__NOTOC__ Iambulus or Jambulus ( grc, Ἰάμβουλος, ''Iamboulos'') was an ancient Greek merchant and the likely author of a

utopian novel Utopian and dystopian fiction are genres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal ...

about the strange forms and figures of the inhabitants of the "

Islands of the Sun ''Islands of the Sun'' or ''The Adventures of Iambulus in the Southern Ocean'' is a utopian novel by Iambulus which was written in Greek between 165 and 50 BCE. It chronicles the journey of the eponymous character Iambulus who discovers a seemingly ...

". His name seems not to be Greek and reveals a Semitic or an Arabic origin. His work did not survive in the original, but only as a fragment in

Diodorus Siculus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history '' Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which ...

' ''

Bibliotheca historica ''Bibliotheca historica'' ( grc, Βιβλιοθήκη Ἱστορική, ) is a work of universal history by Diodorus Siculus. It consisted of forty books, which were divided into three sections. The first six books are geographical in theme, ...

'' (II, 55–60). Diodorus, who seems only to have transcribed lambulus in his description of the Indians, relates that lambulus was made a slave by the Ethiopians, and sent by them to a happy island in the eastern seas, where he acquired his knowledge. The whole account, however, has the appearance of a fiction, and the description which lambulus gave of the east, which he had probably never seen, consisted of nothing but fabulous absurdities. Iambulus is mentioned in the satirical novel ''

A True Story ''A True Story'' ( grc, Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα, ''Alēthē diēgēmata''; or ), also translated as True History, is a long novella or short novel written in the second century AD by the Greek author Lucian of Samosata. The novel is a sa ...

'' by

Lucian Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed supersti ...

as writing "a lot of surprising things about the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

".''True History'', page 3 He is listed in the

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a '' foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often close ...

as an inspiration. Lucian remarks that Iambulus's stories were obviously untrue, but not unpleasant for that. ''A True Story'' is presented as a satire of such accounts as those of Iambulus and

Ctesias Ctesias (; grc-gre, Κτησίας; fl. fifth century BC), also known as Ctesias of Cnidus, was a Greek physician and historian from the town of Cnidus in Caria, then part of the Achaemenid Empire. Historical events Ctesias, who lived in the fi ...

, an author who wrote an account of India in the 5th century BC that was similarly full of wild claims, like human beings with one gigantic foot they used as umbrellas against sun far more blazingly hot than was known in the West.

See also

References

Further reading