One of Lucian’s main topics is the critical observation of religious life. His criticism of religious ideas, however, takes place exclusively as dispute with the forms and models of literary tradition. Even when discussing the positions of philosophers, he remains a writer; his gods are literary gods. Nowhere in his oeuvre is there evidence of a personal religious feeling. As a consequence of this study, the traditional image of Lucian as a revolutionary and nihilist is put into another perspective.