We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 November 2013
I am indebted to Jim O'Hara for his comments and insights throughout the process of writing this paper, to Bill Tortorelli for his multiple reads, and to the anonymous reviewers at Classical Quarterly for their helpful recommendations; all mistakes are my own.
1 I use the text of M.F. Smith's revision of W.H.D. Rouse's Loeb edition (Cambridge, MA, 1992). Translations are my own.
2 Circe warns Odysseus that the Sirens' song is dangerous. She also advises him on how he may listen to their song in relative safety. For a full discussion of this fragment and interpretations of Epicurus' use of poetry, see Asmis, E., ‘Epicurean poetics’, in Obbink, D. (ed.), Philodemus on Poetry: Poetic Theory and Practice in Lucretius, Philodemus, and Horace (Oxford, 1995), 15–34Google Scholar, at 18–26.
3 See e.g. Gale, M., Myth and Poetry in Lucretius (Cambridge, 1994)Google Scholar, at 6–16, who shows how both followers of Epicurus and scholars have been trying to sort out Epicurus' nuanced position towards poetry; Volk, K., The Poetics of Latin Didactic: Vergil, Ovid, Manilius (Oxford, 2002), 94–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Marković, D., The Rhetoric of Explanation in Lucretius' De rerum natura (Leiden, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who argues that many of Lucretius' rhetorical techniques function as cognitive aids and overlap with what Epicurus found appealing about poetry in the first place.
4 On the issue of the De rerum natura as epic, see Murley, C., ‘Lucretius' De rerum natura viewed as epic’, TAPhA 78 (1947), 336–46Google Scholar; West, D., The Imagery and Poetry of Lucretius (Edinburgh, 1969)Google Scholar; Hardie, P., Virgil's Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium (Oxford, 1986), 193–219Google Scholar; Mayer, R., ‘The epic of Lucretius’, Leeds International Latin Seminar 6 (1990), 35–43Google Scholar; Gale (n. 3), 99–128, Fowler, D.P., ‘The didactic plot’, in Depew, M. and Obbink, D. (edd.), Matrices of Genre: Authors, Canons, and Society (Cambridge, MA, 2002), 205–19Google Scholar; Volk (n. 3), 69–73; and Gale, M., ‘Lucretius and previous poetic traditions’, in Gillespie, S. and Hardie, P. (edd.), The Cambridge Companion to Lucretius (Cambridge, 2007), 59–75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Harrison, S.J., ‘Ennius and the prologue to Lucretius DRN 1 (1.1–148)’, Leeds International Classical Studies 1.4 (2002), 1–13Google Scholar argues that Lucretius makes several allusions (both subtle and obvious) to Ennius in the prologue to Book 1. Sedley, D., Lucretius and the Transformation of Greek Wisdom (Cambridge, 1998), 1–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar argues for a similar understanding of Lucretius' allusions to Empedocles. Konstan, D., ‘Lucretius on poetry: III.1–13’, Colby Quarterly 24.2 (1988), 65–70Google Scholar argues that the proem to Book 3 also provides insight into Lucretius' poetic programme. Marcović (n. 2), 58–70 discusses the proems and conclusions to each book and argues that all the proems and endings of the books are especially ‘worked up’, as they are in philosophical rhetoric. See also Brown, R.D., Lucretius on Love and Sex: A Commentary on De rerum natura IV, 1030–1287 with Prolegomena, Text and Translation. Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition (Leiden, 1987), 51–2Google Scholar.
6 Gale (n. 3), 128.
7 Scholars have long noted that the lines following the proem, 2.20–36, allude to the Odyssey's Phaeacians, who are traditionally associated with Epicureans. See Gordon, P., ‘Phaeacian Dido: lost pleasures of an Epicurean intertext’, ClAnt 17.2 (1998), 188–211Google Scholar, D.P. Fowler, Lucretius on Atomic Motion (Oxford, 2002), 82.
8 The priamel structure has long been identified and discussed. See Holtsmark, E.B., ‘On Lucretius 2.1–19’, TAPhA 98 (1967), 193–204Google Scholar, at 194; Race, W.H., The Classical Priamel from Homer to Boethius (Leiden, 1982)Google Scholar, 118.
9 Fowler (n. 7), 48 notes that this phrase echoes 1.47, which describes the gods. The similarity may have more importance in aiding understanding of the philosophical implications of the passage. Poetically, however, I believe it serves to enhance the distance and non-involvement of the viewer.
10 Suavis is used seventeen times outside this proem: nine uses are sensual, seven poetic in context and one describes his friendship with Memmius. Dulcis is used almost twice as often and much more generally. For detailed discussions of these words, see Mamoojee, A.H., ‘“Suavis” and “dulcis”: a study of Ciceronian usage’, Phoenix 35.3 (1981), 220–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Fowler (n. 7), 33–5. Note also that both suavis and dulcis are used in the ‘honey on the cup’ programmatic passage (1.921–50).
11 See Holtsmark (n. 8), 193–204 and Fowler (n. 7), 205–19.
12 As further evidence of this point, Lucretius explains (using suave again) at 2.3–4: non quia vexari quemquamst iucunda voluptas, | sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suave est (‘not because it is a great pleasure that anyone be troubled, but it is pleasant to observe the troubles you yourself lack’). This is still how a non-Epicurean would experience the observation of the troubles of others, he would appreciate his distance from them but not understand the psychological implications of the acts of seafaring and war.
13 In Book 5 of the De rerum natura, Lucretius presents an ‘anthropology’ of the human race. He names seafaring as one of the accomplishments of mankind forced upon him by the growth and decay of nature (5.999–1006). He presents warfare as the unfortunate consequence of men striving for more power and goods (5.1120–32). For an in-depth discussion of the Epicurean focus on human psychology, see Konstan, D., A Life Worthy of the Gods: The Materialist Psychology of Epicurus (Las Vegas, 2008), 27–77Google Scholar.
14 Hardie (n. 3), 201–2 points out that this passage revisits epic themes already presented in the De rerum natura such as wandering and battle.
15 Cf. Conte, G.B., Ὕψος e diatribe nello stile di Lucrezio (De rer. Nat. ii, 1–61)’, Maia 18 (1966), 338–68Google Scholar, at 340 and Fowler (n. 7), 35.
16 A common interpretation of the image of the sea in Callim. Hymn 2.106–10. Also, Pucci, J., ‘Horace and Virgilian mimesis: a re-reading of Odes 1.3’, CW 85.6 (1992), 659–73Google Scholar, at 671–2 convincingly argues that Horace equates seafaring with epic poetry in Carm. 1.3, his propempticon to Virgil.
17 As Fowler (n. 7), 47 points out, the phrase also occurs at 5.393 to describe the war of the elements and at 5.1296 as part of his description of the effect of iron upon warfare. This may undercut a specifically poetic interpretation of the phrase, but I argue that it should be read that way, surrounded as it is by other epic signals. Catullus uses this phrase at 64.394 in his description of Mars' involvement in the acts of men after the marriage of Peleus and Thetis.
18 Fowler (n. 7), 47 suggests a connection to Ennius. Harrison (n. 5) argues eloquently for Lucretius' engagement (and rivalry) with Ennius as a symbol of Latin epic.
19 Fowler (n. 4), 216.
20 Gale (n. 3), 64 similarly suggests that the contrasting scenes of military manoeuvres and grazing sheep at 2.317–32 can be seen as emblems of heroic and georgic poetry.
21 Cf. Ov. Met. 13.137, where Odysseus speaks of his ingenium.
22 Cf. also Od. 8.72–82, where Achilles and Odysseus are described by Demodocus as the ‘best of the Achaeans’ (8.78) as they quarrel.
23 Lucretius uses the phrase nonne videre (2.16) fifteen times throughout his poem when he demands attention to important philosophical precepts.
