Poets and Teachers in the Underworld: From the Lucianic katabasis to the Timarion

Abstract

Building on the classical tradition, which was strongly emulated in the Second Sophistic, Lucian used the katabasis motif (as we know it from, e.g., the Odyssey’s book 11) and staged various meetings in Hades. These Lucianic encounters were later rewritten by Byzantine authors who adapted them in order to express comical, critical, or subversive approaches towards power structures. In the present article, special focus will be placed on twelfth-century Byzantium and the anonymous dialogue Timarion. It is argued that the author of the Timarion used the Second Sophistic tradition of Lucian in order to discuss contemporary questions of the Greek literary and rhetorical heritage. He created a fictional space that displayed ancient learning and allowed discussions of contemporary culture in a textual parody with satirical functions.