Argo
In Greek mythology, Argo was the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. She was named after Argus. Argo was constructed by the shipwright Argus, its crew were specially protected by the goddess Hera; the best source for the myth is the Argonautica by Apollonius Rhodius. According to a variety of sources of the legend, Argo was said to have been planned or constructed with the help of Athena. According to certain sources, Argo was the first ship to sail the seas, it was Athena who taught Tiphys to attach the sails to the mast, as he was the steersman and would need an absolute knowledge of the workings of the ship. According to other legends, she contained in her prow a magical piece of timber from the sacred forest of Dodona, which could speak and render prophecies. After her successful journey, Argo was consecrated to Poseidon in the Isthmus of Corinth, she was translated into the sky and turned into the constellation Argo Navis. Several authors of antiquity discussed the hypothetical shape of the ship.
She was imagined like a Greek warship, a galley, authors hypothesized that she was the first ship of this type that had gone out on a high-sea voyage. Voyage of the Argo – slideshow by The First Post
Krater
A krater or crater was a large vase in Ancient Greece used for watering down wine. At a Greek symposium, kraters were placed in the center of the room, they were quite large, so they were not portable when filled. Thus, the wine-water mixture would be withdrawn from the krater with other vessels, such as a kyathos, an amphora, or a kylix. In fact, Homer's Odyssey describes a steward drawing wine from a krater at a banquet and running to and fro pouring the wine into guests' drinking cups; the modern Greek word now used for undiluted wine, originates from the krasis of wine and water in kraters. Kraters were glazed on the interior to make the surface of the clay more impervious for holding water, for aesthetic reasons, since the interior could be seen; the exterior of kraters depicted scenes from Greek life, such as the Attic Late 1 Krater, made between 760 and 735 B. C. E; this object was found among other funeral objects, its exterior depicted a funeral procession to the gravesite. At the beginning of each symposium a symposiarch, or "lord of the common drink", was elected by the participants.
He would assume control of the wine servants, thus of the degree of wine dilution and how it changed during the party, the rate of cup refills. The krater and how it was filled and emptied was thus the centerpiece of the symposiarch's authority. An astute symposiarch should be able to diagnose the degree of inebriation of his fellow symposiasts and make sure that the symposium progressed smoothly and without drunken excess. Drinking ákratos wine was considered a severe faux pas in ancient Greece, enough to characterize the drinker as a drunkard and someone who lacked restraint and principle. Ancient writers prescribed that a mixing ratio of 1:3 was optimal for long conversation, a ratio of 1:2 when fun was to be had, 1:1 was only suited for orgiastic revelry, to be indulged in rarely, if at all. Since such mixtures would produce an unpalatable and watery drink if applied to most wines made in the modern style, this practice of the ancients has led to speculation that ancient wines might have been vinified to a high alcoholic degree and sugar content, e.g. by using dehydrated grapes, could withstand dilution with water better.
Such wines would have withstood time and the vagaries of transportation much better. The ancient writers offer scant details of ancient vinification methods, therefore this theory, though plausible, remains unsupported by evidence; this form originated in Corinth in the seventh century BCE but was taken over by the Athenians where it is black-figure. They ranged in size from 35 centimetres to 56 centimetres in height and were thrown in three pieces: the body/ shoulder area was one, the base another, the neck/ lip/ rim a third; the handles were pulled separately. These are among the largest of the kraters developed by the potter Exekias in black figure though in fact always seen in red; the lower body is shaped like the calyx of a flower, the foot is stepped. The psykter-shaped vase fits inside it so well stylistically that it has been suggested that the two might have been made as a set, it is always made with two robust upturned handles positioned on opposite sides of the lower body or "cul".
This type of krater, defined by volute-shaped handles, was invented in Laconia in the early 6th century BC adopted by Attic potters. Its production was carried on by Greeks in Apulia until the end of the 4th century BC, its shape and method of manufacture are similar to those of the column krater, but the handles are unique: to make each, the potter would have first made two side spirals as decorative disks attached a long thin slab of clay around them both forming a drum with flanged edges. This strip would have been continued downward until the bottom of the handle where the potter would have cut a U-shaped arch in the clay before attaching the handle to the body of the vase. Bell kraters were first made in the early fifth century which meant that it came than the three other krater types This form of krater looks like an inverted bell with handles that are faced up. Bell kraters are not black-figure like the other kraters. According to most scholars ceramic kraters imitated shapes designed for metal vessels.
Among the largest and most famous metal kraters in antiquity were one in the possession of the Samian tyrant Polycrates, another one dedicated by Croesus to the Delphic oracle. There are a few extant Archaic bronze kraters exclusively of the volute-type, their main production centres were Sparta and Corinth, in Peloponnesus. During the Classical period the Volute-type continued to be popular along with the calyx-type, beside the Corinthian workshop an Attic one was active. Exquisite exemplars of both volute- and calyx-kraters come from Macedonian 4th century BC graves. Among them the gilded Derveni Krater represents an exceptional chef d’œuvre of late Classical metalwork; the Vix bronze crater, found in a Celtic tomb in central France is the largest known Greek krater, being 1.63 m in height and over 200 kg in weight. Others were in silver, which were too valuable and tempting to thieves to be buried in graves, have not survived. Ornamental stone kraters are known from Hellenistic times, the most famous being the Borghese Vase of Pentelic Marble and the Medici Vase, als
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths told by the ancient Greeks. These stories concern the origin and the nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities and mythological creatures, the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece and its civilization, to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself; the Greek myths were propagated in an oral-poetic tradition most by Minoan and Mycenaean singers starting in the 18th century BC. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians and comedians of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age, in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.
Aside from this narrative deposit in ancient Greek literature, pictorial representations of gods and mythic episodes featured prominently in ancient vase-paintings and the decoration of votive gifts and many other artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic and Hellenistic periods and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture and literature of Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes. Greek mythology is known today from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. 900 BC to c. 800 BC onward. In fact and archaeological sources integrate, sometimes mutually supportive and sometimes in conflict.
Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature. The only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus; this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens wrote on many of these topics, his writings may have formed the basis for the collection. Among the earliest literary sources are the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the "epic cycle", but these and lesser poems now are lost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the "Homeric Hymns" have no direct connection with Homer, they are choral hymns from the earlier part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiod, a possible contemporary with Homer, offers in his Theogony the fullest account of the earliest Greek myths, dealing with the creation of the world. Hesiod's Works and Days, a didactic poem about farming life includes the myths of Prometheus and the Five Ages.
The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, rendered yet more dangerous by its gods. Lyrical poets took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar and Simonides, bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, relate individual mythological incidents. Additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama; the tragic playwrights Aeschylus and Euripides took most of their plots from myths of the age of heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great tragic stories took on their classic form in these tragedies; the comic playwright Aristophanes used myths, in The Birds and The Frogs. Historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, geographers Pausanias and Strabo, who traveled throughout the Greek world and noted the stories they heard, supplied numerous local myths and legends giving little-known alternative versions. Herodotus in particular, searched the various traditions presented him and found the historical or mythological roots in the confrontation between Greece and the East.
Herodotus attempted to reconcile the blending of differing cultural concepts. The poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman ages was composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise, it contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of: The Roman poets Ovid, Valerius Flaccus and Virgil with Servius's commentary; the Greek poets of the Late Antique period: Nonnus, Antoninus Liberalis, Quintus Smyrnaeus. The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period: Apollonius of Rhodes, Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Parthenius. Prose writers from the same periods who make reference to myths includ
Cabinet des Médailles
The Cabinet des Médailles, more formally known as Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, is a department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. The Cabinet des Médailles is located in the Richelieu-Louvois building – the former main building of the library – on the Rue de Richelieu; the Cabinet des Médailles is a museum containing internationally important collections of coins, engraved gems, antiquities, with its distant origins in the treasuries of the French kings of the Middle Ages. The disruptions of the Wars of Religion inspired Charles IX to create the position of a garde particulier des médailles et antiques du roi, thus the collection, augmented and never again dispersed, passed from being the personal collection of the king to becoming a national property – a bien national – as the royal collection was declared during the Revolution. A stage in this aspect of its development was the bequest of the collection of pioneering archeologist comte de Caylus, who knew that in this fashion his antiquities would be most accessible to scholars.
Other collectors followed suit: when the duc de Luynes gave his collection of Greek coins to the Cabinet Impérial in 1862, it was a national collection rather than an Imperial one he was enriching. The State added to the treasury contained in the Cabinet des Médailles: a notable addition, in 1846, was the early sixth century gold Treasure of Gourdon; the Cabinet – a term which in French implies a small private room for the conservation and display of intimate works of art and for private conversations, rather than a piece of furniture – took a stable shape under Henry IV, who nominated connoisseur Rascas de Bagarris garde particulier des médailles et antiques du roi, the "particular guardian of the medals and antiquities of the King". Among the antiquarians and scholars who have had the charge of the Cabinet des Médailles, one of the most outstanding was Théophile Marion Dumersan, who began working there in 1795 at the age of sixteen, protected the collection from dispersal by the allies after Napoleon's defeat, published at his own expense a history of the collection and description, as newly rearranged according to historical principles, in 1838Earlier printed catalogues of parts of the collection had been published.
Pierre-Jean Mariette, urged by the comte de Caylus, published a selection of the royal carved hardstones as volume II of hisTraité des pierres gravées}. Louis XIV of France, an acquisitive connoisseur, brought together the cabinet de curiosités of his uncle Gaston d'Orléans and acquired that of Hippolyte de Béthune, the nephew of Henri IV's minister Sully. In order to keep the collections closer at hand, he removed them from the old royal library in Paris to Versailles; when Louis' great-grandson Louis XV had attained majority, the Cabinet was returned to Paris in 1724, to take up its present space in the royal library, designed under the direction of Jules-Robert de Cotte, the son of Mansart's successor at the Bâtiments du Roi. In the Cabinet des Médailles, the medal-cabinet delivered in 1739 by the ébéniste du roi Antoine Gaudreau figures among the greatest pieces of French furniture. Other medal cabinets were delivered for Louis XIV by André-Charles Boulle; the cabinet still houses its paintings by Boucher and Van Loo.
The Cabinet des Médailles is considered the oldest museum in France. It is located in the former building of the Bibliothèque Nationale, 58 rue Richelieu, Paris I, can be visited for free every afternoon, seven days a week. Berthouville Treasure Cup of the Ptolemies Great Cameo of France Treasure of Gourdon List of museums in Paris Coins and Antiques Department
Lost-wax casting
Lost-wax casting is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture is cast from an original sculpture. Intricate works can be achieved by this method; the oldest known example of this technique is a 6,000-year old amulet from Indus valley civilization. Other examples from a similar period are the objects discovered in the Cave of the Treasure hoard in southern Israel, which belong to the Chalcolithic period. Conservative estimates of age from carbon-14 dating date the items to c. 3700 BC, making them more than 5,700 years old.. Lost-wax casting was widespread in Europe until the 18th century, when a piece-moulding process came to predominate; the steps used in casting small bronze sculptures are standardized, though the process today varies from foundry to foundry. Variations of the process include: "lost mould", which recognizes that materials other than wax can be used. Casts can be made of the wax model itself, the direct method, or of a wax copy of a model that need not be of wax, the indirect method.
These are the steps for the indirect process: Model-making. An artist or mould-maker creates an original model from clay, or another material. Wax and oil-based clay are preferred because these materials retain their softness. Mouldmaking. A mould is made of sculpture; the rigid outer moulds contain the softer inner mould, the exact negative of the original model. Inner moulds are made of latex, polyurethane rubber or silicone, supported by the outer mould; the outer mould can be made from plaster, but can be made of fiberglass or other materials. Most moulds are made of at least two pieces, a shim with keys is placed between the parts during construction so that the mould can be put back together accurately. If there are long, thin pieces extending out of the model, they are cut off of the original and moulded separately. Sometimes many moulds are needed to recreate the original model for large models. Wax. Once the mould is finished, molten wax is poured into it and swished around until an coating about 1⁄8 inch thick, covers the inner surface of the mould.
This is repeated. Another method is to fill the entire mould with molten wax and let it cool until a desired thickness has set on the surface of the mould. After this the rest of the wax is poured out again, the mould is turned upside down and the wax layer is left to cool and harden. With this method it is more difficult to control the overall thickness of the wax layer. Removal of wax; this hollow wax copy of the original model is removed from the mould. The model-maker may reuse the mould to make multiple copies, limited only by the durability of the mould. Chasing; each hollow wax copy is "chased": a heated metal tool is used to rub out the marks that show the parting line or flashing where the pieces of the mould came together. The wax is dressed to hide any imperfections; the wax now looks like the finished piece. Wax pieces that were moulded separately can now be attached. Spruing; the wax copy is sprued with a treelike structure of wax that will provide paths for the molten casting material to flow and for air to escape.
The planned spruing begins at the top with a wax "cup,", attached by wax cylinders to various points on the wax copy. The spruing does not have to be hollow, as it will be melted out in the process. Slurry. A sprued wax copy is dipped into a slurry of silica into a sand-like stucco, or dry crystalline silica of a controlled grain size; the slurry and grit combination is called ceramic shell mould material, although it is not made of ceramic. This shell is allowed to dry, the process is repeated until at least a half-inch coating covers the entire piece; the bigger the piece, the thicker the shell needs to be. Only the inside of the cup is not coated, the cup's flat top serves as the base upon which the piece stands during this process. Burnout; the ceramic shell-coated piece is placed cup-down in a kiln, whose heat hardens the silica coatings into a shell, the wax melts and runs out. The melted wax can be recovered and reused, although it is simply burned up. Now all that remains of the original artwork is the negative space occupied by the wax, inside the hardened ceramic shell.
The feeder, vent tubes and cup are now hollow. Testing; the ceramic shell is allowed to cool is tested to see if water will flow through the feeder and vent tubes. Cracks or leaks can be patched with thick refractory paste. To test the thickness, holes can be drilled into the shell patched. Pouring; the shell is reheated in the kiln to harden the patches and remove all traces of moisture placed cup-upwards into a tub filled with sand. Metal is melted in a crucible in a furnace poured into the shell; the shell has to be hot. The filled shells are allowed to cool. Release; the shell is sand-blasted away, releasing the rough casting. The sprues, which are faithfully recreated in metal, are cut off, the material to be reused in another casting. Metal-chasing. Just as the wax copies were chased, the casting is worked until the telltale signs of the casting pr
Hephaestus
Hephaestus is the Greek god of blacksmiths, carpenters, artisans, metallurgy and volcanoes. Hephaestus' Roman equivalent is Vulcan. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was either the son of Zeus and Hera or he was Hera's parthenogenous child, he was cast off Mount Olympus, by his mother because of his deformity or, in another account, by Zeus for protecting Hera from his advances. As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus, he served as the blacksmith of the gods, was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos. Hephaestus' symbols are a smith's hammer, a pair of tongs. Hephaestus is associated with the Linear B inscription, A-pa-i-ti-jo, found at Knossos; the name of the god in Greek has a root which can be observed in names of places of Pre-Greek origin, like Phaistos. Hephaestus is given many epithets; the meaning of each epithet is: Amphigúeis "the lame one" Kullopodíōn "the halting" Khalkeús "coppersmith" Klutotékhnēs "renowned artificer" Polúmētis "shrewd, crafty" or "of many devices" Aitnaîos "Aetnaean", owing to his workshop being located below Mount Aetna.
Hephaestus had his own palace on Olympus, containing his workshop with anvil and twenty bellows that worked at his bidding. Hephaestus crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, any finely wrought metalwork imbued with powers that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus, he designed Hermes' winged helmet and sandals, the Aegis breastplate, Aphrodite's famed girdle, Agamemnon's staff of office, Achilles' armor, Heracles' bronze clappers, Helios's chariot, the shoulder of Pelops, Eros's bow and arrows. In accounts, Hephaestus worked with the help of the chthonic Cyclopes—among them his assistants in the forge, Brontes and Pyracmon. Hephaestus built automatons of metal to work for him; this included tripods. He gave to the blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide. In some versions of the myth, Prometheus stole the fire. Hephaestus created the gift that the gods gave to man, the woman Pandora and her pithos. Being a skilled blacksmith, Hephaestus created all the thrones in the Palace of Olympus.
The Greek myths and the Homeric poems sanctified in stories that Hephaestus had a special power to produce motion. He made the golden and silver lions and dogs at the entrance of the palace of Alkinoos in such a way that they could bite the invaders; the Greeks maintained in their civilization an animistic idea. This kind of art and the animistic belief goes back to the Minoan period, when Daedalus, the builder of the labyrinth, made images which moved of their own accord. A statue of the god was somehow the god himself, the image on a man's tomb indicated somehow his presence. According to Hesiod Hera gave birth to Hephaestus on her own as revenge for Zeus giving birth to Athena without her. According to Homer Hera is mentioned as the mother of Hephaestus but there is not sufficient evidence to say that Zeus was his father. According to Homer there is not sufficient evidence to say. Hera is not mentioned as the mother. According to Pseudo-Apollodorus Hera gave birth to Hephaestus alone. Pseudo-Apollodorus relates that, according to Homer, Hephaestus is one of the children of Zeus and Hera.
Several texts follow Hesiod's account, including Hyginus and the preface to Fabulae. In the account of Attic vase painters, Hephaestus was present at the birth of Athena and wields the axe with which he split Zeus' head to free her. In the latter account, Hephaestus is there represented as older than Athena, so the mythology of Hephaestus is inconsistent in this respect. In one branch of Greek mythology, Hera ejected Hephaestus from the heavens because he was "shrivelled of foot", he was raised by Thetis and the Oceanid Eurynome. In another account, attempting to rescue his mother from Zeus' advances, was flung down from the heavens by Zeus, he fell for an entire day and landed on the island of Lemnos, where he was cared for and taught to be a master craftsman by the Sintians – an ancient tribe native to that island. Writers describe his lameness as the consequence of his second fall, while Homer makes him lame and weak from his birth. Hephaestus was one of the Olympians to have returned to Olympus after being exiled.
In an archaic story, Hephaestus gained revenge against Hera for rejecting him by making her a magical golden throne, when she sat on it, did not allow her to stand up. The other gods begged Hephaestus to return to Olympus to let her go, but he refused, saying "I have no mother". At last, Dionysus fetched him, intoxicated him with wine, took the subdued smith back to Olympus on the back of a mule accompanied by revelers – a scene that sometimes appears on painted pottery of Attica and of Corinth. In the painted scenes, the padded dancers and phallic figures of the Dionysan throng leading the mule show that the procession was a part of the dithyrambic celebrations that were
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a Syrian satirist and rhetorician, best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he ridiculed superstition, religious practices, belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was Syriac, all of his extant works are written in Ancient Greek. Everything, known about Lucian's life comes from his own writings, which are difficult to interpret because of his extensive use of sarcasm. According to his oration The Dream, he was the son of a lower middle class family from the village of Samosata along the banks of the Euphrates in the remote Roman province of Syria; as a young man, he was apprenticed to his uncle to become a sculptor, after a failed attempt at sculpting, he ran away to pursue an education in Ionia. He visited universities throughout the Roman Empire. After acquiring fame and wealth through his teaching, Lucian settled down in Athens for a decade, during which he wrote most of his extant works. In his old age, he may have been appointed as a highly-paid government official in Egypt, after which point he disappears from the historical record.
Lucian's works were wildly popular in antiquity, more than eighty writings attributed to him have survived to the present day, a higher quantity than for most other classical writers. His most famous work is A True Story, a tongue-in-cheek satire against authors who tell incredible tales, regarded by some as the earliest known work of science fiction. Lucian invented the genre of a parody of the traditional Platonic dialogue, his dialogue The Lover of Lies makes fun of people who believe in the supernatural and contains the oldest known version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". Lucian wrote numerous satires making fun of traditional stories about the gods including The Dialogues of the Gods, Zeus Rants, Zeus Catechized, The Parliament of the Gods, his Dialogues of the Dead focuses on the Cynic philosophers Diogenes and Menippus. Philosophies for Sale and The Banquet or Lapiths make fun of various philosophical schools, The Fisherman or the Dead Come to Life is a defense of this mockery. Lucian ridicules public figures, such as the Cynic philosopher Peregrinus Proteus in his letter The Passing of Peregrinus and the fraudulent oracle Alexander of Abonoteichus in his treatise Alexander the False Prophet.
Lucian's treatise On the Syrian Goddess satirizes cultural distinctions between Greeks and Syrians and is the main source of information about the cult of Atargatis. Lucian had an wide-ranging impact on Western literature. Works inspired by his writings include Sir Thomas More's Utopia, the works of François Rabelais, William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Lucian is not mentioned in any contemporary texts or inscriptions written by others and he is not included in Philostratus's Lives of the Sophists; as a result of this, everything, known about Lucian comes from his own writings. A variety of characters with names similar to Lucian, including "Lukinos," "Lukianos," "Lucius," and "The Syrian" appear throughout Lucian's writings; these have been interpreted by scholars and biographers as "masks", "alter-egos", or "mouthpieces" of the author. Daniel S. Richter criticizes the frequent tendency to interpret such "Lucian-like figures" as self-inserts by the author and argues that they are, in fact fictional characters Lucian uses to "think with" when satirizing conventional distinctions between Greeks and Syrians.
He suggests that they are a literary trope used by Lucian to deflect accusations that he as the Syrian author "has somehow outraged the purity of Greek idiom or genre" through his invention of the comic dialogue. British classicist Donald Russell states, "A good deal of what Lucian says about himself is no more to be trusted than the voyage to the moon that he recounts so persuasively in the first person in True Stories" and warns that "it is foolish to treat as autobiography." Lucian was born in the town of Samosata, located on the banks of the Euphrates river on the far eastern outskirts of the Roman Empire. Samosata had been the capital of Commagene until 72 AD when it was annexed by Vespasian and became part of the Roman province of Syria; the population of the town was Syrian and Lucian's native tongue was Syriac, a form of Aramaic. During the time when Lucian lived, traditional Greco-Roman religion was in decline and its role in society had become ceremonial; as a substitute for traditional religion, many people in the Hellenistic world joined Mystery Cults, such as the Mysteries of Isis, the cult of Cybele, the Eleusinian Mysteries.
Superstition had always been common throughout ancient society, but it was prevalent during the second century. Most educated people of Lucian's time adhered to one of the various Hellenistic philosophies, of which the major ones were Stoicism, Platonism and Epicureanism; every major town had its own university and these universities employed professional travelling lecturers, who were paid high sums of money to lecture about various philosophical teachings. The most prestigious center of learning was the city of Athens in Greece, which had a long intellectual history. According to Lucian's oration The Dream, which classical scholar Lionel Casson states he delivered as an address upon returning to Samosata at the age of thirty-five or forty after establishing his reputation as a great orator, Lucian's parents were lower middle cla
