The autobiographical piece The Dream provides an interesting insight into the satirist Lucian’s early life and professional development. In the work, young Lucian has a dream in which he must decide between following a career of education (paideia) or of craftwork (technê). Each career appears to him personified as a woman and they offer various rewards should he choose to follow their career path. Relying on Prodicus’ allegorical debate between Virtue (Aretê) and Vice (Kakia) over young Heracles as influence, Lucian presents a peculiar outcome to this traditional motif. Lucian eventually chooses to follow the woman of paideia and she proceeds to make him rich and famous throughout the world. Although Lucian seems pleased with his choice, considering the treatments of personified Education and Craft and the heavy irony that persists throughout, there is ambiguity whether he chose the correct woman. This thesis seeks to analyze Lucian's Dream in light of its allusions to Prodicus’ original debate and other similar ones in Lucian's other works to attempt to determine if Lucian is really as pleased in his choice to follow education as he claims.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign