Lucian and the Authorship of "De Saltatione" Anderson, Graham Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Fall 1977; 18, 3; Periodicals Archive Online pg. 275
Lucian and the Authorship of
De Saltatione
Graham Anderson
THERE has never been any single cogent argument for denying
the authenticity of De Saltatione, generally ascribed to Lucian.
But the treatise is clearly eccentric in a number of ways. It is
an encomium of pantomimic dance, a subject Lucian scarcely men
tions in his canonically accepted works; it deals sympathetically with
the stage performer, whom he usually despises; and its author has
presented his material in a form grotesque by any standards: he
digresses into a long catalogue of pantomime themes, and his dis
cussion is at times completely disorganised.1 I wish to show that these
and other eccentricities need not suggest that the author is an anony
mous expert in dancing but are in fact typical of Lucian's methods
when he sets out to improvise an erudite treatise on something he
knows very little about. (To avoid circularity I shall refer to the
author of De Salt. hereafter as 'the author', as opposed to 'Lucian').
There should be no problem about the motives which would have
encouraged Lucian to write such a piece. He wrote the pair Imagines
and Pro Imaginibus as compliments to Panthea, Lucius Verus' mistress
prior to the latter's marriage with Lucilla in A.D. 164;2 the co-emperor
was also interested in fidicinas et tibicines et histriones scurrasque
1 This led R. Helm to condemn the work (Lucian und Menipp [Leipzig 1906] 370), with the
dubious argument that Lucian couid never cast himself as a Stoic (cf Salt. 2); but Helm
later recanted, RE 13 (1927) 1759f.]. Bieler had already advanced detailed arguments against
Lucian's authorship on linguistic grounds (Ueber die Echtheit des Lucianischen Schrift de
Saltatione [Progr. Wilhelmshaven 1894]); these were easily refuted by D. S. Robertson (The
Authorship and Date of Lucian's de Saltatione, in Essays and Studies presented to William Ridge
way [Cambridge 1913] 180-85). M.Kokolakis, IIAATQN 11 (1959) 3-11, usefully expands the
historical background to Robertson's article. For the technical background to pantomime,
see H. Bier, De Saltu Pantomimorum (Diss. Bonn 1920), with the supplements by L. Robert,
Hermes 65 (1930) 106-22, and Kokolakis llff. The parallels between Salt. and Libanius'inr£p
TWV Op)('7CTWV are discussed by Helm, Lucian und Menipp 365ff, and]. Mesk, WS 30 (1908)
58-74; they are incancl usive for the relationship between Salt. and Aristides' lost KaT'
0PXTJCTWV (see n.6 infra), and are of course no help towards determining the authenticity of
Salt. itself.
2 For the chronology see J. Schwartz, Biographie de Lucien de Samosate (Brussels 1965) 17.
275
276 LUCIAN AND THE AUTHORSHIP OF DE SALTATIONE
mimarios (SHA Verus 8.11), and Lucian could have been expected to
supply appropriate diversion in the same way.3 H. Richard thought the
comments so exaggerated that the author of De Salt. must be parody
ing the technique of encomiasts;4 but we should note that Lucian for
his part could flatter with assurance, as in Nigrinus, Pro Imaginibus
and Harmonides; and an encomium of pantomime would have been
no challenge to a writer who could extract compliments even out of a
grammatical solecism (Pro Lapsu 15f). Such a writer might of course
be privately amused at his own volte-face, but that is not a matter for
his audience; Lucian is an opportunist of this kind in his use of
material, and it would be no surprise if he were to praise a dancer as
XEtpoccxpoc in front of the enthusiast Verus without expecting the
emperor to know that he criticises the use of the word elsewhere
(Salt. 69: Rhetorum praec. 17, cf Lexiph. 14). Bompaire doubted Lucian's
authorship because the interest in dancing is so obviously 'un-Hellenic'
and therefore alien to Lucian's temperament and good taste.s But
any encomiast has to take his patron's enthusiasms into account,6
and the author of De Salt. makes it perfectly clear in the introductory
dialogue (§2) that he himself would be regarded as a very unlikely
advocate for pantomime-as a man 7TCXtSEtff CVVTPcxpOC KCX~ rfotAoccxptff \, t, I
Tex /LETptCX W/Ltll7JKWC.
Lucian himself shows little interest in dancing of any kind in his
canonically accepted works: he feels at liberty to mention the KOpSCX~
or the 7TVpptX1J, since both of them are 'sanctioned' by references in
classic passages of Plato or Aristophanes; but for the contemporary
0PX1JcTOStSaCKcxAoc (De Merc.cond. 27)1 he has the utmost contempt.
But he has no committed interest in historiography either, and yet he
3 Robertson, op.cit. (supra n.1), developing the view of W. Schmid, BursianJahresb. 108
(1901) 254.
, Ueber die Lykinosdialoge des Lukian (Progr. Hamburg 1886) 36f.
5 Lucien ecrivain, imitation et creation (Paris 1958) 356f.
6 As Lucian himself admits elsewhere (Merc.cond. 35). For Lucian and Aelius Aristides
see A. Boulanger, RevPhil 47 (1923) 150f. This sophist enjoyed considerable prestige with
Marcus Aurelius (Philostr. VS 582f). It would certainly not be unreasonable for someone
wishing to fraternize with Lucius Verus to compliment the co-emperor's frivolous tastes
and challenge a particularly ponderous rival at the same time. Cf Kokolakis, op.cit. (supra
n.1) 9.
7 KopSag: lear. 27, Ar. Nub. 540; 1TVPPLX'J: D.Deor. 8, PI. Legg. 8158. For the oPX'JcToS,McKMOC
see Kokolakis, op.cit. (supra n.1) 11. Harmon (LCL V ppA02f) assumes that the Pseudologist
must have been a pantomime actor (Pseudolog. 25), which Kokolakis denies, ibid. 47. Neither
has suggested that his performance of the blinding of the Cyclops may itself be a panto
mime (Pseudolog. 27). It could certainly be an amateur's improvisation in the style.
GRAHAM ANDERSON 277
could improvise half a treatise of armchair advice when the Parthian
War made the subject topica1.8 The author of De Salt. emphasises
that he himself is a new convert to dancing, and an unlikely one at
that (2f); and the treatment he adopts coincides in three broad respects
wirh Lucian's inreresrs. De Salt. includes a review KaT' E8VT) ro explain
how the dance arrived in Greece; Lucian applies the same technique
to philosophy (Fugitivi 6-9) and religion (Iupp. Trag. 42). De Salt. also
focuses attention on the solo performer, who figures frequently in
Lucian's similes and anecdotes from the stage.9 And above all the
author of De Salt. has found an entirely new angle from which to
attack tragedy: instead of condemning a pageant of ranting actors, he
has the opportunity to prove that even a single performer in a dumb
show can do better! The last point alone would have been sufficient
incentive to Lucian to go out of his way in this manner.
But would a writer like Lucian with no real interest in dancing have
been able to write the work? The author falls into Lucian's usual habit
of taking shortcuts whenever there is any specialised research to be
done: the aforementioned Pro Lapsu is also a classic example of how
Lucian could twist a handful of hackneyed quotations and exempla
into an impressive treatise on the most recondite trivia. Most of the
material can be accounted for in school reading, and the rest can
safely be inferred to be random information pressed into service,
rather than the fruits of conscientious antiquarianism.Io
The author of De Salt. proceeds in exactly the same way-a flourish
of Homer and Hesiod is enough to prove that dancing has a respectable
antiquity: Hesiod's Eros (Theog. 120: Salt. 7); the Muses dancing
(Theog. 4: Salt. 23); Meriones the dancer (II. 16.617f: Salt. 8); dancers
on the shield of Achilles, itself a 'textbook' of rhetorical ecphrasis
(ll. 18.593-606: Salt. 13); Odysseus watching the danCing Phaeacians
(Od. 8.256ff: Salt. ibid.); and dance as cXfLVfLWV (ll. 13.636ff: Salt. 23) or as
the art of peace (II. 13.730f: Salt. ibid.).
The author has made the most of all this, but his real standby, as he
himself betrays in passing (34), is the intermittent discussion of danc
ing in Plato's Laws (Books 6-7). While this is not a work which Lucian
8 See esp. G. Avenarius, Lukians Schrift zur Geschichtsschreibung (Meisenheim am Glan
1956) 178, who rightly concludes that Lucian has patched together a large number of
secondhand platitudes about historiography in the second half of the treatise.
9 e.g. Adv.lnd. 8-10; Pisco 36; Apol. 5; Gall. 26; lear. 17; Neky. 16.
10 See my Lucian: Theme and Variation in the Second Sophistic (lvlnemosyne Supp!' 41, 1976)
13off.
278 LUCIAN AND THE AUTHORSHIP OF DE SALTA TIONE
himself uses often,u the whole context of the discussion of dancing
would be an important text for Plato's views on paideia and one which
an author of Lucian's limitations might be expected to be able to
draw on with no great effort: even Maximus of Tyre, who represents
the lowest and most mechanical level of sophistic culture, resorts to
the same nexus of passages for his discussion of dancing and music
(see Hobein's parallels to Or. 37.4). The Laws would provide the author
of De Salt. with the 1TVPPLXYJ and EILlu.AEia (814E-815A); he would have
to find only the Kopoa~ and CLKLVIILC elsewhere, and the latter is
mentioned together with the EILIL~A~La in a simple classification of
dances associated with satyric drama, tragedy and comedy (Salt. 22).
The author would then only have to know that the lmoPXYJILa is the
characteristic dance of choral lyric (Salt. 16); the context suggests that
he has included the OPILOC in his treatment of Spartan dancing, and he
most probably recollected it from a source which dealt with Spartan
training (12), like the YVILvo1TaLoLa which follows it. From Timaeus
40c he could have extracted the xopEia eXCTEpwv, which provides the
beginnings of dancing in De Salt. 7. plato would also supply him with
numerous references to the Corybants (e.g. Symp. 215E, Crito 54D,
Euthyd. 277D).
Harmon (ad Salt. 8) notes that he does not make the usual confusion
of these dancers with the Curetes: it would be a reasonable guess that
this is because he has extracted the latter direct from Hesiod once
more (fr.23 Merkelbach-West, cf Theog. 477ff). And once we subtract
this material directly available from a sophist's standard reading, we
are left with only isolated ingredients. There is some bizarre paradox
ography: Indians dance in honour of the sun; and Ethiopians do a war
dance (Salt. 17, 18). We cannot safely speculate on the source in either
case, but there is nothing to suggest that it was a treatise on dancing;
we should bear in mind that Lucian himself certainly knew some
exotic Indica,12 and Ethiopia was an equally magnetic locale for
sophistic writers.13 The information in De Salt. is minimal here-as
much, in fact, as Lucian knows about Indian and Ethiopian philoso
phies in Fugitivi 7. Nor is the author of De Salt. better informed about
11 A few scattered reminiscences are colJected in W. H. Tackaberry, Lucian's Relation to
Plato and the Post-Aristotelian Philosophers (Toronto Studies, philo/, seT. 9, 1930) 62-85.
12 For his use of Megasthenes and Ctesias see A. Stengel, De Luciani veris historiis (Berlin
1911), passim.
13 As suggested by the parallel in Heliodorus' bizarre novel (9.19), cited by Harmon
ad loco
GRAHAM ANDERSON 279
the Salii, and their perfunctory appearance was presumably prompted
only by a Roman patron. The author may not even have needed to go
as far as a handbook for the information that the 7TVPPLXYJ took its name
from Pyrrhus,I4 while the mention of dancing in the mysteries is only
a means of introducing a respectably 'Attic' institution, also available
in Leges 815.
As for Dionysus in India (Salt. 22), again we should note that Lucian
himself wrote a prolalia on the subject (Bacchus 1-4). Beside this the
equally absurd picture of Priapus teaching the young Ares the war
dance will come as no surprise (Salt. 21); we should notice that Lucian
in turn makes much of the tradition of an equally unlikely warrior,
Pan (Bis accusatus 9-11; Dial. Deor. 22.3); and the Priapus tradition,
otherwise unattested, is not likely to have been culled from a technical
manual on dancing itself.1 5 The supposed inscription in honour of
dancers in Thessaly (Salt. 14) suggests a 'Lucianic' technique: Lucian
was given to improbable inscriptions in exotic places,I6 and he liked
to try his hand at small stretches in non-Attic dialectY The greatest
absurdity is the euhemerising of Proteus as a pantomimic dancer
(Salt. 19), but that would again be no surprise if the author is Lucian,
who makes the god draw a learned analogy between his own versatile
person and an octopus (Dial.Mar. 4)!
Apart from these sophistic flourishes there is very little left of the
'history' of dancing. The author pretends that there is a development
to present-day perfection (34), just as Philostratus pretends that there
is a direct connection between the first and second sophistic, despite
the gap of so many centuries. IS It is also instructive to compare the
sheer bulk of information with which the genuine antiquarian
Athenaeus is able to inundate his reader (628c-631E): he sets out to
supply the very kind o~ information which the author of De Salt.
makes such a point of avoiding: the literature 7TEp't EVPYJfLaTW)) looms
large in this impressive collection of names and founders of dances. I9
14 For the real explanation see K. Larre, De saltationiblls Graeeorllm (Giessen 1913, repro
Berlin 1967) 28.
15 For the explanation of this unique but perfectly probable Priapic tradition see G.
Kaibel, GottNachr 1901, 488ff. It is not necessary to assume (contra Roscher, Lex. 2972) that
the author took the tradition from a collector of Bithynian cult-lore about the god; he
might easily have known the tradition that Priapus is a son of Dionysus (Roscher 2971).
16 Cf Dips. 6; Ver.Hist. 1.7,2.28; Seytha 2.
17 e.g. Vit.Allet. 3-6, 13f; De Domo 20; Bompaire, op.cit. (sllpra n.5) 633.
18 Cf G. W. Bowersock, Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire (Oxford 1969) 9.
19 For these authorities see Larre, op.cit. (sllpra n.14) 1-17.
280 LUCIAN AND THE AUTHORSHIP OF DE SALTATIONE
Again, however, Athenaeus has little more actual evidence at his
disposal and concentrates on what he can supply about the dances of
tragedy, comedy and satyr drama, or Spartan athletic dancing, from
literary interests as much as from technical treatises (630c). Sophists
who derive their information from this kind of source find their
stocks of information running short before very long. It is therefore
not surprising that the author of De Salt. should break off his 'history'
of dancing to attack those who have written at length on the forms
and history of pantomime, 7ToAvfLa{}{ac 7"av7"'Y]v E7Tlo€tgtv ~yoVfL€VOt
7Tapegetv: this is mere cf>tAonfLlav a7TetpoKaAov ... dlptfLaBfj ... aKatpOV
(33).
Having made these criticisms of the' experts' he proceeds to emulate
them himself: each of these objections can be applied to his own
account of the themes which the dancer has to memorise, spread over
the next twenty-four paragraphs. This curious preamble confirms
that the writer is an amateur, tilting at the professionals before he
begins his own display: one notes that Lucian is equally ponderous
when setting himself up as an adviser on historiography (Hist.conscr.
34-36). Since the author of De Salt. has been a convert to dancing, he
has to overwhelm the audience with his command of the subject.
All this amounts to is a list of (mainly tragic) themes (37-61), which are,
we should note, a special interest of Lucian's. The author of De Salt.
may not have had either time or means for adequate research into
dancing; or he may not have been prepared to put the effort into a
work which he might not be able to use again. He avoids naming
dancers, possibly because he was neither sufficiently interested nor
well enough versed in the subject to know them. Lucian for his part
has the same limitation when naming actors ;20 and there are at least
two apparent misunderstandings in the De Salt. account. 21
The author is safest when he is posing as a professor of repertoire.
But how are his dancer's themes related to Lucian's stock in his
canonically accepted works? The list of myths in De Salt. corresponds
well with those used by Lucian: it is based chiefly on Homer, Hesiod
and tragedy (61) with some unacknowledged additions from Herodo
tus. Bompaire hastily dismisses them as "souvent peu connues"
(supra n.l, p.582) and therefore un-Lucianic, though he admits else
where (195 and n.4) that Lucian does in fact use recondite myths from
20 Bompaire, op.cit. (supra n.5) 437.
21 Kokolakis. op.cit. (supra n.l) 20f.
GRAHAM ANDERSON 281
time to time. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that if Lucian were the
author, he would know the myth of Boreas and Oreithuia (Salt. 40)
from its prominent appearance in Plato, Phdr. 229c (in fact it also
appears in an undoubtedly genuine work at Philopseudes 3); and he
would also know of rhe rwo Erores (Salt. 38, cf 7; Hes. Theog. 116f) from
Plato, Symp. 178B. Dido and Aeneas (46) might well be of slight
significance to a second-century Greek, but if Lucian could mention
Augustus in Pro Lapsu 18 as a concession to his Roman patron, he could
also produce the most hackneyed of Roman traditions as a compli
ment to Verus. This leaves only a small proportion of myths still
outside Lucian's own usual repertoire (Nisus-Scylla, Salt. 41 ; Hypsipyle
and Archemorus, 44; Medea's dream, 53). Harmon notes that the last
of these is not in fact a normal part of the Medea legend, but duly
compares Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. 3.616-82. It is not necessary to
assume that there was a pantomime theme based on this, though the
possibility is certainly not excluded; but it would be a passage which
a sophist might be expected to know for other reasons as an exercise
in CVYKptctC. Lucian does not use all the rest of the material which
occurs in this section of De Salt., but he does exploit a cross-section of
each 'block' of mythology sufficiently large to suggest that he would
have been aware of the remainder.22 The author of De Salt. introduces
an unusual element into the story of Polycrates, probably by confus
ing the tyrant's brother with his daughter (54): Harmon insists that
Lucian knew his Herodotus too well to make such a mistake (LCL
V p.261), but the version of Polycrates' death at Charon 14 is not quite
accurate,23 and in the same dialogue Lucian transposes Tellus of
Athens and Cleobis and Biton in Solon's list of happy men (10).
This is clearly the kind of material for which Lucian trusted to
memory.
The selection of myths from outside Greece reflects limitations very
similar to Lucian's own: the Aetolian cycle (50) culminates in Heracles
on Oeta (Peregrinus 21; Hermot. 7; Dial. Deor. 13); Italy (55) is repre
sented by Phaethon and the poplars (De Electro; Dial. Deor. 25.2); the
west (56) by Heracles' labours. ending with the oxen of Geryon
(Heracles 2); Phoenicia (58) by Attis and Stratonice (Syr.D. 15, 17ff);
22 e.g. Salt. 49: Lucian is not interested in Pasiphae but mentions both Daedalus (lear. 2)
and Talus (Phi/ops. 19); of the Argonauts he selects only Orpheus and Heracles (Fugit. 2) as
well as the talking keel (Gall. 2).
23 S. Walz, Die gesehiehtliehen Kenntnisse Lukians (Diss. Tiibingen 1921) 46.
282 LUCIAN AND THE AUTHORSHIP OF DE SALTATIONE
and Egypt (58) by Osiris (ibid. 7), Epaphus (cf Dial. Mar. 7.2) and the
metamorphosis of the gods (De Sacrificiis 14). Lucian insists on the
mystical character of Egyptian mythology (Deorum Concilium 11, cf
Dial.Mar. 7.2); in De Salt. the dancer is to use more symbolism in
presenting it (-rpac
(Pseudolog. 15).
26 Bompaire. op.cit. (supra n.5) 583 and n.2.
GRAHAM ANDERSON 283
barbarian misinterpreting a civilized specracle27 (Anach. Iff, wrestlers;
ibid. 23, actors). Another barbarian imagines that a dancer with five
roles must also have five souls (66); Lucian gives the cock a series of
comic transmigrations (Gallus 19f). The author of De Salt. applies the
classic simile of the cuttlefish to the dancer (67); Lucian applies an
elaborate example to Proteus (Dial. Mar. 4.3). The dancer can repre
sent the three parts of the Platonic soul, and the dancer's silence
represents the silence of Pythagoras (70). Caster28 objected that
symbolic interpretation would be "tout a fait etrangere a l' esprit de
Lucien." In fact this would be in favour gf Lucian's authorship rather
than against it: the author is careful to quote such a theory at second
hand (ijKOVca 8E TLVOC Kat 7TEpLTTOT€pOV TL VEaVLWOfLEVOV). But all is fair
in the a8ogov: in Muscae Encomium Lucian makes ridiculous connec
tions between the same two philosophers and the fly-its reviving
'proves' the immortality of the soul (7), and Muia was associated with
Pythagoras (ll)! The author of De Salt. enlarges on blood and dust in
wrestling (71) as Lucian does in Anacharsis 2f; he combines Heracles
and Aphrodite (73), as Lucina combines Heracles and a cinaedus
(Adv.Ind. 23) or Heracles and Omphale (Hist.conscr. 10); and the
dancer's physique is held up to the Polyclitan canon, as is Peregrinus'
in De Morte Peregrini 9. The final anecdote (83f) is about a man who
overacted the madness of Ajax. This very theme is the basis in Lucian's
acknowledged works for a number of favourite anecdotal motifs: the
mad performer CHist.conscr. 1) who forgets his proper role and runs
amok (Piscator 36), and whose misconducr nearly causes a grave
injury to his supporting actor Odysseus (cf Pseudologista 27).
Hirzel (Der Dialog II 285) connects De Salt. as a whole with Anacharsis
since both are conversations with a Cynic and the approach is Peri
patetic; but this is entirely superficial. In Anacharsis the 'Cynic'
Anacharsis himself-goes away at the end unconvinced ;29 the didactic
element is much less prominent and is cleverly used for humorous
ends; and in De Salt. there is none of the "freie BI lithe und Kraft des
Lebens" which Hirzel saw in Anacharsis. A more fruitful comparison
can be made between De Salt. and Quomodo historia conscribenda sit:
dancer and historian alike must present their events clearly (62:
27 The story itself need not be the author's; cf Philostr. VA 5.8: the Gadeirans thInk that
Nero won his Olympic victory by literally conquering the Olympians!
28 Lucien et la pensee reiigieuse de son temps (Paris 1937) 43 n.97.
29 Bompaire, op.cit. (supra n.5) 356 n.l; 678.
284 LUCIAN AND THE AUTHORSHIP OF DE SALTATIONE
Hist.conscr. 43); accommodate to a succession of different situations
(65-67: Hist. 49); combine mental and practical disciplines (69: Hist.
37); create a vivid realism in descriptions (63: Hist. 51); and maintain
correct proportion (75: Hist. 16, 23). Both may combine pleasure with
profit (71 : Hist. 9) and the effect of eye and ear (78: Hist. 46f). Of course
such headings are applied to vastly different circumstances, and the
writer of De Salt. leaves out no absurdity: the dancer is shown as
having solecisms (80), K(xKO~TJ>..t(X (82), and knowledge of past, present
and future (36) as readily as the bogus historians. It is quite clear that
'Lucianic' treatises on medicine or lyre-playing would be as easy to
produce from the same set of headings as these two; and they would
look just as uncomfortably alike.
Scholars analysing De Salt. have tried to explain it only in terms of
textbook schemes. There is general agreement on the break at
ch.35:3o Bompaire (supra n.5, p.28! n.4) sees the work as two distinct
and self-contained encomia (of dance, 7-34; of dancers, 35-84); others
use the formula which Norden applied to Horace's Ars Poetica: an
dcaywy~ under the headings Ars and Artifex.31 But this classification
is not entirely satisfactory even for the Ars Poetica itseIf,32 and it is
still less so when applied to De Salt.; once the labels are attached, what
happens to the catalogue of myths? As dancer's repertoire it is Ars,
but the writer has introduced it by a tenuous connexion with memory
(36), so that it also falls under the heading of Artifex. The writer indeed
has already announced that he is going to speak about the dancer
(35) but does not reach any conventional discussion of his faults or
merits until 62; 37-61 is a plain catalogue quite distinct from the
material on either side and has to be seen as a single unit. The general
layout is then familiar:
1- 4 erato is shocked to hear about Lycinus' enthusi- Introduction I
asm for dancing,
5- 6 but agrees to hear his defence. II
7-25 'Historical' instances of dance. Catalogue Ia
26-32 Its role compared with that of tragedy and Ib
comedy.
(33-34) A defence of the writer's omissions.
30 Th. Sinko, Eos 14 (1908) 134; RE (supra n.l) 1759; L. Miiller, Eos 32 (1930) 569-71.
31 Hermes 40 (1905) 481-528.
32 For criricism of Norden and summary of later developmems in the search for a
'scheme' for the Ars, see C. O. Brink, Horace on Poetry, Prolegomena to the Literary Epistles
(Cambridge 1963) 20-40.
(35-36)
37-61
37-48
49-59
62-84
85
GRAHAM ANDERSON
The cultural value of dancing.
The dancer's repertoire, by regions
of Greece,
and foreign parts.
Other aspects of the dancer: the merits of a
good one, and the faults of the rest.
Concluding frame: Crato's 'conversion'.
285
lIa
lIb
(IlIa
III b)
Epilogue
The arrangement just described is in accord with the schemes of
many of Lucian's canonical works. I have described its operations in
detail elsewhere.33 Here it will be sufficient to note that dialogues as
diverse as Navigium or Prometheus start out with a two-panel intro
duction followed by three more extensive panels dealing with the
main theme; so does Timon, before Lucian tags on an ending which
mimics the closing scenes of an Old Comedy.34 In De Salt. also there
are three marked divisions for the main subject; and the author has
also introduced a characteristically 'Lucianic' element of contrast
between the middle section and the other two panels. In De Salt.,
however, the third section is particularly confused. The writer has set
out to discover the dancer's qualities and faults; but he announces the
topic rather belatedly, as he himself admits (74): 'EfUAw DE TfDTJ Kat
f ~ -I:, , .... \ , ('..... \ 1" ,,, " ,,,
V7TOOELsat COt TlfJ /\OYlfJ, 07TOLOV XPTJ Etvat TOV aptCTOv 0PXTJCTTJV EV TE
tPvxil Kat CWILaTt. KaLTOt TijC /LEV tPvxijc 7TPOEt7ToV T