Lucretius

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Lucretius is a poet whose only surviving work, a six-book poem On the Nature of Things, has represented for centuries a model of prodigious inventiveness, sublime imagery, and intellectual militancy. In the context of 1st-century Rome, near the end of its existence as a free republic, Lucretius authored a poetic masterpiece with which he tried to explain the origin and functioning of all things from a rational standpoint, based on the theories of previous Greek thinkers, especially Epicurus, with the intention of communicating such universal truths to a modern, Roman audience. To accomplish such a challenging cultural project, Lucretius chose the form of a poem in dactylic hexameters, one that had long been assigned to epic poetry since Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. However, within the realm of epic poetry, a sub-genre had also emerged and flourished, whereby authors “taught” their readers regarding specific subjects: this is called didactic poetry. Whereas such a genre had been practiced in Greece since the 8th century BC, Rome still did not know many examples of it. In fact, after Ennius, the founder of Roman epic, had written his Annales on the history of Rome, almost no noteworthy examples remain of any kind of dactylic poetry before Lucretius, who therefore represents an extremely important stage in the development of the genre, and the very meter that will be consecrated to eternal admiration by Vergil, a few decades later. Thus, the study of Lucretius is especially necessary for students of Latin epic poetry, history of classical literature, and anyone who wants to understand what the most notable authors of the classical canon, such as Vergil, were reading while composing their masterpieces. More generally, Lucretius’ scope is one that encompasses the whole galaxy of things that exist in the universe, from the smallest atoms – a concept developed by the Greeks, and beautifully articulated by Lucretius in poetic diction – to the most complex construct, humanity, with its unique ability to apply reason to the comprehension of both the letter and the broader meaning of the Book of Existence. Ultimately, this is a text that celebrates human intellect, its capacity to understand itself and the external world, and the literary history which is one fundamental aspect of that intellect, as Lucretius’ own unparalleled artistry manifests.