2016/04/01 by Kerry Lefebvre
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Classical Antiquity Studies #Renaissance Literature and Culture #Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
paper · doi:10.5406/illiclasstud.41.1.0201
openalex publication_date 2016/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract Lucian’s Nigrinus poses difficult questions of interpretation: is this work serious or satirical? If Lucian is writing satire, what or whom exactly is he mocking? I argue that Lucian has given us linguistic clues about interpreting the Nigrinus through his use of words related to the stage and theater: Lucian consistently uses such language to highlight fraud at key moments in the Alexander, Peregrinus, and Nigrinus. By reading these works synoptically, we discover that Lucian employs theatrical language in the Nigrinus to expose and mock a variety of figures, including Nigrinus, the convert, false philosophers, and perhaps his readers as well.