The Sublime in Lucian of Samosata's Icaromenippus

Abstract

This article investigates the manifestation of the sublime, a concept traditionally associated with serious genres, in Lucian of Samosata's satirical dialogue Icaromenippus. The analysis articulates the theory of ancient satire (Ralph Rosen) with James Porter's reinterpretation of Hellenistic aesthetics, which emphasizes αἴσθησις and the paradoxical interaction between detail and cosmic grandeur. It is argued that Menippus's intercosmic journey represents the search for a macroscopic visual capacity that utilizes the grandeur of the cosmic setting to intensify the perception of human smallness and vices, generating laughter. The study concludes that Lucian reconfigures the sublime, manifesting it in the very existential suspension that critical laughter provokes in Menippus, having established the absurdity of the world from a cosmic perspective.