A divine man is born special; right off the bat there is something different about this man than any other man. According to White, this man is born on a special day and has a special nature manifested inside of him. Once the divine man reaches adulthood there are six things that really define this point in his life, in summary of White’s words they follow as: follows God’s intended plans, wisdom in teaching, miracle working, strength in times of hardship, spreading his morals to others and a strange or sometimes unexpected death.
Lucian illustrated his character Peregrinus as a divine man but it was easy to see that he was mocking the concept. Everything that Peregrinus did throughout the story was very grand and over done; he talks of being more conspicuous than the sun, as to say that he is greater than the sun which helps give us life. Often times a divine man is defined by his travels and Peregrinus had his fair share of journeys, instead of spreading his morals to others during this time he used them to gain attention for himself. One of the most notable differences between a true divine man and Peregrinus was how their lives ended, White says that there is, “unusual phenomena” that accompanies his death or disappearance. In this story Peregrinus tries to achieve his own phenomena by staging his own live cremation- it was all for a show. Lucian even tells us that his last act of “gazing towards the south, had to so with the show”.
When such stories like The Death of Peregrinus came out to the public it became easier to see why people may begin to doubt the divine man. Authors created characters like Peregrinus who, on the surface seemed to have the six characteristics that a divine man would posses only to turn out as imposters. A true divine man would not stage his own death for show, nor would he journey across lands in hopes of gaining recognition for himself. It is understandable why the concept of the divine man was contested and debated because the reader needs to find out the reasoning for the divine mans actions to see if they are true or simply for his own personal popularity. When stories like this are compared to true divine man stories it creates this trust issue between the reader and the story. Who can the reader believe? I think after reading these stories I would be able to tell the difference, a true divine man would show his audience his reasons for his actions, he would not just act in hopes of receiving recognition and glory.