Works, vol 3

Works, vol 3

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Works, V3, by Lucian of Samosata
#3 in our series by Lucian of Samosata
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: Works, V3
Author: Lucian of Samosata
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6829] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 28,
2003]
Edition: 10

Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS, V3
***

Produced by Robert Nield, Tom Allen, Charles Franks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

THE WORKS OF LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA
Complete with exceptions specified in the preface
TRANSLATED BY
H. W. FOWLER AND F. G. FOWLER
VOLUME III
OF FOUR VOLUMES
What work nobler than transplanting foreign thought into the barren
domestic soil? except indeed planting thought of your own, which the
fewest are privileged to do.--Sartor Resartus.
At each flaw, be this your first thought: the author doubtless said
something quite different, and much more to the point. And then you
may hiss me off, if you will.--LUCIAN, Nigrinus, 9.
(LUCIAN) The last great master of Attic eloquence and Attic wit.--
Lord Macaulay.

CONTENTS OF VOL. III
LIFE OF DEMONAX
A PORTRAIT-STUDY
DEFENCE OF THE 'PORTRAIT-STUDY'
TOXARIS: A DIALOGUE OF FRIENDSHIP
ZEUS CROSS-EXAMINED
ZEUS TRAGOEDUS
THE COCK
ICAROMENIPPUS, AN AERIAL EXPEDITION
THE DOUBLE INDICTMENT
THE PARASITE, A DEMONSTRATION THAT SPONGING IS A

PROFESSION
ANACHARSIS, A DISCUSSION OF PHYSICAL TRAINING
OF MOURNING
THE RHETORICIAN'S VADE MECUM
THE LIAR
DIONYSUS, AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE
HERACLES, AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE
SWANS AND AMBER
THE FLY, AN APPRECIATION
REMARKS ADDRESSED TO AN ILLITERATE BOOK-FANCIER
ALPHABETICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIFE OF DEMONAX
It was in the book of Fate that even this age of ours should not be
destitute entirely of noteworthy and memorable men, but produce a
body of extraordinary power, and a mind of surpassing wisdom. My
allusions are to Sostratus the Boeotian, whom the Greeks called, and
believed to be, Heracles; and more particularly to the philosopher
Demonax. I saw and marvelled at both of them, and with the latter I
long consorted. I have written of Sostratus elsewhere [Footnote: The
life of Sostratus is not extant.], and described his stature and enormous
strength, his open-air life on Parnassus, sleeping on the grass and eating
what the mountain afforded, the exploits that bore out his
surname--robbers exterminated, rough places made smooth, and deep
waters bridged.
This time I am to write of Demonax, with two sufficient ends in view:
first, to keep his memory green among good men, as far as in me lies;
and secondly, to provide the most earnest of our rising generation, who
aspire to philosophy, with a contemporary pattern, that they may not be
forced back upon the ancients for worthy models, but imitate this
best--if I am any judge--of all philosophers.
He came of a Cyprian family which enjoyed considerable property and
political influence. But his views soared above such things as these; he
claimed nothing less than the highest, and devoted himself to
philosophy. This was not due to any exhortations of Agathobulus, his
predecessor Demetrius, or Epictetus. He did indeed enjoy the converse
of all these, as well as of Timocrates of Heraclea, that wise man whose

gifts of expression and of understanding were equal. It was not,
however, to the exhortations of any of these, but to a natural impulse
towards the good, an innate yearning for philosophy which manifested
itself in childish years, that he owed his superiority to all the things that
ordinary men pursue. He took independence and candour for his
guiding principles, lived himself an upright, wholesome, irreproachable
life, and exhibited to all who saw or heard him the model of his own
disposition and philosophic sincerity.
He was no half-baked enthusiast either; he had lived with the poets, and
knew most of them by heart; he was a practised speaker; he had a
knowledge of philosophic principles not of the superficial skin-deep
order;