The story in one page
Observing that historians prefer inventive fabrication to reality, the narrator decides to outdo them by documenting a series of impossible voyages. After a storm carries his ship into the air, he visits the Moon, where he participates in a conflict between sky-faring armies. Returning to the sea, his crew is swallowed by a whale large enough to sustain internal forests and warring tribes. Eventually, they reach an island where the dead occupy their time with poetry, feasting, and debating, all while drinking from wells of laughter. These accounts of giant spiders, vulture-riders, and aquatic encounters are presented with the clinical, mundane detachment of a standard travelogue, meticulously chronicling adventures that defy every law of navigation.
Who's who
- Lucian
The narrator who insists that his only truth is that he lies.
- Endymion
The ruler of the Moon who directs his forces during the conflict against the Sun.
- Socrates
A philosopher found prattling with beautiful youths in the afterlife.
- Rhadamanthus
The judge of the dead who oversees the inhabitants and periodically warns Socrates about his behavior.
- Homer
A poet questioned in the afterlife about his disputed birthplace.
What it's really about
- Satire
- A mockery of ancient historians who claimed myths were true.
- Imagination
- The rejection of reality in favor of increasingly absurd inventions.
Why it's memorable
- A battle fought with giant turnips and shields made of enormous mushrooms.
- A ship sailing through a forest that grows directly out of the ocean's surface.
The ending, explained
Spoilers — show the ending
After escaping a tribe of ass-legged women, the crew is shipwrecked on a new continent and the narrator promises a sequel.
For your book club
- Is this the world's first science fiction story or just a long joke?
- How does the narrator's admission of lying change the reader's perspective on the text?