Mantik, Rhetorik und Poetologie

Abstract

Abstract Lucian’s dialogue with Hesiod appears to be a straightforward dispute on a defined topic in which the poet rather awkwardly defends himself against a most legitimate charge and ends up being justly convicted by Lycinus. Upon closer investigation, however, one can detect several remarkable subtexts that make the dialogue a sophisticated pleasure for learned readers. This paper discusses three possible subtexts: mantic, rhetoric, and poetology. Seen against this backdrop, Lucian’s Hesiod emerges as a pretentious mantis, rhetor and (maybe) poetologist, who, in a certain sense, can be compared to the pretentious πεπαιδευµένοι attacked in so many of Lucian’s works.