Source edition
Lucian, Vol. 3. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This dialogue set in heaven and Athens satirizes the hypocrisy of contemporary philosophical schools and verbal arts through a series of courtroom trials organized by the gods to resolve backlogged disputes. The story begins when Zeus, lamenting the exhausting duties of the deities, dispatches Hermes and Dike, the goddess of justice, to Athens' Areopagus to hold court. In the trials, various personified concepts and schools, such as "Drunkenness" against "Academia" and "Stoicism" against "Pleasure" (Hedone), engage in humorous and dialectical debates. Finally, a "Syrian" (representing the author himself), who is accused of abandoning "Rhetoric" for "Dialogue" (Dialogos), stands trial as the final defendant. The Syrian defends himself by arguing that he rescued the formerly dry and abstract Dialogue from the heights of philosophy, infusing it with comedy and humor to make it accessible to the public. By winning the trial with overwhelming support through his self-defense, the work concludes by justifying the author's own literary style and creative transition.