By Daryn Lehoux, A. D. Morrison, Alison Sharrock
Lucretius' didactic masterpiece De Rerum Natura (On the character of Things) is likely one of the so much wonderful and strong poems within the Latin language, a passionate try out at dispelling humanity's worry of dying and its enslavement by way of fake ideals concerning the gods, and a close exposition of Epicurean atomist physics. for hundreds of years, it has raised the query of if it is essentially a poem or essentially a philosophical treatise, which additionally provides medical doctrine. the present quantity seeks to unite the 3 disciplinary points -- poetry, philosophy, and technological know-how -- so one can supply a holistic reaction to an immense monument in cultural history.
With ten unique essays and an analytical creation, the amount goals not just to mix assorted ways inside of unmarried covers, yet to provide responses to the poem by way of specialists from all 3 scholarly backgrounds. Philosophers and students of historic technological know-how glance heavily on the inventive placement of person phrases, whereas literary critics discover moral concerns and the contribution of Lucretius' poetry to the argument of the poem. themes lined contain loss of life and grief, evolution and the cosmos, ethics and politics, conception, and epistemology.
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Additional resources for Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science
Sample text
Gale transgressor, unlike the Hesiodic Zeus—since, for Lucretius, fear of death is its own punishment29). 569–80). Semen may be described as ‘thicker than it ought to be’, or one parent be said to claim an ‘unfair’ share in the child’s genetic heritage because, in general terms or—as we might say—on average, such factors are evenly balanced between extremes. In all these cases, the idea of ‘justice’ or ‘equity’ is a kind of metaphor, but one that appears significantly chosen in contradistinction to the Hesiodic conception of a divinely sanctioned moral code.
37 The point is made most explicit in the moralizing asides at Lucr. 999–1010 and 1423–9; cf. also 938 satis id placabat pectora donum, ‘this gift sufficed to satisfy their hearts’. 38 The chronology from 1161 onwards, where Lucretius shifts from narrative to catalogue mode, is notoriously difficult to determine, and some of the discoveries discussed in this section clearly date back to the very earliest phase (note esp. 39 The Myth of Ages is followed by a lengthy series of reflections on justice and injustice (Op.
13 Yet Lucretius is quick to counter the supposition that divine displeasure has any part to play in what is, for him, a purely mechanical process. The book closes with a satirical swipe at the typically Roman praise of old-world rustic piety: the ploughman and vine-dresser, sweating over their thankless tasks, compare their own lot with that of former generations ‘filled with piety, who won a living with great ease from their small holdings’ (crepat, antiquum genus ut pietate repletum | perfacile angustis tolerarit finibus aeuum, Lucr.