SOURCE: “The Satirical Elements in Greek Literature” in Studies in Classical Satire and Related Literary Theory, E. J. Brill, 1965, pp. 90-116.

In the following excerpt, Van Rooy argues that it is a common error to regard Bion as a satirist; instead, he should be considered a moralist and a preacher.

… It is time for me to halt on the long road which, with many byways, leads from the true satire of the Archilochian Iambus through the partial satire of Aristophanic comedy and the semi-satire of the diatribe, the satiric moralising and satiric parody of the Hellenistic period, to the pseudo-satire of Lucian¹. But perhaps a few remarks in retrospect and prospect will not be out of place.

In the Archaic Age the iambic satire of Archilochus is the critical, mainly serious, self-expression of an individual who as it were with one blow has cut loose the bonds of...