De l'ekphrasis des manuels aux Portraits de Lucien

Abstract

Imagines (Εἴκονες) has been considered the most complete and complex Lucian ἔκφρασις; this fact invites us to think that its author, once again, intends here to break with gender molds and a conventional writing of his times. Thus, starting from school exercises (ἔκφρασις and others) and their rules, Lucian puts an object in absentia under the eyes of the listener or the reader, but, by taking as references works of classical sculpture, he wants to model, not using marble or stone but words, the portrait of a beautiful woman, Panthea, the mistress of emperor Lucius Verus. So it turns out that the description becomes a lesson on how to read a work of art by an expert (σοφός), i.e. a theory about ancient beauty canons, but, by adapting them to Lucian's own context and to the triviality of the life of the imperial court, beautiful Panthea is also inscribed in the catalogue of satirical heroes of the Lucian universe. Keywords : Lucian, progymnasmata, ekphrasis, Imagines, Pro imaginibus