There, Lucian meets the heroes of the Trojan War, other mythical men and animals, as well as Homer and Pythagoras. Next, they encounter a sea of milk, an island of cheese, and the Island of the Blessed.
They kill the whale by starting a bonfire and escape by propping its mouth open. Īfter returning to Earth, the adventurers are swallowed by a 200-mile-long (320 km) whale, in whose belly they discover a variety of fish people, against whom they wage war and triumph. Lucian describes life on the Moon and how it is different from life on Earth. The armies of the Sun win the war by clouding over the Moon and blocking out the Sun's light. Both armies include bizarre hybrid lifeforms. Shortly after leaving the island, they are caught up by a whirlwind and taken to the Moon, where they find themselves embroiled in a full-scale war between the king of the Moon and the king of the Sun over colonization of the Morning Star.
Blown off course by a storm, they come to an island with a river of wine filled with fish and bears, a marker indicating that Heracles and Dionysus have traveled to this point, and trees that look like women. The narrative begins with Lucian and his fellow travelers journeying out past the Pillars of Heracles. The novel begins with an explanation that the story is not at all "true", and that everything in it is a complete and utter lie.