Extraordinary Journeys, Lucien, Hélène Monsacré, Jacques Bompaire, Anne-Marie Ozanam

"Since I had nothing true to tell, having never experienced anything interesting, I turned to lies."
Born in Commagene, Lucian nevertheless traveled throughout the Mediterranean Basin. But this space is too narrow for him. Like one of his heroes, Chiron, he yearns to escape monotony. He thus takes us to the Moon, into the belly of a whale, onto a sea populated by monstrous creatures, and even into the depths of the earth, into the strange kingdom of the dead.
These texts, where fantasy triumphs, also offer us a literary journey, nourished by countless references. They are placed under the patronage of Odysseus, "master of such tall tales." Their legacy is immense. The Dialogues of the Dead created a literary genre still exploited today. The True Histories inspired Rabelais, Cyrano de Bergerac, Swift... And Lucian's wit, even when he speaks of death, is a stimulating call to life.