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What if a trip to the Moon makes life on Earth look even more absurd?
In Trips to the Moon, Lucian of Samosata sends travellers beyond Earth to poke fun at human pride. In A True History, a violent wind lifts a ship from the sea into the sky. Its crew reaches the Moon, where strange creatures, armies, and customs stretch a traveller’s tale far beyond belief.
Icaromenippus takes another route. Menippus grows frustrated with philosophers whose claims clash, equips himself with wings, and sets out to inspect the universe himself. These ancient comic journeys turn curiosity into mischief. Their impossible worlds invite you to question confident storytellers, grand explanations, and the familiar habits that look so important from the ground.
What you’ll discover
- A ship swept skyward Follow a sea voyage that leaves every chart behind when a wind carries its crew upward.
- Nonsense told with confidence Meet wildly unlikely creatures and customs described as calmly as the ordinary facts of travel.
- Menippus tries his wings Join a curious traveller who wants to see what philosophers cannot agree upon.
- Earth seen from elsewhere Watch human pride shrink as distant worlds make familiar claims and habits look ridiculous.
- Curiosity without a map Explore ancient speculative fiction driven by comic invention and argument, rather than predictions of space travel.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy wit, tall tales and early science fiction will love these satirical adventures. So will lovers of ancient Greek writing and of old stories that poke fun at heroes and thinkers.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Laughter tests claims to authority
- History serves truth rather than praise
- Showy details can hide poor judgement
- A historian needs a free mind
- The voyage begins with admitted lies
- Moon wonders expose invented authority
- Each new wonder invites another joke
- Menippus questions the experts on heaven
- Ask how anyone could really know
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Trips to the Moon
A sailor's ship is lifted by a whirlwind to the moon, where a king named Endymion is at war with the sun.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What if the first voyage to the moon in literature were a joke aimed at liars? Around the second century, a Syrian writer named Lucian sends a ship up on a whirlwind to the moon, where King Endymion is at war with the people of the sun.
Trips to the Moon at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 20 min1 h 50 min fast, 2 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 33,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Lucian mocks every claim that lacks foundation
Lucian was born around 120 in Samosata, a town where the Euphrates bends toward Asia Minor. His family was poor, and at fourteen he was apprenticed to a sculptor uncle. He pressed too hard on a marble slab and broke it, his uncle beat him, and he went home to study speech and law instead.
What he wrote was satire. He laughed at the stories of the gods, at philosophers who wore their gravity like costumes, and at anyone who claimed more honour than he had earned. In Paphlagonia he visited a false oracle named Alexander, who professed to have a daughter by the Moon. When Alexander offered his hand to be kissed, Lucian bit his thumb.
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Cite this edition
Lucian of Samosata. Trips to the Moon. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/trips-to-the-moon.
Lucian of Samosata. (2026). Trips to the moon. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/trips-to-the-moon
Lucian of Samosata. Trips to the Moon. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/trips-to-the-moon.
@book{lucian2026trips,
author = {Lucian of Samosata},
title = {Trips to the Moon},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/trips-to-the-moon}
}
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What is Trips to the Moon about?
It collects three satires by Lucian: a letter on how to write history, the True History with its voyage to the moon and a whale, and Icaro-Menippus, where a philosopher flies to heaven.
Is The True History a true story?
No. Lucian says in the preface that everything in it is invented. He wrote it to mock travellers, poets and historians who told wonders and asked to be believed.
Why is Lucian called an early science fiction writer?
His True History sends a ship to the moon, describes its people and wars with the sun, and shows Earth from above. Later writers such as Cyrano de Bergerac are thought to have borrowed from it.
The author
Lucian of Samosata
120–180 · Ancient Syrian satirist
Lucian of Samosata was a Syrian writer who lived in the second century CE. He was born in Samosata, a city on the Euphrates, and later lived in Athens. He wrote in Greek. His works include True History, dialogues, satires, and speeches, written during the second century.
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