The poetics of travel in Luciano of Samósata

Abstract

In this article, we will observe that the narrators of many of Luciano's works present themselves as a foreigner who finds foreign things in his path, looking and be looking with curiosity and amazement. In his texts, we will see that there are various levels of threats and intercultural contacts: from the alterity by the Selenites and other inhabitants of unusual lands and fabulous spaces, to the encounters with the same, with the Greco-Roman tradition figured by Homer, Virgil and others. In this multitude of characters summoned to the lucianic narratives, most are lost in sameness, while others begin to aspire to a vision or existence outside their own universe of understanding. Surrounding these and other aspects, we will observe how Luciano goes through the terms history and fiction to ironically represent the various parallels in the clash between the mythical unity of the fatherland and the mediating logic of the foreigner, which removes spaces, customs and meanings.