Publisher's Synopsis
A handful of fragments is all that remains of the writings of Menippus, the third-century BCE provocateur of the Greek Cynic movement. The Western literary tradition knows him through Lucian, the Greek satirist who lived and worked four hundred years later.
Included in this book are Joel Relihan's lively English translations of Lucian's three reanimations of Menippus-fantastic narratives and comic dialogues set in heaven and hell:
- Menippus; or, The Consultation of the Corpses
- Icaromenippus; or, A Man above the Clouds
- The Colloquies of the Corpses (Dialogues of the Dead)
Not only is it time to give Lucian's Menippus a fresh look and a thorough reevaluation, but also to consider how Lucian's imitations and innovations adumbrate, illuminate, and complicate the history of that enigmatic genre, Menippean satire.
