Lucian in Byzantium: The Intersection of the Comic Tradition and Christian Orthodoxy in the Anonymous Patriot

Scholars recognize that the Patriot, an anonymous Byzantine dialogue of uncertain date, imitates Lucianic satire, without pursuing how allusions to Lucian's work and that of his primary models, Plato and Aristophanes, function to characterize the dialogue's two main participants, Critias and Triepho. Attention to the original context of these allusions suggests that the traditional way of reading the Patriot underestimates its sophistication. This paper argues that the Patriot appropriates Lucian's comic dialogue form, as described in the Literary Prometheus and Double Indictment, to devalue Critias's nostalgic Hellenism relative to Triepho's blending of Christian orthodoxy with the Greek comic tradition.