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=                            A_True_Story                            =
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                            Introduction
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'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
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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 200 mi
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".


Satire
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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
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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
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* 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen', a 1988 film by Terry Gilliam
with various plot similarities.
* History of science fiction
* Meropis
* Moon in science fiction


General and cited references
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                           External links
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* [https://books.google.com/books?id=1HENAAAAYAAJ 'Lucian's True
History'] at google books
*
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl2/wl211.htm 'A True History']
at sacred-texts.com
* , with facing Greek text, at ancientlibrary.com
* [http://lucianofsamosata.info/ Lucian of Samosata Project] -
Articles, timeline, maps, library, and themes
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45858 The book] at Project
Gutenberg
*


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