Myth and Poetry in Lucretius

Assesses Lucretius' aims and methodology by considering his attitude to myth and its role in the De Rerum Natura.

Monica R. Gale (Author)

9780521036801, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 May 2007

276 pages
21.6 x 14.3 x 1.6 cm, 0.374 kg

"This is, quite simply, a superb book, the merits of which I haven't the space to expound properly, nor is it possible to engage the author in the many particulars which one should very much like to argue. Gale has provided a deep and intelligent study of what must be conceded to be matters of crucial concern in understanding Lucretius....she is thorough, judicious and fair to those scholars with whom she takes issue....she writes pleasingly well: it is a genuine pleasure to see literature and philosophy discussed with such clarity. This book very much belongs on the same shelf as Diskin Clay's Lucretius and Epicurus and Philip Hardie's Cosmos and Imperium." W. Jeffery Tatum, Classical World

The employment of mythological language and imagery by an Epicurean poet - an adherent of a system not only materialist, but overtly hostile to myth and poetry - is highly paradoxical. This apparent contradiction has often been ascribed to a conflict in the poet between reason and intellect, or to a desire to enliven his philosophical material with mythological digressions. This book attempts to provide a more positive assessment of Lucretius' aims and methodology by considering the poet's attitude to myth, and the role which it plays in the De Rerum Natura, against the background of earlier and contemporary views. The author suggests that Lucretius was not only aware of the tension between his two roles as philosopher and poet, but attempted to resolve it by developing his own, Epicurean poetic, together with a bold and innovative theory of the origins and meaning of myth.

Preface
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. The philosophical background: Greek myth and mythology
2. The cultural background: myth and belief in late Republican Rome
3. The literary background: the De Rerum Natura as epic
4. Lucretius' theory of myth
5. Latent myth in the De Rerum Natura
6. The proem and the plague
Conclusion: myth as a poetic and philosophical tool
Bibliography
General Index
Index of passages cited.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]