True History

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True History

True History or True Story (Greek: Ἀληθῶν διηγημάτων) is a travel tale by Lucian of Samosata, the earliest known fiction about travelling to the Moon.

In True History, Lucian and a company of adventuring heroes sailing westward through the Pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar) are blown off course by a strong wind, and after 79 days come to an island. This island is home to a river of wine filled with fish, and bears a marker indicating that Heracles and Dionysos have traveled to this point.

Shortly after leaving the island, they are lifted up by a giant waterspout and deposited on the Moon. There they find themselves embroiled in a full-scale war between the king of the Moon and the king of the Sun, involving armies which boast such exotica as stalk-and-mushroom men, acorn-dogs, and cloud-centaurs. Unusually, the Sun, Moon, stars and planets are portrayed as locales, each with its unique geographic details and inhabitants.

After returning to the Earth, the adventurers become trapped in a giant whale; they reach a sea of milk, an island of cheese and the isle of the blessed, where a whole host of heroes and literary figures are found.

At the end of the second book they discover a far off continent and set out to explore it. Lucian says all will be explained in the next book, which, as one later scholiast writes^{[citation needed]}, "was the biggest lie of all" (for there is no third book).

Although some see True History as a forerunner to modern fantasy and science fiction, Lucian intended it to be a form of literary criticism, a satire against contemporary and ancient sources which quote fantastic and mythical events as truth. Many characters and events are exaggerated to ridiculous ends to mock the original tellings. As noted by classicist B.P. Reardon, "above all, it is a parody of literary 'liars' like Homer and Herodotus" (Collected Ancient Greek Novels, B.P. Reardon, ed., page 619).

Lucian intended True History to mock the efforts of previous writers who wrote of fantastic journeys. He mentions the tales of Ctesias, Iambulus, and Homer and states that "what did surprise me was their supposition that nobody would notice they were lying." Lucian goes on to state that the story recounted in True History is about "things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." (Ibid., page 622). Although Lucian intended the tale in True History to be entertaining, and many readers have enjoyed it as such, his ultimate goal was to parody the outlandish tales of his time.