I have a confession to make: I think Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura is the finest work of Latin literature. I’m not some kind of Classics hipster (‘Oh, the Aeneid, eh? A bit mainstream. The Eclogues are clearly superior…’). Show me a more challenging, intriguing and poetically perfect work among the efforts of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, et al. – you’ll be searching for a while, like looking for an atom in a sea of void.
Having completed by PhD on metaphor in Lucretius, I became a teacher, and had to come to terms with a hard truth: Lucretius isn’t popular in schools. Bereft of a set text to get my teeth into, I have tried to satisfy my hunger with unseen passages for extension, books in translation for our Classics Society reading group, and even short chunks for recitation in our verse reading competition.
Is it worth it? Of course.
Lucretius is a joy to read in translation. Glide through the ingenious proofs for the existence of atoms; pause to ponder how colourless atoms make coloured items; drink in the 31 proofs of the soul’s mortality; gawp at the vehement dismissal of long-term relationships; leave shaken by the grim coda of the plague – then return to Book 1 for reassurance that everything is reborn again.
The Latin is more joyous still, from the vocabulary Lucretius invents for discussing atomism to the richness of his similes, metaphors and analogies. The poetic form allows Lucretius to outstrip Plato with his vivid imagery, employing the wizardry of word order, so natural to verse, and metrical gymnastics to support his arguments. In his exploitation of the poetic form, Lucretius is more flexible than Virgil and more daring even than Ovid – and he needs to be, as he tries to persuade us that unfashionable Epicureanism is the way forward.
Swamped by the Augustan poets, overlooked in favour of his contemporary Catullus, dismissed as ‘too philosophical’ for a poetry selection, yet ‘not philosophical enough’ for a philosophy one – it’s tough for Lucretius to get himself heard in schools. But what better choice could there be for an A-Level set text option? Two books for the English provision – 1 and 2 on atomism, 3 and 4 on the soul and sensation, or 5 and 6 on the world and its various phenomena – and a selection of poetic and philosophical passages in Latin. Certainly a more inspiring option than Seneca…
Finally, in the spirit of Buzzfeed, here are 11 unmissable passages from the DRN:
1.1-49 – the prologue (what’s Venus doing there?!)
1.271-297 – wind and rivers prove the existence of atoms
1.635-920 – withering put-downs of the Presocratics
2.349-366 – a cow mourns for her lost calf
2.388-397 – why wine and olive oil flow at different speeds
3.931-951 – Nature urges a man not to be miserable about death
4.75-88 – how a coloured theatre awning dyes the audience below
4.1278-1287 – how habit breeds love
5.805-834 – the Earth gave birth to animals from wombs, but now she’s too old for this
6.96-422 – thunder and lightning are natural phenomena, not sent by Jupiter
6.906-1089 – how magnets work
