This paper explores the complex interplay between Lucian’s satire and Menandrean comedy within the educational and intellectual context of the Second Sophistic. Rather than merely tracing Menander’s influence on Lucian’s texts, it examines how Lucian’s rhetorical training and educational environment mediated his appropriation of Menandrean elements. The study highlights the role of rhetorical schools in shaping Lucian’s literary identity, particularly through the use of gnomai, character portrayals, and quasi-forensic narrative structures drawn from Menander. Special attention is given to thefunction of moral maxims, êthopoeia, and comic motifs in Lucian’s works such as Dialogues of the Dead and Dialogues of the Courtesans, showing how these devices foster both satire and instruction. Through detailed examples and papyrological evidence, the paper demonstrates that Lucian’s engagement with Menander was not antiquarian, but dynamically integrated into his rhetoricaland satirical practice, reflecting broader cultural currents of Hellenic education in the Roman empire.
