|
Lucian of Samosa
(c. 0125 - c. 0180)
Assyrian writer and satirist who wrote a precursor to science fiction, A True Historyy, describing a fantastic voyage to the Moon, alien life-forms, and a war the king of the Moon and the king of the Sun. It was written to mock the truthfulness or speculations in narratives of his time.
|
Science Quotes by Lucian of Samosa (3 quotes)
Deus ex machina.
A God from the machine.
From the original in Greek.
A God from the machine.
From the original in Greek.
— Lucian of Samosa
Philopseudes, 29; De Mercede Conductis, I; Hermotimus, 86.
Deus ex machina.
[The God from the machine.]
[The God from the machine.]
— Lucian of Samosa
In 'Philopseudes', Sec. 29, as well as in 'Hermotimus', Sec. 86 (c.170 AD). Meaning: In ancient Greek or Roman drama, a god introduced into a play to resolve the entanglements of the plot (and could be lowered by stage crane machinery). In fiction, any artificial or improbable device contriving a solution to difficulties of a plot.
Three thousand stadia from the earth to the moon,—the first station. From thence to the sun about five hundred parasangs. ... Marvel not, my comrade, if I appear talking to you on super-terrestrial and aerial topics. The long and the short of the matter is that I am running over the order of a Journey I have lately made. ... I have travelled in the stars.
One of the earliest examples of what might be regarded as science fiction.
One of the earliest examples of what might be regarded as science fiction.
— Lucian of Samosa
Icaromennipus, or the Aerial Jaunt in Ainsworth Rand Spofford (ed.), Rufus Edmonds Shapley (ed.) The Library of Wit and Humor, Prose and Poetry, Selected from the Literature of all Times and Nations (1894), vol. 4, 282-283. A shortened quote is on the title page of H. G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon (1901).
Quotes by others about Lucian of Samosa (1)
What now, dear reader, shall we make of our telescope? Shall we make a Mercury’s magic wand to cross the liquid aether with, and like Lucian lead a colony to the uninhabitied evening star, allured by the sweetness of the place?
In Preface to Dioptrics (1611), 86. Collected in Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Edward Stafford Carlos (trans.), The Sidereal Messenger of Galileo Galilei: And a Part of the Preface to Kepler’s Dioptrics (1880), 103.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
