dialogue The Runaways portrays an imposter Cynic as
8208-519: The existence of the Gods, since you maintain that cures cannot be wrought by the use of holy names?' Tychiades: 'Nay, say not so, my dear Dinomachus,' I answered; 'the Gods may exist, and these things may yet be lies. I respect the Gods: I see the cures performed by them, I see their beneficence at work in restoring the sick through the medium of the medical faculty and their drugs. Asclepius , and his sons after him, compounded soothing medicines and healed
8322-550: The first half of the 3rd century. 𝔓 is the second New Testament manuscript in the Chester Beatty collection (P. II), and was a codex that contained the Pauline Epistles dated to c. 200. What remains today of the manuscript is roughly 85 out of 104 leaves consisting of Romans chapters 5–6, 8–15, all of Hebrews, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, virtually all of 1–2 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians 1–2, 5. The leaves have partially deteriorated, resulting in
8436-459: The form of codices akin to the modern book. This may have been mimicking the book-form of codices created with parchment . Early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Greco-Roman world, it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices. Codices were an improvement on the papyrus scroll, as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking, and
8550-695: The four canonical gospels and Acts. 30 fragmentary leaves remain, consisting of two small leaves of the Gospel of Matthew chapters 20/21 and 25/26, portions of the Gospel of Mark chapters 4–9, 11–12, portions of the Gospel of Luke 6–7, 9–14, portions of the Gospel of John 4–5, 10–11, and portion of the Acts of the Apostles 4–17. The ordering of the gospels follows the Western tradition, Matthew, John, Luke, Mark, Acts. These fragments are palaeographically dated to
8664-472: The handwriting as being "rather rough in character, thick in formation, and with no pretensions to calligraphy." The last manuscript in the Chester Beatty Papyri, XII, contains chapters 97-107 of the Book of Enoch and portions of an unknown Christian homily attributed to Melito of Sardis . The manuscript is placed in the 4th century. The Book of Enoch is listed as "The Epistle of Enoch" in
8778-446: The historian should remain absolutely impartial and tell the events as they really happened, even if they are likely to cause disapproval. Lucian names Thucydides as a specific example of a historian who models these virtues. In his satirical letter Passing of Peregrinus ( Περὶ τῆς Περεγρίνου Τελευτῆς ), Lucian describes the death of the controversial Cynic philosopher Peregrinus Proteus , who had publicly immolated himself on
8892-484: The inner bark of the papyrus plant. Papyrus is also the etymon of 'paper', a similar substance. In the Egyptian language , papyrus was called wadj ( w3ḏ ), tjufy ( ṯwfy ) , or djet ( ḏt ). The word for the material papyrus is also used to designate documents written on sheets of it, often rolled up into scrolls. The plural for such documents is papyri. Historical papyri are given identifying names – generally
9006-440: The long strip scrolls required, several such sheets were united and placed so all the horizontal fibres parallel with the roll's length were on one side and all the vertical fibres on the other. Normally, texts were first written on the recto , the lines following the fibres, parallel to the long edges of the scroll. Secondarily, papyrus was often reused, writing across the fibres on the verso . One source used for determining
9120-457: The loss of some lines at the bottom of each folio. The manuscript split up between the Chester Beatty Library and the University of Michigan . Scholars do not believe the Pastoral epistles were included originally in the codex, based on the amount of space required in the missing leaves; they conclude 2 Thessalonians would have occupied the final portion of the codex. The inclusion of Hebrews,
9234-412: The manuscript. Chapters 105 and 108 are not included, and scholars believe they were later additions. XII is the only Greek witness to certain parts of Enoch. As for the homily, XII was the only known copy of the text at the time of its discovery. Two manuscripts which contain the text, P. Bodmer XIII and P. Oxy. 1600, have since been found. The manuscript also contains the only manuscript witness to
9348-505: The manuscripts were in jars in a Coptic graveyard near the ruins of the ancient city of Aphroditopolis . Other theories have proposed that the collection was found near the Fayum instead of Aphroditopolis, or that the location was a Christian church or monastery instead of a graveyard. Most of the papyri were bought from a dealer by Alfred Chester Beatty , after whom the manuscripts are named, although some leaves and fragments were acquired by
9462-416: The method by which papyrus was created in antiquity is through the examination of tombs in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes , which housed a necropolis containing many murals displaying the process of papyrus-making. The Roman commander Pliny the Elder also describes the methods of preparing papyrus in his Naturalis Historia . In a dry climate , like that of Egypt, papyrus is stable, formed as it
9576-734: The most notable example of Lucian's impact in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was on the French writer François Rabelais , particularly in his set of five novels , Gargantua and Pantagruel , which was first published in 1532. Rabelais also is thought to be responsible for a primary introduction of Lucian to the French Renaissance and beyond through his translations of Lucian's works. Lucian's True Story inspired both Sir Thomas More 's Utopia (1516) and Jonathan Swift 's Gulliver's Travels (1726). Sandro Botticelli 's paintings The Calumny of Apelles and Pallas and
9690-402: The mythical Icarus and flies to Heaven, where he receives a guided tour from Zeus himself. The dialogue ends with Zeus announcing his decision to destroy all philosophers, since all they do is bicker, though he agrees to grant them a temporary reprieve until spring. Nektyomanteia is a dialogue written in parallel to Icaromenippus in which, rather than flying to Heaven, Menippus descends to
9804-835: The name of the discoverer, first owner, or institution where they are kept – and numbered, such as " Papyrus Harris I ". Often an abbreviated form is used, such as "pHarris I". These documents provide important information on ancient writings; they give us the only extant copy of Menander , the Egyptian Book of the Dead , Egyptian treatises on medicine (the Ebers Papyrus ) and on surgery (the Edwin Smith papyrus ), Egyptian mathematical treatises (the Rhind papyrus ), and Egyptian folk tales (the Westcar Papyrus ). When, in
9918-531: The philosopher Demonax eulogizes him as a great philosopher and portrays him as a hero of parrhesia ("boldness of speech"). In his treatise, How to Write History , Lucian criticizes the historical methodology used by writers such as Herodotus and Ctesias, who wrote vivid and self-indulgent descriptions of events they had never actually seen. Instead, Lucian argues that the historian never embellish his stories and should place his commitment to accuracy above his desire to entertain his audience. He also argues
10032-600: The philosopher Demonax , who was a philosophical eclectic , but whose ideology most closely resembled Cynicism. Demonax's main divergence from the Cynics was that he did not disapprove of ordinary life. Paul Turner observes that Lucian's Cynicus reads as a straightforward defense of Cynicism, but also remarks that Lucian savagely ridicules the Cynic philosopher Peregrinus in his Passing of Peregrinus . Lucian also greatly admired Epicurus , whom he describes in Alexander
10146-487: The reign of Emperor Commodus (180–192), the aging Lucian may have been appointed to a lucrative government position in Egypt. After this point, he disappears from the historical record entirely, and nothing is known about his death. Lucian's philosophical views are difficult to categorize due to his persistent use of irony and sarcasm. In The Fisherman , Lucian describes himself as a champion of philosophy and throughout his other writings he characterizes philosophy as
10260-530: The same codex, resulting in a total of seven Old Testament manuscripts in the collection, all following the text of the Septuagint (an early Greek translation of the Old Testament). There are three New Testament manuscripts that are part of the Chester Beatty Papyri. The first, P. I, is labelled under the Gregory-Åland numbering system as 𝔓 , and was originally a codex of 110 leaves that contained
10374-590: The sick, – without the lion's-skin-and-field-mouse process.' According to Everett Ferguson , Lucian was strongly influenced by the Cynics . The Dream or the Cock , Timon the Misanthrope , Charon or Inspectors , and The Downward Journey or the Tyrant all display Cynic themes. Lucian was particularly indebted to Menippus , a Cynic philosopher and satirist of the third century BC. Lucian wrote an admiring biography of
10488-408: The superfine Augustan, which was produced in sheets of 13 digits (10 inches) wide, to the least expensive and most coarse, measuring six digits (four inches) wide. Materials deemed unusable for writing or less than six digits were considered commercial quality and were pasted edge to edge to be used only for wrapping. The English word "papyrus" derives, via Latin , from Greek πάπυρος ( papyros ),
10602-651: The supernatural by telling him stories, which grow increasingly ridiculous as the conversation progresses. One of the last stories they tell is " The Sorcerer's Apprentice ", which the German playwright Goethe later adapted into a famous ballad. Lucian frequently made fun of philosophers and no school was spared from his mockery. In the dialogue Philosophies for Sale , Lucian creates an imaginary slave market in which Zeus puts famous philosophers up for sale, including Pythagoras, Diogenes, Heraclitus , Socrates , Chrysippus , and Pyrrho , each of whom attempts to persuade
10716-488: The surface. The main advantage of papyrus had been its cheaper raw material — the papyrus plant is easy to cultivate in a suitable climate and produces more writing material than animal hides (the most expensive books, made from foetal vellum would take up to dozens of bovine fetuses to produce). However, as trade networks declined, the availability of papyrus outside the range of the papyrus plant became limited and it thus lost its cost advantage. Papyrus' last appearance in
10830-460: The teachings of master rhetoricians. His treatise On Dancing is a major source of information about Greco-Roman dance. In it, he describes dance as an act of mimesis ("imitation") and rationalizes the myth of Proteus as being nothing more than an account of a highly skilled Egyptian dancer. He also wrote about visual arts in Portraits and On Behalf of Portraits . Lucian's biography of
10944-594: The time when Lucian lived, traditional Greco-Roman religion was in decline and its role in society had become largely ceremonial. As a substitute for traditional religion, many people in the Hellenistic world joined mystery cults , such as the Mysteries of Isis , Mithraism , the cult of Cybele , and the Eleusinian Mysteries . Superstition had always been common throughout ancient society, but it
11058-556: The tourist trade was developed in 1962 by the Egyptian engineer Hassan Ragab using plants that had been reintroduced into Egypt in 1872 from France. Both Sicily and Egypt have centres of limited papyrus production. Papyrus is still used by communities living in the vicinity of swamps, to the extent that rural householders derive up to 75% of their income from swamp goods. Particularly in East and Central Africa, people harvest papyrus, which
11172-406: The underworld to consult the prophet Tiresias . Lucian wrote numerous dialogues making fun of traditional Greek stories about the gods. His Dialogues of the Gods ( Θεῶν Διάλογοι ) consists of numerous short vignettes parodying a variety of the scenes from Greek mythology . The dialogues portray the gods as comically weak and prone to all the foibles of human emotion. Zeus in particular
11286-562: 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
11400-579: The wild. During the 1920s, when Egyptologist Battiscombe Gunn lived in Maadi , outside Cairo, he experimented with the manufacture of papyrus, growing the plant in his garden. He beat the sliced papyrus stalks between two layers of linen and produced successful examples of papyrus, one of which was exhibited in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The modern technique of papyrus production used in Egypt for
11514-769: The works of François Rabelais , William Shakespeare 's Timon of Athens and Jonathan Swift 's Gulliver's Travels . Lucian is not mentioned in any contemporary texts or inscriptions written by others and he is not included in Philostratus 's Lives of the Sophists . As a result of this, everything that is known about Lucian comes exclusively from his own writings. A variety of characters with names very similar to Lucian, including "Lukinos", "Lukianos", "Lucius", and "The Syrian" appear throughout Lucian's writings. These have been frequently interpreted by scholars and biographers as "masks", "alter-egos", or "mouthpieces" of
11628-459: The works of Lucian as there were for the writings of Plato and Plutarch . By ridiculing plutocracy as absurd, Lucian helped facilitate one of Renaissance humanism's most basic themes. His Dialogues of the Dead were especially popular and were widely used for moral instruction. As a result of this popularity, Lucian's writings had a profound influence on writers from the Renaissance and
11742-539: Was Manbog and that the city was closely associated with the cults of Atargatis and Hadad . A Jewish rabbi later listed the temple at Hierapolis as one of the five most important pagan temples in the Near East. Macrobii ("Long-Livers") is an essay about famous philosophers who lived for many years. It describes how long each of them lived, and gives an account of each of their deaths. In his treatises Teacher of Rhetoric and On Salaried Posts , Lucian criticizes
11856-614: Was Theodore Prodromos . In the Norman–Arab–Byzantine culture of twelfth-century Sicily , Lucian influenced the Greek authors Philagathus of Cerami and Eugenius of Palermo . In the West, Lucian's writings were mostly forgotten during the Middle Ages . When they were rediscovered in the West around 1400, they immediately became popular with the Renaissance humanists . By 1400, there were just as many Latin translations of
11970-462: Was a Hellenized Syrian satirist , rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was probably Syriac , all of his extant works are written entirely in ancient Greek (mostly in the Attic Greek dialect popular during
12084-528: Was born in the town of Samosata on the banks of the Euphrates on the far eastern outskirts of the Roman Empire. Samosata had been the capital of the kingdom of Commagene until 72 AD when it was annexed by Vespasian and became part of the Roman province of Syria. The population of the town was mostly Syrian and Lucian's native tongue was probably Syriac, a form of Middle Aramaic . During
12198-620: Was during this decade that Lucian composed nearly all his most famous works. Lucian wrote exclusively in Greek, mainly in the Attic Greek popular during the Second Sophistic, but On the Syrian Goddess , which is attributed to Lucian, is written in a highly successful imitation of Herodotus' Ionic Greek , leading some scholars to believe that Lucian may not be the real author. For unknown reasons, Lucian stopped writing around 175 and began travelling and lecturing again. During
12312-511: Was especially prevalent during the second century. Most educated people of Lucian's time adhered to one of the various Hellenistic philosophies , of which the major ones were Stoicism , Platonism , Peripateticism , Pyrrhonism , and Epicureanism . Every major town had its own 'university' and these 'universities' often employed professional travelling lecturers, who were frequently paid high sums of money to lecture about various philosophical teachings. The most prestigious center of learning
12426-650: Was excavated in 2012 and 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf , an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. These documents, the Diary of Merer , date from c. 2560 –2550 BCE (end of the reign of Khufu ). The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza . For multiple millennia, papyrus was commonly rolled into scrolls as a form of storage. However, at some point late in its history, papyrus began being collected together in
12540-570: Was made at Herculaneum in 1752. Until then, the only papyri known had been a few surviving from medieval times. Scholarly investigations began with the Dutch historian Caspar Jacob Christiaan Reuvens (1793–1835). He wrote about the content of the Leyden papyrus , published in 1830. The first publication has been credited to the British scholar Charles Wycliffe Goodwin (1817–1878), who published for
12654-539: Was positive. He was perhaps the only ancient author openly hostile to Christianity to be received positively by the Byzantines. He was regarded as not merely a pagan, but an atheist . Even so, "Lucian the atheist gave way to Lucian the master of style." From the eleventh century, he was a part of the school curriculum. There was a "Lucianic revival" in the twelfth century. The preeminent Lucianic author of this period, who imitated Lucian's style in his own works,
12768-472: Was preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius but has only been partially excavated. Sporadic attempts to revive the manufacture of papyrus have been made since the mid-18th century. Scottish explorer James Bruce experimented in the late 18th century with papyrus plants from Sudan , for papyrus had become extinct in Egypt. Also in the 18th century, Sicilian Saverio Landolina manufactured papyrus at Syracuse , where papyrus plants had continued to grow in
12882-511: Was the city of Athens in Greece, which had a long intellectual history. According to Lucian's oration The Dream , which classical scholar Lionel Casson states he probably delivered as an address upon returning to Samosata at the age of thirty-five or forty after establishing his reputation as a great orator, Lucian's parents were lower middle class and his uncles owned a local statue-making shop. Lucian's parents could not afford to give him
12996-472: Was then dried under pressure. After drying, the sheet was polished with a rounded object, possibly a stone, seashell , or round hardwood. Sheets, or Mollema, could be cut to fit the obligatory size or glued together to create a longer roll. The point where the Mollema are joined with glue is called the kollesis. A wooden stick would be attached to the last sheet in a roll, making it easier to handle. To form
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