Summary
Lucian writes his account as a letter to Cronius the Pythagorean, a Platonist philosopher. He tells Cronius that Peregrinus has burned himself to death at the recent Olympics. The author assumes that Cronius will find this news greatly amusing and gratifying.
The narrative then shifts to Eis where Lucian, having just arrived, overhears Peregrinus’s follower Theagenes compare Peregrinus, or Proteus, to Heracles and even Zeus himself. Theagenes announces Peregrinus’s plan to kill himself through fire.
Following Theagenes's speech Lucian enters the story as a double character. This double admonishes the crowd and provides an account of Peregrinus’s life from his perspective. According to Lucian’s double, Peregrinus was caught in adultery in Armenia shortly after entering manhood, seduced a youth and bribed the child’s parents, and killed his own father.
According to Lucian’s double Peregrinus exiled himself after this and wandered until he arrived in Palestine where he learned under the Christians. With the Christians, Peregrinus became an influential leader and author, and was “honored…as a god”.
During this period Peregrinus was imprisoned for his Christianity and was cared for by Christians from throughout the province of Asia who regarded him according to Lucian as “the new Socrates”. Hoping to avoid making a martyr out of Peregrinus, according to Lucian, the governor of Syria released Peregrinus.
After returning home, Lucian writes that Peregrinus faced threats of prosecution over the death of his father and left his father’s land (30 talents according to Lucian, 5 thousand according to Theagenes) to the city of Parium to escape punishment. It is at this point that Peregrinus began to appear as a Cynic, or “with his hair now grown long, wearing a dirty cloak, a pouch at his side and a staff in his hand”
After this Lucian claims that Peregrinus broke Christian dietary laws and was excommunicated from the church. Without their funding Lucian claims that Peregrinus attempted to reclaim his property from Parium, but lost his claim. Upon losing his case Peregrinus set out to Egypt where he trained as an ascetic and demonstrated his Cynic indifference to society by masturbating in a large crowd. Sailing to Rome, Peregrinus began to speak out in public against various officials including the Emperor, who ignored him, before being sent away by the city prefect
Returning to Greece, he began speaking out again, this time against the Eleans, the Romans, and Herodes Atticus who had recently constructed an aqueduct. After nearly being stoned, Peregrinus fled to Zeus’s sanctuary and renounced his former opinions about the aqueduct.
At the following Olympics Peregrinus proclaimed his intention to burn himself to death at the following games. Lucian decries his methods, saying that while he intends on following Heracles he is more similar to the arsonist who burned the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Lucian then makes a prophecy about Peregrinus’s future followers and includes two prophecies: one from the Sybil, related by Theagenes which compares Peregrinus to Heracles, and a second from the oracle of Bacis which calls for his followers to follow him in killing themselves or face stoning. Lucian’s double ends his speech, and the crowd calls for Peregrinus’s death.
Switching back to the first person Lucian announces that Peregrinus arrived with his followers and delivered a speech comparing himself to Heracles before being applauded by “the more stupid of the people”. Announcing his cremation would take place in the evening at Harpina, Peregrinus poured incense on the pyre and shouted “Spirits of my mother and father, receive me favorably” before entering the flames.
Ending his letter Lucian again remarks that Cronus will find these events humorous as he himself did. He describes a false account of the death that he gave to several followers of Peregrinus in which the cremation was followed by an earthquake and a vulture emerging from the smoke. Lucian also mentions that in his past he shared a voyage from Troas with Peregrinus, who he found to be quite cowardly. Lucian claims that Peregrinus— sick with fever— feared death on the ship, saying, “But that way would bring less renown, being common to everyone”.
Read more about this topic: Passing Of Peregrinus
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