Abstract
The goal of this paper is to analyze the typical features of satire, in particular of estrangement, to be found in Lucian’s works. When considering the Cynic philosopher Menippus trying out impossible travels with the aim of satirical observation, we can observe that the same estrangement is experienced by his author, Lucian, who was a Syrian from the Euphrates and a stranger in the Greco-Roman world as well as an outsider in the Second Sophistic. A good element of comparison is Anacharsis, the Scythian who, as he arrives at Athens, is in a better position, as a foreigner, to observe Greek institutions and Paideia from a different point of view, in order to exercise his parrhesia, i.e. freedom of speech, in front of Solon and the Athenians.
