True History
 Colossal lunar spiders spin a web in the air between the Moon and the Morning Star. | |
| Original Title: | Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα |
|---|---|
| Written by: | Lucian of Samosata |
| Central Theme: | |
| Synopsis: | |
| Genre(s): | Satire, Science fiction |
| First published: | 2nd century CE |
A group of adventurers sail from Greece to the Atlantic Ocean and get shot up to the moon by a giant water spout. When they arrive, they quickly get caught up in the war between the moon and Mars over the colonization of Venus.
This Satire is possibly the first Science Fiction in Human history
The book can be found online: here or here.
Tropes used in True History include:
- Seventh-Episode Twist: The explorers go to the moon.
- Aliens Speaking English: All the strange and far-off peoples the Greek adventurers meet speak Greek -- even the people of the moon.
- All Planets Are Earthlike: The Moon, albeit filled with all sorts of wacky monsters, is otherwise earth-like, but it gets even more weird when it turns out there is also civilization (and people, and trees) on the Sun.
- Ancient Greece: Or, more accurately, hellenic Greece.
- Based on a Great Big Lie: Parodied. Despite the story being obviously an outrageous Tall Tale, the narrator and the title itself contend that it is "entirely true".
- Boldly Coming: Some of the narrator's traveling companions have sex with tree-women on a remote island, and end up stuck to them.
- Horse of a Different Color: The king of the Moon rides on a vulture-horse.
- It Runs on Nonsensoleum: The point of this book.
- Level Ate: The sailors visit an island with rivers of wine, and an island made entirely out of cheese.
- Mister Seahorse: The lunar people are all men, so this trope naturally appears. The sons grow inside the calves of the men.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The vulture-horses of the moon.
- One-Gender Race: The lunar people.
- Take That: Against Herodotus and generally the Greek authorities.
- Tall Tale: The book is a big Trope Maker for the literary tall tale and had a huge influence on later works in that genre.
- To Be Continued: The ending. It seems that Lucian never actually wrote a continuation (and probably never intended to).
- Ur Example: For Science Fiction and, possibly, the literary Tall Tale.
- Womb Level