The Absurd 2nd Century Space Opera You'll Never Read

[matthun]

Not only did he write about space, he also ended on a cliffhanger and never made a sequel. He was truly way ahead of his time.

[feralcyborggaming]

"I confidently pronounce that truthfully, I lie"

How ballsy to tell people everything you're about to say is false and then follow it up with "stay tuned for part 2". I love it.

[johnpooky]

I first heard the line "There are no women on the Moon", in Yu-Gi-Oh! Abridged. I figured it was a reference to something, but I had no idea that it would be a 2000-year old sci-fi story.

[Gabriel]

Big fan of having an unimagineably large battle with millions dying only for the kings afterwards to decide "yknow we could also just be friends".

[JuniperJadePR]

It's amazing to know that sequel baiting has been a thing since ancient times.

[alexstrickler]

Sounds like Lucian would have loved hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

[markymark]

"There are no women on the moon."
In Lucian's defense, this is still entirely correct.

[kuroazrael]

"I confidently pronounce that truthfully, I lie" That was cleaver

[MONEYPYROgaming]

"This is Lucien's greatest lie of all". That scholar was so damn disappointed that he never wrote another book

[Game_Hero]

The fact everyone speaks greek feels like the "you speak the universal language, english" joke before its time (aka isolated aliens from distant space that, even upon first meeting mankind, are nontheless already fluent in English for some reason).

[Jedijax]

OH. MY. GOD. This is has Monty Python written all over it! How has it never been turned into a movie?! I guarantee 80% of the satire is still relevant nowadays!!

[viridiantheforest]

I love how it sounds like the scholar is so miffed. Like he was really into it and was upset about being left on a cliffhanger.

[flipadavis]

Lucian of Samosata, the father of the legal rider: “This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

[leftygurl]

i love this so much, he starts it out by saying “this is a bit, im doing a bit” and proceeds to write the weirdest story ever, and knowing the kind of shit people would spew about foreign lands way back then, it’s absolutely hilarious

[justinbradley]

"he never wrote a sequel".

Damn. I didn't realize people were satirizing George RR Martin back in the 2nd century.

[reo_]

MF invented SciFi, satire, shitposting, mpreg and unresolved cliffhangers all in one book. Legend.

[Dirtyblue]

12:35 - That's one reference that _wasn't_ lost to time! Cloudcuckooland is from Aristophanes' satirical play _The Birds, _ in which the birds of the earth decide to build a city in the clouds and blockade the air so that the steam of humanity's sacrifices to the gods can't reach the heavens, starving the gods out and forcing them to negotiate a deal with the new kingdom of birds.

[Huggbees]

This is absolutely incredible. We need more stories of "whatever shit I could make up on the spot to make fun of my contemporaries" in pop culture.

[yaitz]

"Plato was not there. It is said that he was living in an imaginary city under the constitution and laws that he himself wrote."
RIP my sides. Two thumbs up to Lucian the Great.

[InsolentCrow]

My man had me flabbergasted when instead of ending the story when the characters got back to earth from the moon he hit us with "and this is where they get swallowed by a whale!"