ANCIENT SCIENCE FICTION: ICAROMENIPPUS & TRUE HISTORY (BOTH C 150 A.D.)

These two works were written by Lucian, the Greek philosopher and satirist who lived in the 2nd century A.D. Lucian was noted not just for his philosophical observations but also for two works that defied definition by his contemporaries but would easily fall into the category of science fiction today. Both works are from roughly 150 A.D. and feature trips to the moon by pseudo-scientific means.   

1. ICAROMENIPPUS – The title, obviously, was inspired by the myth about Icarus using wings crafted by his father Daedalus to fly too close to the sun, which hubristic act led to his death. In this work Lucian depicted his hero Menippus using one wing from a large eagle and one from a large vulture to fly to Mt. Olympus, and from there to the moon.

He discovered that the moon (on which he could breathe just like on Earth) was populated by the souls of the deceased (roughly twelve hundred years before Dante’s Paradiso). From the moon Menippus made the astonishing observation that the Earth was round and not flat, in a wry addition to the then-ongoing philosophical debate about the subject.

Impressed with his own successes so far, Menippus decided to fly to the sun, but since his wings were not held together by wax (like Icarus’ wings) there was no danger of them melting, so the gods were forced to intervene. They confiscated Menippus’ wings and sent him back to the Earth so he could no longer “tamper in God’s domain”. (Bad movie buffs will get it)

2. TRUE HISTORY – In this sarcastically- titled work Lucian told the tale of a ship exploring the Atlantic in search of new worlds. The ship was caught on top of an erupting waterspout which lifted it far up into the sky, from which point winds carried it to the moon.

Unlike the moon Lucian gave us in Icaromenippus this lunar world was inhabited by moon people ruled by the Moon King. This monarch was engaged in an imperial war with the Sun King (no, not THAT one, French scholars) over which of them would get to expand their empire by colonizing the planet Jupiter.

And that was after an earlier clash between the Sun and Moon kingdoms over the planet Venus. So right from the start science fiction premises were being used to offer political and social commentary disguised as whimsical fantasy. In Lucian’s case it was also used to comment on literary narrative devices.

True History also featured moon beings who were half-woman, half grapevine, and whose kisses would make a man drunk. On the grotesque side, moon men sweated pure milk and the snot from their nose was like honey.

BALLADEER’S BLOG

Because the moon women had grapevine anatomies where their reproductive organs would have been, the men of the moon gave birth to babies from their calves. A swelling in one’s calves indicated a pregnancy. At the end of the gestation period the calf was cut open to deliver the infant.

Other lunar humanoids called Arboreals reproduced by cutting off one of a male’s testicles and planting it like a seed. From those seeds grew a fleshy tree which Lucian irreverently gives a phallic shape. Nuts (actual nuts this time) grew from the tree, and when shelled the nuts were revealed to have babies inside them.   

After encounters with giant lunar birds who had grass bodies and leaves for wings, archers flying on horse-sized fleas, three-headed vultures, and people with artificially manufactured genitals (I swear!) the crew at last sailed safely back to Earth.

As a very early example of sequel-bait, Lucian promised a follow-up tale but never got around to writing it.

In my opinion, these two works by Lucian are delightful and they inspired me to start Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring segment Ancient Science Fiction in the first place back in 2011. They were also the subject of my first post on this topic.

And given how rapidly science advances now, that’s why I include a lot of works that are just over a hundred years old in this “ancient” category.     

FOR MORE “ANCIENT” SCIENCE FICTION CLICK HERE.