SOURCE: "Characterisation" in Lucian: Theme and Variation in the Second Sophistic, E. J. Brill, 1976, pp. 67-84.

In the following excerpt, Anderson discusses Lucian's tendency to reuse character descriptions, plot situations, and other material.

Lucian manipulates his characters as easily as he contrives his stories or plots; here again he is content to play a facile game with a few basic types. He may use the same character under several different names, so that there is often little distinction between Cyniscus, Diogenes and Menippus,¹ between Diogenes and Socrates,² or between Croesus and Megapenthes.³ Nor does he always present the same character in a consistent way: in one dialogue the poor cobbler Micyllus is miserable all his life, until released by death; in another he is only miserable till he discovers that the poor man's life is best.⁴ Even Menippus himself varies according to the genre: Lucian makes him a...