In Search of the Sorcerer's Apprentice: The Traditional Tales of Lucian's Lover of Lies

by Daniel Ogden

In Search of the Sorcerer's Apprentice is the first book in English to be devoted to Lucian's Philopseudes or Lover of Lies (ca. 170s AD). It comprises an extensive discussion, with full translation, on this engaging and satirical Greek text with its ten tales of magic and ghosts. One of these is the famous story of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and this conveys the flavour of the rest. In other tales a plague of snakes is blasted with a miraculous scorching breath, a woman is drawn to her admirer by an animated cupid doll, and a haunted house is cleansed of its monstrous ghost. The Philopseudes stands at the intersection of three of the liveliest fields in the study of magic, traditional narratives, and the Lucianic oeuvre itself. Ogden's expertise in all three of these fields enables him to build sophisticated analyses for each of the tales and to place them sensitively in their historical, cultural and literary contexts. Among the themes of the work are Lucian's methods of adapting motifs from traditional narratives, and the text's overlooked Cynic voice.

319 pages, Hardcover

First published December 28, 2007

About the author

Professor of Ancient History; Honorary Research Fellow, UNISA



Principal research areas:

(1) traditional narratives in antiquity;

(2) Greek religion;

(3) Macedonian and Hellenistic Dynasties.

Reviews

[Ryan Denson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel Ogden provides a remarkably thorough examination of the ten tales found in Lucian’s satirical Philopseudes (Φιλοψευδὴς) or “Lover of Lies,” as it is most commonly known as in English. Lucian’s text is a short entertaining read that takes the form of a parody of Plato’s Symposium. A man named Tychiades recalls a recent gathering at the house of Eucrates. Tychiades expresses his skepticism of stories about people’s encounters with the supernatural. Eucrates and the other guests then tell him a series of stories in an attempt to convince him of the veracity of such things. This proves to be a lively text due to the whimsical nature of the tales and the sarcastic wit of Tychiades, who ultimately leaves the party in disbelief that men could actually believe such things.

Ogden’s analysis highlights that there are many layers of meaning to this seemingly simple and straightforward text. He devotes a chapter to each of the tales and convincingly showes how there is a strong connection to ancient folklore and other folk traditions in most of these tales. Ogden does a magnificent job at describing each individual motif for the tales and their background in antiquity. This reveals many recurrent themes like the recycling of characters in the Lucianic corpus and underlying Cynic ideology. Many of the tales are shown to be part of a larger tradition, such as the link between the Chaldean snake-blaster story and Christian hagiographies that pit various saints against snakes/dragons. Ogden’s book is certainly a worthwhile read for anyone interested in folklore or the way stories change and adapt throughout the years.