Voyages utopiques et SF dans deux romans grecs antiques

Abstract

The Renaissance genre of utopia has its forerunners in the extraordinary voyages of the Roman Empire’s literature. Two of these adventure novels, Wonders beyond Thulé by Antonius Diogenes and True Histories by Lucian, from the 2nd century CE, stage different places with utopian characteristics (Hyperborea, Pythagora’s and Zamolxis’ communities, the Island of the Blessed, the Island of Dreams) or early SF traits (the Moon, the Sun, several aerial cities). Nourished by the rich imaginary of the ancient paradoxographia (historical, geographical and literary texts about the mirabilia of the East), these texts display a tremendous freedom of invention. Intended to copy or parody previous writings, in order to entertain and please their readership, they ignore all Aristotelian precepts of structure or the need for a global unified meaning, and develop random narrative scenarios, which I would characterize as “anarchetypal”.

Keywords

• ancient greek novel
• antonius diogenes
• lucian
• extraordinary voyage
• ancient utopias
• voyage to the moon
• anarchetype