On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford World’s Classics) Read online

  One particular aspect of this contrast which has always seemed strange to readers is the presence in the poem of figures such as the personified Nature, Mother Earth, and especially Venus, as invoked at the opening of the poem:

  O mother of the Roman race, delight

  Of men and gods, Venus most bountiful,

  You who beneath the gliding signs of heaven

  Fill with yourself the sea bedecked with ships

  And earth great crop-bearer, since by your power

  Creatures of every kind are brought to birth

  And rising up behold the light of sun.

  There is nothing unepicurean in the evocation of a god: despite their denial of divine interference in the world, the Epicureans believed the gods existed, and that our cultivation of them could bring us images of divine tranquillity on which we could model our lives. There is also a clear allegory, in that Venus is equated with pleasure, the chief good in the Epicurean ethical system, and it is through the pursuit of pleasure that animals and humans procreate and create. The prologue is ‘set’ at dawn on the first day of spring, 1 April, when Venus’ major festival, the Veneralia, was celebrated at Rome, and there need be nothing doctrinally unorthodox about the way that the new year is described. Similarly, Lucretius takes pains to explain that his use of the notion of Mother Earth is just a trope, and should not lead to the idea that earth is sentient or deserves cult:

  Indeed the earth is now and has been always

  Devoid entirely of any kind of feeling.

  The reason why it brings forth many things

  In many ways into the light of sun

  Is that it holds a multitude of atoms.

  If anyone decides to call the sea Neptune,

  And corn Ceres, and misuse the name of Bacchus

  ather than give grape juice its proper title,

  Let us agree that he can call the earth

  Mother of the Gods, on this condition—

  That he refuses to pollute his mind

  With the foul poison of religion.

  (2. 652–60)

  Although these usages by Lucretius have traditionally been seized upon by opponents wishing to find traces of a subversive religiosity within the text, as Hume pointed out in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, the religious gain little by this move: to say that for the Epicureans Nature becomes a god is of little help to a theist if the notion of divinity is so redefined. Venus, Nature, and Mother Earth are place-markers who dramatize the conflict between providentialist and Epicurean views of the world but must eventually be discarded by the Epicurean. Ultimately, all that happens anywhere is that atoms move at random in the void:

  For certainly not by design or mind’s keen grasp

  Did primal atoms place themselves in order,

  Nor did they make contracts, you may be sure,

  As to what movements each of them should make.

  But many primal atoms in many ways

  Throughout the universe from infinity

  Have changed positions, clashing among themselves,

  Tried every motion, every combination,

  And so at length they fall into that pattern

  On which this world of ours has been created.

  (1. 1021–8)

  But the question remains why we ever needed these figures to help us make the move to Epicurean truth, and what we do with them when we have reached it. The attraction of On the Nature of the Universe consists, again, in the myths and stories that we tell about the world: but there is no room for the richness of those stories within the philosophy itself.

  But that does not mean, of course, that we cannot take from the poem a message which may not be perfectly Epicurean but which is one of its great lessons. The world is, ultimately, atoms and void, blind motion in emptiness, and there is, as Epicurus and Lucretius insisted, no divine hand providentially ordering things for our benefit. What we can construct on that basis is, however, a world of infinite complexity and delight, of which the images, metaphors, and stories that make up On the Nature of the Universe are an essential part. And we can do so knowing that those complexities are no more than stories, and yet delighting in them. On the Nature of the Universe gives us both a glimpse into how the world is, and a sense of what we can make of it:

  And now from all these things delight and joy,

  As it were divine, takes hold of me, and awe

  That by your power nature so manifest

  Lies open and in every part displayed.

  (3. 28–30)

  SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Texts

  W. H. D. Rouse revised M. F. Smith (with translation, Cambridge, Mass., 1975). See also C. Bailey (Oxford, 1922), K. Müller (Zurich, 1975). There is a bibliography of editions by C. Gordon (2nd edn., London, 1985).

  Commentaries

  C. Bailey (with text and translation, 3 vols., Oxford, 1947). See also the older English commentaries of H. A. J. Munro (with text and translation, 4th edn., London, 1886), W. A. Merrill (New York, 1907), and W. E. Leonard and S. B. S. Smith (Madison, 1942), with those of C. Giussani (Italian; Turin, 1896–8), A. Ernout and L. Robin (French; Paris, 1925–8), and the Latin commentaries of G. Wakefield (Glasgow, 1796–7) and K. Lachmann (Berlin, 1850).

  Book 1: P. M. Brown (Bristol, 1985).

  Book 3: E. J. Kenney (Cambridge, 1971).

  Book 4: J. Godwin (Warminster, 1986), R. D. Brown, Lucretius on Love and Sex (Leiden, 1987).

  Book 5: C. D. N. Costa (Oxford, 1984).

  Book 6: J. Godwin (Warminster, 1991).

  Bibliography

  A. Dalzell, ‘A Bibliography of Work on Lucretius 1945–1972’, Classical World, 66 (1973), 389–427, 67 (1973), 65–112.

  C. D. Giovine, ‘Lucrezio’, in Syzetesis (Festschrift for M. Gigante, Naples, 1983), ii. 649–77.

  General discussions

  J. Masson, Lucretius, Epicurean and Poet (2 vols., London, 1907–9).

  D. West, The Imagery and Poetry of Lucretius (Edinburgh, 1969).

  E. J. Kenney, Lucretius (Greece and Rome New Surveys in the Classics, 11; Oxford, 1977).

  J. M. Snyder, Puns and Poetry in Lucretius’ De rerum natura (Amsterdam, 1980).

  D. Clay, Lucretius and Epicurus (Cornell, 1983).

  J. D. Minyard, Lucretius and the Late Republic (Leiden, 1985).

  P. R. Hardie, Virgil’s Aeneid : Cosmos and Imperium (Oxford, 1986).

  C. Segal, Lucretius on Death and Anxiety (Princeton, 1990).

  M. R. Gale, Myth and Poetry in Lucretius (Cambridge, 1994).

  P. Boyance, Lucrèce et l’Épicurisme (Paris, 1963).

  P. H. Schrijvers, Horror ac divina voluptas: Études sur la poétique et la poésie de Lucrèce (Amsterdam, 1970).

  A. Schiesaro, Simulacrum et Imago (Pisa, 1990).

  Collections of essays

  Lucretius, ed. D. R. Dudley (London, 1965).

  Lucrèce, ed. O. Gigon (Fondation Hardt Entretiens, 24; Geneva, 1978: includes articles in English).

  Probleme der Lukrezforschung, ed. C. J. Classen (Hildesheim, 1986: includes articles in English) (cited hereafter as Classen).

  Selected general articles

  H. Sykes Davies, ‘Notes on Lucretius’, Criterion, 11 (1931–2), 25–42 (in Classen).

  P. Friedländer, ‘The Pattern of Sound and Atomic Theory in Lucretius’, American Journal of Philology, 62 (1941), 16–34 (in Classen).

  P. de Lacy, ‘Process and Value, an Epicurean Dilemma’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, 88 (1957), 114–26.

  W. S. Anderson, ‘Discontinuity in Lucretian Symbolism’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, 91 (1960), 1–29.

  C. J. Classen, ‘Poetry and Rhetoric in Lucretius’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, 99 (1968), 77–118 (in Classen).

  E. J. Kenney, ‘Doctus Lucretius’, Mnemosyne, 23 (1970), 366–92 (in Classen).

  D. West, ‘Virgilian Multiple-Correspondence Similes and their Antecedents’, Phil
ologus, 114 (1970), 262–75.

  R. D. Brown, ‘Lucretius and Callimachus’, Illinois Classical Studies, 7 (1982), 77–97.

  A. Dalzell, ‘Language and Atomic Theory in Lucretius’, Hermathena, 143 (1987), 19–28.

  E. M. Thury, ‘Lucretius’ Poem as a Simulacrum of the De rerum natura’, American Journal of Philology, 108 (1987), 270–94.

  R. Mayer, ‘The Epic of Lucretius’, Papers of the Leeds International Latin Seminar, 6 (1990), 35–43.

  G. B. Conte, ‘Instructions for a Sublime Reader: Form of the Text and Form of the Addressee in Lucretius’ De rerum natura’, in Genres and Readers, trans. G. W. Most (Baltimore, 1994), 1–34.

  A. Schiesaro, ‘The Palingenesis of the De rerum natura’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, 40 (1994), 81–107.

  Epicureanism

  H. Usener, Epicurea (Leipzig, 1887: still main collection of fragments).

  G. Arrighetti, Epicuro Opere (2nd edn., Turin, 1973: includes some material not in Usener, with Italian translation and commentary).

  C. Bailey, Epicurus, the Extant Remains (Oxford, 1926: incomplete, but with English translation and commentary).

  A. A. Long and D. N. Sedley, The Hellenistic Philosophers (2 vols., Cambridge, 1987: most helpful thematic collection. Vol. i has translations, vol. ii the original texts with commentary).

  C. Bailey, The Greek Atomists and Epicurus (Oxford, 1928).

  J. M. Rist, Epicurus: An Introduction (Cambridge, 1972).

  D. Konstan, Some Aspects of Epicurean Psychology (Leiden, 1973).

  B. Frischer, The Sculpted Word: Epicureanism and Philosophical Recruitment in Ancient Greece (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1982).

  A. A. Long, Hellenistic Philosophy (London, 1984).

  E. Asmis, Epicurus’ Scientific Methodology (Ithaca, 1984).

  P. Mitsis, The Pleasures of Invulnerability (Ithaca, 1988).

  There is also much of interest in M. Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire (Princeton, 1994, esp. 140–279), and J. Annas, Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1992) and The Morality of Happiness (Oxford, 1993).

  Reception

  G. D. Hadzits, Lucretius and his Influence (London, 1935).

  W. B. Fleischmann, Lucretius and English Literature 1680–1740 (Paris, 1964).

  H. Jones, The Epicurean Tradition (London, 1989).

  Other works referred to in the notes

  H. Diels, Doxographi Graeci (Berlin, 1879). This gives the standard texts (in Greek) of the so-called ‘doxographic’ tradition of philosophical summaries (see notes on 3. 138, 6. 96), especially the reconstructed account of ‘Aetius’ (?first century AD), which gives the opinions of ancient philosophers and scientists on a variety of topics.

  Theophrastus, Meteorology, edited and translated from the Syriac and Arabic by H. Daibler, ‘The Meteorology of Theophrastus in Syriac and Arabic Translation’, in W. W. Fortenbraugh and D. Gutas, Theophrastus, His Psychological, Doxographical, and Scientific Writings (New Brunswick, 1992), 166–293. This is an important source for the ‘meteorological’ topics in Book 6.

  Epicurean texts are cited where possible from the collection by Usener, whose numeration is usually given in other collections.

  SYNOPSIS OF THE POEM

  This poem is difficult, particularly Books 1 and 2. Lucretius translates into Latin a scientific/philosophical treatise written in Greek some 200 years earlier; and not only into Latin, but into verse. He does not always make himself clear. But Lucretius was a superb poet and even the most technical passages are usually poetical, and are frequently illustrated by wonderful imagery. The book is full of moral fervour, designed to rescue mankind from the fear of gods and the fear of death; and this leads Lucretius to write some of the greatest poetry ever written.

  There are six ‘books’. Each contains a prologue, 1. 1–149, 2. 1–61, 3. 1–93, 4. 1–25, 5. 1–90, and 6. 1–95, that is easy to read. Books 1 and 2 set out the atomic theory, invented by the Greeks, that the universe consists of nothing but atoms and void. Book 3 demonstrates that the soul consists of the same, and dies when the body dies. Book 4 explains the mechanism of our senses, and goes on to discuss dreams and sex. Book 5 deals with the origin of the world and the dawn of human civilization. Book 6 considers thunderstorms, lightning, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, the Nile, the magnet, and diseases.

  The argument in Book 1 starts with two principles: that nothing ever came into being from nothing, and that nothing ever returns to nothing. Atoms are solid, indestructible, invisible, everlasting, and infinite in number, and there is void, in which they move. Discussion follows of various Greek philosophers who got it wrong, and the book ends with a demonstration that the universe is infinite.

  Book 2 states that atoms are in continual motion, moving straight down through the void, except that sometimes they swerve (hence comes free will). By their collisions and combinations they make molecules, which make everything that exists. Atoms have many different shapes, but the number of elements is limited, though the quantity is infinite; and the number of possible combinations is limited, so that species can be preserved. Atoms have no colour, heat, sound, moisture, smell, or feeling. Death disperses atoms, which are then reunited. The universe contains many other worlds besides ours, and none are made by gods, all by random collisions of atoms. Our world has begun to decay and will collapse.

  Book 3 discusses the nature of mind and spirit—the soul. They are part of man just as much as his body. They act together on the body. They are made of very small atoms. They live united with the body and if separated from it they die. Mind and spirit are mortal. Thirty different arguments prove this, many persuasive, many strange, some very amusing and some deeply moving. Finally, in line 830 there is a great cry of triumph ‘Therefore death nothing is to us’. There follow some 250 lines of superb poetry.

  Book 4 explains the nature of vision, hearing, taste, smell, and the way things enter the mind and how the mind works. Lucretius then discusses sleep and from sleep proceeds to dreams and from dreams to sex (lines 962–end). The passages on sex are remarkable, written with extraordinary intensity of feeling.

  Book 5 begins by showing that the world is mortal and will one day be destroyed. It was not made by gods, or by design, but by random and accidental collisions of atoms. There follows a magnificent description of the creation which resulted. There is then a long discussion of sun and moon, day and night, and eclipses. At line 772 begins a famous description of the beginning of life on earth and the development of civilization.

  Book 6 describes thunder, lightning, thunderbolts, waterspouts, clouds, earthquakes, the sea, the eruptions of Etna, the Nile, Avernian lakes and other places, wells and springs, the magnet, and diseases, and ends with a description (following Thucydides) of the great plague in Athens in 430 BC.

  Line numbering in text and notes refers to the Latin text.

  LUCRETIUS

  On the Nature of the Universe

  BOOK ONE

  O mother of the Roman race, delight

  Of men and gods, Venus most bountiful,

  You who beneath the gliding signs of heaven

  Fill with yourself the sea bedecked with ships

  And earth great crop-bearer, since by your power

  Creatures of every kind are brought to birth

  And rising up behold the light of sun;

  5

  From you, sweet goddess, you, and at your coming

  The winds and clouds of heaven flee all away;

  For you the earth well skilled puts forth sweet flowers;

  For you the seas’ horizons smile, and sky,

  All peaceful now, shines clear with light outpoured.

  For soon as spring days show their lovely face,

  10

  And west wind blows creative, fresh, and free

  From winter’s grip, first birds of the air proclaim you,

  Goddess divine, and herald your approach,

  Pierced to the heart by your almighty
power.

  Next creatures of the wild and flocks and herds

  Bound across joyful pastures, swim swift streams,

  So captured by your charms they follow you,

  15

  Their hearts’ desire, wherever you lead on.

  And then through seas and mountains and tearing rivers

  And leafy homes of birds and verdant plains,

  Striking sweet love into the breasts of all

  You make each in their hearts’ desire beget

  After their kind their breed and progeny.

  Since you and only you are nature’s guide

  20

  And nothing to the glorious shores of light

  Rises without you, nor grows sweet and lovely,

  You I desire as partner in my verses

  Which I try to fashion on the Nature of Things,

  25

  For Memmius, my friend, whom you have willed

  At all times to excel in every grace.

  For his sake all the more endow my words,

  Goddess divine, with everlasting charm.

  Make in the meantime brutal acts of war

  In every land and sea be lulled to sleep.

  30

  For only you can succour humankind

  With tranquil peace, since warfare’s savage works

  Are Mars’ dominion, mighty lord of arms,

  Who vanquished by the eternal wound of love

  Throws himself oft upon your holy bosom

  And pillowing his shapely neck, looks up

  35