Cleansing the Palate: Vomit and Satire in Lucian's Lexiphanes

This article explores how Lucian's satire is conceptualized in the Lexiphanes through analysis of the presentation of Lexiphanes's illness and its diagnosis and cure. Lexiphanes is portrayed as suffering from melancholy, which is diagnosed and cured by Lycinus with the help of the doctor Sopolis. I argue that, by drawing on contemporary medical theory and practice, Lucian aligns himself with Lycinus and figures his satire as an emetic whose parrhesiastic force has a curative effect.