Photius On Lucian

La Rue van Hook, The Literary Criticism in the Bibliotheca of Photius, (in: Classical Philology Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Apr., 1909)), II., The Romancers, pp. 184-5:

In nearly all of his works Lucian is writing a comedy on Greek things; on their error in god-making, their ungovernable and intemperate licentiousness, the monstrous beliefs and fictions of even the poets and their consequent mistakes in government, and the irregular course and vicissitudes of their lives throughout, the boastful nature of their very philosophers who have naught save hypocrisy and empty pretense. In a word, as we have said, his aim is to produce a comedy, in prose, of Greek life. He seems to be one of those who worship nothing seriously; he makes fun of and ridicules the creeds of others and does not posit what he himself believes, unless one calls not having a creed, a creed. In style he is of the best (ἄριστος) employing a diction which is clear, current, and very striking (ἐμφατικός). He is a lover, if anyone is, of distinctness (εὐκρίνεια) and purity, with brilliancy and grandeur in due proportion. His composition is so arranged that the reader seems not to be reading prose but it is as if a certain delightful song without definite accompaniment of music were dropping into the ears of the listener. And in a word, as we have said, his style is of the best (ἄριστος) and not in keeping with his subjects under discussion at which he knew how to laugh.