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1 results

  • Chapter 7 - In the Hands of Frauds

  • from Part III - Faking the Gods
  • Tatiana Bur, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Book:
    Technologies of the Marvellous in Ancient Greek Religion
    Print publication:
    24 July 2025, pp 217-237
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  • Summary

    The mechanical miracle was always man-made, but manufacturing the marvellous always exceeded epistemological boundaries and thus attested to divine interference and presence. The delicate balance between these elements was not always easy to maintain, and the relation between technology and the gods came under critical examination, especially in the intense religious choice and competition of the Imperial period. The issue of religious forgery through technological means is central to Lucian’s Alexander and forms the focus of Chapter 7. The Alexander demonstrates the various ways that technical knowledge is integral to the act of miracle-making. turning the text, in spite of its satiric self, into a manual for these very same purposes. A comparison with Hippolytus’ Refutation of All Heresies not only attests to the broader use of technological miracles in ancient contexts, but also exemplifies how technology could be configured differently within a religion’s theological truths.