SOURCE: "Lucian as Menippean Satirist" in Chaucer and Menippean Satire, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1981, pp. 38-54.

In the following excerpt, Payne surveys Lucian's Menippean satires, focusing on their exuberant mockery of philosophy, religion, and life in general.

Lucian's works provide a focal point for assessing the traits of Menippean satire, not only because numbers of complete dialogues, labeled Menippean, survive, but also because his interest in philosophy and philosophers and the problems and abuses of both makes his works an obvious parallel to and possible source of Boethius' Consolation.¹ Which of Lucian's individual works are classified as Menippean satires varies from critic to critic, but the rough rules of thumb that dictate different writers' selections are (1) Lucian's use of prose and verse in the work, (2) the appearance of Menippus as a character, (3) the tradition that Menippus had written on a similar topic, and (4) the imprint of Cynic...