Text Lucretius Rouse - EpicureanFriends Handbook (2024)

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with fear ! And with reason; for if men saw that a limit has been set to tribulation, somehow they would have strength to defy the superstitions and threatenings of the priests; but, as it is, there is no way of resistance and no power, because everlasting punishment is to be feared after death. For there is ignorance what is the nature of the soul, whether it be born or on the contrary find its way into men at birth, and whether it perish together with us when broken up by death, or whether it visit the gloom of Orcus and his vasty chasms, or by divine ordinance find its way into animals in our stead, as our own Enniusasang, who first brought down from pleasant Heliconba chaplet of evergreen leafa*ge to win a glorious name through the nations of Italian men; although nevertheless he also sets forth in everlasting verses that there exist regions of Acheron,cwhich neither our spirits nor our bodies endure to reach, but certain similitudes of them pallid in wondrous wise; whence he avers that the likeness of ever deathless Homer issued forth, and began to shed salt tears and to unfold the nature of things.

127Therefore not only must we lay down right

principles concerning things celestial, how the courses of sun and moon come about, and by what power all is done upon earth, but also most especially we must examine with keen-scented reasoning, of what the

spirit is made and the nature of the mind,dand what thing it is that meeting us when awake terrifies our

Footnotes

aEnnius (239–169 b.c.), Lucr.’s chief poetic model, accepted the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis, and believed that the soul of Homer had passed into himself.ENNIus . . . perENNI (117-118) emphasizes the immortality of the poet’s work(cf.note on 63).

bMountain in Boeotia, home of the Muses.

cOne of the rivers of the underworld; hence the lower world itself,templa(same root as τέμνω) is a term of augury for the quarters or houses into which the sky is divided by the augurs. It thus has a solemn tone. Thetemplumof a god is hisτέμενoς.Hence the wider sense of regions or realms.

dOn theanimusandanima,see 3.94-416 and Introduction p. xxxvi.

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terrificet morbo adfectis somnoque sepultis,

cernere uti videamur eos audireque coram,

135morte obita quorum tellus amplectitur ossa.

Nec me animi fallit Graiorum obscura reperta

difficile inlustrare Latinis versibus esse,

multa novis verbis praesertim cum sit agendum

propter egestatem linguae et rerum novitatem;

140sed tua me virtus tamen et sperata voluptas

suavis amicitiae quemvis efferre laborem

suadet, et inducit noctes vigilare serenas

quaerentem dictis quibus et quo carmine demum

clara tuae possim praepandere lumina menti,

145res quibus occultas penitus convisere possis.

Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest

non radii solis neque lucida tela diei

discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.

principium cuius hinc nobis exordia sumet,

150nullam rem e nilo gigni divinitus umquam.

quippe ita formido mortalis continet omnis,

quod multa in terris fieri caeloque tuentur

quorum operum causas nulla ratione videre

possunt, ac fieri divino numine rentur.

156155quas ob res ubi viderimus nil posse creari

157de nilo, tum quod sequimur iam rectius inde

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minds whilst we are labouring under disease, or buried in sleep, so that we seem to see and to hear in very presence those who have encountered death, whose bones rest in earth’s embrace.a

136Nor do I fail to understand that it is difficult

to make clear the dark discoveries of the Greeks in Latin verses, especially since we have often to employ new words because of the poverty of the language and the novelty of the mattersb; but still it is your merit, and the expected delight of your

pleasant friendship,cthat persuades me to undergo any labour,dand entices me to spend the tranquil nights in wakefulness, seeking by what words and what poetry at last I may be able to display clear lights before your mind, whereby you may see into the heart of things hidden.

146This terror of mind therefore and this gloom

must be dispelled, not by the sun’s rays or the bright shafts of day, but by the aspect and law of nature.eThe first principle of our study we will derive from

this, that no thing is ever by divine power produced from nothing.fFor assuredly a dread holds all mortals thus in bond, because they behold many things happening in heaven and earth whose causes they can by no means see, and they think them to be done by divine power. For which reasons, when we shall perceive that nothing can be created from nothing, then we shall at once more correctly understand from that principle what we are seeking, both

Footnotes

aFor the explanation of such visions, see 4.33-41, 757-767.

bFor the abstruseness of Lucr.’s subject,cf.922, 933 (=4.8); for the poverty of his native language,cf.832, 3.260; for his consciousness of being a pioneer,cf.926–934 (=4.1–9), 5.336–337.

cSee Introduction p. xlviii.

dLucr. again refers to his laborious (though pleasurable) task in 2.730, 3.419.

e146–148=2.59–61, 3.91–93, 6.39–41.

fCf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.38: πpῶτoν μὲν ὅτι oὐδὲν γίνετaι ἐκ

τoῦ μὴ ὄντoς.

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158perspiciemus, et unde queat res quaeque creari

155et quo quaeque modo fiant opera sine divom.

Nam si de nilo fierent, ex omnibu’ rebus

160omne genus nasci posset, nil semine egeret.

e mare primum homines, e terra posset oriri

squamigerum genus et volucres erumpere caelo;

armenta atque aliae pecudes, genus omne ferarum,

incerto partu culta ac deserta tenerent;

165nec fructus idem arboribus constare solerent,

sed mutarentur: ferre omnes omnia possent.

quippe ubi non essent genitalia corpora cuique,

qui posset mater rebus consistere certa?

at nunc seminibus quia certis quaeque creantur,

170inde enascitur atque oras in luminis exit

materies ubi inest cuiusque et corpora prima;

atque hac re nequeunt ex omnibus omnia gigni,

quod certis in rebus inest secreta facultas.

Praeterea cur vere rosam, frumenta calore,

175vites autumno fundi suadente videmus,

si non, certa suo quia tempore semina rerum

cum confluxerunt, patefit quodcumque creatur,

dum tempestates adsunt et vivida tellus

tuto res teneras effert in luminis oras?

180quod si de nilo fierent, subito exorerentur

incerto spatio atque alienis partibus anni,

quippe ubi nulla forent primordia quae genitali

concilio possent arceri tempore iniquo.

Nec porro augendis rebus spatio foret ususs

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the source from which each thing can be made and the manner in which everything is done without the working of gods.

159For if things came out of nothing, all kinds of

things could be produced from all things, nothing would want a seed.aFirstly, men could arise from the sea, from the earth scaly tribes, and birds could hatch from the sky; cattle and other farm animals and every kind of wild creature would fill desert and cultivated land alike, with no certainty as to birth.bNor would trees be constant in bearing the same fruit, but they would interchange: all would be able to bear all. Seeing that there would be no bodies apt to generate each kind, how could there be a constant unchanging mother for things? But as it is, because every kind is produced from fixed seeds, the source of everything that is born and comes forth into the borders of light is that in which is the material of it and its first bodies; and therefore it is impossible that all things be born from all things, because in particular things resides a distinct power.

174Besides, why do we see the rose put forth in

spring, corn in the heat, grapes under persuasion of autumn, unless because each created thing discloses itself when at their own time the fixed seeds of things have streamed together, while the due seasons are present and the lively earth safely brings out things young and tender into the borders of light? But if they came from nothing, suddenly they would arise at uncertain intervals and at unsuitable times of the year; naturally, for there would be no first-beginnings to be restrained from generative union by the unfavourable season.

184Nor furthermore would time be needed for the

Footnotes

aLucr. is translating Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.38.

bThat is, there would be no certainty that a wild animal would be born in the wilds, a farm animal on the farm.

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185seminis ad coitum, si e nilo crescere possent;

nam fierent iuvenes subito ex infantibu’ parvis,

e terraque exorta repente arbusta salirent.

quorum nil fieri manifestum est, omnia quando

paulatim cresc*nt, ut par est, semine certo,

190crescentesque genus servant; ut noscere possis

quidque sua de materie grandescere alique.

Huc accedit uti sine certis imbribus anni

laetificos nequeat fetus submittere tellus

nec porro secreta cibo natura animantum

195propagare genus possit vitamque tueri;

ut potius multis communia corpora rebus

multa putes esse, ut verbis elementa videmus,

quam sine principiis ullam rem existere posse.

Denique cur homines tantos natura parare

200non potuit, pedibus qui pontum per vada possent

transire et magnos manibus divellere montis

multaque vivendo vitalia vincere saecla,

si non materies quia rebus reddita certast

gignundis e qua constat quid possit oriri?

205nil igitur fieri de nilo posse fatendumst,

semine quando opus est rebus quo quaeque creatae

aeris in teneras possint proferrier auras.

Postremo quoniam incultis praestare videmus

culta loca et manibus melioris reddere fetus,

210esse videlicet in terris primordia rerum

quae nos, fecundas vertentes vomere glebas

terraique solum subigentes, cimus ad ortus.

Footnotes

191materieG, Nonius p. 165 Lindsay:materiaOP:materiaeQ, G corr.

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growth of things, for seeds to collect, if they could

grow from nothing; for youths would be made on a sudden from small infants, and trees would leap forth suddenly arising out of the earth. But manifestly none of these things takes place, since all things grow little by little, as is proper, from a fixed seed, and in growingapreserve their kind; so that you may infer that every kind grows and is nourished from its own proper material.

192Add to this that without fixed seasons of rain

in the year the earth cannot put forth her cheering fruits, nor furthermore can living things kept apart from food beget their kind and preserve life; so that you may more readily believe many bodies to be common to many things, as we see letters to be common to words, than that anything can exist without first-beginnings.

199Again, why could not nature produce men so

large that they could wade through the deep sea as a ford and tear asunder great mountains with their hands and outlive many generations of life, if it is not because a fixed material is assigned for making things, from which what can arise is fixed? Therefore we must confess that nothing can come from nothing, since all things must have seed, from which each being created may be brought forth into the soft breezes of air.

208Lastly, since we see that cultivated land is

better than uncultivated, and returns better fruit by the labour of our hands, it is plain to see that there are first-beginnings of things in the ground which we bring to birth by turning over the fruitful clods with the ploughshare and trenching the soil.bBut if

Footnotes

aA solecism in 190: Lucr. writescrescentes,as though notomnia(188), butomnes res,had preceded(cf. rebus,184).

bCf.5.210–211.

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quod si nulla forent, nostro sine quaeque labore

sponte sua multo fieri meliora videres.

215Huc accedit uti quidque in sua corpora rursum

dissoluat natura neque ad nilum interemat res.

nam si quid mortale e cunctis partibus esset,

ex oculis res quaeque repente erepta periret;

nulla vi foret usus enim quae partibus eius

220discidium parere et nexus exsolvere posset.

quod nunc, aeterno quia constant semine quaeque,

donec vis obiit quae res diverberet ictu

aut intus penetret per inania dissoluatque,

nullius exitium patitur natura videri.

Praeterea quaecumque vetustate amovet aetas,

226si penitus peremit consumens materiem omnem,

unde animale genus generatim in lumina vitae

redducit Venus, aut redductum daedala tellus

unde alit atque auget generatim pabula praebens?

230unde mare ingenuei fontes externaque longe

flumina suppeditant? unde aether sidera pascit?

omnia enim debet, mortali corpore quae sunt,

infinita aetas consumpse anteacta diesque.

quod si in eo spatio atque anteacta aetate fuere

235e quibus haec rerum consistit summa refecta,

inmortali sunt natura praedita certe.

haud igitur possunt ad nilum quaeque reverti.

Denique res omnis eadem vis causaque volgo

conficeret, nisi materies aeterna teneret,

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there were none such, you would see all things without labour of ours, of their own will, grow much better.

215Add to this that nature resolves everything

again into its elements, and does not reduce things to nothing.aFor if anything were perishable in all its parts, each thing would then perish in a moment snatched away from our sight. For there would be no need of any force, to cause disruption of its parts and dissolve their connexions. But as it is, because the seed of all things is everlasting, nature allows no destruction of anything to be seen, until a force has met it, sufficient to shatter it with a blow, or to penetrate within through the void places and break it up.

225Besides, if time consuming all the material

utterly destroys whatever by lapse of years it removes, whence does Venus restore living creatures to the light of life each after its kind, or, when they are restored, whence does the wonder-working earth nourish them and make them grow, providing food for each after its kind? Whence is the sea supplied by the springs within it, and by the rivers without, flowing from afar? Whence does the ether nourish the stars? For all things that are of perishable body must have been consumed by infinite time and ages past. But if through that space of time past there have been bodies from which this sum of things subsists being made again, imperishable indeed must their nature be; therefore things cannot severally return to nothing.

238Again, the same force and cause would destroy

all things without distinction, unless everlasting

Footnotes

aCf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.39.

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240inter se nexus minus aut magis indupedita;

tactus enim leti satis esset causa profecto,

quippe ubi nulla forent aeterno corpore, quorum

contextum vis deberet dissolvere quaeque.

at nunc, inter se quia nexus principiorum

245dissimiles constant aeternaque materies est,

incolumi remanent res corpore, dum satis acris

vis obeat pro textura cuiusque reperta.

haud igitur redit ad nilum res ulla, sed omnes

discidio redeunt in corpora materiai.

Postremo pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater aether

251in gremium matris terrai praecipitavit;

at nitidae surgunt fruges ramique viresc*nt

arboribus, cresc*nt ipsae fetuque gravantur;

hinc alitur porro nostrum genus atque ferarum;

255hinc laetas urbes pueris florere videmus

frondiferasque novis avibus canere undique silvas;

hinc fessae pecudes pingui per pabula laeta

corpora deponunt, et candens lacteus umor

uberibus manat distentis; hinc nova proles

260artubus infirmis teneras lasciva per herbas

ludit lacte mero mentes perculsa novellas.

haud igitur penitus pereunt quaecumque videntur,

quando alid ex alio reficit natura, nec ullam

rem gigni patitur nisi morte adiuta aliena.

265Nunc age, res quoniam docui non posse creari

de nilo neque item genitas ad nil revocari,

Footnotes

240nexusOQGFL (cf. 220, 244): nexuQ corr., ABM257 pinguiPhilargyrius on Virgil, G. 3.124: pinguisOQ, G corr. (G omits), Martin

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matter held them together entangled more or less

closely in their interlacing bonds; for just a touch would be cause enough for destruction, inasmuch as there would be no particles of everlasting body, whose contexture a special force would be needed to dissolve. But as it is, since the bonds which combine the elements are different, and their matter is everlasting, things abide with body intact until a force meet them that is found vigorous enough to affect the texture of each. Therefore no single thing returns to nothing, but all by disruption return to the elements of matter.

250Lastly, the raindrops pass away, when father

Ether has cast them into the lap of mother Earth; but bright crops arise, the branches upon the trees grow green, the trees also grow and become heavy with fruit; hence comes nourishment again for our kind and for the wild beasts; hence we behold happy cities blooming with children and leafy woods all one song with the young birds; hence flocks and herds, weary with their fat, lay their bodies about the rich pastures, and the white milky stream flows from their swollen udders; hence the young ones gambol in merry play over the delicate grass on their weakly limbs, their tender hearts intoxicated with neat milk.aTherefore no visible object utterly passes away, since nature makes up again one thing from another, and does not permit anything to be born unless aided by another’s death.

265Now then, since I have taught that things cannot

be created from nothing and, when brought

Footnotes

amerosuggests wine: the pure milk is strong drink for the young animals—hence their frolicsome behaviour (lasciva . . ludit) and unsteadiness on their legs(artubus infirmis).

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ne qua forte tamen coeptes diffidere dictis,

quod nequeunt oculis rerum primordia cerni,

accipe praeterea quae corpora tute necessest

270confiteare esse in rebus nec posse videri.

Principio venti vis verberat incita pontum

ingentisque ruit navis et nubila differt;

interdum rapido percurrens turbine campos

arboribus magnis sternit montisque supremos

275silvifragis vexat flabris: ita perfurit acri

cum fremitu saevitque minaci murmure ventus.

sunt igitur venti nimirum corpora caeca

quae mare, quae terras, quae denique nubila caeli

verrunt ac subito vexantia turbine raptant;

280nec ratione fluunt alia stragemque propagant

et cum mollis aquae fertur natura repente

flumine abundanti, quam largis imbribus auget

montibus ex altis magnus decursus aquai,

fragmina coniciens silvarum arbustaque tota,

285nec validi possunt pontes venientis aquai

vim subitam tolerare: ita magno turbidus imbri

molibus incurrit validis cum viribus amnis.

dat sonitu magno stragem volvitque sub undis

grandia saxa, ruit qua quidquid fluctibus obstat.

290sic igitur debent venti quoque flamina ferri,

quae veluti validum cum flumen procubuere

quamlibet in partem, trudunt res ante ruuntque

Footnotes

271pontumMarullus: cortusOQG: tortusO corr.: corpusQ corr.: portusP

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forth, cannot be brought back to nothing, that you

may not by any chance begin nevertheless to distrust my words, because the first-beginnings of things cannot be distinguished by the eye, learn in addition of bodies which you must yourself of necessity confess to be numbered amongst things and yet impossible to be seen.

271First the mighty wind when stirred up beats

upon the ocean and overwhelms huge ships and scatters the clouds, and at times sweeping over the plains with rapid hurricane strews them with great trees and flogs the topmost mountains with tree-crashing blasts: so furious and fierce its howling, so savage and threatening the wind’s roar. Therefore undoubtedly there are unseen bodies of wind that sweep the sea, that sweep the earth, sweep the clouds of the sky also, beating them suddenly and catching them up in a hurricane; and they flow and deal devastation in the same way as water,awhich, soft as it is, suddenly rolls in overwelling stream when a great deluge of water from the high mountains swells the flood with torrents of rain, dashing together wreckage of forests and whole trees, nor can strong bridges withstand the sudden force of the coming water, with so mighty a force does the river, boiling with rain-torrents, rush against the piers; it works devastation with loud uproar and rolls huge rocks under its waves, and sweeps away whatever stands in its path. Thus therefore the blasts of the wind also must be borne along, which, like a strong river, when they have borne down in any direction, thrust all before them and sweep all away with frequent

Footnotes

aFor the correspondences between this simile and the account of wind, see especially D. West,Philol.114 (1970) 272–274.

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impetibus crebris, interdum vertice torto

corripiunt rapidoque rotantia turbine portant.

295quare etiam atque etiam sunt venti corpora caeca,

quandoquidem factis et moribus aemula magnis

amnibus inveniuntur, aperto corpore qui sunt.

Tum porro varios rerum sentimus odores

nec tamen ad naris venientis cernimus umquam,

300nec calidos aestus tuimur nec frigora quimus

usurpare oculis nec voces cernere suemus;

quae tamen omnia corporea constare necessest

natura, quoniam sensus inpellere possunt;

tangere enim et tangi, nisi corpus, nulla potest res.

305Denique fluctifrago suspensae in litore vestes

uvesc*nt, eaedem dispansae in sole seresc*nt;

at neque quo pacto persederit umor aquai

visumst nec rursum quo pacto fugerit aestu.

in parvas igitur partis dispargitur umor,

310quas oculi nulla possunt ratione videre.

Quin etiam multis solis redeuntibus annis

anulus in digito subter tenuatur habendo,

stilicidi casus lapidem cavat, uncus aratri

ferreus occulto decrescit vomer in arvis,

315strataque iam volgi pedibus detrita viarum

saxea conspicimus; tum portas propter aena

signa manus dextras ostendunt adtenuari

saepe salutantum tactu praeterque meantum.

Footnotes

294rapidoque“ex codicibus fidelioribus” (Pius):rapidiqueO, Q corr., GP:rapidisqueQ:rapidequeLachmannrotantiaLambinus (1563–64):rotantiOQGP

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attacks, and at times catch things up in a swirling eddy and whirling them round carry them off in a swift tornado. Therefore I say again and again, there are unseen bodies of wind, since in deeds and ways they are found to rival great rivers, which possess a body which can be seen.

298Then further, we smell the various odours of

things and yet we never see them approaching our nostrils, nor do we behold scorching heat, nor can we

set eyes on cold, nor are we accustomed to see

sounds; yet all these must of necessity consist of bodily structure, since they can act upon our senses. For nothing can touch or be touched, except body.

305Again, garments hung up on a surf-beaten shore grow damp, the same spread in the sun grow dry; yet none has seen either how the damp of the

water pervaded them, or again how it departed in the heat. Therefore the water is dispersed into small particles, which the eye cannot in any way see.

311Moreover, with many revolutions of the sun’s

year, a ring on the finger is thinned underneath by wear, the fall of drippings hollows a stone, the curved ploughshare of iron imperceptibly dwindles away in the fields, and the stony pavement of the roads we see already to be rubbed away by men’s feet; again, bronze statues set by gateways display the right hands thinned away by the frequent touch of greeting from those who pass by.aThese therefore we observe

Footnotes

aCicero,Verr.4.94, mentions a bronze statue in the temple of Hercules at Agrigentum, whose lips and chin had been worn away by the kisses of worshippers. However, Lucr. is referring to the right hands of statues by city gates, and the custom may have been to touch or grasp these(cf. tactu,318, though this could refer to the touch of the lips) rather than, as is usually supposed, to kiss them. The foot of St. Peter’s statue in St. Peter’s, Rome, is a familiar modern parallel.

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haec igitur minui, cum sint detrita, videmus;

320sed quae corpora decedant in tempore quoque,

invida praeclusit specimen natura videndi.

Postremo quaecumque dies naturaque rebus

paulatim tribuit, moderatim crescere cogens,

nulla potest oculorum acies contenta tueri;

325nec porro quaecumque aevo macieque senesc*nt,

nec, mare quae inpendent, vesco sale saxa peresa

quid quoque amittant in tempore cernere possis.

corporibus caecis igitur natura gerit res.

Nec tamen undique corporea stipata tenentur

330omnia natura; namque est in rebus inane.

quod tibi cognosse in multis erit utile rebus

nec sinet errantem dubitare et quaerere semper

de summa rerum et nostris diffidere dictis.

quapropter locus est intactus inane vacansque.

335quod si non esset, nulla ratione moveri

res possent; namque officium quod corporis exstat,

officere atque obstare, id in omni tempore adesset

omnibus; haud igitur quicquam procedere posset,

principium quoniam cedendi nulla daret res.

340at nunc per maria ac terras sublimaque caeli

multa modis multis varia ratione moveri

cernimus ante oculos, quae, si non esset inane,

non tam sollicito motu privata carerent

quam genita omnino nulla ratione fuissent,

345undique materies quoniam stipata quiesset.

Footnotes

321specimenF. Nencini, Riv. Fil. 24 (1896) 304, C. L. Howard, CPhil. 56 (1961) 145–146 (cf. 4.209, and for the corruption cf. 5.186 where most editors accept Pius’ emendation): speciemOQGP

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to be growing less because they are rubbed away; but what particles are separated on each occasion, our nigg*rdly faculty of sight has debarred us from proving.

322Lastly, whatever time and nature little by

little adds to things, compelling them to grow in due measure, no keenness of sight, however strained, can perceive; nor further when things grow old by age and wasting, nor when rocks hanging over the sea are eaten away by the gnawing salt, could you discern what they lose upon each occasion. Therefore nature works by means of bodies unseen.

329Yet everything is not held close and packed

everywhere in one solid mass, for there is void in things: which knowledge will be useful to you in many matters, and will not allow you to wander in doubt and always to be at a loss as regards the universe and to distrust my words. Therefore there is intangible space, void, emptiness.aBut if there

were none, things could not in any way move; for that which is the province of body, to preventband to obstruct, would at all times be present to all things; therefore nothing would be able to move forward, since nothing could begin to give place. But as it is, we discern before our eyes, throughout seas and lands and the heights of heaven, many things moving in many ways and various manners, which, if there were no void, would not so much lack altogether their restless motion, as never would have been in any way produced at all, since matter would have been everywhere quiescent packed in one solid mass.

Footnotes

aCf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.40.

b“Province . . . prevent” (M. F. Smith) is an attempt to reproduce the verbal playofficium . . . officere.

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Praeterea quamvis solidae res esse putentur,

hinc tamen esse licet raro cum corpore cernas:

in saxis ac speluncis permanat aquarum

liquidus umor et uberibus flent omnia guttis;

350dissipat in corpus sese cibus omne animantum;

cresc*nt arbusta et fetus in tempore fundunt,

quod cibus in totas usque ab radicibus imis

per truncos ac per ramos diffunditur omnis;

inter saepta meant voces et clausa domorum

355transvolitant; rigidum permanat frigus ad ossa.

quod, nisi inania sint qua possent corpora quaeque

transire, haud ulla fieri ratione videres.

Denique cur alias aliis praestare videmus

pondere res rebus nilo maiore figura?

360nam si tantundemst in lanae glomere quantum

corporis in plumbo est, tantundem pendere par est,

corporis officiumst quoniam premere omnia deorsum,

contra autem natura manet sine pondere inanis.

ergo quod magnumst aeque leviusque videtur

365nimirum plus esse sibi declarat inanis;

at contra gravius plus in se corporis esse

dedicat et multo vacui minus intus habere.

est igitur nimirum id quod ratione sagaci

quaerimus admixtum rebus, quod inane vocamus.

370Illud in his rebus ne te deducere vero

possit, quod quidam fingunt, praecurrere cogor.

Footnotes

357fieriO corr. by Dungal (9th cent.), P:valerentOQG, and Bernays (not Brieger, as shown by Martin and Bailey) proposedcorpora quaeque valerentin 356

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346Besides, however solid things may be thought

to be, here is proof that you may discern them to be of less than solid consistency. In rocks and caves the liquid moisture of waters oozes through, and the whole place weeps with plenteous drops. Food is dispersed through all the body in living creatures. Trees grow and at their time put forth their fruits, because their food is distributed all over themafrom the lowest roots through trunks and through branches. Sounds pass through walls and fly through closed houses, stiffening cold permeates to the bones. But, if there were no void there which bodies might pass through in each case, you could not see this happen in any way.

358Lastly, why do we see some things surpass

others in weight when they are no larger? For if there is as much body in a ball of wool as in lead, it is fitting that they should both weigh the same, since it is the property of body to depress everything downwards, but contrariwise the nature of void remains without weight. Therefore that which is equally great and is seen to be lighter without doubt shows itself to have more void; but contrariwise the heavier makes clear that it has more body in it, and much less of void. There is therefore without doubt, intermingled with things, that which we seek with keen-scented reasoning, that which we call void.

370And here in this matter I am driven to forestall

what some imagine, lest it should lead you away

Footnotes

aLucr. writestotas,as though notarbusta(351), butarbores,had preceded.Cf.190, 6.215.

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cedere squamigeris latices nitentibus aiunt

et liquidas aperire vias, quia post loca pisces

linquant, quo possint cedentes confluere undae;

375sic alias quoque res inter se posse moveri

et mutare locum, quamvis sint omnia plena.

scilicet id falsa totum ratione receptumst.

nam quo squamigeri poterunt procedere tandem,

ni spatium dederint latices? concedere porro

380quo poterunt undae, cum pisces ire nequibunt?

aut igitur motu privandumst corpora quaeque,

aut esse admixtum dicundumst rebus inane,

unde initum primum capiat res quaeque movendi.

Postremo duo de concursu corpora late

385si cita dissiliant, nempe aer omne necessest,

inter corpora quod fiat, possidat inane.

is porro quamvis circum celerantibus auris

confluat, haud poterit tamen uno tempore totum

compleri spatium; nam primum quemque necessest

390occupet ille locum, deinde omnia possideantur.

quod si forte aliquis, cum corpora dissiluere,

tum putat id fieri quia se condenseat aer,

errat; nam vacuum tum fit quod non fuit ante

et repletur item vacuum quod constitit ante;

395nec tali ratione potest denserier aer,

nec, si iam posset, sine inani posset, opinor,

ipse in se trahere et partis conducere in unum.

Quapropter, quamvis causando multa moreris,

esse in rebus inane tamen fateare necessest.

Footnotes

384lateCod. Vat. Ottob. lot.1954,variant in Cod. Vat. lot.3275: lataOQGP

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from the truth. They sayathat water yields to the

pressure of scaly creatures and opens liquid ways, because fish leave room behind them for the yielding waves to run together; that so other things also are able to move in and out and to change place, although all is full. You must know that this has been accepted on reasons wholly false. For whither, I ask, will the scaly fish be able to move forward, unless the water shall give place? Into what place, again, will the water be able to move back, when the fish will be unable to go? Either then all bodies must be deprived of movement, or we must say that void is intermingled in things, as a result of which each thing may begin to move.

384Lastly, if two bodies set in motion leap far apart

after contact, of course it is necessary that air take possession of all the void which is made between the bodies. Further, however swiftly this air may run together with currents hurrying all around, yet the space will not be able to be filled all at one time; for the air must occupy each point of space in succession before the whole is occupied. But if by

chance anyone thinks that this happens at the moment when the bodies have leapt asunder because the air becomes compressed, he goes astray; for in that case a void is made which was not there before, and a void also is filled which was there before; nor can air be compressed in such a way, nor, granting that it could, could it, I think, without void withdraw into itself and condense its parts together.

398Therefore, however you may demur by making

many objections, confess you must, nevertheless, that there is void in things. Many another proof besides

Footnotes

aThe theory to which Lucr. refers is mentioned first in Plato,Ti.79 b, but is attributed by a later source to Empedocles and Anaxagoras. It was adopted by Aristotle (Ph.213 b—216 b) and Epicurus’ contemporary Strato of Lampsacus, and is mentioned by Cicero,Acad.2.40.125.

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400multaque praeterea tibi possum commemorando

argumenta fidem dictis conradere nostris.

verum animo satis haec vestigia parva sagaci

sunt, per quae possis cognoscere cetera tute.

namque canes ut montivagae persaepe ferai

405naribus inveniunt intectas fronde quietes,

cum semel institerunt vestigia certa viai,

sic alid ex alio per te tute ipse videre

talibus in rebus poteris caecasque latebras

insinuare omnis et verum protrahere inde.

410quod si pigraris paulumve recesseris ab re,

hoc tibi de plano possum promittere, Memmi:

usque adeo largos haustus e fontibu’ magnis

lingua meo suavis diti de pectore fundet,

ut verear ne tard a prius per membra senectus

415serpat et in nobis vitai claustra resolvat,

quam tibi de quavis una re versibus omnis

argumentorum sit copia missa per auris.

Sed nunc ut repetam coeptum pertexere dictis,

omnis ut est igitur per se natura duabus

420constitit in rebus; nam corpora sunt et inane,

Footnotes

404feraiQ corr., P: ferareOQG:ferarumO corr.

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I can mention to scrape together credit for my doctrines. But for a keen-scented mind, these little tracks are enough to enable you to recognize the others for yourself. For as hounds very often find by their scent the leaf-hidden resting-place of the mountain-ranging quarry, when once they have hit upon certain traces of its path, so will you be able for yourself to see one thing after another in such matters as these, and to penetrate all unseen hiding-places, and draw forth the truth from them.aBut should you be sluggish or draw back a little from the task, this I can promise you, Memmius, without more ado: so bounteous draughts out of plenteous springs will my melodious speech pour forth from my richly stored mind, that I fear lest laggard age may creep over our limbsband break down the barriers of life within us, before the whole store of demonstrations on any one matter has been poured in my verses through your ears.c

418But now to resume my task begun of weaving

the web of this discourse: the nature of the universe,dtherefore, as it is in itself, is made up of two things; for there are bodies, and there is void, in which these

Footnotes

aOn the correspondences between simile and context, see especially D. West,The Imagery and Poetry of Lucretius74–75. Socrates, in the Platonic dialogues, frequently uses hunting metaphors when referring to arguments:e.g. Phd.63 a,66b-c, 79 e, 88 d.

bCf.Lord Vaux,The Aged Lover Renounceth Love: “For Age, with stealing steps, | Hath clawed me with his clutch.”

cNotice again(cf.140–145) Lucr.’s readinessquemvisefferre laboremin his attempt to convert Memmius to Epicureanism. Notice too that he is prepared to make fun of his own missionary fervour and enthusiasm for philosophy:cf.4.969–970, where he confesses that, just as lawyers dream of legal cases, generals of battles, and sailors of the sea, so he himself dreams of studying Epicureanism and expounding it in Latin.

domnis(419) is best taken as genitive of τὸ πᾶν.Cf.Plutarch,adv. Col.1112 f (of Epicurus): τὸ πaντὸς Φύσις (cf. omnis . . . natura) ὀνoμάζειν εἴωθε.Cf. natura . . . inanis(363), corresponding to Epicurus’ ἡ . . .τoῦ κενοῦ φύσις (Ep. ad Hdt.44;cf.Plutarch,loc. cit.).

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haec in quo sita sunt et qua diversa moventur.

corpus enim per se communis dedicat esse

sensus; cui nisi prima fides fundata valebit,

haud erit occultis de rebus quo referentes

425confirmare animi quicquam ratione queamus.

tum porro locus ac spatium, quod inane vocamus,

si nullum foret, haud usquam sita corpora possent

esse neque omnino quoquam diversa meare;

id quod iam supera tibi paulo ostendimus ante.

430Praeterea nil est quod possis dicere ab omni

corpore seiunctum secretumque esse ab inani,

quod quasi tertia sit numero natura reperta.

nam quodcumque erit, esse aliquid debebit id ipsum:

435cui si tactus erit quamvis levis exiguusque,

434435augmine vel grandi vel parvo denique, dum sit,

corporis augebit numerum summamque sequetur;

sin intactile erit, nulla de parte quod ullam

rem prohibere queat per se transire meantem,

scilicet hoc id erit, vacuum quod inane vocamus.

440praeterea per se quodcumque erit, aut faciet quid

aut aliis fungi debebit agentibus ipsum

aut erit ut possint in eo res esse gerique.

at facere et fungi sine corpore nulla potest res,

nec praebere locum porro nisi inane vacansque.

Footnotes

435transposed, as suggested in Codex Laurentianus 35.32. Order of lines in the manuscripts is retained, perhaps rightly, by Martin and Büchner

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bodies are and through which they move this way and that. For sensation common to men declares that body has its separate existencea; and unless our belief in sensation is first firmly established, there will be no principle of appeal in hidden matters, according to which we may establish anything by the reason.bThen further, if there were no place and space which we call void, bodies could not be situated anywhere nor could they move anywhere at all in different directions, as I have already shown you above a little while ago.c

430Besides, there is nothing which you can call

wholly distinct from body and separate from void, to be discovered as a kind of third nature.dFor whatever is to be, that must be something in itself; and if it shall be sensible to touch however light and small, it will increase the quantity of body by some increment either great or small if you will, provided it do exist, and will go to make up the sum. But if it shall be intangible, being unable to forbid anything to pass through it in motion at any point, undoubtedly this will be that which we call empty void. Besides, whatever shall exist of itself will either act upon something, or will necessarily be

passive itself while other things act upon it, or it will be possible that things be and be done in it. But nothing can act or be acted upon without body, nothing can afford space but the void and the empty.e

Footnotes

aIn 422,per semay be taken either withcorpus . . . esse,or withsensus“sensation of itself”: the former interpretation is supported by 419, 445, 479, the latter by Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.39:αὐτὴ ἡ αἴσθησις ἐπὶ πάντων μαρτυρεῖ.

bAccording to Epicurus, sensation is the primary standard of truth, and there is no other criterion by which it can be refuted:cf. e.g. Ep. ad Hdt.38–39,Sent.23, Diogenes Laertius 10.31–32, Lucr. 1.699–700, 4.478–521, Cicero,Fin.1.7.22, 1.19.64.

c335–345, 370–383.

d419–432 and 445–448 are closely related to Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.39–40, but the argument of 433–444 is not found inEp. ad Hdt.,and the whole passage may be based on Epicurus’ lost Μεγάλη

’Επιτoμή or even on his Πεpὶ Φύσεως (see Bailey 666).

eCf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt. 67.

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445ergo, praeter inane et corpora, tertia per se

nulla potest rerum in numero natura relinqui,

nec quae sub sensus cadat ullo tempore nostros

nec ratione animi quam quisquam possit apisci.

Nam quaecumque cluent, aut his coniuncta duabus

450rebus ea invenies aut horum eventa videbis.

coniunctum est id quod nusquam sine permitiali

discidio potis est seiungi seque gregari,

pondus uti saxis, calor igni, liquor aquai,

tactus corporibus cunctis, intactus inani.

455servitium contra paupertas divitiaeque,

libertas bellum concordia, cetera quorum

adventu manet incolumis natura abituque,

haec soliti sumus, ut par est, eventa vocare.

tempus item per se non est, sed rebus ab ipsis

460consequitur sensus, transactum quid sit in aevo,

tum quae res instet, quid porro deinde sequatur;

nec per se quemquam tempus sentire fatendumst

semotum ab rerum motu placidaque quiete.

Denique Tyndaridem raptam belloque subactas

465Troiiugenas gentis cum dic*nt esse, videndumst

ne forte haec per se cogant nos esse fateri,

quando ea saecla hominum, quorum haec eventa

fuerunt,

inrevocabilis abstulerit iam praeterita aetas;

namque aliud terris, aliud regionibus ipsis

Footnotes

453saxisOQGP: saxistWakefieldigniJ. P. Postgate, Journ. Phil. 24 (1896) 131 (but readingaquae stat for aquai): ignisOQG: ignistBockemülleraquaiQG, O corr.: aquaeO

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Therefore besides void and bodies no third nature can be left self-existing in the sum of things—neither one that can ever at any time come within our senses, nor one that any man can grasp by the reasoning of the mind.

449For whatsoever things have a name, either you

will find to be properties of these two or you will see them to be accidents of the same.aA property is that which without destructive dissolution can never be separated and disjoined,bas weight is to stone, heat to fire, liquidity to water, touch to all bodies, intangibility to void. Slavery, on the other hand, poverty and riches, freedom, war, concord, all else which may come and go while the nature of things remains intact, these, as is right, we are accustomed to call accidents. Time also exists not of itself,cbut

from things themselves is derived the sense of what has been done in the past, then what thing is present with us, further what is to follow after. Nor may we admit that anyone has a sense of time by itself separated from the movement of things and their quiet calm.

464Moreover, when they say that the rape of

Tyndareus’ daughterdand the conquest by war of the Trojan tribesarefacts,ewe must see to it that they do not compel us to admit that these thingsareof themselves, on the ground that those generations of men, of whom these were accidents, the irrevocable ages past have already carried away; for whatever has been done may be called an accident

Footnotes

aFor properties (coniuncta = συμβεβηκότα) and accidents(eventa=συμπτώματα), cf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.40, 68–73.

bOn the tmesisse ... gregariin 452, see note on 3.860 and S. Hinds,CQN.S. 37 (1987) 450–453.

cIt has been generally supposed that in 459–482 Lucr. is refuting the Stoics, but see D. J. Furley inBICS13 (1966) 13–14.

dHelen of Troy.

eesse,the auxiliary of the pf. inf. pass., is capable of being understood as an assertion of existence. This ambiguity is not found in English, hence the paraphrase “arefacts.”

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470eventum dici poterit quodcumque erit actum.

denique materies si rerum nulla fuisset

nec locus ac spatium, res in quo quaeque geruntur,

numquam Tyndaridis forma conflatus amore

ignis, Alexandri Phrygio sub pectore gliscens,

475clara accendisset saevi certamina belli,

nec clam durateus Troiianis Pergama partu

inflammasset equos nocturno Graiiugenarum;

perspicere ut possis res gestas funditus omnis

non ita uti corpus per se constare neque esse,

480nec ratione cluere eadem qua constet inane,

sed magis ut merito possis eventa vocare

corporis atque loci, res in quo quaeque gerantur.

Corpora sunt porro partim primordia rerum,

partim concilio quae constant principiorum.

485sed quae sunt rerum primordia, nulla potest vis

stinguere; nam solido vinc*nt ea corpore demum.

etsi difficile esse videtur credere quicquam

in rebus solido reperiri corpore posse.

transit enim fulmen caeli per saepta domorum,

490clamor ut ac voces; ferrum candescit in igni

dissiliuntque fero ferventi saxa vapore;

cum labefactatus rigor auri solvitur aestu,

Footnotes

473formaOQG:formaeO corr., P, perhaps rightlyamoreOQGP: amorisWakefield tentatively in notes

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either of the whole earth or of the actual regions in which it occurred.aAgain, if there had been no material for things, and no place and space in which each thing is done, no fire fanned to flame by love through the beauty of Tyndareus’ daughter, and glowing beneath the breast of Phrygian Alexander,bwould ever have set alight blazing battles of savage war; no wooden horse,cunmarked by the sons of Troy, would ever have set Pergama in flames by its night-born brood of Greciansd; so that you may perceive that things done never at all consist or exist in themselves as body does, nor are said to exist in the same way as void; but rather you may properly call them accidents of body, and of the place in which the things are severally done.

483Furthermore, bodies are partly the first-beginnings

of things, partly those which are formed by union of the first-beginnings. But those which are the first-beginnings of things no power can quench: they conquer after alleby their solid body.fAnd yet it seems difficult to believe that anything with solid body can be found in creation. For heaven’s thunderbolt passes through walled houses, as sound does and voicesg; iron grows white-hot in fire, and stones split with fierce fervent heat; the hardness of gold is softened and dissolved by heat, and the ice

Footnotes

aFor this interpretation of 469–470, see R. L. Dunbabin,CQ11 (1917) 135-136, K. Wellesley,CRN.S. 13 (1963) 16–17.

bParis. The epithetPhrygiois probably intended to sug gest thefrigusin Paris’ heart before he was “fired” with love for Helen.Cf.2.611, 613Phrygias. . .fruges.

cequos (477) = equus.

dFor the “pregnant” Trojan Horse,cf.Aeschylus,Ag.825, Euripides,Tro.11, Ennius,Sc.76–77, Virgil,Aen.2.20, 237–238, 6.516.

eThat is, after all assaults.

fCf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.40–41.

gCf.6.228–229.

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tum glacies aeris flamma devicta liquescit;

permanat calor argentum penetraleque frigus,

495quando utrumque manu retinentes pocula rite

sensimus, infuso lympharum rore supeme.

usque adeo in rebus solidi nil esse videtur.

sed quia vera tamen ratio naturaque rerum

cogit, ades, paucis dum versibus expediamus

esse ea quae solido atque aeterno corpore constent,

501semina quae rerum primordiaque esse docemus,

unde omnis rerum nunc constet summa creata.

Principio quoniam duplex natura duarum

dissimilis rerum longe constare repertast,

505corporis atque loci, res in quo quaeque geruntur,

esse utramque sibi per se puramque necessest.

nam quacumque vacat spatium, quod inane vocamus,

corpus ea non est; qua porro cumque tenet se

corpus, ea vacuum nequaquam constat inane.

510sunt igitur solida ac sine inani corpora prima.

Praeterea quoniam genitis in rebus inanest,

materiem circum solidam constare necessest,

nec res ulla potest vera ratione probari

corpore inane suo celare atque intus habere,

515si non, quod cohibet, solidum constare relinquas.

id porro nil esse potest nisi materiai

concilium, quod inane queat rerum cohibere.

materies igitur, solido quae corpore constat,

esse aeterna potest, cum cetera dissoluantur.

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of bronzeais overcome by fire and liquefies; warmth oozes through silver and so does penetrating cold, seeing that we have felt both, as we duly grasp the goblet, when dewybwater is poured in from above. So true is it that there seems to be nothing solid in the world. But because nevertheless true reason and the nature of things compels, be with me, until in a few verses I make it clear that there are such things as consist of body solid and everlasting, which we teach to be seeds of things and their first-beginnings, out of which now all the sum of things has been built up.

503First, since there has been found to exist a

twofold and widely dissimilar nature of two things—of body, that is, and space in which all things are done—it is necessary that each exist by itself and for itself unmixed. For wherever is empty space, which we call void, there no body is; further, where body maintains itself, there by no means exists empty space. The first bodies therefore are solid and without void.

511Besides, since there is void in created things,. atoms);

there must be solid matter round about it, nor can anything by true reasoning be proved to conceal void in its body and to hold it within, unless you grant that which holds to be solid. Further, that can be nothing but a union of matter, which can hold the emptiness of things within it. Matter therefore, which consists of solid body, may be everlasting, though all elsecbe dissolved.

Footnotes

aFor the possibility that this striking metaphor was inspired or influenced by Empedocles, see J. Longrigg,CRN.S. 20 (1970) 8–9. The metaphor, though bold, is extremely apt, because bronze, like ice, is solidified, smooth, shiny, cold(cf.Homer,II.5.75, ψυχpὸν ... χaλκόν, quoted by Wakefield), and melts(cf. liquescit).

broresuggests the purity, and especially the sparkle, of the water:cf.771, 777, 4.438.

cThat is, all compound bodies.

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520Tum porro si nil esset quod inane vacaret,

omne foret solidum; nisi contra corpora certa

essent quae loca complerent quaecumque tenerent,

omne quod est, spatium vacuum constaret inane.

alternis igitur nimirum corpus inani

525distinctum, quoniam nec plenum naviter extat

nec porro vacuum, sunt ergo corpora certa

quae spatium pleno possint distinguere inane.

haec neque dissolui plagis extrinsecus icta

possunt nec porro penitus penetrata retexi

530nec ratione queunt alia temptata labare;

id quod iam supra tibi paulo ostendimus ante.

nam neque conlidi sine inani posse videtur

quicquam nec frangi nec findi in bina secando

nec capere umorem neque item manabile frigus

nec penetralem ignem, quibus omnia conficiuntur.

536et quo quaeque magis cohibet res intus inane,

tam magis his rebus penitus temptata labascit.

ergo si solida ac sine inani corpora prima

sunt ita uti docui, sint haec aeterna necessest.

540Praeterea nisi materies aeterna fuisset,

antehac ad nilum penitus res quaeque redissent,

de niloque renata forent quaecumque videmus.

at quoniam supra docui nil posse creari

de nilo neque quod genitum est ad nil revocari,

545esse inmortali primordia corpore debent,

dissolui quo quaeque supremo tempore possint,

materies ut suppeditet rebus reparandis.

sunt igitur solida primordia simplicitate,

Footnotes

520vacaretO corr., P: vocaretQG:vcaretO.It is possible that Lucr. wrote vocaret = vacaret (see Munro), but the form occurs nowhere else in the poem, and a scribe easily could have writtenquod inane vocaretin error, influenced by the common quodinane vocamus(369, 426, 439, 507); in any case, it seems unwise to risk confusing the modern reader

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520Then further, if there were nothing void and

empty, the universe would be solid; unless on the other hand there were definite bodies to fill up the places they held, then the existing universe would be vacant and empty space. Therefore without doubt body is marked off from void alternately, since the universe is not completely full nor yet empty. There are therefore definite bodies to mark off empty space from full. These can neither be dissolved by blows when struck from without, nor again be pierced inwardly and decomposed, nor can they be assailed and shaken in any other way, as I have shown you above a little while ago.aFor it is seen that without void nothing can be crushed, or broken, or split in two by cutting, nothing can admit liquid or again percolating cold or penetrating fire, by which all things are destroyed. And the more each thing holds void within it, so much the more thoroughly it is shaken when these things attack it. Therefore, if the first bodies are solid and without void, as I have taught, these must be everlasting.

540Besides, unless matter had been everlasting,

before this all things would have returned utterly to nothing, and whatever we see would have been born again from nothing. But since I have shown abovebthat nothing can be produced from nothing and what has been made cannot be brought back to nothing, there must be first-beginnings of immortal body, into which each thing can be resolved at its last moment, that matter may be forthcoming for the renewal of things. The first-beginnings are therefore of solid singleness, nor can they in any other way be preserved

Footnotes

a215–264, 485–502.

b149–264.

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nec ratione queunt alia servata per aevom

550ex infinito iam tempore res reparare.

Denique si nullam finem natura parasset

frangendis rebus, iam corpora materiai

usque redacta forent aevo frangente priore,

ut nil ex illis a certo tempore posset

555conceptum summum aetatis pervadere finem.

nam quidvis citius dissolvi posse videmus

quam rursus refici; quapropter longa diei

infinita aetas anteacti temporis omnis

quod fregisset adhuc disturbans dissoluensque,

560numquam relicuo reparari tempore posset.

at nunc nimirum frangendi reddita finis

certa manet, quoniam refici rem quamque videmus

et finita simul generatim tempora rebus

stare, quibus possint aevi contingere florem.

565Huc accedit uti, solidissima materiai

corpora cum constant, possint tamen omnia reddi

mollia quae fiunt—aer aqua terra vapores—

quo pacto fiant et qua vi quaeque gerantur,

admixtum quoniam semel est in rebus inane.

570at contra si mollia sint primordia rerum,

unde queant validi silices ferrumque creari

non poterit ratio reddi; nam funditus omnis

principio fundamenti natura carebit.

sunt igitur solida pollentia simplicitate,

575quorum condenso magis omnia conciliatu

artari possunt validasque ostendere viris.

Porro si nullast frangendis reddita finis

corporibus, tamen ex aeterno tempore quaeque

Footnotes

555finemQ corr., BL (for the masculine gender, cf. 2.1116):fineQG: finisOAF: floremMarullus

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through the ages from infinite time past and make things anew.

551Moreover, if nature had provided no limit to

the breaking-up of things, by this time the bodies of matter would have been so reduced by the breakings of ages past, that from them nothing could within any fixed time be conceived and attain the full maturity of its life. For we see that anything can more quickly be dissolved than it can be remade again; therefore what all the long ages of infinite time past, disturbing and dissolving, had broken up before now, could never be made new in the time remaining. But as it is, in fact there remains appointed a fixed limit for the breaking, since we see each thing being remade, and at the same time definite periods fixed for things after their kind, in which they may attain the flower of life.

565Add, moreover, that while the elements of

matter are perfectly solid, yet it is possible to give an explanation how all those things which are soft—air, water, earth, firea—are formed, and by what force each is directed, when once void is intermingled in things. But contrariwise, if the first-beginnings of things were soft, no explanation will be possible to say out of what hard flints and iron could be produced; for all nature will utterly lack a foundation to begin upon. Therefore they are mighty by their solid singleness, and, by a denser combination of these, all things can be more closely packed and show hard strength.

577Further, if no limit has been set to the breaking-up

of bodies,byou must nevertheless admit that even

Footnotes

aThe four elements of Empedocles, with whose theory Lucr. deals in 716–829.

bLucr. is arguing here primarily against Anaxagoras (cf.847–858), who held that matter is infinitely divisible.

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nunc etiam superare necessest corpora rebus,

580quae nondum clueant ullo temptata periclo.

at quoniam fragili natura praedita constant,

discrepat aeternum tempus potuisse manere

innumerabilibus plagis vexata per aevom.

Denique iam quoniam generatim reddita finis

585crescendi rebus constat vitamque tenendi,

et quid quaeque queant per foedera naturai,

quid porro nequeant, sancitum quandoquidem extat,

nec commutatur quicquam, quin omnia constant

usque adeo variae volucres ut in ordine cunctae

590ostendant maculas generalis corpore inesse,

inmutabili’ materiae quoque corpus habere

debent nimirum; nam si primordia rerum

commutari aliqua possent ratione revicta,

incertum quoque iam constet quid possit oriri,

595quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuique

quanam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens,

nec totiens possent generatim saecla referre

naturam mores victum motusque parentum.

Tum porro quoniam est extremum quodque ca-

cumen

600corporis illius quod nostri cernere sensus

iam nequeunt, id nimirum sine partibus extat

et minima constat natura, nec fuit umquam

Footnotes

599Munro assumes a lacuna between these two lines and supplies e.g.: corporibus, quod iam nobis minimum esse videtur, | debet item ratione pari minimum esse cacumen—thus introducing an analogy from perceptible objects, suchasis found in 749–752 and Epicurus, Ep. ad Hdt. 58–59. This solution, rejected by recent editors, is strongly supported by D. J. Furley, Two Studies in the Greek Atomists 31–33, and may well be correct. However, as Furley admits later inhis detailed discussion of 599–634, “Lucretius’ argument is not very clear”and“the whole section is messily put together,” and the cause of the difficulty in the opening lines may be lack of revision rather than a textual loss. Therefore the text of the manuscripts is retained, though with much hesitation

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now after infinite time there are left bodies of every

kind of thing, bodies never yet attacked by any danger. But, since they are endowed with a dissoluble nature, it is inconsistent to say that they could haveing to each remained through time everlasting, exposed to innumerable assaults throughout the ages.

584Again, since a limit has been fixed for the growth of things after their kind and for their tenure of life, and since it stands decreed what each can do by the ordinances of nature, and also what each

cannot do, and since nothing changes,abut all things are constant to such a degree that all the different birds show in succession marks upon their bodies to distinguish their kind, they must also have beyond a doubt a body of immutable matter. For if the first-beginnings of things could be changed, being in any way overmastered, it would also now remain uncertain what could arise and what could not, in a word in what way each thing has its power limited and its deep-set boundary mark,bnor could the generations so often repeat after their kind the nature, manners, living, and movements of their parents.

599Then further, since there is always an extreme

point on that body which our senses are no longer able to perceive, that point undoubtedly is without parts, and is the smallest possible existence, and it

Footnotes

aThe types persist.

b595–596=76–77, 5.89–90, 6.65–66.

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per se secretum neque posthac esse valebit,

alterius quoniamst ipsum pars primaque et una,

605inde aliae atque aliae similes ex ordine partes

agmine condenso naturam corporis explent,

quae, quoniam per se nequeunt constare, necessest

haerere unde queant nulla ratione revelli.

sunt igitur solida primordia simplicitate,

610quae minimis stipata cohaerent partibus arte,

non ex illorum conventu conciliata,

sed magis aeterna pollentia simplicitate,

unde neque avelli quicquam neque deminui iam

concedit natura reservans semina rebus.

Praeterea nisi erit minimum, parvissima quaeque

616corpora constabunt ex partibus infinitis,

quippe ubi dimidiae partis pars semper habebit

dimidiam partem nec res praefiniet ulla.

ergo rerum inter summam minimamque quid escit?

620nil erit ut distet; nam quamvis funditus omnis

summa sit infinita, tamen, parvissima quae sunt,

ex infinitis constabunt partibus aeque.

quod quoniam ratio reclamat vera negatque

credere posse animum, victus fateare necessest

625esse ea quae nullis iam praedita partibus extent

Footnotes

611illorum (i.e.cacuminumorminimorum = minimarum partium;cf. 450) OQGP: illarumPreiger (see Havercamp)

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has never existed apart by itself nor will ever have force to do so, since it is essentially a part of something else, a first part with unity of its own, and then other and other like parts, each in its own place, in close formation fill up the nature of the atom; and since these cannot exist separately, they must necessarily so adhere to the whole that they cannot by any means be torn away.aThe first-beginnings, therefore, are of solid singleness, made of these smallest parts closely packed and cohering together, not compounded by the gathering of these parts, but strong rather by their eternal singleness, and from these nature allows nothing to be torn away or diminished any longer, but keeps them as seeds for things.

615Besides, unless there is to be a smallest something,

each littlestbbody will consist of infinite parts, since of course a half of the half of anything will always have a half of its own, and there will be no limit to the division. Then what difference will there be between the sum of things and the least of things? There will be no difference; for although the whole sum of things be absolutely infinite, yet the bodies which are littlest will equally consist of infinite parts.cBut since true reasoning protests against this, and denies that the mind can believe it, you must yield and confess that there are things which no longer consist of any parts and are of the smallest possible

Footnotes

aFor the subtle and difficult doctrine of minimal parts(minimae partes, minima = ἐλάχιστα), cf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.56–59. Epicurus could not accept that matter is infinitely divisible and so postulated the existence of minute, physically indivisible particles,i.e.atoms, but at the same time believed that each atom, since it has magnitude, must also have parts which, though they are physically inseparable from the atom, can be distinguished in thought. Lucr. returns to the doctrine in 2.478–499 in connexion with atomic shapes.

bparvissimais used here to avoid confusion withminimum.

cThe fallacious assumption that all infinities are equal is refuted by Newton in a passage quoted by Munro. Lucr.’s argument is probably aimed chiefly at Anaxagoras, perhaps also at the Stoics.

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et minima constent natura. quae quoniam sunt,

illa quoque esse tibi solida atque aeterna fatendum.

Denique si minimas in partis cuncta resolvi

cogere consuesset rerum natura creatrix,

630iam nil ex illis eadem reparare valeret

propterea quia, quae nullis sunt partibus aucta,

non possunt ea quae debet genitalis habere

materies, varios conexus pondera plagas

concursus motus, per quae res quaeque geruntur.

Quapropter qui materiem rerum esse putarunt

636ignem atque ex igni summam consistere solo,

magno opere a vera lapsi ratione videntur.

Heracl*tus init quorum dux proelia primus,

clarus ob obscuram linguam magis inter inanis

640quamde gravis inter Graios qui vera requirunt.

omnia enim stolidi magis admirantur amantque

inversis quae sub verbis latitantia cernunt,

veraque constituunt quae belle tangere possunt

auris et lepido quae sunt fucata sonore.

Footnotes

634quaeMarullus:quasQG, O corr. by Dungal:quosCodex Musaei Britannici (Harleian 2612), according to Wakefield:omitted by O, which also omitsres quaeque geruntur

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nature. And since these exist, you must also confess that the first-beginnings are solid and everlasting.

628Lastly, if nature the maker had been accustomed

to compel all things to be resolved into their smallest parts, that same nature would no longer be able to make anything again out of them, because things which are not augmented by any parts cannot have what generative matter must have—the varietyaof connexions, weights, blows, concurrences, motions, by which all things are brought to pass.

635Thereforebthose who have thought that fire is

the original substance of things, and that the whole sum consists of fire alone, are seen to have fallen far away from true reasoning. Of these Heracl*tuscopens the fray as first champion, one illustrious for his dark speech rather amongst the frivolous part of the Greeks than amongst the serious who seek the truth. For dolts admire and love everything more which they see hidden amid distorted words, and set down as true whatever can prettily tickle the ears and all that is varnished over with fine-sounding phrases.d

Footnotes

avarios(633) is emphatic: see D. J. Furley,Two Studies in the Greek Atomists39-40(cf.next note).

bQuapropterrefers back topropterea quiain 631, as shown by Furley (see last note) 40. Heracl*tus’ fire(cf.645–646), like the minimal parts, would lack the variety which generative matter must have.

cRefutations of rival physicists were traditional in the Epicurean school:cf.Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 6 Smith. Diogenes, like Lucr., begins with Heracl*tus of Ephesus (c. 540-c. 480 b.c.), who taught that everything is in constant flux, that balance in the world is maintained by a continual struggle of opposites, and that fire, which exemplifies these fundamental doctrines, is the controlling element in the world. It is usually thought that Lucr.’s harsh attack on H. is aimed also at the Stoics, whom he influenced. This view has been challenged by D. J. Furley inBICS13 (1966) 15–16, but, though it would be a mistake to suppose that the Stoics are Lucr.’s main target, it is most improbable that he did not have them in mind at all.

dLucr.’s mockery of Heracl*tus’ famous oracular and paradoxical pronouncements reaches its climax with the outrageous metaphor in 644 (literally “dyed with an attractive sound”)—a clear parody of H.’s style. Moreover,init .. .dux proelia(638) ironically hints at H.’s contention that “strife is right” and “war is the father of all and king of all.” In 641stolidimay be intended to suggestStoici.

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645Nam cur tam variae res possent esse requiro,

ex uno si sunt igni puroque creatae.

nil prodesset enim calidum denserier ignem

nec rarefieri, si partes ignis eandem

naturam quam totus habet super ignis haberent;

650acrior ardor enim conductis partibus esset,

languidior porro disiectis disque supatis.

amplius hoc fieri nil est quod posse rearis

talibus in causis, nedum variantia rerum

tanta queat densis rarisque ex ignibus esse.

655Id quoque, si faciant admixtum rebus inane,

denseri poterunt ignes rarique relinqui.

sed quia multa sibi cernunt contraria quae sint

et fugitant in rebus inane relinquere purum,

ardua dum metuunt, amittunt vera viai,

660nec rursum cernunt exempto rebus inani

omnia denseri fierique ex omnibus unum

corpus, nil ab se quod possit mittere raptim,

aestifer ignis uti lumen iacit atque vaporem,

ut videas non e stipatis partibus esse.

665Quod si forte alia credunt ratione potesse

ignis in coetu stingui mutareque corpus,

scilicet ex nulla facere id si parte reparcent,

occidet ad nilum nimirum funditus ardor

omnis et e nilo fient quaecumque creantur.

670nam quodcumque suis mutatum finibus exit,

continuo hoc mors est illius quod fuit ante.

Footnotes

657quae sintMerrill; cf. 4.510:museO:muQG:mussantCF:musaeed. Brixiensis:adesseLachmann:nitiA. MacGregor, AJPhil. 101 (1980) 399–400

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645For I want to know why things could be so

various, if they are made of fire pure and simple; for it would be of no use that hot fire should become denser or rarefied, if the particles of fire still had the same nature as the whole fire has also; for the heat would be more intense with the particles compressed, but more faint if they were thrust apart and scattered apart: there is nothing else but this that you can suppose to be possible in such conditions, much less could there be all this variety of things produced from density or rarity of fire.

655There is this also: if they should grant that

void be mixed within things, fire will then be able to grow dense and be left rare; but because they see many things that fight against them, and they shrink from leaving pure void in things, while they fear the steep they lose the true path; nor again do they perceive that, if void be taken from things, all are condensed together and all become one mass, unable to emit anything briskly from itself, as burning fire throws off light and heat, so that you may see that it does not consist of closely crowded parts.

665But if by chance they believe that there is any

other wayaby which fires can in their union be quenched and change their substance, assuredly if they shall not in any way spare so to do, then manifestly all heat will perish utterly into nothing, and from nothing will be fashioned all that is madeb; for whatever by being changed passes outside its own boundaries, at once this is the death of that which

Footnotes

aAny other than closer or looser union.

bIf fire can somehow form such a union that it loses the quality of fire, then, if the process is continued, you get an end of heat or fire entirely, and so come to the conclusion that “everything can come from nothing”; for by changing fire into something that is not fire you have “killed” fire.

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proinde aliquid superare necesse est incolume ollis,

ne tibi res redeant ad nilum funditus omnes

de niloque renata vigescat copia rerum.

675nunc igitur, quoniam certissima corpora quaedam

sunt, quae conservant naturam semper eandem,

quorum abitu aut aditu mutatoque ordine mutant

naturam res et convertunt corpora sese,

scire licet non esse haec ignea corpora rerum.

680nil referret enim quaedam discedere abire,

atque alia adtribui, mutarique ordine quaedam,

si tamen ardoris naturam cuncta tenerent;

ignis enim foret omnimodis quodcumque crearent.

verum, ut opinor, itast: sunt quaedam corpora quorum

685concursus motus ordo positura figurae

efficiunt ignis, mutatoque ordine mutant

naturam neque sunt igni simulata neque ulli

praeterea rei quae corpora mittere possit

sensibus et nostros adiectu tangere tactus.

690Dicere porro ignem res omnis esse neque ullam

rem veram in numero rerum constare nisi ignem,

quod facit hic idem, perdelirum esse videtur.

nam contra sensus ab sensibus ipse repugnat

et labefactat eos, unde omnia credita pendent,

695unde hic cognitus est ipsi quem nominat ignem;

credit enim sensus ignem cognoscere vere,

cetera non credit, quae nilo clara minus sunt.

quod mihi cum vanum tum delirum esse videtur;

quo referemus enim? quid nobis certius ipsis

700sensibus esse potest, qui vera ac falsa notemus?

Footnotes

674vigescatHeinsius from 757: vivescatOQG: virescatP

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was before.aTherefore something must remain safe

and sound in those fires of theirs,bor you will find that all things return utterly into nothing, and that from nothing the supply of things is born again and lives. Now therefore, since there are certain most definite bodies which preserve their nature always the same, by the going and coming of which and their changed order things change their nature and bodies transform themselves, we may be sure that these elements of things are not made of fire. For it will be of no use that some should separate and depart, and others be added, and some change place, if nevertheless all retained the nature of fire; for whatever they should make would be altogether fire. But, as I think, the truth is this: there are certain bodies which by their concurrences, motions, order, positions, shapes, produce fire, and which, when their order is changed, change the nature of the thing, and are not like fire, nor like any other thing that can emit particles to the senses and by impact touch our sense of touch.

690Further, to say that all things are fire, and that

there exists no true thing in the number of things except fire, as this same man does, appears to be raving madness. For on the basis of the senses he himself fights against the senses, and shakes the credit of that upon which all belief depends, by which this very fire as he names it is known to himself; for he believes that the senses can truly perceive fire, but not the other things which are no less clear: which seems to me to be at once folly and raving. For to what shall we appeal? What can we find more certain than the senses themselves, to mark for us truth and falsehood?c

Footnotes

a670–671=792–793, 2.753–754, 3.519–520.

bollis =illis,referring either toignis(666) or toquaecumque creantur(669).

cCf.422–425 (see note there), 4.478–521.

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Praeterea quare quisquam magis omnia tollat

et velit ardoris naturam linquere solam,

quam neget esse ignis, aliud tamen esse relinquat?

aequa videtur enim dementia dicere utrumque.

705Quapropter qui materiem rerum esse putarunt

ignem atque ex igni summam consistere posse,

et qui principium gignundis aera rebus

constituere, aut umorem quicumque putarunt

fingere res ipsum per se, terramve creare

710omnia et in rerum naturas vertier omnis,

magno opere a vero longe derrasse videntur.

adde etiam qui conduplicant primordia rerum,

aera iungentes igni terramque liquori,

et qui quattuor ex rebus posse omnia rentur

715ex igni terra atque anima procrescere et imbri.

quorum Agragantinus cum primis Empedocles est,

insula quem triquetris terrarum gessit in oris,

quam fluitans circum magnis anfractibus aequor

Ionium glaucis aspargit virus ab undis,

720angustoque fretu rapidum mare dividit undis

Footnotes

703aliudM. F. Smith: omitted by OQG:aliamQ corr.:summamP:quidvisLachmann

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701Besides, why should one take away everything

and choose to leave only the nature of fire, rather than deny that fire exists and still allow that something else exists? It seems equal madness to assert either.

705Therefore those who have thought that fire is

the material of things and that the universe can consist of fire, and those who have laid down that airais the prime element for producing things, or whoever have thought that waterbmoulds things by itself, or that earthcproduces all things and changes itself into the natures of all things, are seen to have gone far astray from the truth. Add, moreover,

those who take the first-beginnings of things in couples, joining air to firedand earth to water,eand those who think that all can grow forth out of four

things,ffrom fire, earth, air, and water. Foremost among whom is Empedocles of Acragasg: who was

born within the triangular coasts of that island, around which the Ionian deep, flowing with its vast windings, sprinkles the salt brine from its green waves, and the swift-moving sea in its narrow strait divides with its waves the shores of the Aeolianhland

Footnotes

aAnaximenes and Diogenes of Apollonia.

bThales.

cPherecydes (?).

dOenopides (?).

eXenophanes.

fEmpedocles.

gEmpedocles (c. 493-c. 433 b.c.) of Acragas (Agrigentum) in Sicily was not only an influential philosopher, scientist, and physician, but also a hexameter poet of distinction—hence Lucr.’s great admiration for him. In his Περὶ Φύσεως, of which about 350 lines are extant, he explained the universe as a spherical plenum (cf.742–745) containing four elements (fire, air, water, earth) which unite and separate under the influence of Love and Strife. A second poem, entitled κaθaμoί (“Purifications”), of which about 100 lines survive, was strongly influenced by Orphic and Pythagorean beliefs, and shows that E. was a remarkable mixture of rationalist and mystic. In 731–733 Lucr. perhaps has in mind E.’s claim to be a god (fr. 112).

hIf the text printed is correct (see critical note), the reference is to that part of southern Italy closest to Sicily. Although that region is not elsewhere called Aeolia, it is close to the Aeolian islands, and there was a legend that Rhegium had been founded by Aeolus’ son, Iocastus.

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Aeoliae terrarum oras a finibus eius.

hic est vasta Charybdis et hic Aetnaea minantur

murmura flammarum rursum se colligere iras,

faucibus eruptos iterum vis ut vomat ignis

725ad caelumque ferat flammai fulgura rursum.

quae cum magna modis multis miranda videtur

gentibus humanis regio visendaque fertur,

rebus opima bonis, multa munita virum vi,

nil tamen hoc habuisse viro praeclarius in se

730nec sanctum magis et mirum carumque videtur.

carmina quin etiam divini pectoris eius

vociferantur et exponunt praeclara reperta,

ut vix humana videatur stirpe creatus.

Hic tamen et supra quos diximus inferiores

735partibus egregie multis multoque minores,

quamquam multa bene ac divinitus invenientes

ex adyto tamquam cordis responsa dedere

sanctius et multo certa ratione magis quam

Pythia quae tripodi a Phoebi lauroque profatur,

740principiis tamen in rerum fecere ruinas

et graviter magni magno cecidere ibi casu;

primum quod motus exempto rebus inani

constituunt, et res mollis rarasque relinquunt—

Footnotes

721AeoliaeHeinsius, probably rightly (see Bailey), despite the objections of F. H. Sandbach, CR N.S. 13 (1963) 13:HaeliaeOQGB: HaeoliaeO corr.: ItaliaeAFL: AeolidaeSandbach very tentatively (he prefersItaliae)

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from the boundaries of that isle. Here is wasteful Charybdis, and here Etna’s rumblings threaten that the angry flames are gathering again, that once more its violence may belch fires bursting forth from its throat, and once more shoot to the sky the lightnings of its flame: which mighty region, while it seems wonderful in many ways to the nations of mankind and is famed as a place to see, fat with good things, fortified with mighty store of men, yet it seems to have contained in it nothing more illustrious than this man, nor more sacred and wonderful and dear. Moreover, the poems of his divine mind utter a loud

voice and declare illustrious discoveries, so that he seems hardly to be born of mortal stock.

734Nevertheless he and those whom I mentioned before, men very much below him by many degrees and far less than he, although in making many excellent and inspired discoveries they have given responses as it were from the holy place of the heart, with more sanctity and far more certainty than the Pythiaawho speaks forth from Apollo’s tripod and laurel,bnevertheless I say these have come to a (1) they deny Void

crash about the beginnings of things; great they were, and herein great was their fallc: first because

they assume motion after taking away void from things, and allow things to be soft and rarefied, air,

Footnotes

aThe priestess of the oracle at Delphi.

b738–739=5.111–112, where Lucr. is referring to his own oracular pronouncements. It is interesting that Epicurus compares himself to an oracle inSent. Vat.29.Cf.Cicero,Fin.2.7.20 (of Epicurus):in alio vero libro, in quo breviter comprehensis gravissimis sententiis quasi oracula edidisse sapientiae dicitur;Fin.2.32.102;Nat. D.1.24.66:haec ego nunc physicorum oracula fundo.With the Lucretian passages Wakefield well compares lines from Athenaeus’ epigram on Epicurus (Diogenes Laertius 10.12): “This the wise son of Neocles heard from the Muses or from the sacred tripod at Delphi” (ἤ ΠυΦoῦς ἐξ ἱεpῶν τpιπόδων).

c741 was perhaps influenced by Homer,II.16.776.

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aera solem imbrem terras animalia fruges—

745nec tamen admiscent in eorum corpus inane;

deinde quod omnino finem non esse secandis

corporibus faciunt neque pausam stare fragori

nec prorsum in rebus minimum consistere quicquam,

cum videamus id extremum cuiusque cacumen

750esse quod ad sensus nostros minimum esse videtur,

conicere ut possis ex hoc, quae cernere non quis

extremum quod habent, minimum consistere in illis.

huc accedit item, quoniam primordia rerum

mollia constituunt, quae nos nativa videmus

755esse et mortali cum corpore funditus, utqui

debeat ad nilum iam rerum summa reverti

de niloque renata vigescere copia rerum;

quorum utrumque quid a vero iam distet habebis.

deinde inimica modis multis sunt atque veneno

760ipsa sibi inter se; quare aut congressa peribunt

aut ita diffugient ut tempestate coacta

fulmina diffugere atque imbris ventosque videmus.

Denique quattuor ex rebus si cuncta creantur

atque in eas rursum res omnia dissoluuntur,

765qui magis illa queunt rerum primordia dici

quam contra res illorum retroque putari?

alternis gignuntur enim mutantque colorem

768et totam inter se naturam tempore ab omni.

Footnotes

744imbremC. Bailey and P. Maas CR 57 (1943) 14:ignemOQUP. A reference to the four elements is needed:cf. 567, 713, 715, 783–786. For the corruption, cf. 784–785(probably), Catullus 62.7.

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sun, water, earth, animals, crops, yet do not mingle void in their body; secondly because they place no

limit at all to the cutting-up of bodies or fixed pause to their breaking, and deny that there exists in things any least part at all, although we see that in each thing there exists that extremest point which according to our senses is seen to be least, so that you may deduce from this that in those things which you cannot perceive a least exists which they have as their extreme.aMoreover, since they make the

first-beginnings of things to be soft, things which we see to be generated and to be wholly of perishable body, the sum of things must by this time return to nothing, and the store of things be reborn from nothing to grow vigorous; and how far both these views are from the truth you will know already. Then

again, these elements are at war together in many ways, and poison to one another; therefore when they meet they will either perish, Or will fly apart, as when a tempest has gathered we see lightnings and rain and winds fly apart.

763Moreover, if all things are made from four

things, and all are dissolved again into these things, how can these be called the first-beginnings of things, rather than things the first-beginnings of these, the thought being reversed? For they are born from one another, and change their colour and their whole nature amongst themselves from everlasting. But if

Footnotes

aCf.599–634 and see note on 608. The argument here is that, just as visible objects have a visible minimum, so there must be a minimum in the invisible atoms.

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770sin ita forte putas ignis terraeque coire

corpus et aerias auras roremque liquoris,

nil in concilio naturam ut mutet eorum,

nulla tibi ex illis poterit res esse creata,

non animans, non exanimo cum corpore, ut arbos;

775quippe suam quidque in coetu variantis acervi

naturam ostendet mixtusque videbitur aer

cum terra simul atque ardor cum rore manere.

at primordia gignundis in rebus oportet

naturam clandestinam caecamque adhibere,

780emineat nequid quod contra pugnet et obstet

quominus esse queat proprie quodcumque creatur.

Quin etiam repetunt a caelo atque ignibus eius

et primum faciunt ignem se vertere in auras

aeris, hinc imbrem gigni terramque creari

785ex imbri retroque a terra cuncta reverti,

umorem primum, post aera, deinde calorem,

nec cessare haec inter se mutare, meare

a caelo ad terram, de terra ad sidera mundi.

quod facere haud ullo debent primordia pacto;

790immutabile enim quiddam superare necessest,

ne res ad nilum redigantur funditus omnes.

nam quodcumque suis mutatum finibus exit,

continuo hoc mors est illius quod fuit ante.

quapropter quoniam quae paulo diximus ante

Footnotes

777atque ardorLambinus:et quodamOQUP:atque vaporMerrill (1917) tentatively:atque calorW. Clausen, AJPhil. 70 (1949) 309–310784–785 imbrem . . . imbri . . . a terraMarullus:ignem . . . igni ... in terramOQUP. See critical note on 744. Hereignem . . . igni can be retained only if we suppose that Lucr. is again arguing against Heracl*tus and his followers. This supposition is in fact made by Pascal and by M. Bollack in Assoc. G. Budé, Actes du VIIIeCongrès 386–387, and it may be correct. The reading of the manuscripts is also retained by Merrill (1917)

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by chance you think fire and the substance of earth and airy wind and liquid water so come together as to change nothing of their nature in the union, you

will find that nothing will be able to be made from them, no animal, nothing with inanimate body as a tree; for each element in the combination of this discordant heap will show its own nature, and air will be seen commingled together with earth, fire abiding with water. But the first-beginnings in begetting things ought to bring with them a nature secret and unseen, that nothing may be prominent to thwart and hinder from its proper being each thing which is being made.

782Moreover, theyago back to heaven and its

fires for a beginning, and lay down that first fire changes into the winds of the air, from this water is produced, and earth made from water, and back all returns again from earth, water first, then air, lastly fire, and that these change about incessantly, passing from heaven to earth, from earth to the stars of the skies. But this the first-beginnings on no account

ought to do; for something unchangeable must survive, that all things may not return utterly to nothing. For whatever by being changed passes outside its own boundaries, at once this is the death of that which was before.bTherefore, since these thingscwhich we mentioned a little while ago pass

Footnotes

aThe reference may be not only to the Stoics (cf. Cicero,Nat. D.2.33.84, 3.12.30–31), but also to the Peripatetics. For the view that Lucr. has returned to Heracl*tus and his followers, see critical note on 784–785.

b789–793=2.750–754. 792–793 occur also at 670–671, 3.519–520.

cThe four elements.

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795in commutatum veniunt, constare necessest

ex aliis ea, quae nequeant convertier usquam,

ne tibi res redeant ad nilum funditus omnes.

quin potius tali natura praedita quaedam

corpora constituas, ignem si forte crearint,

800posse eadem, demptis paucis paucisque tributis,

ordine mutato et motu, facere aeris auras,

sic alias aliis rebus mutarier omnis?

“At manifesta palam res indicat,” inquis, “in auras

aeris e terra res omnis crescere alique;

805et nisi tempestas indulget tempore fausto

imbribus, ut tabe nimborum arbusta vacillent,

solque sua pro parte fovet tribuitque calorem,

crescere non possint fruges arbusta animantes.”

scilicet, et nisi nos cibus aridus et tener umor

810adiuvet, amisso iam corpore vita quoque omnis

omnibus e nervis atque ossibus exsoluatur;

adiutamur enim dubio procul atque alimur nos

certis ab rebus, certis aliae atque aliae res.

nimirum quia multa modis communia multis

815multarum rerum in rebus primordia mixta

sunt, ideo variis variae res rebus aluntur.

atque eadem magni refert primordia saepe

cum quibus et quali positura contineantur

et quos inter se dent motus accipiantque;

820namque eadem caelum mare terras flumina solem

constituunt, eadem fruges arbusta animantis,

Footnotes

806utPriscian 7.72: etOQGP

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into change, they must of necessity consist of other things which can nowhere change at all, or you will find that all things return utterly to nothing. Why not rather assume some bodies endowed with such a nature that, if they happen to have produced fire, the same, when a few have been taken away and a few added, and their arrangement and motion have been altered, are able to make the winds of the air, and in this way all other things can interchange with others?

803“But,” you say, “manifest fact shows openly

that into the winds of the air out of the earth all things grow and are nourished; and unless the season lets the rain have its way at a favourable time, so that the trees shake under the melting of the clouds, unless the sun fosters them on his part and grants his heat, crops, trees, and animals cannot grow.” True: and unless we also were helped by solid food and soft water, we should lose our flesh at once, and all life also would be dissolved out of all our sinews and bones; for we ourselves are helped without doubt and nourished by certain fixed things; other things and others again by other fixed things; undoubtedly because many first-beginnings common

to many things in many ways are commingled in things, therefore different things are nourished by different things. And it is often of great importance with what and in what position these same first-beginnings are held together, and what motions they impart and receive mutuallya; for the same beginnings constitute sky, sea, earth, rivers, sun, the same make crops, trees, animals,bbut they move differently

Footnotes

aCf.908–910, 2.760–762, 1007–1009.

bCf.2.1015–1016.

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verum aliis alioque modo commixta moventur.

quin etiam passim nostris in versibus ipsis

multa elementa vides multis communia verbis,

825cum tamen inter se versus ac verba necessest

confiteare et re et sonitu distare sonanti.

tantum elementa queunt permutato ordine solo;

at rerum quae sunt primordia, plura adhibere

possunt unde queant variae res quaeque creari.

830Nunc et Anaxagorae scrutemur hom*oeomerian

quam Grai memorant nec nostra dicere lingua

concedit nobis patrii sermonis egestas,

sed tamen ipsam rem facilest exponere verbis.

Principio, rerum quam dicit hom*oeomerian,

835ossa videlicet e pauxillis atque minutis

ossibus hic et de pauxillis atque minutis

visceribus viscus gigni sanguenque creari

sanguinis inter se multis coeuntibu’ guttis

ex aurique putat micis consistere posse

840aurum et de terris terram concrescere parvis,

ignibus ex ignis, umorem umoribus esse,

Footnotes

834quamOQGP:quomLachmann

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mixed with different elements and in different ways. Moreover, all through these very lines of mine you see many elements common to many words, although you must confess that lines and wordsadiffer one from another both in meaning and in the sound of their soundings. So much can elements do, when nothing is changed but order; but the elements that are the beginnings of things can bring with them more kinds of variety, from which all the various things can be produced.

830Now let us also examine thehom*oeomeriaof of Anaxagoras.

Anaxagoras,bas the Greeks call it, which cannot be named in our language because of the poverty of our mother speech,cbut yet it is easy to explain the thing itself in words.

834First, as to what he calls thehom*oeomeriain things, he clearly holds that bones are made of very small and minute bones,dflesh of very small and minute particles of flesh, and blood is composed by many drops of blood coming together into union, and he thinks gold may consist of grains of gold, and earth to be a concretion of small earths, fire of

Footnotes

a823–825=2.688–690. Comparison between the disposition of letters in words and the arrangement of atoms in compound bodies is made also in 196–197, 912–914, 2.1013–1018. Both the Latinelementaand the Greek στοιχεῖα can mean both physical elements and the letters of the alphabet.

bAnaxagoras (c. 500-c. 428 b.c.) of Clazomenae, near Smyrna, resided in Athens fromc.456 untilc.432 b.c., when he was prosecuted and banished for impiously maintaining that the sun is not a divinity, but a red-hot mass of stone larger than the Peloponnese. Like the atomists, whom he preceded and influenced, he supposed that matter exists in the form of an infinite number of separate particles; but his particles differed from atoms in that they were heterogeneous in substance; moreover, unlike the atomists, he believed in the infinite divisibility of matter and denied the existence of void. The termhom*oeomeria,which means “similarity of parts,”was probably not used by A. himself (see G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven and M. Schofield,The Presocratic Philosophers,2nd ed., 376–378, W. K. C. Guthrie,A History of Greek PhilosophyII 325–326).

cCf.139, 3.260.

dIt is probable that all the examples in 835–841 are taken from Anaxagoras himself. See Munro, Ernout-Robin, Bailey.

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cetera consimili fingit ratione putatque.

nec tamen esse ulla idem parte in rebus inane

concedit neque corporibus finem esse secandis.

845quare in utraque mihi pariter ratione videtur

errare atque illi supra quos diximus ante.

Adde quod inbecilla nimis primordia fingit,

si primordia sunt, simili quae praedita constant

natura atque ipsae res sunt, aequeque laborant

850et pereunt, neque ab exitio res ulla refrenat.

nam quid in oppressu valido durabit eorum,

ut mortem effugiat leti sub dentibus ipsis?

ignis an umor an aura? quid horum? sanguen an ossa?

nil, ut opinor, ubi ex aequo res funditus omnis

855tam mortalis erit quam quae manifesta videmus

ex oculis nostris aliqua vi victa perire.

at neque reccidere ad nilum res posse neque autem

crescere de nilo testor res ante probatas.

Praeterea quoniam cibus auget corpus alitque,

860scire licet nobis venas et sanguen et ossa

. . . . . . . . . . . .

sive cibos omnis commixto corpore dicent

esse et habere in se nervorum corpora parva

ossaque et omnino venas partisque cruoris,

Footnotes

843idem(but afterparte)P: idenOQG:de(cf. 235) Diels

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fires, water of waters; he fancies and imagines the rest in the same way. But he refuses to allow void

anywhere in things, or to place any limit to the cutting-up of bodies. Therefore he seems to me wrong in both these views equally with those whom we have already mentioned above.a

847Add that he supposes first-beginnings which

are too weak, if indeed those are first-beginnings which are endowed with a nature similar to the things themselves, and equally suffer and pass away, nor does anything curb them back from destruction. For which of these will endure under crushing pressure, so as to escape death between the very teeth of destruction?bFire or water or air? Which of these? Blood or bones? Nothing, as I think, when everything alike will be in its essence as perishable as what we see manifestly pass away from our sight overcome by some violence. But I appeal to what has been already demonstrated,cto prove that things can neither fall back into nothing, nor again grow out of nothing.

859Besides, since food increases the body and

nourishes it, we may know that veins and blood and bones [and sinews are made of parts not like themselvesd;] orifthey say that all foods are made of miscellaneous substance, and contain within them small bodies of sinews and bones and also veins and particles of blood, it will follow that all food itself,

Footnotes

aThat is, Heracl*tus, Empedocles, and their followers (cf.658, 742–752).

bCf.Dante,Purgatorio7.32 “dai denti morsi della morte,” but the resemblance must be fortuitous, for in Dante’s time Lucr. was unknown in Italy (see Munro I 2).

c149–264.

dSee critical note for Lambinus’ supplement.

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fiet uti cibus omnis, et aridus et liquor, ipse

865ex alienigenis rebus constare putetur,

ossibus et nervis sanieque et sanguine mixto.

praeterea quaecumque e terra corpora cresc*nt

si sunt in terris, terram constare necessest

ex alienigenis, quae terris exoriuntur.

870transfer item, totidem verbis utare licebit:

in lignis si flamma latet fumusque cinisque,

ex alienigenis consistant ligna necessest,

874ex alienigenis, quae lignis exoriuntur.

873praeterea tellus quae corpora cumque alit auget

. . . . . . .

875Linquitur hic quaedam latitandi copia tenvis,

id quod Anaxagoras sibi sumit, ut omnibus omnis

res putet inmixtas rebus latitare, sed illud

apparere unum cuius sint plurima mixta

et magis in promptu primaque in fronte locata.

880quod tamen a vera longe ratione repulsumst.

conveniebat enim fruges quoque saepe, minaci

robore cum saxi franguntur, mittere signum

sanguinis aut aliquid, nostro quae corpore aluntur;

cum lapidi in lapidem terimus, manare cruorem.

885consimili ratione herbas quoque saepe decebat

et latices dulcis guttas similique sapore

Footnotes

864Some editors place a comma afteripseinstead of afterliquor,perhaps rightly

884-885are transposed by many editors, following N.P. Howard, Journ. Phil. 1 (1868) 122. But, if 884 is thought intolerablyawkward after 882–883 (and it is difficult to see why it should be), a better solution is that of H. Jacobson, CPhil. 61 (1966) 151–153, who suggests that 882–883 and 884 are alternative versions (cf. 4.26–44 and 45–53, 5.1359 and 1360), both written by the poet, and that Lucr. intended to omit one of them, probably 884

885herbasMarullus: herbisOQP

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both solid food and liquid, is held to consist of things unlike itself, bones and sinews, pus and blood commingled. Besides, whatever bodies grow out of the earth, if they are in the earth, then the earth must consist of things unlike itself which arise out of the earth. Apply this reasoning to other cases, and you may use the very same words. If flame, if smoke and ashes, are hidden in wood, the wood must necessarily consist of things unlike itself, of unlike things, which arise out of the wood. Besides, whatever bodies the earth nourishes and increases [must consist of things unlike themselves, which in their tum must contain things unlike themselves].a

875Here is left some slight opportunity for evasion,

which Anaxagoras turns to advantage in supposing that all things are hidden immingled in all things, but that alone appears which preponderates in the mixture and is more to be seen and placed right in the front. But this is far removed from true reasoning. For then it were proper that corn also, when it is being ground by the crushing strength of the millstone,

should show often a sign of blood or something of those substances which are nourished in our bodies; and when we rub with stone upon stone the blood should trickle. In the same way it were fitting that herbage also and water should often emit drops

Footnotes

aThe passage within brackets gives what is, according to Bailey, the likely sense of the missing argument.

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mittere, lanigerae quali sunt ubere lactis,

scilicet et glebis terrarum saepe friatis

herbarum genera et fruges frondesque videri

890dispertita inter terram latitare minute,

postremo in lignis cinerem fumumque videri,

cum praefracta forent, ignisque latere minutos.

quorum nil fieri quoniam manifesta docet res,

scire licet non esse in rebus res ita mixtas,

895verum semina multimodis inmixta latere

multarum rerum in rebus communia debent.

“At saepe in magnis fit montibus,” inquis, “ut altis

arboribus vicina cacumina summa terantur

inter se, validis facere id cogentibus austris,

900donec flammai fulserunt flore coorto.”

scilicet, et non est lignis tamen insitus ignis,

verum semina sunt ardoris multa, terendo

quae cum confluxere, creant incendia silvis.

quod si facta foret silvis abscondita flamma,

905non possent ullum tempus celarier ignes,

conficerent volgo silvas, arbusta cremarent.

iamne vides igitur, paulo quod diximus ante,

permagni referre eadem primordia saepe

cum quibus et quali positura contineantur

910et quos inter se dent motus accipiantque,

atque eadem paulo inter se mutata creare

ignes et lignum? quo pacto verba quoque ipsa

Footnotes

887ubereOQGP:ubera(cf. 2.370) first printed by Lambinus, who states that he found the readingquales sunt uberain a manuscript

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sweet and of like flavour to the milk from the udders of fleecy ewes; and assuredly, when clods of earth have been crumbled, various kinds of herbage ought often to be seen, and corn, and leaves, scattered about and lurking amid the earth in small portions; lastly, when wood is broken, smoke and ashes and fire should be seen lurking in small portions. But since plain matter of fact teaches that nothing of all this is to be seen, we may know that things are not thus mixed up in things, but seeds common to many things must in many ways lurk immingled in things.

897“But,” you say, “often on great mountains it

happens that the topmost branches of tall trees being close together are rubbed one against another when the strong south winds compel them so to do, until the flower of flameabreaks out and they blaze.” Assuredly, and yet fire is not implanted in the wood,bbut there are many seeds of heat which stream together by rubbing and make a conflagration among the forests; whereas if the flame were hidden in the forests ready made, the fires could not be concealed for a moment, they would consume the forests everywhere, burn up the trees. Do you see now, as I said a little while ago,cthat it is often of very great importance with what and in what position these same first-beginnings are held in union, and what motions they impart and receive mutually, and how the same elements a little changed in their relations create fires and firs? Just as the words themselves too

Footnotes

aFor the metaphorflammai . . . flore, cf.4.450, Homer,II.9.212 (πυρὸς ἄνθος) quoted by Plutarch,Mor.934 b, Aeschylus,PV 7,Naevius 48 (RibbeckTRF) ut videam volcani opera haec flammis fieri flora.With 897–900cf.Thucydides 2.77.4. With 897–903cf.5. 1094–1100.

bAnaxagoras’ view that fire is present in wood is effectively emphasized by the presence of the letters ofignisinlignis. Cf.912–914.

c817–819.

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inter se paulo mutatis sunt elementis,

cum ligna atque ignes distincta voce notemus.

Denique iam quaecumque in rebus cernis apertis

916si fieri non posse putas, quin materiai

corpora consimili natura praedita fingas,

hac ratione tibi pereunt primordia rerum:

fiet uti risu tremulo concussa cachinnent

920et lacrimis salsis umectent ora genasque.

Nunc age quod super est cognosce et clarius audi.

nec me animi fallit quam sint obscura; sed acri

percussit thyrso laudis spes magna meum cor,

et simul incussit suavem mi in pectus amorem

925Musarum, quo nunc instinctus mente vigenti

avia Pieridum peragro loca nullius ante

trita solo, iuvat integros accedere fontis

atque haurire, iuvatque novos decerpere flores

insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam

930unde prius nulli velarint tempora Musae:

primum quod magnis doceo de rebus et artis

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consist of elements a little changed, when we mark fires and firsawith a distinct name.

915Lastly, if you think that whatever you see

amongst visible things cannot be brought about without supposing that the elements of matter are endowed with a like nature, on this reasoning there is an end of your first-beginnings of things: it will follow that they guffaw shaken with quivering laughter, and bedew face and cheeks with salt tears.b

921Come now, mark and learn what remains, and

hear a clearer strain. Nor am I unaware how obscurecthese matters are; but the high hope of renown has struck my mind sharply with holy wand,dand at the same time has struck into my heart sweet love of the Muses,ethrilled by which now in lively thought I traverse pathless tracts of the Pierides never yet trodden by any foot.fI love to approach virgin springs and there to drink; I love to pluck new flowers, and to seek an illustrious chaplet for my head from fields whence before this the Muses have crowned the brows of none: first because my teaching is of high matters, and I proceed to unloose

Footnotes

aThe translation of Munro, adopted by Rouse. “Beams . . .flames” (Bailey) and“fires .. .conifers” (M. F. Smith) are perhaps preferable in that, being partly anagrammatic, they represent more accurately the reshuffling of the same elements (911). Lucr.’s own example, though ingenious, is not perfect in this respect.

bCf.2.973–990. Lucr. is fond of concluding an argument with areductio ad absurdum: cf. e.g.3.367–369, 775-783.

cFor the obscurity of Lucr.’s subject,cf.136, 933.

dThethyrsusis the wand carried by Dionysus and his votaries. For the idea that the poet is divinely inspired and possessed, like a bacchant, see Plato,Ion533 e—534 e.

eWithincussit suavem mi in pectus amorem Musarum(924–925)cf. omnibus incutiens blandum per pectora amorem(19). The parallelism shows that Lucr. feels that his creative urge (to write poetry) is comparable to, though of course on a higher level than, the creative urge given to animals by Venus. In this connexion, it is relevant to recall that Venus is invoked in the first proem not only as the power of physical creation, but also (24–28) as the giver of grace to Lucr.’s verses.

fThe Pierides are the Muses. For the probable influence of Callimachus on 926–928, see E. J. Kenney,Mnemos.ser. 4, 23 (1970) 370.

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religionum animum nodis exsolvere pergo,

deinde quod obscura de re tam lucida pango

carmina, musaeo contingens cuncta lepore.

935id quoque enim non ab nulla ratione videtur;

sed veluti pueris absinthia taetra medentes

cum dare conantur, prius oras pocula circum

contingunt mellis dulci flavoque liquore,

ut puerorum aetas inprovida ludificetur

940labrorum tenus, interea perpotet amarum

absinthi laticern deceptaque non capiatur,

sed potius tali pacto recreata valescat,

sic ego nunc, quoniam haec ratio plerumque videtur

tristior esse quibus non est tractata, retroque

945volgus abhorret ab hac, volui tibi suaviloquenti

carmine Pierio rationem exponere nostram

et quasi musaeo dulci contingere melle,

si tibi forte animum tali ratione tenere

versibus in nostris possem, dum perspicis omnem

950naturam rerum qua constet compta figura.

Sed quoniam docui solidissima materiai

corpora perpetuo volitare invicta per aevom,

nunc age, summai quaedam sit finis eorum

necne sit, evolvamus; item quod inane repertumst

955seu locus ac spatium, res in quo quaeque gerantur,

pervideamus utrum finitum funditus omne

constet an immensum pateat vasteque profundum.

Footnotes

942pactoHeinsius, Lachmann:factoOQGP

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the mind from the close knots of superstitiona; next because the subject is so dark and the lines I write so clear, as I touch all with the Muses’ grace. For even this seems not to be out of place; but as with children, when physicians trybto administer rank wormwood, they first touch the rims about the cups with the sweet yellow fluid of honey, that unthinking childhood be deluded as far as the lips, and meanwhile may drink up the bitter juice of wormwood, and though beguiled be not betrayed, but rather by such means be restored and regain health, so now do I: since this doctrine commonly seems somewhat harsh to those who have not used it, and the people shrink back from it, I have chosen to set forth my doctrine to you in sweet-speaking Pierian song, and as it were to touch it with the Muses’ delicious honey, if by chance in such a way I might engage your mind in my verses, while you are learning to see in what shape is framed the whole nature of things.c

951But since I have taught that the bodies of

matter matter are perfectly solid, and that they fly about continually unimpaired for ever, come now, let us unfold whether there be any limit to their sum or not; likewise as regards the void which has been found to exist, or place and space for all things to be done, let us see clearly whether it be limited in its essence or spread to breadth immeasurable and vasty depth.

Footnotes

aThe metaphor in 932 shows that Lucr. connectsreligiowithreligare“to bind fast.”

bconanturnot only adds a pleasingly realistic touch to the illustration by suggesting that the doctor’s trick may not succeed, but also corresponds tosi . . . forte. . .possemin 948–949 where Lucr. shows that he is not fully confident of his ability to hold Memmius’ attention and convert him. For the Epicurean philosopher as missionary and spiritual healer, see Introduction p. xlii.

c926–950 are repeated, with a few minor alterations, in 4.1–25.

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LUCRETIUS, De Rerum Natura

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Lucretius

Omne quod est igitur nulla regione viarum

finitumst; namque extremum debebat habere.

960extremum porro nullius posse videtur

esse, nisi ultra sit quod finiat; ut videatur

quo non longius haec sensus natura sequatur.

nunc extra summam quoniam nil esse fatendum,

non habet extremum, caret ergo fine modoque.

965nec refert quibus adsistas regionibus eius:

usque adeo, quem quisque locum possedit, in omnis

tantundem partis infinitum omne relinquit.

Praeterea si iam finitum constituatur

omne quod est spatium, siquis procurrat ad oras

970ultimus extremas iaciatque volatile telum,

id validis utrum contortum viribus ire

quo fuerit missum mavis longeque volare,

an prohibere aliquid censes obstareque posse?

alterutrum fatearis enim sumasque necessest;

quorum utrumque tibi effugium praecludit et omne

976cogit ut exempta concedas fine patere.

nam sive est aliquid quod probeat officiatque

quominu’ quo missum est veniat finique locet se,

sive foras fertur, non est a fine profectum.

980hoc pacto sequar atque, oras ubicumque locaris

extremas, quaeram quid telo denique fiat.

Footnotes

966omnisP:omnusOQG:omneised. Aldina, Pius, ed. Juntina, Naugerius, Lambinus, Creech, Havercamp, and other editors before Wakefield, to whom Diels and Büchner attribute it

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958The universe then is not limited along any of

its paths; for if so it ought to have an extremity. Again, clearly nothing can have an extremity unless there be something beyond to bound it, so that something can be seen, beyond which our sense can follow the object no further. Now since we must confess that there is nothing beyond the sum of things, it has no extremity, and therefore it is without end or limit.aNor does it matter in which of its quarters you stand: so true is it that, whatever place anyone occupies, he leaves the whole equally infinite in every direction.

968Besides, if all the existing space be granted for

the moment to be finite, suppose someone proceeded to the very extremest edge and cast a flyinff lance, do you prefer that the lance forcibly thrown goes whither it was sent and flies afar, or do you think that anything can hinder and obstruct it? For you must confess and accept one of the two; but each of them shuts you off from all escape, and compels you to own that the universe stretches without end. For whether there is something to hinder and keep it from going whither it is sent and from fixing itself at its mark, or whether it passes out, that was no boundary whence it was sped.bIn this way I shall go after you, and wherever you place your extremest edge, I shall ask what at last happens to the lance.

Footnotes

aFor the argument of 958–964,cf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.41, Cicero,Div.2.50.103–104.

bIf it goes on, there is space beyond; if not, there is matter. In either case it is not the end of the universe. The illustration may have been suggested by the practice of the Roman fetial hurling a spear over the enemy’s border as a declaration of war.

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Lucretius

fiet uti nusquam possit consistere finis

effugiumque fugae prolatet copia semper.

Praeterea spatium summai totius omne

985undique si inclusum certis consisteret oris

finitumque foret, iam copia materiai

undique ponderibus solidis confluxet ad imum,

nec res ulla geri sub caeli tegmine posset,

nec foret omnino caelum neque lumina solis,

990quippe ubi materies omnis cumulata iaceret

ex infinito iam tempore subsidendo.

at nunc nimirum requies data principiorum

corporibus nuilast, quia nil est funditus imum

quo quasi confiuere et sedes ubi ponere possint.

995semper in adsiduo motu res quaeque geruntur

partibus e cunctis infernaque suppeditantur

ex infinito cita corpora materiai.

Postremo ante oculos res rem finire videtur;

aer dissaepit collis atque aera montes,

terra mare et contra mare terras terminat omnis;

1001omne quidem vero nil est quod finiat extra.

Est igitur natura loci spatiumque profundi,

quod neque clara suo percurrere fulmina cursu

perpetuo possint aevi labentia tractu

1005nec prorsum facere ut restet minus ire meando:

usque adeo passim patet ingens copia rebus

finibus exemptis in cunctas undique partis.

Ipsa modum porro sibi rerum summa parare

ne possit, natura tenet, quae corpus inani

Footnotes

996eM: inP: omitted by OQG

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The effect will be that no boundary can exist anywhere and the possibility of flight will ever put off escape.

984Besides, if all the space in the universe stood

contained within fixed boundaries on all sides and all were limited, by this time the store of matter would by its solid weight have run together from all sides to the bottom, nor could anything be done under the canopy of heaven, nor would heaven exist at all or the sun’s light, because assuredly all matter would be lying in a heap from sinking down through infinite ages past. But as it is, sure enough no rest is given to the bodies of the first-beginnings, because there is no bottom whatsoever, for them to run together as it were into it and fix their abode there. Always the business of the universe is going on with incessant motion in every part, and the elements of matter are being supplied from beneath, rushing from infinite space.

998Lastly, one thing is seen before our eyes to be

the limit of another: air separates hills and mountains air, earth bounds sea and contrariwise the sea is the boundary of all lands; the universe, however, has verse has nothing outside to be its limit.

1002Therefore the nature of space and the extent of the deep is so great that neither bright lightnings can traverse it in their course, though they glide onwards through endless tracts of time; nor can they by all their travelling make their journey any the less to go: so widely spreads the great store of space in the universe all around without limit in every direction.

1008Furthermore, nature withholds the sum of existing

things from providing a limit for itself, because

Page number 83

LUCRETIUS, De Rerum Natura

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Lucretius

1010et quod inane autem est finiri corpore cogit,

ut sic alternis infinita omnia reddat,

aut etiam alterutrum, nisi terminet alterum eorum,

simplice natura pateat tamen inmoderatum.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

nec mare nec tellus neque caeli lucida templa

1015nec mortale genus nec divum corpora sancta

exiguum possent horai sistere tempus;

nam dispulsa suo de coetu materiai

copia ferretur magnum per inane soluta,

sive adeo potius numquam concreta creasset

1020ullam rem, quoniam cogi disiecta nequisset.

Nam certe neque consilio primordia rerum

ordine se quo quaeque sagaci mente locarunt

nec quos quaeque darent motus pepigere profecto,

sed quia multa modis multis mutata per omne

1025ex infinito vexantur percita plagis,

omne genus motus et coetus experiundo

tandem deveniunt in talis disposituras,

qualibus haec rerum consistit summa creata,

et multos etiam magnos servata per annos

1030ut semel in motus coniectast convenientis,

efficit ut largis avidum mare fluminis undis

Footnotes

1013-1014Lacuna between these lines assumed by Marcellus (marginal note in Codex Laurentianus 35.32) and all recent editors except Merrill (1917) and Martin. Diels supplies:nam si finitum vacuum constaret inane, | innumera haut [=haud] caperet cita corpora materiai; | sin finita essent immenso corpora inani, | nec mareetc. Cf. Epicurus, Ep.ad Hdt. 42

1023darent motus pepigere profectoMarullus (from 5.421): sagaci mente locarunt(from 1022) O corr. by Dungal, Q, G corr., P

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she compels body to be bounded by void and that again which is void to be bounded by body, so that by this alternation she renders the universe infinite, or else either one of these two, if the other did not bound it, would yet by itself spread abroad without limit. [But if space were finite, it could not contain an infinite amount of matter; and if matter

were finite], neither sea nor land nor the gleaming regions of the sky nor the race of men nor the holy bodies of gods could stand fast for the fraction of an hour; for the store of matter, driven abroad from its union, would be rushing dissolved through the great void, or rather would never have been compacted to

form anything, since when scattered abroad it could never have been brought together.a

1021For certainly neither did the first-beginnings

place themselves by design each in its own order with keen intelligence, nor assuredly did they make agreement what motions each should produceb; but because, being many and shifted in many ways, they are harried and set in motion with blows throughout the universe from infinity, thus by trying every kind of motion and combination, at length they fall into such arrangements as this sum of things consists ofc; and this being also preserved through

many great cycles of years,dwhen once it has been cast together into convenient motions, brings it about that rivers refill the greedy sea with generous waves

Footnotes

aCf.Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 67 Smith

b1021–1023=5.419–421.

cWith 1024–1028cf.5.187–194, 422–431.

dmagnus annusmeant a long cycle of years, to which philosophers assigned various lengths.Cf.5.644, Cicero,Arat.232–233:hae faciunt magnos longinqui temporis annos, cum redeunt ad idem caeli sub tegmine signum.

Page number 85

LUCRETIUS, De Rerum Natura

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Lucretius

integrent amnes et solis terra vapore

fota novet fetus summissaque gens animantum

floreat et vivant labentes aetheris ignes;

1035quod nullo facerent pacto, nisi materiai

ex infinito suboriri copia posset,

unde amissa solent reparare in tempore quaeque.

nam veluti privata cibo natura animantum

diffluit amittens corpus, sic omnia debent

1040dissolui simul ac defecit suppeditare

materies aliqua ratione aversa viai.

nec plagae possunt extrinsecus undique summam

conservare omnem quaecumque est conciliata.

cudere enim crebro possunt partemque morare,

1045dum veniant aliae ac suppleri summa queatur;

interdum resilire tamen coguntur et una

principiis rerum spatium tempusque fugai

largiri, ut possint a coetu libera ferri.

quare etiam atque etiam suboriri multa necessest,

et tamen ut plagae quoque possint suppetere ipsae,

1051infinita opus est vis undique materiai.

Illud in his rebus longe fuge credere, Memmi,

Footnotes

1044morareOQ probably should be retained. Diomedes (II. Keil, Grammatici Latini I p. 400, 15–28) mentions the active form and quotes examples from Naevius, Ennius, and Pacuvius. Cf. 3.628, where the reading of OQ points tovagare: morariO corr., Q corr., GP seems to have been unanimously adopted by the editors

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of their streams, and earth, cherished by the sun’s heat, renews its produce, and the generation of living things springs up and flourishes, and the gliding fires of heaven do live; which they would by no means do, unless a store of matter could arise up out of the infinite, from which they are accustomed to replace in season all that has been lost. For as the nature of animals, deprived of food, wastes away, losing its body, so all things must be dissolved away as soon as matter, turned somehow from its course, has ceased to be supplied. Nor can blows from without on all sides conserve the whole of every world which has been formed by the union of atoms. They can indeed batter it frequently, and delay one part until others shall come and the sum can be filled up; yet theyaare compelled sometimes to rebound and thereby to give the first-beginnings of things ample time and space to escape, so that they can fly clear away from their combination. Therefore again and again I say, it is necessary that they should arise up in large numbers; indeed, in order that even the blows themselves be supplied, there is need of an infinite quantity of matter on all sides.

1052One belief concerning these matters, Memmius,

you must avoid and keep afar: that, as some say,b

Footnotes

aThe atoms that cause the blows.

bIt has been generally assumed that the theory which Lucr. attacks is, as Lambinus thought, “Peripateticorum et veterum Academicorum et Stoicorum,” and that the Stoics are his main target. However, D. J. Furley,BICS13 (1966) 16–23, following E. Bignone, has argued that Lucr. does not have the Stoics in mind at all, but only the Peripatetics. Since Lucr.’s argument is no doubt derived from Epicurus, who probablywasarguing chiefly against Aristotle (so far as we know, Epicurus himself did not attack the Stoics), it is natural that it should be most applicable to the Peripatetic form of the theory, but it is hard to believe that Lucr., writing at a time when Stoicism was his school’s chief rival, did not aim it at the Stoics at all, even if it was not relevant to the Stoic view in every detail. Epicurean writers did not always present the views of their opponents fully and fairly.

Page number 87

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Lucretius

in medium summae quod dic*nt omnia niti,

atque ideo mundi naturam stare sine ullis

1055ictibus externis neque quoquam posse resolvi

summa atque ima, quod in medium sint omnia nixa—

ipsum si quicquam posse in se sistere credis—

et quae pondera sunt sub terris omnia sursum

nitier in terraque retro requiescere posta,

ut per aquas quae nunc rerum simulacra videmus.

1061et simili ratione animalia suppa vagari

contendunt neque posse e terris in loca caeli

reccidere inferiora magis quam corpora nostra

sponte sua possint in caeli templa volare;

1065illi cum videant solem, nos sidera noctis

cernere, et alternis nobiscum tempora caeli

dividere et noctes parilis agitare diebus.

sed vanus stolidis haec . . . .

amplexi quod habent perv . . .

1070nam medium nil esse potest . . .

infinita; neque omnino, si iam medium sit,

possit ibi quicquam consistere . . .

quam quavis alia longe ratione . . .

omnis enim locus ac spatium, quod inane vocamus,

1075per medium, per non medium, concedere debet

aeque ponderibus, motus quacumque feruntur.

Footnotes

1058etOP:atQG

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all things press towards the centre of the whole,

and that for this reason the nature of the world stands firm without any external blows, and the highest and lowest parts cannot be set loose in any direction, because all presses towards the centre—?

if you believe that anything can stand upon itself—

and that the weights that are beneath the earth all press upwards and come to rest on the earth upside down, like the images which we now see reflected by water. And likewise they maintain that the animals there move about head downwards, and cannot fall back from the earth into the space of sky any more than our bodies of themselves can fly into the regions of the sky; that when they see the sun, we behold the stars of night, and they share the seasons of the heavens with us alternately, and pass nights which are equal to our days. But it is empty [error that approves]athese [fallacies] to the stupid, because they have embraced [them with twisted reasoning]. For there can be no middle, [since the universe is] infinite.

Nor indeed, if middle there really were, could anything at all stand still there [on that account rather] than [be driven] far [away] for some different reason. For all place and space, which we call void, must yield a passage through middle or not-middle equally to weights, wherever their movements

Footnotes

aThe words in square brackets here and in the following lines translate Munro’s restorations. See critical note.

Page number 89

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Lucretius

nec quisquam locus est, quo corpora cum venere,

ponderis amissa vi possint stare in inani;

nec quod inane autem est ulli subsistere debet,

1080quin, sua quod natura petit, concedere pergat.

haud igitur possunt tali ratione teneri

res in concilium medii cuppedine victae.

Praeterea quoniam non omnia corpora fingunt

in medium niti, sed terrarum atque liquoris—

10861085umorem ponti magnasque e montibus undas,

1085et quasi terreno quae corpore contineantur—,

at contra tenuis exponunt aeris auras

et calidos simul a medio differrier ignis,

atque ideo totum circum tremere aethera signis

1090et solis flammam per caeli caerula pasci,

quod calor a medio fugiens se ibi conligat omnis,

nec prorsum arboribus summos frondescere ramos

posse, nisi a terris paulatim cuique cibatum

. . . . . . .

1095. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

1100. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

ne volucri ritu flammarum moenia mundi

diffugiant subito magnum per inane soluta,

et ne cetera consimili ratione sequantur,

Footnotes

1077cum venereL (?) (according to Büchner), ed. Aldina:cum veneruntF:comveneri(withierased) O:covenirQ:comvenirtG

1094After 1093 a space of eight lines is left by O, and QGindicate the lacuna with a cross. The loss was caused by the same tear that mutilated 1068–1075. One of the missing lines may have begun withquondam (Pap.fr. L)

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tend. Nor is there any place in which bodies, when they have come thither, can lose the force of weight and stand still in the void; nor again must that which is void ever give support for anything, but, as its nature craves, it must proceed to give place. Therefore, things cannot be held in combination together in any such way, overcome by a yearning for the middle.

1083Besides, inasmuch as they do not suppose all

bodies to press towards the middle, but only those of earth and water—the liquid of the sea and great waters that descend from the mountains, and such things as are contained as it were in earthly frame—, but on the other hand explain that the thin breezes of air and hot fires are at the same time carried away from the middle; and that the whole firmament all about twinkles with constellations and the sun’s flame feeds through the blue sky, because all the heat fleeing from the middle gathers itself together there; and that the topmost branches of trees could not even produce leaves, if food were not [distributed] to each from the earth, gradually [supplied by an internal fire, their reasoning is inconsistent.a... If fire and air have a natural tendency to move upwards, there is danger] lest the walls of the world suddenly be dissolved and flee apart after the fashion

of flying flames through the void, and the rest follow

Footnotes

aThe lacuna must have contained the apodosis to thequoniamclause that begins in 1083. But there is much disagreement about the argument of the lost passage, and the interpretation offered here (within square brackets), which is that favoured by Bailey, cannot be regarded as certain.

Page number 91

LUCRETIUS, De Rerum Natura

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Lucretius

1105neve ruant caeli tonitralia templa superne,

terraque se pedibus raptim subducat et omnis

inter permixtas rerum caelique ruinas

corpora solventes abeat per inane profundum,

temporis ut puncto nil extet reliquiarum

1110desertum praeter spatium et primordia caeca.

nam quacumque prius de parti corpora desse

constitues, haec rebus erit pars ianua leti,

hac se turba foras dabit omnis materiai.

Haec sic pernosces parva perductus opella;

1115namque alid ex alio clarescet, nec tibi caeca

nox iter eripiet quin ultima naturai

pervideas: ita res accendent lumina rebus.

Footnotes

1105tonitraliafirst printed by Lambinus, who notes“sic habent quattuor libri manuscripti, quos secutus sum”: tonetraliaOQGF (and B, according to Büchner): penetraliaAL (and B, according to Martin)

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in like manner, the thundering regions of the sky

rush upwards, the earth swiftly slip from under our feet, and amidst the commingled ruin of sky and all things, letting their elements go free, utterly depart through the empty profound, so that in one moment of time not a wrack be left behind except desert space and invisible elements. For in whatsoever part you shall assume that particles shall first be lacking, that part will be the gate of death for things: by that way the whole mass of matter will disperse abroad.

1114So you will gain a thorough understandingaof

these matters, led on with very little effort; for one thing will become clear by another, and blind night will not steal your path and prevent you from seeing all the uttermost recesses of nature: so clearly will truths kindle light for truths.

Footnotes

aThe completeness of the mastery which Memmius should attain is emphasized by the tripleper-in 1114, 1117:pernosces, perductus, pervideas.

Page number 93

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Lucretius

Liber Secundus

Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis,

e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem;

non quia vexari quemquamst iucunda voluptas,

sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suave est.

65suave etiam belli certamina magna tueri

5per campos instructa tua sine parte pericli.

sed nil dulcius est bene quam munita tenere

edita doctrina sapientum templa serena,

despicere unde queas alios passimque videre

10errare atque viam palantis quaerere vitae,

certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate,

noctes atque dies niti praestante labore

ad summas emergere opes rerumque potiri.

o miseras hominum mentes, o pectora caeca!

15qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis

degitur hoc aevi quodcumquest! nonne videre

nil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi utqui

corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mensque fruatur

iucundo sensu cura semota metuque?

Footnotes

5-6transposed by Avancius and all recent editors except Büchner, who, like Merrill and Bailey, overlooks the fact that the transposition was rejected by ed. Juntina, Naugerius, and Wakefield

18mensqueMarullus: menteOQG

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Book 2

Pleasant it is, when on the great sea the winds

trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another’s great tribulation: not because any man’s troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive what ills you are free from yourself is pleasant. Pleasant is it also to behold great encounters of warfare arrayed over the plains, with no part of yours in the peril. But nothing is more delightful than to possess lofty sanctuaries serene, well fortified by the teachings of the wise, whence you may look down upon others and behold them all astray,awandering abroad and seeking the path of life:—the strife of wits, the fight for precedence, all labouring night and day with surpassing toil to mount upon the pinnacle of richesband to lay hold on power. O pitiable minds of men, O blind intelligences! In what gloom of life,cin how great perils is passed all your poor span of time! not to see that all nature barks for is this, that pain be removed away out of the body, and that the mind, kept away from care and fear, enjoy a feeling of delight!

Footnotes

aCf.Cicero,Fin.1.19.62 (of the wise man as represented by Epicurus):cum stultorum vitam cum sua comparat, magna afficitur voluptate.

b12-13 (nodes . . . opes) = 3.62-63.

cFor the darkness of ignorance from which Epicurus rescued mankind,cf. e.g.3.1-2, 5.11-12.

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Lucretius

20Ergo corpoream ad naturam pauca videmus

esse opus omnino, quae demant cumque dolorem,

delicias quoque uti multas substernere possint;

gratius interdum neque natura ipsa requirit,

si non aurea sunt iuvenum simulacra per aedes

25lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris,

lumina nocturnis epulis ut suppeditentur,

nec domus argento fulget auroque renidet

nec citharae reboant laqueata aurataque templa,

cum tamen inter se prostrati in gramine molli

30propter aquae rivum sub ramis arboris altae

non magnis opibus iucunde corpora curant,

praesertim cum tempestas adridet et anni

tempora conspergunt viridantis floribus herbas.

nec calidae citius decedunt corpore febres,

35textilibus si in picturis ostroque rubenti

iacteris, quam si in plebeia veste cubandum est.

Quapropter quoniam nil nostro in corpore gazae

proficiunt neque nobilitas nec gloria regni,

quod superest, animo quoque nil prodesse putandum;

40si non forte, tuas legiones per loca campi

fervere cum videas belli simulacra cientis,

Footnotes

41Nonius, p. 808 Lindsay, quotes from Lucr. 2fervere cum videas classem lateque vagari.Some editors insert this line after 43; Munro, following A. G. Roos, places it after 46; others, probably rightly, regard it as a misquotation of 41

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20Therefore we see that few things altogether

are necessary for the bodily nature, only such in each case as take pain away,aand can also spread for our use many delights; nor does nature herself ever crave anything more pleasurable, if there be no golden images of youths about the house, upholding fiery torches in their right hands that light may be provided for nightly revellings,bif the hall does not shine with silver and glitter with gold, if no crossbeams panelled and gilded echo the lyre, when all the samecstretched forth in groups upon the soft grass beside a rill of water under the branches of a tall tree men merrily refresh themselves at no great cost, especially when the weather smiles, and the season of the year besprinkles the green herbage with flowers.dAnd no quicker do hot fevers fly away from your body, if you have pictured tapestry and blushing purple to toss upon, than if you must lie sick under the poor man’s blanket.

37Therefore, since treasures profit nothing for our body, nor noble birth nor the glory of royalty, we must further think that for the mind also they are

unprofitable; unless by any chance, when you behold your legions seething over the spacious Plaineas they evoke war in mimicry, established firm with

Footnotes

aAccording to Epicurus, pleasure is limited, and the limit of pleasure for the body is reached when the natural and necessary desires are satisfied and the pain caused by want is removed.Cf. e.g.Epicurus,Ep. ad Men.130-131,Sent.3, 18, Cicero,Fin.1.11.38.

b24-26 are in imitation of Homer,Od.7.100-102.

cThat is, despite the lack of the luxuries listed in 24-28. The desire for such luxuries is neither natural nor necessary, and therefore must be banished. For Epicurus’ classification of desires, seeEp. ad Men.127,Sent.29, Cicero,Fin.1.13.45.

d29-33 are repeated, with minor alterations, in 5.1392-1396. For the significance of the repetition, see B. Farrington inHermathena81 (1953) 59-62.

ecampi(40) probably refers to the Campus Martius at Rome.Cf.323-332.

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subsidiis magnis et equum vi constabilitas,

ornatas armis pariter pariterque animatas,

his tibi tum rebus timefactae religiones

45effugiunt animo pavidae, mortisque timores

tum vacuum pectus linquunt curaque solutum.

quod si ridicula haec ludibriaque esse videmus,

re veraque metus hominum curaeque sequaces

nec metuunt sonitus armorum nec fera tela

50audacterque inter reges rerumque potentis

versantur neque fulgorem reverentur ab auro

nec clarum vestis splendorem purpureai,

quid dubitas quin omni’ sit haec rationi’ potestas,

omnis cum in tenebris praesertim vita laboret?

55nam veluti pueri trepidant atque omnia caecis

in tenebris metuunt, sic nos in luce timemus

interdum nilo quae sunt metuenda magis quam

quae pueri in tenebris pavitant finguntque futura.

hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest

60non radii solis neque lucida tela diei

discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.

Nunc age, quo motu genitalia materiai

corpora res varias gignant genitasque resolvant,

et qua vi facere id cogantur, quaeque sit ollis

Footnotes

42-43omitted by Q which indicates a lacuna of three lines:written in uncials by OG: transposed by Bailey42 et ecum (= equum) viMunro (the formecushas manuscript authority in 4.420):epicuriOGABF: et opum vi Büchner, comparing Ennius, Ann. 161, 41243 pariter (afterarmis)Bernays(pariter pariterqueoccurs 3.457, and here the firstparitermay have been omitted by haplography (cf. 4.653), or there may have been a blot in the middle of 43 and 42):itastatuasO, with dots underat,to indicate that the letters should be omitted: itasiuas (itastuas,according tosome recent editors) G: statuasItali (according to recent editors, butita statuasis the reading of the ed. Veronensis and ed. Veneta)

46pectusLambinus:tempusOQGP, Wakefield (comparing Terence, Haut. 90)

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mighty supports and a mass of cavalry, marshalled all in arms cap-á-pie and all full of one spirit, then these things scare your superstitious fears and drive them in panic flight from your mind, and death’s terrors then leave your heart unpossessed and free from care. But if we see these things to be ridiculous and a mere mockery, if in truth men’s fears and haunting cares fear neither the clang of arms nor wild weapons, if they boldly mingle with kings and sovereigns of the world, if they respect not the sheen of gold nor the glowing light of crimson raiment, why

doubt you that this power wholly belongs to reason, especially since life is one long struggle in the dark? For just as children tremble and fear all things in blind darkness, so we in the light fear, at times, things that are no more to be feared than what children shiver at in the dark and imagine to be at hand.aThis terror of the mind, therefore, and this gloom must be dispelled, not by the sun’s rays nor the bright shafts of day, but by the aspect and law of nature.b

62Listen now, and I will set forth by what motion

the generative bodies of matter beget the various things and dissolve t h em once begotten, and by what force they are compelled to do it, and what swiftness

Footnotes

aCf.the opening words of Francis Bacon’s essayOf Death:” Men fear death as children fear to go into the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.”

b55-61 =3.87-93, 6.35-41. 59-61 = 1.146-148.

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65reddita mobilitas magnum per inane meandi,

expediam; tu te dictis praebere memento.

Nam certe non inter se stipata cohaeret

materies, quoniam minui rem quamque videmus

et quasi longinquo fluere omnia cernimus aevo

70ex oculisque vetustatem subducere nostris,

cum tamen incolumis videatur summa manere

propterea quia, quae decedunt corpora cuique,

unde abeunt minuunt, quo venere augmine donant,

illa senescere, at haec contra florescere cogunt,

75nec remorantur ibi. sic rerum summa novatur

semper, et inter se mortales mutua vivunt:

augesc*nt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur,

inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum

et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.

80Si cessare putas rerum primordia posse

cessandoque novos rerum progignere motus,

avius a vera longe ratione vagaris.

nam quoniam per inane vagantur, cuncta necessest

aut gravitate sua ferri primordia rerum

85aut ictu forte alterius. nam cum cita saepe

obvia conflixere, fit ut diversa repente

dissiliant; neque enim mirum, durissima quae sint

ponderibus solidis neque quicquam a tergo ibus obstet.

Footnotes

85quom (=cumLachmann)citaWakefield (in his notes, but not in his text): citaOQGAB

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has been given them to travel through the great void; do you remember to give heed to my words.

67For certainly matter is not one packed and coherent mass, since we see each thing decreasing, and we perceive all things as it were ebbing through length of time, and age withdrawing them from our

eyes; although nevertheless the sum is seen to remain unimpaired for this reason, that whenever bodies pass away from a thing, they diminish that from which they pass and increase that to which they have come, they compel the first to fade and the second on the contrary to bloom, yet do not linger there. Thus the sum of things is ever being renewed, and mortal creatures live dependent one upon another. Some species increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and, like runners, pass on the torch of life.a

80If you think the first-beginnings of things can

stand still, and by standing still can beget new motions amongst things, you are astray and wander far from true reasoning.bFor since the first-beginnings of things wander through the void, they must all be carried on either by their own weight or by a chance blow from another atom. For when in quick motion they have often met and collided, it follows that they leap apart suddenly in different directions; and no wonder, since they are perfectly hard in their solid weight and nothing obstructs them from behind.

Footnotes

aThe metaphor is from the Athenian lampadedromy (relay torch-race), as in Plato,Leg.776 b (quoted by Lambinus): τὸν βίον παραδιδόντας ἄλλοις ἐξ ἄλλων =“begetting and rearing children, and so handing on life, like a torch, to successive generations.” Pius compares Varro,Rust.3.16.9, Persius 6.61.

bEpicurus deals briefly with atomic motion inEp. ad Hdt.43-44, 61-62.

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et quo iactari magis omnia materiai

90corpora pervideas, reminiscere totius imum

nil esse in summa, neque habere ubi corpora prima

consistant, quoniam spatium sine fine modoquest,

inmensumque patere in cunctas undique partis

pluribus ostendi et certa ratione probatumst.

95quod quoniam constat, nimirum nulla quies est

reddita corporibus primis per inane profundum,

sed magis adsiduo varioque exercita motu

partim intervallis magnis confulta resultant,

pars etiam brevibus spatiis vexantur ab ictu.

100et quaecumque magis condenso conciliatu

exiguis intervallis convecta resultant,

indupedita suis perplexis ipsa figuris,

haec validas saxi radices et fera ferri

corpora constituunt et cetera de genere horum.

105cetera, quae porro magnum per inane vagantur,

paucula dissiliunt longe longeque recursant

in magnis intervallis; haec aera rarum

sufficiunt nobis et splendida lumina solis.

multaque praeterea magnum per inane vagantur,

110conciliis rerum quae sunt reiecta nec usquam

consociare etiam motus potuere recepta.

Cuius, uti memoror, rei simulacrum et imago

ante oculos semper nobis versatur et instat.

contemplator enim, cum solis lumina cumque

Footnotes

105-106Merril’s (1917 ed.) transposition ofpaucula (paucuiaOQG)andceterais adopted with much hesitation. It is adopted as being somewhat less drastic than Purmann’s exclusion of 105 as a variant for 109; however,pauculais surprising, andmagnum per inane vaganturseems a strange description of atoms in compounds, however loose the compounds may be, and, Purmann may be right

112memororOQGP:memoroCodex Vaticanus Reg. lat. 1706simulacrumItali: simulacraOQG, Merrill (1917), Diels, Büchner

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And to show you more clearly that all the bodies of matter are constantly being tossed about, remember that there is no bottom in the sum of things and the first bodies have nowhere to rest, since space is without end or limit, and I have shown at large and proved by irrefragable reasoning that it extends immeasurable from all sides in all directions.aSince this stands firm, beyond doubt no rest is granted to the first bodies throughout the profound void, but rather driven by incessant and varied motions, some after being pressed together then leap back with wide intervals, some again after the blow are tossed about within a narrow compass. And all those which being held in combination more closely condensed

collide and leap back through tiny intervals, caught fast in the complexity of their own shapes, these constitute the strong roots of stone and the bulk of fierce iron and the others of their kind. Of the rest, which go on wandering through the great void, a very few leap far apart and pass far back with long intervals between: these supply thin air for us and the gleaming light of the sun. And many besides wander through the great void which have been rejected from combination with things, and have nowhere been able to obtain admittance and also harmonize their motions.b

112Of this fact there is, I recall, an image and similitude always moving and present before our eyes. Do but apply your scrutiny whenever the

Footnotes

aSee 1.958-1007.

bThe point is that an atom cannot join a compound body, unless (as well as being of suitable size and shape) it can move in harmony with the other component atoms of the object.

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115inserti fundunt radii per opaca domorum:

multa minuta modis multis per inane videbis

corpora misceri radiorum lumine in ipso

et velut aeterno certamine proelia pugnas

edere turmatim certantia nec dare pausam,

120conciliis et discidiis exercita crebris;

conicere ut possis ex hoc, primordia rerum

quale sit in magno iactari semper inani.

dumtaxat rerum magnarum parva potest res

exemplare dare et vestigia notitiai.

Hoc etiam magis haec animum te advertere par est

126corpora quae in solis radiis turbare videntur,

quod tales turbae motus quoque materiai

significant clandestinos caecosque subesse.

multa videbis enim plagis ibi percita caecis

130commutare viam retroque repulsa reverti,

nunc huc nunc illuc, in cunctas undique partis,

scilicet hic a principiis est omnibus error:

prima moventur enim per se primordia rerum;

inde ea quae parvo sunt corpora conciliatu

135et quasi proxima sunt ad viris principiorum,

ictibus illorum caecis inpulsa cientur,

ipsaque proporro paulo maiora lacessunt.

sic a principiis ascendit motus et exit

paulatim nostros ad sensus, ut moveantur

140illa quoque in solis quae lumine cernere quimus,

nec quibus id faciant plagis apparet aperte.

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sun’s rays are let in and pour their light through a

dark room: you will see many minute particles mingling in many ways throughout the voidain the light itself of the rays, and as it were in everlasting conflict struggling, fighting, battling in troops without any pause, driven about with frequent meetings and partings; so that you may conjecture from this what it is for the first-beginnings of things to be ever tossed about in the great void. So far as it goes, a small thing may give an analogy of great things, and show the tracks of knowledge.

125Even more for another reason it is proper that you give attention to these bodies which are seen to be in turmoil within the sun’s rays, because such turmoil indicates that there are secret and unseen motions also hidden in matter. For there you will see how many things set in motion by unseen blows change their course and beaten back return back again, now this way, now that way, in all directions. You may be sure that all take their restlessness from

the first-beginnings. For first the first-beginnings of derive°their things move of themselves; then the bodies that form a small combinationband, as one may say, are atoms, nearest to the powers of the first-beginnings, are set moving, driven by the unseen blows of these, while they in their tum attack those that are a little larger. Thus the movement ascends from the first-beginnings and by successive degrees emerges upon our senses,cso that those bodies also are moved which we are able to perceive in the sun’s light, yet it does not openly appear by what blows they are made to do so.

Footnotes

ainane(116) refers to the air(cf.Virgil,Aen.12.906) through which the motes move, not to void in the strict scientific sense. But, likecorporain 117, the word is carefully chosen in order to emphasize the parallel with the behaviour of the atoms.

bSmall atomic aggregates.

cFor the imperceptibility of the motions of the atoms, see 308-332.

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Nunc quae mobilitas sit reddita materiai

corporibus, paucis licet hinc cognoscere, Memmi.

primum aurora novo cum spargit lumine terras,

145et variae volucres nemora avia pervolitantes

aera per tenerum liquidis loca vocibus opplent,

quam subito soleat sol ortus tempore tali

convestire sua perfundens omnia luce,

omnibus in promptu manifestumque esse videmus.

150at vapor is quem sol mittit lumenque serenum

non per inane meat vacuum; quo tardius ire

cogitur, aerias quasi dum diverberat undas.

nec singillatim corpuscula quaeque vaporis

sed complexa meant inter se conque globata;

155quapropter simul inter se retrahuntur et extra

officiuntur, uti cogantur tardius ire.

at quae sunt solida primordia simplicitate,

cum per inane meant vacuum nec res remoratur

ulla foris, atque ipsa, suis e partibus unum,

160unum in quem coepere locum conixa feruntur,

debent nimirum praecellere mobilitate

et multo citius ferri quam lumina solis

multiplexque loci spatium transcurrere eodem

tempore quo solis pervolgant fulgura caelum.

. . . . . . .

165nec persectari primordia singula quaeque,

ut videant qua quidque geratur cum ratione.

Footnotes

152undasOQGP: umbrasF. H. Sandbach, CR N.S. 13(1963) 13-14

166videantFL: deantOQG: omitted and space left by AB

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142Now Memmius, what swiftness is granted to the

bodies of matter, you may understand from what follows in a few words. First, when the dawn diffuses new light over the earth, and the different birds flitting about through pathless woods through the soft air fill every part with their liquid notes, how suddenly at such time the sun arising is accustomed to envelop and flood the whole world with his light, we see to be plain and manifest to all. But that heat and that light serene which the sun sends, does not pass through empty void; therefore it is forced to go more slowly, while it beats its way so to speak through waves of air. Nor do the particles of heat move alone and singly, but linked together and massed together; therefore they are at the same time retarded by one another and obstructed from without, so that they are forced to

go more slowly. But the first-beginnings, which are of solid singleness,

when they pass through the empty void, are not delayed by anything from without, and being themselves units composed of their own parts,awhen they are carried each to that one point to which their first efforts tend, most certainly they must be of exceeding swiftness and must be carried far more quickly than the light of the sun, and traverse a space many times as wide in the same time that the sun’s lightnings take to pervade the heavens.

165... norbto follow up the first-beginnings separately one by one, that they may see in what way everything is done.

Footnotes

aAlthough each atom has a number of minimal parts, it is uncompounded, for the minimal parts are physically inseparable(cf.1.599-634).

bFor comments on the lacuna, see critical note on 164-165.

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At quidam contra haec, ignari materiai,

naturam non posse deum sine numine credunt

tanto opere humanis rationibus admoderate

170tempora mutare annorum frugesque creare,

et iam cetera, mortalis quae suadet adire

ipsaque deducit dux vitae dia voluptas

et res per Veneris blanditur saecla propagent,

ne genus occidat humanum. quorum omnia causa

175constituisse deos cum fingunt, omnibu’ rebus

magno opere a vera lapsi ratione videntur.

nam quamvis rerum ignorem primordia quae sint,

hoc tamen ex ipsis caeli rationibus ausim

confirmare aliisque ex rebus reddere multis,

180nequaquam nobis divinitus esse creatam

naturam mundi: tanta stat praedita culpa,

quae tibi posterius, Memmi, faciemus aperta.

nunc id quod superest de motibus expediemus.

Nunc locus est, ut opinor, in his illud quoque rebus

185confirmare tibi, nullam rem posse sua vi

corpoream sursum ferri sursumque meare,

ne tibi dent in eo flammarum corpora fraudem;

sursus enim versus gignuntur et augmina sumunt,

et sursum nitidae fruges arbustaque cresc*nt,

190pondera, quantum in se est, cum deorsum cuncta ferantur.

nec cum subsiliunt ignes ad tecta domorum

et celeri flamma degustant tigna trabesque,

Footnotes

168creduntPontanus: reddiOQGP, Wakefield, Büchner:reddunt(cf. 179) Brieger: rentur(cf. 1.154, 6.91) Marullus

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167But someain opposition to this, knowing nothing

of matter, believe that without the gods’ power nature cannot with so exact conformity to the plans of mankind change the seasons of the year, and produce crops, and in a word all else which divine pleasure, the guide of life, persuades men to approach, herself leading them and coaxing them, through the ways of Venus, to beget their generations, that the human race may not come to an end. But when they imagine the gods to have arranged all for the sake of men, they are seen to have departed widely from true reasoning in every way. For although I might not know what first-beginnings of things are, this nevertheless I would make bold to maintain from the ways of heaven itself, and to demonstrate from many another source, that the nature of the universe has by no means been made for us through divine power: so great are the faults it

stands endowed with. All this, Memmius, I will make clear to you laterb; now I will explain what remains to be said about motion.

184This is now the place, as I think, in my theme

to establish for you another principle: that no bodily thing can of its own power be carried upwards and move upwards. The particles of fire should not lead you into a mistake; for in an upward direction flames are born and win increase, upwards grow trees and the bright crops, although all weights tend downwards as far as in them lies. And when fires leap up to the roofs of houses and with swift flame devour

Footnotes

aHaec disputantur in Platonem, et in Stoicos” (Lambinus).

b5.195-234.

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sponte sua facere id sine vi subiecta putandum est.

quod genus e nostro cum missus corpore sanguis

195emicat exultans alte spargitque cruorem.

nonne vides etiam quanta vi tigna trabesque

respuat umor aquae? nam quo magis ursimus altum

derecta et magna vi multi pressimus aegre,

tam cupide sursum revomit magis atque remittit,

200plus ut parte foras emergant exiliantque.

nec tamen haec, quantum estinse, dubitamus, opinor,

quin vacuum per inane deorsum cuncta ferantur.

sic igitur debent quoque flammae posse per auras

aeris expressae sursum succedere, quamquam

pondera, quantum in sest, deorsum deducere pugnent.

206nocturnasque faces caeli sublime volantis

nonne vides longos flammarum ducere tractus

in quascumque dedit partis natura meatum?

non cadere in terras Stellas et sidera cernis?

210sol etiam caeli de vertice dissipat omnis

ardorem in partis et lumine conserit arva;

in terras igitur quoque solis vergitur ardor.

transversosque volare per imbris fulmina cernis:

Footnotes

193sineOQGP: nisiD. A. West, CQ N.S. 14 (1964) 96subiecta (sc.flammarum corpora187) OQGP (cf. Virgil, G. 4.385): subigenteLambinus, who notes “sic restitui ab unocodice manuscripto adiutus”

210caeli(cf. Cicero, Arat. 297) Bernays: omitted by OQG: summoFL: mundiStürenberg, W. Hörsckelmann (according to Merrill), E. Orth, Helmantica 11 (1960) 128–129, C. L. Howard, CPhil. 56 (1961) 149

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timbers and beams, we must not think they do this of themselves, being shot up without a force. Even so when blood is let out from our body, out it spirts, leaping forth on high and sprinkling its red drops. Do you not see also with what force liquid water spits out timbers and beams? For the deeper we have thrust them and pushed them right down, pressing laboriously with full force and many together, the more eagerly does the water vomit them back and shoot them back up, so that they issue forth and leap out more than half their length. Yet we do not doubt, I think, that, as far as in them lies, these are all carried downwards through an empty void. In this way, therefore, flames also must be able to rise up, squeezed out upwards through the breezes of the air, although, as far as lies in them, their weights fight to draw them down; and do you not see how the nightly torches of the sky fly up aloft and draw their long trails of flame in whatever direction nature has given them a way? how stars and luminaries fall to the earth? The sun also from the pinnacle of heaven disperses his heat abroad in all directions and sows the fields with lighta; therefore the sun’s heat tends towards the earth also. And you perceive lightnings to fly crosswise along the rain clouds:

Footnotes

aWakefield quotes Milton,Paradise Lost 5.1-2: “Now Morn, her rosy steps in th’ eastern clime | Advancing, sow’d the earth with orient pearl.”

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nunc hinc nunc illinc abrupti nubibus ignes

215concursant; cadit in terras vis flammea volgo.

Illud in his quoque te rebus cognoscere avemus,

corpora cum deorsum rectum per inane feruntur

ponderibus propriis, incerto tempore ferme

incertisque locis spatio depellere paulum,

220tantum quod momen mutatum dicere possis.

quod nisi declinare solerent, omnia deorsum,

imbris uti guttae, caderent per inane profundum,

nec foret offensus natus nec plaga creata

principiis: ita nil umquam natura creasset.

225Quod si forte aliquis credit graviora potesse

corpora, quo citius rectum per inane feruntur,

incidere ex supero levioribus atque ita plagas

gignere quae possint genitalis reddere motus,

avius a vera longe ratione recedit.

nam per aquas quaecumque cadunt atque aera rarum,

231haec pro ponderibus casus celerare necessest,

propterea quia corpus aquae naturaque tenvis

aeris haud possunt aeque rem quamque morari,

sed citius cedunt gravioribus exsuperata;

235at contra nulli de nulla parte neque ullo

tempore inane potest vacuum subsistere rei,

quin, sua quod natura petit, concedere pergat;

Footnotes

214abruptiOQGP:abruptisMacrobius, Sat. 6.1.27 (cf. Virgil, Aen. 3.199),D. A. West, CQ N.S. 14 (1964) 97, n. 1, perhaps rightly, but see Statius, Theb. 1.353–354 quoted by Wakefield

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now from this part, now from that, burst the fires out of the clouds and rush along; it is a common thing for the fiery bolt to fall on the earth.a

216One further point in this matter I desire you

to understand: that while the first bodies are being carried downwards by their own weight in a straight line through the void, at times quite uncertain and uncertain places, they swerve a little from their course, just so much as you might call a change of motion.bFor if they were not apt to incline, all would fall downwards like raindrops through the profound void, no collision would take place and no blow would be caused amongst the first-beginnings: thus nature would never have produced anything.

225But if by chance anyone believes it to be

possible that heavier elements, being carried more quickly straight through the void, fall from above on the lighter, and so deal blows which can produce generative motions, he is astray and departs far from true reasoning. For whatever things fall through water and through fine air, these must speed their fall in accordance with their weights, because the body of water and the thin nature of air cannot delay each thing equally, but yield sooner overcome by the heavier; but contrariwise empty void cannot offer any support to anything anywhere or at any time, but it must give way continually, as its nature

Footnotes

aFor a detailed discussion of 184–215, see D. A. West,CQN.S. 14 (1964) 94–99.

bThe theory of the swerve (πapέγκλισιςclinamen, declinatio, inclinatio)of atoms is not described by Epicurus in his extant writings, but is mentioned by Cicero, Philodemus, Plutarch, Diogenes of Oenoanda, and others. Lucr.’s account (216-293) is the fullest which we have. Epicurus, influenced above all by Aristotle, rejected the determinism of Democritus and believed in the freedom of the individual will, and the theory of the atomic swerve was designed to explain free will (see 251-293) as well as to account for collisions between atoms moving through the void. See Introduction pp. xxxiii-xxxiv.

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omnia quapropter debent per inane quietum

aeque ponderibus non aequis concita ferri.

240haud igitur poterunt levioribus incidere umquam

ex supero graviora, neque ictus gignere per se

qui varient motus per quos natura gerat res.

quare etiam atque etiam paulum inclinare necessest

corpora; nec plus quam minimum, ne fingere motus

245obliquos videamur et id res vera refutet.

namque hoc in promptu manifestumque esse videmus,

pondera, quantum in sest, non posse obliqua meare,

ex supero cum praecipitant, quod cernere possis;

sed nil omnino recta regione viai

250declinare quis est qui possit cernere sese?

Denique si semper motus conectitur omnis

et vetere exoritur motu novus ordine certo,

nec declinando faciunt primordia motus

principium quoddam quod fati foedera rumpat,

255ex infinito ne causam causa sequatur,

libera per terras unde haec animantibus exstat,

unde est haec, inquam, fatis avolsa voluntas,

per quam progredimur quo ducit quemque voluptas,

declinamus item motus nec tempore certo

260nec regione loci certa, sed ubi ipsa tulit mens?

nam dubio procul his rebus sua cuique voluntas

principium dat et hinc motus per membra rigantur.

Nonne vides etiam patefactis tempore puncto

Footnotes

249rectaFL: omitted by OQG250 seseOQGP: sensuGiussani: posseL. A. MacKay, CPhil. 56 (1961) 103-104

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demands: therefore they must all be carried with equal speed, although not of equal weight, through the unresisting void. So the heavier bodies will never be able to fall from above on the lighter, nor deal blows of themselves so as to produce the various motions by which nature carries on her processes. Therefore again and again I say, the bodies must

incline a little; and not more than the least possible, or we shall seem to assume oblique movements, and thus be refuted by the facts. For this we see to be manifest and plain, that weights, as far as in them lies, cannot travel obliquely, when they drop straight from above, as far as one can perceive; but who is there who can perceive that they never swerve ever

so little from the straight undeviating course?

251Again, if all motion is always one long chain,

and new motion arises out of the old in order invariable, and if the first-beginnings do not make by swerving a beginning of motion such as to break the decrees of fate, that cause may not follow cause from infinity, whence comes this free will in living creatures all over the earth, whence I say is this will wrested from the fates by which we proceed whither pleasure leads each, swerving also our motions not at fixed times and fixed places, but just where our mind has taken us?aFor undoubtedly it is his own will

in each that begins these things, and from the will movements go rippling through the limbs.

263Do you not see also, when the cellsbare thrown

Footnotes

aFor a detailed discussion of the Epicurean theory of voluntary action, often very critical of the traditional view, see D. J. Furley,Two Studies in the Greek Atomists161-237. Furley devotes a chapter to Lucr. 2.251-293.

bcarceresare the cells in which horses and chariots were confined at the start of a race.Cf.4.990.

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carceribus non posse tamen prorumpere equorum

265vim cupidam tam de subito quam mens avet ipsa?

omnis enim totum per corpus materiai

copia conciri debet, concita per artus

omnis ut studium mentis conixa sequatur;

ut videas initum motus a corde creari

270ex animique voluntate id procedere primum,

inde dari porro per totum corpus et artus.

Nec similest ut cum impulsi procedimus ictu

viribus alterius magnis magnoque coactu;

nam tum materiem totius corporis omnem

275perspicuumst nobis invitis ire rapique,

donec eam refrenavit per membra voluntas.

iamne vides igitur, quamquam vis extera multos

pellat et invitos cogat procedere saepe

praecipitesque rapi, tamen esse in pectore nostro

280quiddam quod contra pugnare obstareque possit?

cuius ad arbitrium quoque copia materiai

cogitur interdum flecti per membra per artus

et proiecta refrenatur retroque residit.

Quare in seminibus quoque idem fateare necessest,

285esse aliam praeter plagas et pondera causam

motibus, unde haec est nobis innata potestas,

de nilo quoniam fieri nil posse videmus.

pondus enim prohibet ne plagis omnia fiant

externa quasi vi; sed ne mens ipsa necessum

Footnotes

268eonnixa (= conixaLachmann) ascribed to certain mss by Lambinus:conexaOQU

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open at a given moment, that nevertheless the eager force of the horses cannot burst forth so suddenly as the mind itself craves? For all the mass of matter must be stirred up together through the whole body, in order that thus stirred up together it may all with one combined effort follow the passion of the mind; thus you may see that the beginning of motion is made by the intelligence, and the action moves on first from the will of the mind, then to be passed onwards through the whole body and limbs.

272Nor is this the same as when we move forwards

impelled by a blow from the strength and mighty effort of another; for then it is clear that all the matter or the whole body moves and is hurried against our will, until the will has curbedait back through the limbs. In this case do you see then that, although an external force propels many men and forces them often to move on against their will and to be hurried headlong, yet there is in our breast something strong enough to fight against it and to resist? by the arbitrament of which, also, the mass of matter is compelled at times to be turned throughout body and limbs, and, when thrust forward, is curbed back and settles back steadily.

284Therefore you must admit that the same exists in the seeds also, that motions have some cause other than blows and weights, from which this power is born in us, since we see that nothing can be produced from nothing. For it is weight that prevents all things from being caused through blows by a sort of external force; but what keeps the mind itself

Footnotes

aThe metaphor here (refrenavit) and in 282 (flecti) and 283 (refrenatur) was probably suggested to Lucr. by the racecourse illustration in 263-265. A further link between 263– The metaphor here (refrenavit) and in 282 (flecti) and 283 (refrenatur) was probably suggested to Lucr. by the racecourse illustration in 263-265. A further link between 263– 265 and the present passage is that in 277-279 Lucr is Probably thinking of a crowd at the races. See M. F. Smith inHermathena102 (1966) 76-77, and notes on 5.1290, 1436.

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290intestinum habeat cunctis in rebus agendis

et devicta quasi cogatur ferre patique,

id facit exiguum clinamen principiorum

nec regione loci certa nec tempore certo.

Nec stipata magis fuit umquam materiai

295copia nec porro maioribus intervallis;

nam neque adaugescit quicquam neque deperit inde.

quapropter quo nunc in motu principiorum

corpora sunt, in eodem anteacta aetate fuere

et post haec semper simili ratione ferentur,

300et quae consuerint gigni gignentur eadem

condicione et erunt et crescent vique valebunt,

quantum cuique datum est per foedera naturai.

nec rerum summam commutare ulla potest vis;

nam neque, quo possit genus ullum materiai

effugere ex omni, quicquam est extra, neque in omne

306unde coorta queat nova vis inrumpere et omnem

naturam rerum mutare et vertere motus.

Illud in his rebus non est mirabile quare,

omnia cum rerum primordia sint in motu,

310summa tamen summa videatur stare quiete,

praeterquam siquid proprio dat corpore motus.

omnis enim longe nostris ab sensibus infra

primorum natura iacet; quapropter, ubi ipsa

cernere iam nequeas, motus quoque surpere debent,

Footnotes

305extra (cf. 1.963, 3.816 = 5.361)Munro: omitted by OQGP313 ipsaGifanius: ipsumOQ, G (?), P:ipsam (sc.primorum naturam),the reading of G, according to Haver-camp, and also of C, according to Wakefield, may well be right. It is adopted in the ed. Juntina and by Naugerius, but is ignored by modern editors, according to whom G readsipsum (on the carelessness of Havercamp and Wakefield, see Munro I 18-19)

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from having necessity within it in all actions, and from being as it were mastered and forced to endure and to suffer, is the minute swerving of the first-beginnings at no fixed place and at no fixed time.

294Nor was the mass of matter ever more closely

packed nor again set at wider intervals, for nothing increases it nor does anything perish from it. Therefore in whatsoever motion the bodies of first-beginnings are now, in that same motion they were in ages gone by, and hereafter they will always be carried along in the same way, and the things which have been accustomed to be born will be born under the same conditions; they will be and will grow and will be strong with their strength as much as is granted to each by the laws of nature. Nor can any power change the sum total of things; for there is no place without into which any kind of matter could flee away from the all; and there is no place whence a new power could arise to burst into the all, and to change the whole nature of things and tum their motions.a

308One point in these matters need cause no

wonder, why, though all the first-beginnings of things are in motion, the sum total seems nevertheless to abide in supreme quietude, except for anything that may show movement with its own body. For the nature of the first things lies all hidden far beneath our senses; therefore, since you cannot get so far as to see the things themselves, they must necessarily steal their motions too from your sight, especially

Footnotes

aThe doctrine that the universe is unchanging is stated briefly by Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.39.

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315praesertim cum, quae possimus cernere, celent

saepe tamen motus spatio diducta locorum.

nam saepe in colli tondentes pabula laeta

lanigerae reptant pecudes quo quamque vocantes

invitant herbae gemmantes rore recenti,

320et satiati agni ludunt blandeque coruscant;

omnia quae nobis longe confusa videntur

et velut in viridi candor consistere colli.

praeterea magnae legiones cum loca cursu

camporum complent belli simulacra cientes,

325fulgor ubi ad caelum se tollit totaque circum

aere renidescit tellus subterque virum vi

excitur pedibus sonitus clamoreque montes

icti reiectant voces ad sidera mundi

et circumvolitant equites mediosque repente

330tramittunt valido quatientes impete campos—

et tamen est quidam locus altis montibus unde

stare videntur et in campis consistere fulgor.

Nunc age iam deinceps cunctarum exordia rerum

qualia sint et quam longe distantia formis

335percipe, multigenis quam sint variata figuris;

non quo multa parum simili sint praedita forma,

sed quia non volgo paria omnibus omnia constant.

nec mirum; nam cum sit eorum copia tanta

ut neque finis, uti docui, neque summa sit ulla,

340debent nimirum non omnibus omnia prorsum

esse pari filo similique adfecta figura.

Footnotes

325ubiOQG: ibiMarullus

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when things that we can perceive do yet often conceal their motions if they be withdrawn at a great distance. For often on a hill, cropping the rich pasture,

woolly sheep go creeping whither the herbage all gemmed with fresh dewatempts and invites each, and full-fed the lambs play and butt heads in fun; all which things are seen by us blurred together in the distance, as a kind of whiteness at rest on a green hill. Besides, when great legions cover the outspread plains in their manoeuvres, evoking war in mimicry,band the sheen rises to the sky and all the country around flashes back the brilliancy of bronze, and beneath, the ground quakes, resounding with the mighty tramp of men’s feet,cand the mountains, stricken by the clamour, throw back the sounds to the stars of heaven, and horsem*n gallop around and suddenly course through the midst of the plains, shaking them with their mighty rush, yetdthere is a place on the high mountains, from which they seem to stand still, and to be a brightness at rest upon a plain.

333Mark now and learn in the next place of what

kinds are the beginnings of all things, how far they differ in shape, how varied they are in their manifold figures: not that there are only a few endowed with similar shape, but because commonly they are not all like all. And no wonder: for since there is so great a store that there is no end to them, as I have taught, and no sum, they must assuredly not be all of like frame with all and marked by the same shape.

Footnotes

aCf. e.g.Drayton,Sonnets53: “Amongst the dainty dew-impearled flowers”; Milton,Paradise Lost5.743-744: “Or stars of morning, dew drops which the sun | Impearls on every leaf and every flower”; Joanna Baillie,Poems228: “Dew-gemmed in the morning ray.”

bCf.40-43.

c325-327 are in imitation of Homer. SeeII.2.457-458, 19.362-363,Od.14.267-268.

dStrictly “and yet”—an anacoluthon, unless the alteration ofubitoibiin 325 is accepted.Cf.342-347.

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Praeterea genus humanum mutaeque natantes

squamigerum pecudes et laeta armenta feraeque

et variae volucres, laetantia quae loca aquarum

345concelebrant circum ripas fontisque lacusque,

et quae pervolgant nemora avia pervolitantes—

quorum unum quidvis generatim sumere perge:

invenies tamen inter se differre figuris.

nec ratione alia proles cognoscere matrem

350nec mater posset prolem; quod posse videmus

nec minus atque homines inter se nota cluere.

nam saepe ante deum vitulus delubra decora

turicremas propter mactatus concidit aras,

sanguinis expirans calidum de pectore flumen;

355at mater viridis saltus orbata peragrans

quaerit humi pedibus vestigia pressa bisulcis,

omnia convisens oculis loca si queat usquam

conspicere amissum fetum, completque querellis

frondiferum nemus adsistens et crebra revisit

360ad stabulum desiderio perfixa iuvenci;

nec tenerae salices atque herbae rore vigentes

fluminaque illa queunt summis labentia ripis

oblectare animum subitamque avertere curam,

nec vitulorum aliae species per pabula laeta

365derivare queunt animum curaque levare:

usque adeo quiddam proprium notumque requirit.

praeterea teneri tremulis cum vocibus haedi

cornigeras norunt matres agnique petulci

Footnotes

343armentafirst printed in the edition of J. Tonson (1712), but also conjectured by Bentley in a manuscript note (see Wakefield):arbustaOQGP

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342Moreover, the race of men, and the dumb

swimming tribes of scaly fish, fat cattle, and wild beasts, the different birds which throng the joyous regions of water around bank and spring and lake, and which crowd the pathless woods through and through as they flit about—of these go on to take any one in any kind, and you will find nevertheless that each differs from each in shape. Nor is there

any other way by which the young could recognize the mother or the mother her young; and this we see they can do, and that they are known clearly to each other no less than men are. For often in front of the noble shrines of the gods a calf falls slain beside the incense-burning altars, breathing up a hot stream of blood from his breast; but the mother bereaved wanders through the green glens, and seeks on the ground the prints marked by the cloven hooves, as she surveys all the regions if she may espy somewhere her lost offspring, and coming to a stand fills the leafy woods with her moaning,aand often revisits the stall, pierced with yearning for her calf; nor can tender willow-growths, and herbage growing rich in the dew, and those rivers flowing level with their banks, give delight to her mind and rebuff her sudden care, nor can the sight of other calves in the happy pastures divert her mind and lighten her load of care: so persistently she seeks for something of her own that she knows well. Besides, tender kids with trembling voices know their horned mothers, and mischievous lambs the flocks

Footnotes

aCf.Shakespeare,Henry VI, Pt. 2,Act 3, Sc. 1, 210, 214-216: “And as the butcher takes away the calf, | . . . And as the dam runs lowing up and down, | Looking the way her harmless young one went, | And can do nought but wail her darling’s loss.”

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balantum pecudes: ita, quod natura reposcit,

370ad sua quisque fere decurrunt ubera lactis.

Postremo quodvis frumentum non tamen omne

quidque suo genere inter se simile esse videbis,

quin intercurrat quaedam distantia formis.

concharumque genus parili ratione videmus

375pingere telluris gremium, qua mollibus undis

litoris incurvi bibulam pavit aequor harenam.

Quare etiam atque etiam simili ratione necessest,

natura quoniam constant neque facta manu sunt

unius ad certam formam primordia rerum,

380dissimili inter se quaedam volitare figura.

Perfacile est animi ratione exsolvere nobis

quare fulmineus multo penetralior ignis

quam noster fluat e taedis terrestribus ortus;

dicere enim possis caelestem fulminis ignem

385subtilem magis e parvis constare figuris

atque ideo transire foramina quae nequit ignis

noster hic e lignis ortus taedaque creatus.

praeterea lumen per cornum transit, at imber

respuitur. quare? nisi luminis illa minora

corpora sunt quam de quibus est liquor almus

390aquarum.

et quamvis subito per colum vina videmus

perfluere, at contra tardum cunctatur olivom,

aut quia nimirum maioribus est elementis

Footnotes

383fluatOQGP: fuatFaber, who however rejects his own suggestion: “sed nil mutandum; est enim illustris trans-latio”

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of bleating sheep: so, as nature demands, they usuallyarun down each to its own udder of milk.

371Lastly, take any kind of corn, you will see that

the grains are nevertheless not all so alike by their common species, but that there is a certain difference of shape between them. And in the same way we

see the multitude of shells painting the lap of the earth, where with soft waves the sea beats on the thirsty sand of the curving shore.

377Therefore again and again I say that the first-beginnings of things in the same way, since they exist by nature and are not made by hand after the fixed model of one single atom, must necessarily have some of them different shapes as they fly about.b

381It is very easy for us to explain by reasoning

of the mind why the fire of lightning has a far more penetrating flow than our fire that arises from terrestrial torches; for you could say that lightning, the heavenly fire, is finer and made of smaller shapes, and therefore passes through openings through which this fire of ours, sprung from wood and made from a torch, cannot pass. Besides, light passes through horn, but rain is rejectedc: why? unless those bodies of light are smaller than those which make up the nourishing liquid of water. And we see wine, as quickly as you will, strain through a colander; but contrariwise olive oil lags and lingers, either to be sure because its elements are larger, or because they

Footnotes

aSome editors and translators, evidentlyhomines ab agro remotissimi,takefereto mean “without fail,” “without exception.” In fact, lambs and kids sometimes run to the wrong udder of milk, and Lucr., always an accurate observer of animal behaviour, was undoubtedly aware of this.

bquaedam,because there are some similar as well as others different.

cLucr. is thinking of a horn lantern carried on a wet night.Cf.Empedocles fr. 84, lines 1-6.

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aut magis hamatis inter se perque plicatis,

395atque ideo fit uti non tam diducta repente

inter se possint primordia singula quaeque

singula per cuiusque foramina permanare.

Huc accedit uti mellis lactisque liquores

iucundo sensu linguae tractentur in ore;

400at contra taetra absinthi natura ferique

centauri foedo pertorquent ora sapore;

ut facile agnoscas e levibus atque rutundis

esse ea quae sensus iucunde tangere possunt,

at contra quae amara atque aspera cumque videntur,

405haec magis hamatis inter se nexa teneri

proptereaque solere vias rescindere nostris

sensibus introituque suo perrumpere corpus.

Omnia postremo bona sensibus et mala tactu

dissimili inter se pugnant perfecta figura;

410ne tu forte putes serrae stridentis acerbum

horrorem constare elementis levibus aeque

ac musaea mele, per chordas organici quae

mobilibus digitis expergefacta figurant;

neu simili penetrare putes primordia forma

415in nares hominum, cum taetra cadavera torrent

et cum scena croco Cilici perfusa recens est

araque Panchaeos exhalat propter odores;

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are more hooked and entangled more closely, and therefore it happens that the separate first-beginningsacannot be so suddenly detached and ooze one by one each through its own opening.

398Moreover, the liquids of honey and of milk have

a pleasant taste as they are moved about in the mouthb; but contrariwise the loathsome nature of wormwood and of harsh centaury twists up the mouth with a noisome flavour; so that you may readily recognize that those bodies which can touch our senses pleasantly are made of smooth and round atoms, but contrariwise all that seem to be bitter and rough are held in connexion by atoms more hooked, and are therefore accustomed to tear open their way into our senses and to break the texture by their intrusion.

408Lastly, all things that are agreeable to our

senses in touch and all that are disagreeable are in conflict, being made of dissimilar shapes: so that you must never think the harsh grating of a strident saw consists of elementscas smooth as the melodies of music which harpers awakendand shape on the strings with nimble fingers; never think that first-beginnings of similar shape penetrate men’s nostrils,

when noisome corpses are roasting, and when the stage is freshly sprinkled with Cilician saffron,eand the altar near by breathes Panchaean scentsf;

Footnotes

aAlthoughprimordia(396), likeelementis(393), must refer to atoms, it seems inconceivable that Epicurus, who believed that all atoms are so small as to be invisible, supposed that the passage of oil through a colander is delayed by the inability of each constituent atom to pass through a separate opening; probably the reference should have been to atomic nuclei, particles, or molecules. See Giussani and Bailey.

bLucr. discusses taste in more detail in 4.615-672.

cIn Book 4 Lucr. explains that hearing, sight, and smell are caused by emanations impinging on the appropriate sense-organ.

dCf.Thomas Gray,Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard48: “Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.”

eCorycus in Cilicia was famous for its saffron. The sprinkling of the stage with a solution of saffron is mentioned by several other Roman writers.

fPanchaea, a mythical island east of Arabia, was reputedly rich in incense:cf.Virgil,G.2.139, 4.379.

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neve bonos rerum simili constare colores

semine constituas, oculos qui pascere possunt,

420et qui conpungunt aciem lacrimareque cogunt

aut foeda specie diri turpesque videntur.

omnis enim, sensus quae mulcet cumque, figura

haud sine principiali aliquo levore creatast;

at contra quaecumque molesta atque aspera constat,

425non aliquo sine materiae squalore repertast.

sunt etiam quae iam nec levia iure putantur

esse neque omnino flexis mucronibus unca,

sed magis angellis paulum prostantibus, utqui

titulare magis sensus quam laedere possint;

430fecula iam quo de genere est inulaeque sapores.

denique iam calidos ignis gelidamque pruinam

dissimili dentata modo conpungere sensus

corporis, indicio nobis est tactus uterque.

tactus enim, tactus, pro divum numina sancta,

435corporis est sensus, vel cum res extera sese

insinuat, vel cum laedit quae in corpore natast

aut iuvat egrediens genitalis per Veneris res,

aut ex offensu cum turbant corpore in ipso

semina confunduntque inter se concita sensum;

440ut si forte manu quamvis iam corporis ipse

tute tibi partem ferias atque experiare.

quapropter longe formas distare necessest

principiis, varios quae possint edere sensus.

Denique quae nobis durata ac spissa videntur,

445haec magis hamatis inter sese esse necessest

et quasi ramosis alte compacta teneri.

Footnotes

421diriLachmann: diOQG:fediQ corr.

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never suppose that agreeable colours fit to feed our sight consist of seed like those which make the eye

tingle and force it to weep, or such as by their ugly aspect seem terrible and vile. For nothing whatsoever

that soothes the senses is made without some smoothness in the first-beginnings; but contrariwise whatever is offensive and harsh has been found to be not without some roughness in its material. There are also in the series those first-beginnings which are rightly thought to be neither smooth nor altogether hooked with curved points, but rather to have small angles a little projecting, so that they can rather tickle our senses than hurt them; of which kind we have now tartar of wine and the flavour of elecampane. Again, here are hot fire and cold frost toothed in different fashion to prick our bodily senses, as the touch in either case proves to us. For touch, so help

me the holy power of the gods, it is touch that is the bodily sense, whether when a thing penetrates from without, or when hurt comes from something within the body, or when it gives pleasure in issuing forth by the creative acts of Venus, or when from a blow the seeds make riot in the body itself and confuse the sense by their turmoil; as you might try for yourself now if you strike any part of your body with a hand. Therefore it is necessary that the first-beginnings have widely different shapes, since they can produce varying sensations.

444Again, whatever seems to us hardened and

close set must consist of elements more closely-hooked and held knit deeply together by branch-like

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in quo iam genere in primis adamantina saxa

prima acie constant ictus contemnere sueta,

et validi silices ac duri robora ferri,

450aeraque quae claustris restantia vociferantur.

illa quidem debent e levibus atque rutundis

esse magis, fluvido quae corpore liquida constant;

namque papaveris haustus itemst facilis quod aquarum:

nec retinentur enim inter se glomeramina quaeque,

455et perculsus item proclive volubilis exstat.

omnia postremo quae puncto tempore cernis

diffugere, ut fumum nebulas flammasque, necessest,

si minus omnia sunt e levibus atque rutundis,

at non esse tamen perplexis indupedita,

460pungere uti possint corpus penetrareque saxa

nec tamen haerere inter se; quodcumque videmus

sensibu’ dentatum, facile ut cognoscere possis

non e perplexis sed acutis esse elementis.

sed quod amara vides eadem quae fluvida constant,

465sudor uti maris est, minime mirabile debet;

nam quod fluvidus est, e levibus atque rutundis

est, et squalida sunt illis admixta doloris

corpora; nec tamen haec retineri hamata necessum:

scilicet esse globosa tamen, cum squalida constent,

470provolvi simul ut possint et laedere sensus.

et quo mixta putes magis aspera levibus esse

Footnotes

453quodOQGP: quasiM. Haupt

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shapes. Amongst the first in this class, diamond stones, for example, stand in the front rank, accustomed to despise blows; and stout stone and the strength of hard iron, and bronze sockets that shriek out as they resist the bolts. Those others, the fluids

which consist of liquid body, must be of elements smoother and rounder. Indeed you may scoop up poppy seed as easily as water, for the individual round particles are no hindrance to each other; and when poppy seed is knocked over, it runs downhill just as readily.aLastly, all that you see dispersing in a moment of time, as smoke and clouds and flame,

if not wholly made of smooth and round elements, must at least necessarily not be hampered by elements entangled, that they may be able to sting the body and penetrate stonesbwithout clinging together; so that you may easily recognize that whatever we see to be spiky to the senses consists of elements sharp but not entangled. But it should be no marvel that you see the same things both bitter and fluid, as the brine of the sea; for being fluid it consists

of smooth and round elements, and many rough bodies that cause pain are intermingled with them; and yet it is not necessary that these be held together by hooks: you must know that they are round although they are rough, so that they can roll on and at the same time hurt the senses. And to show you more clearly that there are rough elements

Footnotes

ai.e.just as readily as water. On the interpretation of 453-455 see especially D. A. West inCRN.S. 14 (1964) 4-6.

bSmoke stings the eyes, fire(cf.1.491) penetrates stones and splits them.

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principiis, unde est Neptuni corpus acerbum,

est ratio secernendi, seorsumque videndi

umor dulcis, ubi per terras crebrius idem

475percolatur, ut in foveam fluat ac mansuescat;

linquit enim supera taetri primordia viri,

aspera quom magis in terris haerescere possint.

Quod quoniam docui, pergam conectere rem quae

ex hoc apta fidem ducat, primordia rerum

480finita variare figurarum ratione.

quod si non ita sit, rursum iam semina quaedam

esse infinito debebunt corporis auctu.

namque in eadem una cuiusvis iam brevitate

corporis inter se multum variare figurae

485non possunt. fac enim minimis e partibus esse

corpora prima tribus, vel paulo pluribus auge:

nempe ubi eas partis unius corporis omnis,

summa atque ima locans, transmutans dextera laevis,

omnimodis expertus eris, quam quisque det ordo

490formai speciem totius corporis eius,

quod superest, si forte voles variare figuras,

addendum partis alias erit; inde sequetur,

adsimili ratione alias ut postulet ordo,

si tu forte voles etiam variare figuras.

495ergo formarum novitatem corporis augmen

Footnotes

477quomA. G. Roos: quoOQP

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mixed with smooth which produce Neptune’sabitter

body, there is a way to separate them, and to see-how the sweet water, when the same is filtered through earth several times, runs separately into a pit and loses its saltness; for it leaves above the elements of the nauseous brine, since the rough ones can more easily stick in the earth.

478Now that I have explained this, I will proceed

to link with it another truth which depending on this draws its proof from itb: that the first-beginnings have a finite number of differing shapes.cIf that were not so, it would once more follow that some of the seeds will necessarily be of infinite size.dFor within the same small measure of one given bodyethe shapes cannot differ much from one another: suppose, for instance, the first bodies to consist of three smallest parts, or increase that number by a few more; naturally, when you take all those parts of one body, and by placing them top or bottom, and transposing right and left, you have tried in all possible ways what shape of that whole body each order gives, if after all you wish perhaps to vary the shapes, other parts must be added; and it will follow that in like manner the arrangement will demand other parts, if you perhaps wish to vary the shapes yet further. Therefore novelty of shapes implies increase

Footnotes

aFor Lucr.’s attitude to the use of such names, see 655-660.

bHere, in 481(rursum),and in 498-499 the reference may be to a non-existent proof that the size of the atoms is limited. Brieger and Giussani assume a lacuna between 477 and 478, but Bailey is more cautious: “In the unfinished state of the poem it is rash to assume that a passage has been lost; ... it is safer merely to say that the argument requires it.”

cCf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.42. Democritus, however, had supposed that the number of atomic shapes is infinite.

dIn 481-499, which should be compared with Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt. 55-56,Lucr. returns to the doctrine of minimal parts expounded in 1.599-634(cf. Ep. ad Hdt.56-59).

e“Body” here = “first body,”i.e.“atom.”

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subsequitur. quare non est ut credere possis

esse infinitis distantia semina formis,

ne quaedam cogas inmani maximitate

esse, supra quod iam docui non posse probari.

500Iam tibi barbaricae vestes Meliboeaque fulgens

purpura Thessalico concharum tacta colore,

aurea pavonum ridenti imbuta lepore

saecla, novo rerum superata colore iacerent

et contemptus odor smyrnae mellisque sapores,

505et cycnea mele Phoebeaque daedala chordis

carmina consimili ratione oppressa silerent;

namque aliis aliud praestantius exoreretur.

cedere item retro possent in deteriores

omnia sic partis, ut diximus in melioris;

510namque aliis aliud retro quoque taetrius esset

naribus auribus atque oculis orisque sapori.

quae quoniam non sunt, sed rebus reddita certa

finis utrimque tenet summam, fateare necessest

materiem quoque finitis differre figuris.

515Denique ab ignibus ad gelidas iter usque

pruinas

finitumst retroque pari ratione remensumst;

omnis enim calor ac frigus mediique tepores

interutrasque iacent explentes ordine summam.

ergo finita distant ratione creata,

Footnotes

501tacta(cf. 6.1188) F. Oudendorp (on Lucan 10.491):tectaOQP: tinctaed. Juntina (cf. 736, 747, 776)

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of size. And so it is impossible for you to believe that the seeds have an infinite number of differing shapes, or you must compel some to be of immeasurable magnitude, which I have already shown to be impossible to prove.

500Then, I tell you, barbaric vestments, and blazing

Meliboeanapurple, dyed in the colour from Thessalian shells, and the golden generations of peaco*cks steeped in laughing grace, all would sink, out done by some new colour in the world; the odour of myrrh and the savour of honey would be despised; the swan’s melody and Apollo’s music set to the wonder-working art of strings would in like manner be vanquished and silent; for one thing more splendid than another would continually arise. All things might also change back for the worse, as we have said they might do for the better: for in the backwards way also one thing would be more loathsome than another to nose, ears, and eyes, and the taste of the mouth. Since this is not so, but a certain limit is set for things, which shuts in the sum from both sides,bit must be confessed that matter also has a limited number of different shapes.

515Again, limited is the path that extends from

fiery heat to the icy frosts, and it is measured backwards in the same way, for all the heat and cold and middle warmth lies between these extremes, filling up the sumcin succession. Therefore things produced differ by limited degrees, since they

Footnotes

aMeliboea, a town on the coast of Thessaly, where dye was obtained from the shell-fish called κόχλoς in Greek,murexin Latin.

bThe two extremes of goodness and badness.

cThat is, all the possible degrees of heat and cold.

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520ancipiti quoniam mucroni utrimque notantur,

hinc flammis illinc rigidis infesta pruinis.

Quod quoniam docui, pergam conectere rem quae

ex hoc apta fidem ducat, primordia rerum,

inter se simili quae sunt perfecta figura,

525infinita cluere. etenim distantia cum sit

formarum finita, necesse est quae similes sint

esse infinitas aut summam materiai

finitam constare, id quod non esse probavi,

versibus ostendens corpuscula materiai

530ex infinito summam rerum usque tenere,

undique protelo plagarum continuato.

Nam quod rara vides magis esse animalia quaedam

fecundamque minus naturam cernis in illis,

at regione locoque alio terrisque remotis

535multa licet genere esse in eo numerumque repleri;

sicut quadripedum cum primis esse videmus

in genere anguimanus elephantos, India quorum

milibus e multis vallo munitur eburno,

ut penitus nequeat penetrari: tanta ferarum

540vis est, quarum nos perpauca exempla videmus.

Sed tamen id quoque uti concedam, quamlubet esto

unica res quaedam nativo corpore sola,

Footnotes

521infestaLambinus (notes only): infessaOQ:insessaMarullus, Lambinus (text), perhaps rightly

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are marked at both extremes by two points, one at either end, beset on the one side by flame, on the other by stiff frost.

522Now that I have explained this, I will proceed

to link with it another truth which depending on this draws its proof from ita: that the first-beginnings of things which are made of similar shape are infinite in number.bIndeed, since the difference of shapes is finite, it is necessary that the shapes which are alike be infinite, or else that the sum of matter be

finite, which I have provedcnot to be so, while showing in my verses that the small bodies of matter hold-together the sum of things from infinity with an uninterrupted successiondof blows from all sides.

532For although you see certain animals to be

rarer and nature to be less fertile in them, yet in another place and climate and in distant lands there may be many of that kind, and so the number be filled upe: as in the race of quadrupeds we see especially snake-handed elephants, which in their many thousands provide an ivory palisadefabout India, so that none may penetrate within: so great is the quantity of those beasts, of which we see very few specimens.

541But to grant this also—let there be, if you will,

some one thing unique and sole of its kind with a

Footnotes

a522-523 = 478-479.

bCf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.42.

c1.1008-1051.

dprotelumis literally a row of draught-oxen or mules harnessed together. The metaphor is used again in 4.190.

eFor the Epicurean doctrine of ἰσoνoμὶa or “equili brium,” which is introduced also in 569-580,cf.Cicero,Nat. D.1.19.50.

fBailey thinks that the allusion is to a legend, but this view is disputed by A. Ernout inRev. Phil.44 (1970) 203-205. See also?. K. Borthwick,CQN.S. 23 (1973) 291-292, who quotes a passage from Dio Chrysostom (Or.79.4) which refers to the Indian practice of building the skulls of elephants, tusks and all, into the walls of houses.

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cui similis toto terrarum non sit in orbi;

infinita tamen nisi erit vis materiai

545unde ea progigni possit concepta, creari

non poterit neque, quod superest, procrescere alique.

quippe etenim sumam hoc quoque uti finita per omne

corpora iactari unius genitalia rei,

unde, ubi, qua vi et quo pacto congressa coibunt

550materiae tanto in pelago turbaque aliena?

non, ut opinor, habent rationem conciliandi;

sed quasi naufragiis magnis multisque coortis

disiectare solet magnum mare transtra cavernas

antemnas proram malos tonsasque natantis,

555per terrarum omnis oras fluitantia aplustra

ut videantur et indicium mortalibus edant,

infidi maris insidias virisque dolumque

ut vitare velint, neve ullo tempore credant,

subdola cum ridet placidi pellacia ponti,

560sic tibi si finita semel primordia quaedam

constitues, aevom debebunt sparsa per omnem

disiectare aestus diversi materiai,

numquam in concilium ut possint compulsa coire

nec remorari in concilio nec crescere adaucta;

565quorum utrumque palam fieri manifesta docet res,

et res progigni et genitas procrescere posse.

esse igitur genere in quovis primordia rerum

infinita palam est unde omnia suppeditantur.

Nec superare queunt motus itaque exitiales

Footnotes

543non sit in orbiQ corr., P: sit orbi O: orbiQ:nulla sit orbiLachmann

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body that had birth, and let there be nothing like it in

the whole world; yet, unless the sum of matter be infinite from which it may be conceived and brought forth, it cannot be made, nor, moreover, can it grow and be nourished. Indeed, if I should go so far as to assume that the bodies generative of this one thing were finite in number, tossed about through the universe, whence, where, by what force, in what manner

will they meet and combine amidst such an ocean of matter, such an alien crowd? They have no way, I think, to combine; but as when many great shipwrecks have come about, the high sea is accustomed to toss asunder transoms, ribs, yards, prow, masts,

and oars all swimming, so that the poop-fittings are seen floating around all the shores, and provide a warning for mortals, that they eschew the treacherous deep, with her snares, her violence, and her fraud, and never trust her at any time when the calm sea shows her false alluring smilea: so if you once lay down that certain first-beginnings are finite in number, they must be scattered through all time and tossed asunder on the sundering tides of matter, so that never can they be driven together and come into combination together, nor remain in combination, nor grow by increase; both which things are openly shown by manifest facts to be done, namely that things can be brought forth and when produced can grow forth. It is therefore obvious that in each kind there is an infinity of the first-beginnings of things from which a supply of all things is brought up.

569And therefore, neither can death-dealing motions

Footnotes

aThe treachery of the sea is frequently mentioned in classical literature:cf. e.g.5.1004-1005, Plautus,Rudens485–486, Virgil,G.1.254, Propertius 3.7.37.

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570perpetuo neque in aeternum sepelire salutem,

nec porro rerum genitales auctificique

motus perpetuo possunt servare creata.

sic aequo geritur certamine principiorum

ex infinito contractum tempore bellum:

575nunc hic nunc illic superant vitalia rerum

et superantur item, miscetur funere vagor

quem pueri tollunt visentes luminis oras;

nec nox ulla diem neque noctem aurora secutast

quae non audierit mixtos vagitibus aegris

580ploratus mortis comites et funeris atri.

Illud in his obsignatum quoque rebus habere

convenit et memori mandatum mente tenere,

nil esse, in promptu quorum natura videtur,

quod genere ex uno consistat principiorum,

585nec quicquam quod non permixto semine constet.

et quodcumque magis vis multas possidet in se

atque potestates, ita plurima principiorum

in sese genera ac varias docet esse figuras.

Principio tellus habet in se corpora prima

590unde mare inmensum volventes frigora fontes

adsidue renovent, habet ignes unde oriantur;

nam multis succensa locis ardent sola terrae,

ex imis vero furit ignibus impetus Aetnae.

tum porro nitidas fruges arbustaque laeta

595gentibus humanis habet unde extollere possit,

unde etiam fluvios frondes et pabula laeta

montivago generi possit praebere ferarum.

Footnotes

593ex imisOQP: eximiisAvancius

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lord it for ever and for ever bury existence,

nor further can motions that generate and give increase to things for ever preserve them when made. Thus the war of first-beginnings waged from infinity is carried on with doubtful issue: now here, now there the vital elements gain the mastery, and in like manner are mastered. With the funeral dirge is mingled the wail that children raise when they first see the borders of light; and no night ever followed day, or dawn followed night, that has not heard mingled with their sickly wailings the lamentations that attend upon death and the black funeral.a

581This also herewith you would do well to guard

sealed and treasured in memory, that there is none of those things which are in plain view before us which consists only of one kind of element, nothing which does not consist of various seeds commingled; and the more a thing has in itself many powersband faculties, so it shows that there are within it most kinds of elements and varied shapes.

589First, the earth contains the first bodies from

which the springs, rolling coolness along, industriously renew the illimitable sea, and she contains the source of fires. For in many places the crust of the earth burns aflame, while from the depths come the fiery eruptions of Etna. Then further, she contains the means to raise up bright corn and fruitful trees for the races of mankind, the means to produce rivers and leaves and fruitful pastures for the mountain-ranging brood of wild beasts. Therefore she alone

Footnotes

aCf.Tennyson,The Vision of Sin97-98: “Every moment dies a man, | Every moment one is born.”

bForvisas accusative or nominative plural,cf.3.265, 5.1033.

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quare Magna deum Mater Materque ferarum

et nostri genetrix haec dicta est corporis una.

600Hanc veteres Graium docti cecinere poetae

sedibus in curru biiugos agitare leones,

aeris in spatio magnam pendere docentes

tellurem neque posse in terra sistere terram.

adiunxere feras, quia quamvis effera proles

605officiis debet molliri victa parentum.

muralique caput summum cinxere corona,

eximiis munita locis quia sustinet urbes;

quo nunc insigni per magnas praedita terras

horrifice fertur divinae Matris imago.

610hanc variae gentes antiquo more sacrorum

Idaeam vocitant Matrem Phrygiasque catervas

dant comites, quia primum ex illis finibus edunt

per terrarum orbem fruges coepisse creari.

Gallos attribuunt, quia, numen qui violarint

615Matris et ingrati genitoribus inventi sint,

significare volunt indignos esse putandos,

vivam progeniem qui in oras luminis edant.

tympana tenta tonant palmis et cymbala circum

Footnotes

600-601Between these lines Q leaves a space of two lines, and many editors assume a lacuna. But the space in Q was almost certainly left for a title (see Bailey 901-902)

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is called Great Mother of the gods,aand Mother of

the wild beasts, and maker of our bodies.

600She it is of whom the ancient and learned poets of the Greeks have sung, that seated in a chariot she drives a pair of lions, thus teaching that the great world is poised in the spacious air, and that earth cannot rest on earth. They have yoked in wild beasts, because any offspring however wild ought to be softened and vanquished by the kindly acts of the parents.bAnd they have surrounded the top of her head with a mural crown, because embattled in excellent

positions she sustains cities; which emblem now adorns the divine Mother’s image as she is carried over the great earth in awful state. She it is whom different nations in their ancient ritual acclaim as the Idaean Mother, and give her troops of Phrygians

to escort her, because men declare that first from that realm came the corn,cwhich then spread over the round world. They give her eunuchs, as wishing

to indicate that those who have violated the majesty of the Mother, and have been found ungrateful to their parents, should be thought unworthy to bring living offspring into the regions of light. The taut

tomtoms thunder under the open palm, the hollow

Footnotes

aThe cult of theMagna Mater,Cybele, whom Lucr. identifies with Rhea (633-639), was brought to Rome from Phrygia in 205-204 b.c She was represented with a mural crown (606) and a team of lions (601). She had eunuch priests (614) called Corybantes, who worshipped her with loud, wild music (618-620) and frenzied armed dances (629-632). The similarity between her cult and that of Rhea caused them to be confused, and the Corybantes came to be identified with the Cretan Curetes (629, 633). The fact that both Phrygia and Crete possessed a Mt. Ida (611) contributed to the confusion.

bVarro, in his description of the Great Mother (Augustine,De civ. D.7.24), says:leonem adiungunt solutum ac mansuetum, ut ostendant nullum genus esse terrae tam remotum ac vehementer ferum quod non subigi colique conveniat.

cHerodotus 2.2 relates how the Egyptian king Psammetichus discovered that the Phrygian word for “bread” was the original one. As D. West,The Imagery and Poetry of Lucretius106, has noticed, Lucr. emphasizes the origin of corn in Phrygia with the verbal playPhrygias . . . fruges. Cf.note on 1.474.

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concava, raucisonoque minantur cornua cantu,

620et Phrygio stimulat numero cava tibia mentis,

telaque praeportant violenti signa furoris,

ingratos animos atque impia pectora volgi

conterrere metu quae possint numine divae.

ergo cum primum magnas invecta per urbis

625munificat tacita mortalis muta salute,

aere atque argento sternunt iter omne viarum,

largifica stipe ditantes, ninguntque rosarum

floribus umbrantes Matrem comitumque catervam.

hic armata manus, Curetas nomine Grai

630quos memorant, Phrygias inter si forte catervas

ludunt in numerumque exultant sanguine laeti,

terrificas capitum quatientes numine cristas,

Dictaeos referunt Curetas qui Iovis illum

vagitum in Creta quondam occultasse feruntur,

635cum pueri circum puerum pernice chorea

637armati in numerum pulsarent aeribus aera,

ne Saturnus eum malis mandaret adeptus

aeternumque daret Matri sub pectore volnus.

640propterea Magnam armati Matrem comitantur,

aut quia significant divam praedicere ut armis

ac virtute velint patriam defendere terram

praesidioque parent decorique parentibus esse.

Quae bene et eximie quamvis disposta ferantur,

645longe sunt tamen a vera ratione repulsa.

Footnotes

628catervamQ, Wakefield, Martin, is probably right (cf. Ciris 142), despite 611, 630:catervasF: catervaOABL

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cymbals sound around, horns with hoarse-echoing blare affright, hollow pipes prick up the spirits with their Phrygian cadences, martial arms show a front

of violent fury, that they may amaze the ungrateful minds and impious hearts of the vulgar with fear through the goddess’s majesty. Therefore as soon as she rides through mighty cities, silently blessing mankind with unspoken benediction, they bestrew the whole path of her progress with silver and copper, enriching it with bounteous largess, and snow down rose-flowers in a shower, over-shadowing the Mother and her escorting troop. Here an armed group, whom the Greeks name the Curetes, whenever they

sport among the Phrygian bands and leap up rhythmically, joyful with blood, shaking their awful crests with the nodding of their heads, recall the Dictaean Curetes, who are said once upon a time to have concealed that infant wailing of Jupiter in Cretea; when, boys round a boy in rapid dance, clad in armour, they clashed bronze upon bronze to a measure, that Saturn might not catch him and cast him into his jaws and plant an everlasting wound in the Mother’s heart. For this reason they escort the Great Mother armed; or else because they

indicate the command of the goddess that with arms and valour they be ready to defend their native land, and to be both protection and pride to their parents.b

644But well and excellently as all this is set forth and told, yet it is far removed from true reasoning.

Footnotes

aRhea concealed Jupiter, her son, in a cave on Mt. Dicte in Crete, to save him from his father Saturn, who knew that he was destined to be overthrown by one of his children.

bNote the punparent . . . parentibus.

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omnis enim per se divom natura necessest

inmortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur

semota ab nostris rebus seiunctaque longe;

nam privata dolore omni, privata periclis,

650ipsa suis pollens opibus, nil indiga nostri,

nec bene promeritis capitur neque tangitur ira.

terra quidem vero caret omni tempore sensu,

et quia multarum potitur primordia rerum,

multa modis multis effert in lumina solis.

655hic siquis mare Neptunum Cereremque vocare

constituet fruges et Bacchi nomine abuti

mavolt quam laticis proprium proferre vocamen,

concedamus ut hic terrarum dictitet orbem

esse deum Matrem, dum vera re tamen ipse

680660religione animum turpi contingere parcat.

660Saepe itaque ex uno tondentes gramina campo

lanigerae pecudes et equorum dvellica proles

buceriaeque greges eodem sub tegmine caeli

ex unoque sitim sedantes flumine aquai

665dissimili vivont specie retinentque parentum

665naturam et mores generatim quaeque imitantur.

tanta est in quovis genere herbae materiai

dissimilis ratio, tanta est in flumine quoque.

Hinc porro quamvis animantem ex omnibus unam

670ossa cruor venae calor umor viscera nervi

670constituunt; quae sunt porro distantia longe,

dissimili perfecta figura principiorum.

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For the very nature of divinity must necessarily enjoy

immortal life in the deepest peace, far removed and separated from our affairs; for without any pain, without danger, itself mighty by its own resources, needing us not at all, it is neither propitiated with services nor touched by wrath.aThe earth indeed

lacks sensation at all times, and only because it receives into itself the first-beginnings of many things does it bring forth many in many ways into the sun’s light. Here if anyone decides to call the sea Neptune, and corn Ceres, and to misapply the name of Bacchus rather than to use the title that is proper to that liquor, let us grant him to dub the round world Mother of the Gods, provided that he forbears in reality himself to infect his mind with base superstition.b

661Often therefore cropping grass from one field,

are woolly sheep and the warrior breed of horses and horned herds of cattle, beneath the same canopy of heaven, and quenching thirst from one river of water, which live each in a different shape and each race keeps its parents’ nature and imitates their ways after its kind: so great a diversity of matter is there in each kind of herbage, so great in each river.

669Hence also any animal of them all is made up

of bones, blood, veins, warmth, fluid, flesh, sinews; which are also things very different, made of first-beginnings that have dissimilar shapes.

Footnotes

a646-651 = 1.44-49.

bNote the emphatic wording of this important qualification. Lucr. himself calls the seaNeptunus(472) and wineBacchus(3.221). According to Cicero,Nat. D.1.15.40, the Stoic Chrysippusdisputat aethera esse eum quem hominesIovem appellarent, quique aer per maria manaret eum esse Neptunum, terramque earn esse quae Ceres diceretur, simili-que ratione persequitur vocabula reliquorum deorum,and Lucr. may well have the Stoics in mind (see Munro and especially Ernout-Robin).

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Tum porro quaecumque igni flammata cremantur,

si nil praeterea, tamen haec in corpore condunt

675unde ignem iacere et lumen summittere possint

675scintillasque agere ac late differre favillam.

Cetera consimili mentis ratione peragrans,

invenies igitur multarum semina rerum

679corpore celare et varias cohibere figuras.

679Denique multa vides quibus et color et sapor una

reddita sunt cum odore; in primis pleraque dona

. . . . . . .

haec igitur variis debent constare figuris;

nidor enim penetrat qua fucus non it in artus,

fucus item sorsum, sorsum sapor insinuatur

685sensibus; ut noscas primis differre figuris.

dissimiles igitur formae glomeramen in unum

conveniunt, et res permixto semine constant.

Quin etiam passim nostris in versibus ipsis

multa elementa vides multis communia verbis,

690cum tamen inter se versus ac verba necesse est

confiteare alia ex aliis constare elementis;

non quo multa parum communis littera currat

aut nulla inter se duo sint ex omnibus isdem,

sed quia non volgo paria omnibus omnia constant.

695sic aliis in rebus item, communia multa

multarum rerum cum sint primordia, verum

Footnotes

674conduntMunro: tradunturOQ: traduntQ corr., P:cluduntBernays: alunturIsaac Voss

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673Then further whatever things are kindled and

burnt up with fire, if nothing else, yet hide in their tain substance those bodies, which enable them to throw out fire and shoot up light and scintillate sparks and scatter embers all around.

677Then go through all the rest in a like mode of reasoning, and you will find them to conceal within them seeds of many things and to contain various shapes.

680Again, you see many things which are possessed

of colour and taste together with smell: amongst the chief, those many offerings [which enkindled are accustomed to make the altars of the gods smoke]a; these therefore must be made of various shapes; for the rank smell penetrates into the body, where colour cannot; colour again in one way, flavour in another way, creeps into our senses; so that you may recognize that they differ in the shapes of their first elements. Unlike shapes therefore come together into one lump, and things consist of mixed seed.

688Moreover, throughout my own verses you see

many elements common to many words, although you must confess that both verses and wordsbare different and consist of different elements; I do not say that there are very few common letters running through all, or that no two words, if compared, are made up of elements all the same, but that commonly they are not all like all.cSo in other things also, although many first-beginnings are common to

Footnotes

aThe words in square brackets are a translation of Munro’sexempli gratiarestoration (see critical note).

b688-690 = 1.823-825. See note there.

cCf.336-337, 723-724.

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dissimili tamen inter se consistere summa

possunt; ut merito ex aliis constare feratur

humanum genus et fruges arbustaque laeta.

Nec tamen omnimodis conecti posse putandum est

701omnia; nam volgo fieri portenta videres,

semiferas hominum species existere, et altos

interdum ramos egigni corpore vivo,

multaque conecti terrestria membra marinis,

705tum flammam taetro spirantis ore Chimaeras

pascere naturam per terras omniparentis.

quorum nil fieri manifestum est, omnia quando

seminibus certis certa genetrice creata

conservare genus crescentia posse videmus.

710scilicet id certa fieri ratione necessust.

nam sua cuique cibis ex omnibus intus in artus

corpora discedunt conexaque convenientis

efficiunt motus; at contra aliena videmus

reicere in terras naturam, multaque caecis

715corporibus fugiunt e corpore percita plagis,

quae neque conecti quoquam potuere neque intus

vitalis motus consentire atque imitari.

Sed ne forte putes animalia sola teneri

legibus hisce, eadem ratio disterminat omnia,

720nam veluti tota natura dissimiles sunt

inter se genitae res quaeque, ita quamque necessest

Footnotes

719hisceBernays: hisOQ VPeademLambinus (but found by him in four manuscripts): quaedamOP: quedamV:quidamQdisterminatOQ VP (cf. Cicero, Arat. 94):res terminatLambinusomnia(with synizesis) ed. Juntina: omnisOQ VP

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many things, yet taken one with another they can make up a whole quite unlike; so that different elements may rightly be held to compose the human race and corn and luxuriant trees.

700However, it must not be thought that all can be

conjoined in all ways: for then you would commonly see monstrosities come into being, shapes of men arising that would be half beasts,alofty branches at times sprouting from a living body, parts of terrestrial creatures often conjoined with creatures of the sea,bChimaerascagain, breathing flame from noisome

throats, pastured by nature over the lands that produce everything. But that none of these things happen is manifest, since we see that all things bred from fixed seeds by a fixed mother are able to conserve their kind as they grow.dAssuredly this must come about in a fixed way. For in each thing, its own proper bodies are spread abroad through the frame within from all its foods, and being combined produce the appropriate motions; but contrariwise we see alien elements to be thrown back by nature upon the earth, and many, beaten by blows, escape from the body with their invisible bodies,ewhich were not able to combine with any part nor within the body to feel the life-giving motions with it and imitate them.

718But do not think that animals only are held by

these laws, for the same principle holds all things apart by their limits. For just as all things made are in their whole nature different one from another,

Footnotes

aCentaurs.Cf.5.878-891. For the explanation of mental pictures of such creatures, see 4.722-748.

bScylla.Cf.5.892-893.

cCf.5.901-906.

dCf.1.189-190.

eLucr. refers to expiration, perspiration, etc.

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dissimili constare figura principiorum;

non quo multa parum simili sint praedita forma,

sed quia non volgo paria omnibus omnia constant.

725semina cum porro distent, differre necessust

intervalla vias conexus pondera plagas

concursus motus, quae non animalia solum

corpora seiungunt, sed terras ac mare totum

secernunt caelumque a terris omne retentant.

730Nunc age dicta meo dulci quaesita labore

percipe, ne forte haec albis ex alba rearis

principiis esse, ante oculos quae candida cernis,

aut ea quae nigrant nigro de semine nata;

nive alium quemvis quae sunt imbuta colorem,

735propterea gerere hunc credas, quod materiai

corpora consimili sint eius tincta colore,

nullus enim color est omnino materiai

corporibus, neque par rebus neque denique dispar.

in quae corpora si nullus tibi forte videtur

740posse animi iniectus fieri, procul avius erras.

nam cum caecigeni, solis qui lumina numquam

dispexere, tamen cognoscant corpora tactu

ex ineunte aevo nullo coniuncta colore,

scire licet nostrae quoque menti corpora posse

Footnotes

734imbutaO VP:inbutaQ: indutaLambinuscoloremFL:coloreOQ V

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so each must consist of first-beginnings differently shaped; I do not say that very few are endowed with the same shape, but that commonly they are not all like all.aSince, further, the seeds are different, different must be their intervals, passages, connexions, weights, blows, meetings, motions, which not only separate animal bodies asunder, but keep asunder the earth and the whole sea, and hold back all heaven away from the earth.

730Now then, mark my words, which with sweet

toil I have gathered,blest by chance you suppose these white things which you see bright before your eyes to be made of white first-beginnings, or those no colour, that are black to be born of seed that is black, or that the reason why they show any other colour which they may be imbued with is that the elements of mattercare dyed with like colour. For there is no colour at all in the elements of matter, neither like the colour of things nor again unlike. But if by chance you think that the mind cannot project itselfdinto the nature of these bodies, you are wandering far astray. For since men born blind, who have never beheld the sun’s light, nevertheless recognize bodies by touch which they have not associated with any colour since the day of their birth, you may be sure that bodies not painted about with any hue are

Footnotes

aCf.692-694, 336-337.

bCf.3.419-420 and see note there.

cEpicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.54, states that the atoms have the properties of shape, size, and weight, but no other qualities; and a and a scholium onEp. ad Hdt.44 informs us that Epicurus believed that colour changes according to the position of the atoms.

danimi iniectus(740) is a translation of Epicurus’ ἐπβoλὴ τῆς διανοίας, the act by which the mind concentrates its attention on an image or idea and apprehends it.Cf.Diogenes Laertius 10.31, Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.38, 51,Sent.24, Lucr. 2.1047, Cicero,Nat. D.1.20.54.

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745vorti in notitiam nullo circumlita fuco.

denique nos ipsi caecis quaecumque tenebris

tangimus, haud ullo sentimus tincta colore.

Quod quoniam vinco fieri, nunc esse docebo

. . . . . . .

omnis enim color omnino mutatur et omnis

. . . . . . .

750quod facere haud ullo debent primordia pacto;

immutabile enim quiddam superare necessest,

ne res ad nilum redigantur funditus omnes.

nam quodcumque suis mutatum finibus exit,

continuo hoc mors est illius quod fuit ante.

755proinde colore cave contingas semina rerum,

ne tibi res redeant ad nilum funditus omnes.

Praeterea si nulla coloris principiis est

reddita natura et variis sunt praedita formis,

e quibus omne genus gignunt variantque colores

760propterea, magni quod refert semina quaeque

cum quibus et quali positura contineantur

et quos inter se dent motus accipiantque,

perfacile extemplo rationem reddere possis

cur ea quae nigro fuerint paulo ante colore,

765marmoreo fieri possint candore repente:

Footnotes

748A lacuna after this line noted by Munro. Bailey suggests e.g.corpora prima omni semper privata colore.Bentley, Lachmann, Merrill (1917), Buchner transfer 743 after 748, but see Bailey on 743

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able to become a conceptafor our mind. Again, when we ourselves touch anything in blind darkness, we do not feel it to be steeped in any colour.

748And since I prove that this is so, I will now explain [that the first bodies] are [deprived of all colour]. For all colours altogether change, and all

[things that change colour change themselves]b; which first-beginnings ought not to do on any terms, for something unchangeable must survive, that all things may not be brought back utterly to nothing. For whatever by being changed passes outside its own boundaries, at once this is the death of that which was before.cForbear therefore to steep in colour the seeds of things, lest you find that all things come back utterly to nothing.d

757Besides, if no quality of colour has been given

to the first-beginnings, and they are endowed with various shapes, from which they beget all sorts of various colours for this reason, because it is of great moment with what and in what position they are held together, and what motions they impart and receive mutually,ethen you could very easily explain on the spot why those things which were black a little while before can suddenly become a shining

Footnotes

aThe mind, receiving impressions through the senses, forms a general idea or πpόληψις of a class, to which it refers other examples; then by projecting itself, it forms an idea of abstract things, or things of which it has no experience, such as atoms without colour,notitia(ornotities)is used of both these concepts: 4.476, 479, 5.124, 182, 1047.

bThe words in square brackets translate the lines suppliedexempli gratiaby Bailey. See critical notes on 748, 749.

c750-754 = 1.789-793. 753-754 also = 1.670-671, 3.519-520.

d756 = 864, 1.673.

eCf.1.908-910, 2.1007-1009.

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ut mare, cum magni commorunt aequora venti,

vertitur in canos candenti marmore fluctus;

dicere enim possis, nigrum quod saepe videmus,

materies ubi permixta est illius et ordo

770principiis mutatus et addita demptaque quaedam,

continuo id fieri ut candens videatur et album,

quod si caeruleis constarent aequora ponti

seminibus, nullo possent albescere pacto;

nam quocumque modo perturbes caerula quae sint,

numquam in marmoreum possunt migrare colorem.

776sin alio atque alio sunt semina tincta colore

quae maris efficiunt unum purumque nitorem,

ut saepe ex aliis formis variisque figuris

efficitur quiddam quadratum unaque figura,

780conveniebat, ut in quadrato cernimus esse

dissimiles formas, ita cernere in aequore ponti

aut alio in quovis uno puroque nitore

dissimiles longe inter se variosque colores.

praeterea nil officiunt obstantque figurae

785dissimiles quo quadratum minus omne sit extra;

at varii rerum inpediunt prohibentque colores

quominus esse uno possit res tota nitore.

Tum porro quae ducit et inlicit ut tribuamus

principiis rerum nonnumquam causa colores,

790occidit, ex albis quoniam non alba creantur,

nec quae nigra cluent de nigris sed variis ex.

quippe etenim multo proclivius exorientur

candida de nullo quam nigro nata colore

aut alio quovis qui contra pugnet et obstet.

795Praeterea quoniam nequeunt sine luce colores

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white; as the sea, when great winds have stirred up the surface, turns into hoary waves with a white sheen; for you could say that often what we see as black, when its matter is mixed up and the order of its first-beginnings changed, some being added and taken away, immediately thereafter seems to be bright and white. But if the surface of the deep

were made of blue seeds, it could not in any way become white; for however you may jumble up things that are blue, they can never change into a shining white colour. Or if different seeds that make up the sea’s uniform and pure brightness are steeped in different colours, just as often from different shapes and various figures something square is composed with a uniform figure, then it were fitting that, as in the square we perceive unlike forms to be contained,aso on the surface of the deep or in any other pure and uniform brightness we should perceive various colours very different from one another. Besides, there is nothing in the unlike figures to hinder and debar the whole thing from being square on the outside; but the various colours of things do thwart and forbid the whole thing to be of one brightness.

788Then further, the reason that leads and attracts us sometimes to attribute colours to the first-beginnings of things falls to the ground, since white things are not made from white, nor what are black from black, but from diverse colours. The fact is that white things will arise much more easily from no colour than from black or from any other colour that fights against it and thwarts it.

795Besides, since colours cannot be without light

Footnotes

aH. J. Rose inCRN.S. 6 (1956) 6-7 suggests that Lucr. “was acquainted with some tangram or ‘Chinese puzzle’ in which the triangles when properly fitted together could make a square, in other words with thestomachionon which Archimedes wrote a treatise.”

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esse neque in lucem existunt primordia rerum,

scire licet quam sint nullo velata colore.

qualis enim caecis poterit color esse tenebris?

lumine quin ipso mutatur propterea quod

800recta aut obliqua percussus luce refulget;

pluma columbarum quo pacto in sole videtur,

quae sita cervices circum collumque coronat;

namque alias fit uti claro sit rubra pyropo,

interdum quodam sensu fit uti videatur

805inter caeruleum viridis miscere zmaragdos.

caudaque pavonis, largo cum luce repleta est,

consimili mutat ratione obversa colores;

qui quoniam quodam gignuntur luminis ictu,

scire licet, sine eo fieri non posse putandum est.

810Et quoniam plagae quoddam genus excipit in se

pupula, cum sentire colorem dicitur album,

atque aliud porro, nigrum cum et cetera sentit,

nec refert ea quae tangas quo forte colore

praedita sint, verum quali magis apta figura,

815scire licet nil principiis opus esse colores,

sed variis formis variantes edere tactus.

Praeterea quoniam non certis certa figuris

est natura coloris, et omnia principiorum

formamenta queunt in quovis esse nitore,

820cur ea quae constant ex illis non pariter sunt

omne genus perfusa coloribus in genere omni?

conveniebat enim corvos quoque saepe volantis

ex albis album pinnis iactare colorem,

Footnotes

805caeruleumOQP(caeruleamF):curalium (= “ coral”) Wakefield, perhaps rightly (cf. Q. Serenus Sammonicus, Liber Medicinalis 942-943 [ed. E. Baehrens, PLM III])

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and the first-beginnings of things do not come out

into the light, you may be sure that they are covered with no colour. For what colour can there be in blind darkness? Why, a colour is changed by the light itself, according as the brightness responds to a direct or oblique impact of light; in this way the dove’s plumage shows itself in the sun, lying about the nape and encircling the neck; for at times it is red as the blazing carbuncle, again view it in a certain way and it comes to appear a fusion of emerald green with blue. And the peaco*ck’s tail, when it is suffused with plenteous light, in like manner changes the colours as it turns; and since these colours are caused by a certain impact of light, assuredly you must not think that they can be produced without it.

810And since the pupil of the eye receives one

kind of blow when it is said to perceive a white colour, and quite another when it perceives black and all the rest, and since when you touch anything it matters nothing what chance colour the thing is of, but rather what shape it has, you may be sure that the first-beginnings have no need of colours, but that they give forth various kinds of touch with their various shapes.

817Besides, since no fixed colour is allotted to each

fixed shape, and all configurations of first-beginnings may be found in any given hue, why are the things that consist of those shapes not likewise dyed in colours of all kinds in every kind of thing? For it were fitting that crows also as they fly should often throw off a white colour from white feathers, and

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et nigros fieri nigro de semine cycnos

825aut alio quovis uno varioque colore.

Quin etiam quanto in partes res quaeque minutas

distrahitur magis, hoc magis est ut cernere possis

evanescere paulatim stinguique colorem;

ut fit ubi in parvas partis discerpitur austrum:

830purpura poeniceusque color clarissimu’ multo,

filatim cum distractum est, disperditur omnis;

noscere ut hinc possis prius omnem efflare colorem

particulas quam discedant ad semina rerum.

Postremo quoniam non omnia corpora vocem

835mittere concedis neque odorem, propterea fit

ut non omnibus adtribuas sonitus et odores.

sic oculis quoniam non omnia cernere quimus,

scire licet quaedam tam constare orba colore

quam sine odore ullo quaedam sonituque remota,

nec minus haec animum cognoscere posse sagacem

841quam quae sunt aliis rebus privata notare.

Sed ne forte putes solo spoliata colore

corpora prima manere, etiam secreta teporis

sunt ac frigoris omnino calidique vaporis,

845et sonitu sterila et suco ieiuna feruntur,

nec iaciunt ullum proprium de corpore odorem.

sicut amaracini blandum stactaeque liquorem

et nardi florem, nectar qui naribus halat,

cum facere instituas, cum primis quaerere par est,

850quod licet ac possis reperire, inolentis olivi

naturam, nullam quae mittat naribus auram,

Footnotes

829ostrum (= austrumP. E. Goebel)Wakefield who, though calling his emendation“certissima”and“verissima,”strangely does not print it in his text: aurumOQ VP

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swans be made black from black seed, or indeed of any other colour single or variegated.

826Moreover, the more minute the particles into

which anything is pulled apart, the more readily it is perceived that the colour gradually fades away and is extinguished; as happens when purple wool is torn up into small parts: the purple and the scarlet colour, brightest of all, is wholly destroyed when the wool has been pulled apart thread wise; so that you may learn from this that the particles breathe away all their colour before they are dispersed apart into the seeds of things.

834Lastly, since you grant that some bodies do

not emit sound or smell, for that reason it follows that you do not attribute sound and smell to all bodies. So, since we cannot perceive all things with our eyes, you may be sure that certain things exist as much deprived of colour as without any smell and empty of sound, and that the intelligent mind can recognize these no less than it can mark things that are devoid of other qualities.

842But that you may not think by some chance

that the first bodies remain without colour only, they are also destitute altogether of warmth and cold and strong heat, they move along barren of sound and dry of juice, nor do they throw off any smell of their own from their bodies. Just as when you set about to prepare the balmy tincture of marjoram and of myrrh, and the flower of spikenard which breathes nectar to the nostrils, amongst the first things you have to seek is olive oil as scentless as may be and as you can find it, emitting no breath to the nostrils, so that it may as little as possible

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quam minime ut possit mixtos in corpore odores

concoctosque suo contractans perdere viro,

propter eandem rem debent primordia rerum

855non adhibere suum gignundis rebus odorem

nec sonitum, quoniam nil ab se mittere possunt,

nec simili ratione saporem denique quemquam

nec frigus neque item calidum tepidumque vaporem,

cetera; quae cum ita sunt tamen ut mortalia constent,

860molli lenta, fragosa putri, cava corpore raro,

omnia sint a principiis seiuncta necessest,

inmortalia si volumus subiungere rebus

fundamenta quibus nitatur summa salutis,

ne tibi res redeant ad nilum funditus omnes.

Nunc ea quae sentire videmus cumque necessest

866ex insensilibus tamen omnia confiteare

principiis constare. neque id manufesta refutant

nec contra pugnant, in promptu cognita quae sunt,

sed magis ipsa manu duc*nt et credere cogunt

870ex insensilibus, quod dico, animalia gigni.

quippe videre licet vivos existere vermes

stercore de taetro, putorem cum sibi nacta est

intempestivis ex imbribus umida tellus;

praeterea cunctas itidem res vertere sese:

875vertunt se fluvii, frondes et pabula laeta

in pecudes, vertunt pecudes in corpora nostra

Footnotes

854remLachmann: omitted by OQ VP

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with any pungency of its own touch and destroy the scents that will be mixed and boiled up with its substance: for the same reason the first-beginnings of things must not contribute any odour of their own

to the making of things, nor any sound, since they can emit nothing from themselves,aand similarly no taste at all, nor cold, nor heat again and moderate warmth, and the rest: all these,bsince their nature is such that after all they are perishable—the pliant of soft body, the fragile of crumbling body, the spongy of rarefied body—all these must be kept apart from the first-beginnings, if we wish to lay an imperishable foundation for things upon which the sum of existence may rest: or else you will find all things passing back utterly to nothing.c

865Now you must of necessity confess that all

we perceive to have feeling consists nevertheless of first-beginnings that have no feeling. Nor do mani-fest facts refute this, things plainly known to us, nor do they contradict, but rather they lead us themselves by the hand and compel us to believe that living creatures are born from beginnings that have no feeling, as I say. Why, you may see worms arise

all alive from stinking dung,dwhen the drenched earth becomes rotten from excessive rains, and be sides, you may see all things changing in the way. Rivers, leaves, luxuriant pastures change into animals, animals change their substance into our

Footnotes

aFor this would imply diminution and therefore destructibility.

bThat is, smell, sound, etc. But Lucr. seems to have identified the qualities with the emanations to which they belong.

c864 = 756, 1.673.

dThe theory of the spontaneous generation of certain plants and creatures, including worms, from putrefied matter, dung, etc. was held by several ancient philosophers, including Aristotle (see Ernout-Robin on 871).Cf.898-901, 928-929, 3.719-736, 5.797-798. The theory was finally disproved as late as the 19th century, by Louis Pasteur.

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naturam, et nostro de corpore saepe ferarum

augesc*nt vires et corpora pennipotentum.

ergo omnes natura cibos in corpora viva

880vertit et hinc sensus animantum procreat omnes

non alia longe ratione atque arida ligna

explicat in flammas et in ignis omnia versat.

iamne vides igitur magni primordia rerum

referre in quali sint ordine quaeque locata

885et commixta quibus dent motus accipiantque?

Tum porro quid id est, animum quod percutit

ipsum,

quod movet et varios sensus expromere cogit.

ex insensilibus ne credas sensile gigni?

nimirum lapides et ligna et terra quod una

890mixta tamen nequeunt vitalem reddere sensum.

illud in his igitur rebus meminisse decebit,

non ex omnibus omnino, quaecumque creant res

sensilia, extemplo me gigni dicere sensus,

sed magni referre ea primum quantula constent,

895sensile quae faciunt, et qua sint praedita forma,

motibus ordinibus posituris denique quae sint.

quarum nil rerum in lignis glaebisque videmus;

et tamen haec, cum sunt quasi putrefacta per imbres,

vermiculos pariunt, quia corpora materiai

900antiquis ex ordinibus permota nova re

conciliantur ita ut debent animalia gigni.

Deinde ex sensilibus qui sensile posse creari

constituunt porro ex aliis sentire suëtis,

. . . . . . .

Footnotes

903suetisLambinus: suetiOQ VP. A lacuna after 903 noted by W. Christ

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bodies, often from our bodies the strength of wild

beasts and the bodies of strong-winged birds increase. Therefore nature changes all foods into living bodies, and from them brings forth all the feelings of animals, very much in the same way as she expands dry sticks into flames and turns them all into fire. Now do you see then that it is of great moment in what order all the first-beginnings of things are placed, and with what commingled they cause and receive motions?a

886Then further, what is that which strikes on your

very mind, which moves it and compels it to express diverse feelings, forbidding you to believe that the sensible is born from the insensible? Surely that stones and sticks and earth though mingled together yet cannot produce the vital sense. But in this matter you will do well to remember that I do not say that without exception sensations are produced forthwith from all the substances that make sensible things, but that it is of great moment, first how small those elements are that make a sensible thing, and what shape they are endowed with, what lastly are their motions, arrangements, positions. And in the sticks and clods these conditions escape our vision; yet these, when they have become rotten as it werebby rain, bring forth little worms, because the bodies of matter, being moved from their ancient arrangements by a new condition, are combined together in the way by which living things must be produced.

902Again, those who maintain that the sensible

can be created out of sensible elements, which would furthermore be accustomed to derive their own sensation

Footnotes

aCf.1.907-910. There Lucr. was arguing against Anaxagoras, and there can be little doubt that much of the argument of the present section (865-930, 973-990) is directed primarily at the same opponent.

bquasiapologizes for the wordputrefacta

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mollia cum faciunt; nam sensus iungitur omnis

905visceribus nervis venis, quaecumque videmus

mollia mortali consistere corpore creta.

Sed tamen esto iam posse haec aeterna manere:

nempe tamen debent aut sensum partis habere

aut similis totis animalibus esse putari.

910at nequeant per se partes sentire necesse est;

namque alio sensus membrorum respicit omnis,

nec manus a nobis potis est secreta neque ulla

corporis omnino sensum pars sola tenere.

linquitur ut totis animantibus adsimulentur.

923915sic itidem quae sentimus sentire necessest,

915vitali ut possint consentire undique sensu.

916qui poterunt igitur rerum primordia dici

917et leti vitare vias, animalia cum sint,

918atque animalia sint mortalibus una eademque?

919920quod tamen ut possint, at coetu concilioque

920nil facient praeter volgum turbamque animantum,

921scilicet ut nequeant homines armenta feraeque

922inter sese ullam rem gignere conveniundo.

quod si forte suum dimittunt corpore sensum

atque alium capiunt, quid opus fuit adtribui id quod

926detrahitur? tum praeterea, quo fugimus ante,

quatenus in pullos animalis vertier ova

cernimus alituum vermisque effervere terra,

Footnotes

909similis(sc.partes)OABL:similesQVF: simili(sc.sensu)Lachmann, but cf. 914

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from other [sensible elements, make the seeds mortal] in making them soft. For all sensation is therefore bound up with flesh, sinews, veins, all of which we mortal. see to be soft, and therefore to be concretions consisting of mortal substance.

907However, let it even be granted that these

can abide for ever: assuredly they must yet either have the sensation of a part, or be thought to be like whole animals. But it cannot be that parts have independent sensation; for every sensation in the frame has relation to something else: neither hand nor any part of the body at all, separated from us, can keep sensation alone. It remains that they be like whole animals. So they must have sensation in the same way that we have sensation, in order that they may be able to feel with us the life-giving sensations everywhere. How then will it be possible

for them to be called first-beginnings of things, and to avoid the paths of death, when they are living things, and living things are one and the same as things mortal? And even supposing they could be so, yet by conjunction and combination they will produce nothing but a throng and crowd of living things, exactly as men, cattle, and wild beasts could not produce a new thing amongst themselves by coming together. But if by any chance they relinquish their own sensation from their body and receive another, of what use was it to attribute that which is taken away? Then besides, to return to an earlier example, inasmuch as we perceive birds’ eggs to turn into living chicks, and worms to seethe from

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intempestivos quam putor cepit ob imbris,

930scire licet gigni posse ex non sensibu’ sensus.

Quod si forte aliquis dicet dumtaxat oriri

posse a non sensu sensum mutabilitate,

aut aliquo tamquam partu quo proditur extra,

huic satis illud erit planum facere atque probare

935non fieri partum nisi concilio ante coacto,

nec quicquam commutari sine conciliatu.

Principio nequeunt ullius corporis esse

sensus ante ipsam genitam naturam animantis,

nimirum quia materies disiecta tenetur

940aere fluminibus terris terraque creatis,

nec congressa modo vitalis convenientes

contulit inter se motus, quibus omnituentes

accensi sensus animantem quamque tuentur.

Praeterea quamvis animantem grandior ictus

945quam patitur natura repente adfligit, et omnis

corporis atque animi pergit confundere sensus.

dissoluuntur enim positurae principiorum

et penitus motus vitales inpediuntur,

donec materies, omnis concussa per artus,

950vitalis animae nodos a corpore solvit

dispersamque foras per caulas eiecit omnis.

nam quid praeterea facere ictum posse reamur

oblatum, nisi discutere ac dissolvere quaeque?

fit quoque uti soleant minus oblato acriter ictu

955relicui motus vitales vincere saepe,

Footnotes

929quamOQ V:quom (cum)Marullus

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the earth which putrefaction has affected after excessive rains, we may be sure that sensation can be produced from not-sensation.

931But if by any chance someone shall sayathat

sensation can at all events arise from not-sensation by a process of change or by some process like a birth by which it is brought forth, here is something that will be enough to make clear to him and to prove that birth does not take place unless there has been combination before, and that nothing changes except by combination.

937In the first place, there can be no sensation in

any body before the living being has been actually formed, because of course the matter is held dispersed abroad in air, rivers, earth, and what grows from the earth, and not having come together yet, it has not formed that combination of appropriate vital motions by which all-perceiving sensations being kindled protect each living thing.

944Besides, in any living being a blow greater than

nature can endure suddenly strikes it prostrate, and proceeds to confuse all sensations of body and mind. For the arrangements of the first-beginnings are broken up and the vital motions are utterly hindered, until the shock, diffused through all the substance of the frame, loosens from the body the vital knots of the soul, and ejects the soul scattered abroad through all the pores. For what else do we think the inflicted blow able to do, unless to strike all apart and to break it apart? It happens also that when

the inflicted blow is less violent, the remaining vital

Footnotes

aIt is usually thought that Lucr. is refuting a Stoic theory, but this view is challenged by D. J. Furley inBICS13 (1966) 24-25. Lucr.’s reply to his opponent is that change or birth implies the existence of a union of particles, and that without a union of particles sensation is impossible.

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vincere, et ingentis plagae sedare tumultus

inque suos quicquid rursus revocare meatus

et quasi iam leti dominantem in corpore motum

discutere ac paene amissos accendere sensus.

960nam qua re potius leti iam limine ab ipso

ad vitam possint conlecta mente reverti

quam quo decursum prope iam siet ire et abire?

Praeterea quoniam dolor est, ubi materiai

corpora vi quadam per viscera viva per artus

965sollicitata suis trepidant in sedibus intus,

inque locum quando remigrant, fit blanda voluptas,

scire licet nullo primordia posse dolore

temptari nullamque voluptatem capere ex se,

quandoquidem non sunt ex ullis principiorum

970corporibus, quorum motus novitate laborent

aut aliquem fructum capiant dulcedinis almae.

haud igitur debent esse ullo praedita sensu.

Denique uti possint sentire animalia quaeque,

principiis si iam est sensus tribuendus eorum,

quid, genus humanum propritim de quibus auctumst?

976scilicet et risu tremulo concussa cachinnant

et lacrimis spargunt rorantibus ora genasque,

multaque de rerum mixtura dicere callent,

et sibi proporro quae sint primordia quaerunt;

980quandoquidem totis mortalibus adsimulata

ipsa quoque ex aliis debent constare elementis,

inde alia ex aliis, nusquam consistere ut ausis:

quippe sequar, quodcumque loqui ridereque dices

et sapere, ex aliis eadem haec facientibus ut sit.

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motions often prevail, they prevail and quiet the

vast tumult of the blow, and call everything back again into its accustomed channels, and shake off the movement of death which already, as one may say, was lording it in the body, and once more kindle the sensations which were almost lost. For in what other way can living things come back from the very threshold of death into life, their minds collected again, rather than pass on to that goal whither their course was almost run, and pass away?

963Besides, since there is pain when the bodies of

matter, attacked by some force through the living flesh and limbs, tremble in their secret habitations within, and when they move back to their place comes soothing delight, you may be sure that the first-beginnings cannot be assailed by any pain, and from themselves can take no delight, since they are not composed of any bodies of elements, so as to be troubled by any strangeness in their motions or to take any enjoyment of life-giving delight; therefore they are bound not to be endowed with any sensation.

973Again, if sensation must really be attributed to

their atoms, so that all living things may be able to feel, what of those from which the human race is grown in its proper way? Doubtless they shake trembling with laughter, they guffaw, they bedew face and cheeks with tears,athey can discourse wisely at large on the composition of things, they go so far as to examine what their own first-beginnings are; since they resemble the whole mortal, they also must consist of other elements, then those of others, so that you dare not make a stand anywhere: for indeed I will follow you up; whatever you shall affirm to speak and laugh and be wise, shall be composed

Footnotes

a976-977 are very similar to 1.919-920, the concluding lines of a lengthy argument against Anaxagoras. The repetition confirms that Lucr. is refuting Anaxagoras here too (see note on 885).

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985quod si delira haec furiosaque cernimus esse,

et ridere potest non ex ridentibus auctus,

et sapere et doctis rationem reddere dictis

non ex seminibus sapientibus atque disertis,

qui minus esse queant ea quae sentire videmus

990seminibus permixta carentibus undique sensu?

Denique caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi;

omnibus ille idem pater est, unde alma liquentis

umoris guttas mater cum terra recepit,

feta parit nitidas fruges arbustaque laeta

995et genus humanum, parit omnia saecla ferarum,

pabula cum praebet quibus omnes corpora pasc*nt

et dulcem duc*nt vitam prolemque propagant;

quapropter merito maternum nomen adepta est.

cedit item retro, de terra quod fuit ante,

1000in terras, et quod missumst ex aetheris oris,

id rursum caeli rellatum templa receptant.

nec sic interemit mors res ut materiai

corpora conficiat, sed coetum dissupat ollis;

inde aliis aliud coniungit, et efficit omnes

1005res ita convertant formas mutentque colores

et capiant sensus et puncto tempore reddant;

ut noscas referre eadem primordia rerum

cum quibus et quali positura contineantur

et quos inter se dent motus accipiantque,

1010neve putes aeterna penes residere potesse

Footnotes

1000terras etOQV:terram sedLactantius, Div. Inst. 7.12.5, perhaps, as Wakefield thinks,”memoriae fidens nimium,” for he hasfulgentia for rellatumin 1001, but nevertheless followed by Diels(terram, set)

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of other things doing the same. But if we perceive all this to be delirium and lunacy, and if one can laugh although not grown from laughing things, and can be wise and reason with learned sentences although not made of seeds that are wise and eloquent, why should not all we see capable of sensation be composed of seeds which altogether lack sensation?

991Lastly, we are all sprung from celestial seeda;

all have that same father, from whom our fostering mother earth receives liquid drops of water, and then teeming brings forth bright corn and luxuriant trees and the race of mankind, brings forth all the generations of wild beasts, providing food with which all nourish their bodies and lead a sweet life and beget their offspring; therefore she has with reason obtained the name of mother.bThat also which once came from earth, to earth returns back again, and what fell from the borders of ether, that is again brought back, and the regions of heaven again receive it. Nor does death so destroy things as to

annihilate the bodies of matter, but it disperses their combination abroad; then it conjoins others with others, and brings it about that thus all things alter their shapes and change their colours and receive sensation and in a moment of time yield it up again; so that you may recognize how important it is with what and in what arrangement the same first-beginnings are held together, and what motions they give and receive mutually,cand that you may not believe it possible that the first bodies for ever hold

Footnotes

a991-1022 conclude the argument that the atoms lack secondary qualities and sensation. The first part of the passage is almost certainly in imitation of lines from theChrysippusof Euripides (fr. 839 Nauck) which were influenced by the doctrines of Empedocles and Anaxagoras. For the idea of the Sky-Father and Earth-Mother,cf.1.250-261.

bCf.5.795, 821-822.

cCf.760-762, 1.817-819, 908-910.

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corpora prima quod in summis fluitare videmus

rebus et interdum nasci subitoque perire.

quin etiam refert nostris in versibus ipsis

cum quibus et quali sint ordine quaeque locata;

namque eadem caelum mare terras flumina solem

1016significant, eadem fruges arbusta animantis;

si non omnia sunt, at multo maxima pars est

consimilis; verum positura discrepitant res.

1019sic ipsisinrebus item iam materiai

1021concursus motus ordo positura figurae

cum permutantur, mutari res quoque debent.

Nunc animum nobis adhibe veram ad rationem.

nam tibi vementer nova res molitur ad auris

1025accidere et nova se species ostendere rerum.

sed neque tam facilis res ulla est quin ea primum

difficilis magis ad credendum constet, itemque

nil adeo magnum neque tam mirabile quicquam,

quod non paulatim minuant mirarier omnes.

1030principio caeli clarum purumque colorem,

quaeque in se cohibet, palantia sidera passim,

lunamque et solis praeclara luce nitorem—

omnia quae nunc si primum mortalibus essent,

ex improviso si sint obiecta repente,

1035quid magis his rebus poterat mirabile dici

aut minus ante quod auderent fore credere gentes?

nil, ut opinor: ita haec species miranda fuisset.

quam tibi iam nemo, fessus satiate videndi,

suspicere in caeli dignatur lucida templa!

Footnotes

1020intervalla vias conexus pondera plagas (=726, 5.441) deleted by Lachmann

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possession of that which we see floating upon the surface of things and sometimes being born and perishing on a sudden.aMoreover, it is important in my own verses with what and in what order the various elements are placed. For the same letters denote sky, sea, earth, rivers, sun, the same denote crops, trees, animals.bIf they are not all alike, yet by far the most part are so; but position marks the difference in what results.cSo also when we tum to real things: when the combinations of matter, when its motions, order, position, shapes are changed, the thing also must be changed.

1023Now, I beg, apply your mind to true reasoning.

For a mightily new thing is labouring to fall upon your ears, a new aspect of creation to show itself. But nothing is there so easy that at first it is not more difficult to believe, nothing again so great or so wonderful that all men do not by degrees abate their wonder at it. In the first place, consider the clear and pure colour of the sky, and all that it contains—the travelling constellations, the moon, and the bright light of the dazzling sun; if all these were now revealed for the first time to mortals, if they were thrown before them suddenly without preparation, what more wonderful than these things could be named, or such as the nations would have less dared to believe beforehand? Nothing, as I think: so wondrous this spectacle would have been. Yet think how all are so wearied with satiety of seeing it that no one now thinks it worth while to look up

Footnotes

aLucr. refers to the secondary qualities, especially to colour: with 1011cf.4.80coguntque suo fluitare colore,4.74de summis ipsum quoque saepe colorem.

bCf.1.820-821.

cFor the comparison between letters and atoms,cf. e.g.1.823-827 and see note on 1.825.

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1040desine quapropter novitate exterritus ipsa

expuere ex animo rationem, sed magis acri

iudicio perpende, et, si tibi vera videntur,

dede manus, aut, si falsum est, accingere contra.

quaerit enim rationem animus, cum summa loci sit

1045infinita foris haec extra moenia mundi,

quid sit ibi porro quo prospicere usque velit mens

atque animi iactus liber quo pervolet ipse.

Principio nobis in cunctas undique partis

et latere ex utroque supra subterque per omne

1050nulla est finis; uti docui, res ipsaque per se

vociferatur, et elucet natura profundi.

nullo iam pacto veri simile esse putandumst,

undique cum vorsum spatium vacet infinitum

seminaque innumero numero summaque profunda

1055multimodis volitent aeterno percita motu,

hunc unum terrarum orbem caelumque creatum,

nil agere illa foris tot corpora materiai;

cum praesertim hic sit natura factus, et ipsa

sponte sua forte offensando semina rerum

1060multimodis temere incassum frustraque coacta

tandem coluerunt ea quae coniecta repente

magnarum rerum fierent exordia semper,

terrai maris et caeli generisque animantum.

quare etiam atque etiam talis fateare necesse est

Footnotes

1049supra supterqueLachmann:superqueOQ VP: super supterqueE. Orth, Helmantica 11 (1960) 131

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towards the bright vault of heaven! Forbear then to be dismayed by mere novelty and to spew out reason from your mind, but rather ponder it with keen judgement; and if it seems to be true, own yourself vanquished, or, if it is false, gird up your loins to fight. For, since the sum of space is infinite abroad beyond the walls of the world, the mind seeks to understand what is there in the distance whither the intelligence continually desires to look forth, and whither the mind’s projectionaflies free of itself.

1048In the place, all around us in every direction

and on both sides and above and below through the universe there is no limit: as I have shown,band truth of itself cries aloud, and the nature of the unfathomable deep gives forth light. Now since there is illimitable space empty in every direction, and

since seeds innumerable in number in the unfathomable universe are flying about in many ways driven in everlasting movement, it cannot by any means be thought likely that this is the only round earth and sky that has been made,cthat all those bodies of matter without do nothing: especially since this

world was made by nature, and the seeds of things themselves of their own accord, knocking together by chance, clashed in all sorts of ways, heedless, without aim, without intention, until at length those combined which, suddenly thrown together, could become in each case the beginnings of mighty things, of earth and sea and sky and the generation of living creatures. Therefore again and again I say, you

Footnotes

aCf.740 and see note there.

b1.958-1001.

cFor the Epicurean theory that the number of worlds is infinite,cf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.45, 73-74,Ep. ad Pyth.88-90, Cicero,Nat. D.1.20.53, Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 63 Smith. See also Usener 301-307.

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1065esse alios alibi congressus materiai,

qualis hic est, avido complexu quem tenet aether.

Praeterea cum materies est multa parata,

cum locus est praesto, nec res nec causa moratur

ulla, geri debent nimirum et confieri res.

1070nunc et seminibus si tanta est copia quantam

enumerare aetas animantum non queat omnis,

visque eadem et natura manet, quae semina rerum

conicere in loca quaeque queat simili ratione

atque huc sunt coniecta, necesse est confiteare

1075esse alios aliis terrarum in partibus orbis

et varias hominum gentis et saecla ferarum.

Huc accedit ut in summa res nulla sit una,

unica quae gignatur et unica solaque crescat,

1079quin aliquoiu’ siet saecli permultaque eodem

sint genere. in primis animalibus inice mentem:

invenies sic montivagum genus esse ferarum,

sic hominum geminam prolem, sic denique mutas

squamigerum pecudes et corpora cuncta volantum.

quapropter caelum simili ratione fatendumst

terramque et solem lunam mare, cetera quae sunt,

1086non esse unica, sed numero magis innumerali,

quandoquidem vitae depactus terminus alte

tam manet haec, et tam nativo corpore constant,

quam genus omne quod hic generatimst rebus

abundans.

1090Quae bene cognita si teneas, natura videtur

Footnotes

1072visque eadem etMarullus: vis eademOQ VP:quis eademLachmann

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must confess that there are other assemblages of matter in other places, such as this is which the ether holds in greedy embrace.

1067Besides, when abundant matter is ready, when

space is to hand, and no thing and no cause hinders, things must assuredly be done and completed. And if there is at this moment both so great store of seeds as all the time of living existence could not suffice to tell, and if the same power and the same nature abides, able to throw the seeds of things together in any place in the same way as they have been thrown together into this place, then you are bound to confess

that there are other worlds in other regions and different races of men and generations of wild beasts.a

1077Moreover, there is no one thing in the whole

sum which is produced unique, and grows up unique and alone, so as not to belong to some kind and to be one of many like it. To begin with, cast your mind to the animals: you will find that this is so with the mountain-ranging generation of wild beasts, this is so with the double breedbof men, so also with the dumb scaly fish and all creatures that fly. Therefore you must in like manner confess for sky and earth, for sun, moon, sea and all else that exists, that they are not unique, but rather of number innumerable; since there is a deepset limit of life equally awaiting them, and they are as much made of a perishable body as any kind here on earth which has so many specimens of its kind.

1090If you hold fast to these convictions, nature is

Footnotes

aCf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.74.

bMale and female. Virgil,Aen.1.274 hasgeminam . . . prolem,and, though he is referring to Ilia’s twin sons Romulus and Remus, he may have recalled the present passage.

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libera continuo, dominis privata superbis,

ipsa sua per se sponte omnia dis agere expers.

nam pro sancta deum tranquilla pectora pace,

quae placidum degunt aevom vitamque serenam,

quis regere immensi summam, quis habere profundi

1096indu manu validas potis est moderanter habenas,

quis pariter caelos omnis convertere et omnis

ignibus aetheriis terras suffire feracis,

omnibus inve locis esse omni tempore praesto,

1100nubibus ut tenebras faciat caelique serena

concutiat sonitu, tum fulmina mittat et aedis

saepe suas disturbet et in deserta recedens

saeviat exercens telum quod saepe nocentes

praeterit exanimatque indignos inque merentes?

Multaque post mundi tempus genitale diemque

1106primigenum maris et terrae solisque coortum

addita corpora sunt extrinsecus, addita circum

semina quae magnum iaculando contulit omne,

unde mare et terrae possent augescere, et unde

1110appareret spatium caeli domus altaque tecta

tolleret a terris procul et consurgeret aer.

nam sua cuique locis ex omnibus omnia plagis

corpora distribuuntur et ad sua saecla recedunt,

umor ad umorem, terreno corpore terra

crescit, et ignem ignes procudunt aetheraque aether,

1116donique ad extremum crescendi perfica finem

omnia perduxit rerum natura creatrix;

ut fit ubi nilo iam plus est quod datur intra

vitalis venas quam quod fluit atque recedit.

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seen to be free at once and rid of proud masters,

herself doing all by herself of her own accord, with out the help of the gods. For I appeal to the holy hearts of the gods, which in tranquil peace pass untroubled days and a life serene: who is strong enough to rule the sum of the immeasurable, who to hold in hand and control the mighty bridle of the unfathomable?

who to turn about all the heavens at one time and warm the fruitful worlds with ethereal fires, or to be present in all places and at all times, so as to make darkness with his clouds and to shake the serene sky with thunder, then to launch lightnings

and often to shatter his own temples,aand as he passes away into the wilds to cast that bolt in his wrath which often passes the guilty by and slays the innocent and undeserving?b

1105Andcsince the time when the world came

into being, since the first birthday of sea and earth and since the arising of the sun, many bodies have been added from without, many seeds have been added around, which the great all has brought together in its tossing; that from these sea and land might increase, and the habitation of the sky might amplify its expanse and uplift its dwellings high over the earth, and the air might rise up. For all bodies are distributed abroad by blows from all places each to its own thing and pass back to their own kinds: liquid goes to liquid, earth grows by earthy elements, fires forge out fires and air air, until up to the extreme limit of growth, nature, the maker of all things, has brought them through with finishing touch; as happens when no more is now given into the arteries of life than what flows out and passes away. At this

Footnotes

aCf.6.417-420.

bCf.6.390-395.

cLucr. resumes the argument interrupted at 1089.

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omnibus hic aetas debet consistere rebus,

hic natura suis refrenat viribus auctum.

nam quaecumque vides hilaro grandescere adauctu

paulatimque gradus aetatis scandere adultae,

plura sibi adsumunt quam de se corpora mittunt,

1125dum facile in venas cibus omnis inditur, et dum

non ita sunt late dispessa ut multa remittant

et plus dispendi faciant quam vescitur aetas.

nam certe fluere atque recedere corpora rebus

multa manus dandum est; sed plura accedere debent,

1130donec alescendi summum tetigere cacumen.

inde minutatim vires et robor adultum

frangit et in partem peiorem liquitur aetas.

quippe etenim quanto est res amplior, augmine

adempto,

et quo latior est, in cunctas undique partis

1135plura modo dispargit et ab se corpora mittit,

nec facile in venas cibus omnis diditur ei

nec satis est, proquam largos exaestuat aestus,

unde queat tantum suboriri ac subpeditare.

iure igitur pereunt, cum rarefacta fluendo

1140sunt et cum externis succumbunt omnia plagis,

quandoquidem grandi cibus aevo denique defit,

nec tuditantia rem cessant extrinsecus ullam

corpora conficere et plagis infesta domare.

Sic igitur magni quoque circum moenia mundi

1145expugnata dabunt labem putrisque ruinas.

omnia debet enim cibus integrare novando

et fulcire cibus, cibus omnia sustentare—

nequiquam, quoniam nec venae perpetiuntur

Footnotes

1120hicattributed by recent editors to W. Christ, but stated by Creech to be a manuscript reading. Certainly, so far as printed texts are concerned, it goes back at least asfar as Jansonn’s edition of 1620: hisOQ V

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point the life of all things must come to a stand, at this point nature by her power curbs back growth. For whatever you see growing with merry increase,

and gradually climbing the steps of mature life, assimilates to itself more bodies than it discharges, so long as food is easily absorbed into all the veins, and so long as the things are not so widely spread open as to let go many elements and to spend away more than their age feeds on. For certainly we must own

ourselves convinced that many elements flow out and pass away from things; but still more must be passed in, until they have touched the pinnacle of growth. After that by minute degrees age breaks the strength and mature vigour, and melts into decay. And indeed when growth ceases, the larger a thing is and the wider it is, the more particles it now scatters abroad on all sides and lets go from itself, nor is food easily sent abroad into all its veins, nor is this enough, in proportion to the abundant streams that it streams out, to enable as much to spring up and to be brought up in its place. With good reason therefore the things pass away, when by the flowing off they have become thinned, and all fall by blows from without, inasmuch as by great age food fails at last, nor is there anything which bodies buffeting from without cease to break up and to subdue with fatal blows.

1144So therefore the walls of the mighty world in like manner shall be stormed all around, and shall collapse into crumbling ruin. For it is food that must repair all by renewing, food must support, food sustain everything, but in vain, since the veins cannot

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quod satis est neque quantum opus est natura

ministrat.

1150iamque adeo fracta est aetas, effetaque tellus

vix animalia parva creat, quae cuncta creavit

saecla deditque ferarum ingentia corpora partu.

haud, ut opinor, enim mortalia saecla superne

aurea de caelo demisit funis in arva,

1155nec mare nec fluctus plangentes saxa crearunt,

sed genuit tellus eadem quae nunc alit ex se.

praeterea nitidas fruges vinetaque laeta

sponte sua primum mortalibus ipsa creavit,

ipsa dedit dulcis fetus et pabula laeta;

1160quae nunc vix nostro grandesc*nt aucta labore,

conterimusque boves et viris agricolarum,

conficimus ferrum vix arvis suppeditati:

usque adeo parc*nt fetus augentque laborem.

iamque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator

1165crebrius, incassum magnum cecidisse laborem,

et cum tempora temporibus praesentia confert

praeteritis, laudat fortunas saepe parentis.

tristis item vetulae vitis sator atque vietae

Footnotes

1163laboremCF, Pius (notes): laboreQQ VABL

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contain enough and nature does not supply as much as is necessary.aEven now indeed the power of life

is broken, and the earth exhausted scarce produces tiny creatures, she who once produced all kinds and gave birth to the huge bodies of wild beasts.bFor it is not true, as I think, that the races of mortal creatures were let down from high heaven by some golden chaincupon the fields, nor were they sprung from sea or waves beating upon the rocks,dbut the same earth generated them which feeds them now from herself. Besides, she of her own accord first made for mortals the bright corn and the luxuriant vineyards, of herself she gave forth sweet fruits and luxuriant pasturage, which now scarce grow great when increased by our toil; and we exhaust our oxen and the strength of our farmers, we wear out the ploughshare, and then are scarce fed by our fields: so do they grudge their fruits and increase our toil. Now the ancient ploughman shaking his head sighs many a time that his great labour has all come to nothing, and comparing times present with times past often praises the fortunes of his father. Sadly also the cultivator of the degenerate and shrivelled vine rails at the progress of time and continually

Footnotes

a1146-1149 certainly come in rather strangely here, but, as Merrill remarks, “the necessity for transposition does not seem to have been proved.” See also Ernout-Robin and Bailey. It is probable that Lucr. would have made an alteration in revision.

bIn 5.783-825 Lucr. explains that the earth in her youth herself produced not only plants, but also all kinds of birds and animals, but that later (see 5.826-836), like a woman, she became effete, so that now she can only produceanimalia parva(2.1151) such as worms(cf.2.871–872, 898–901, 928–929, 3.719–736, 5.797–798).

cIn Homer,II.8.19 Zeus says that, if the gods were to suspend a golden rope from heaven, they could not pull him down. This σειpὴ χpυσείη was allegorized by philosophers, including Plato(Tht.153 c) and (see Munro) the Stoics. In 5.793 Lucr. again denies that animals came from the sky.

dHere and in 5.794 Lucr. probably alludes to the theory of Anaximander.

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temporis incusat momen saeclumque fatigat,

1170et crepat antiquum genus ut pietate repletum

perfacile angustis tolerarit finibus aevom,

cum minor esset agri multo modus ante viritim;

nec tenet omnia paulatim tabescere et ire

ad scopulum, spatio aetatis defessa vetusto.

Footnotes

1169omitted by Pmomennoted by Pius(“quidam momen scribunt pro momento”): nomenOQ VsaeclumqueO: saeculumqueQ: insaeculumqueV:caelumqueWakefield

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criticizes the age, and grumbles how the old world, full of piety, supported life with great ease on a narrow domain, though the man’s portion of land was formerly much smaller than it is now; nor does he comprehend that all things gradually decay, and go to the reef of destruction,aoutworn by the ancient lapse of years.

Footnotes

aad scopulum: “ad interitum. translatum a navi, quae infligitur scopulo” (Lambinus). The phrase is discussed and defended by M. Possanza,CQN.S. 40 (1990) 459-464.

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Liber Tertius

Otenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumen

qui primus potuisti inlustrans commoda vitae,

te sequor, o Graiae gentis decus, inque tuis nunc

ficta pedum pono pressis vestigia signis,

5non ita certandi cupidus quam propter amorem

quod te imitari aveo: quid enim contendat hirundo

cycnis, aut quidnam tremulis facere artubus haedi

consimile in cursu possint et fortis equi vis?

tu pater es, rerum inventor, tu patria nobis

10suppeditas praecepta, tuisque ex, inclute, chartis,

floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant,

omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta,

aurea, perpetua semper dignissima vita.

nam simul ac ratio tua coepit vociferari

15naturam rerum, divina mente coortam,

diffugiunt animi terrores, moenia mundi

discedunt, totum video per inane geri res.

apparet divum numen sedesque quietae

Footnotes

10OVA,“ad propensissimos poetae in praeceptorem suum affectus convenientissime” (Wakefield): omitted by Q: EBM:TeR. J. Shackle:AQ corr., CF

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Book 3

O you who first amid so great a darkness were able to

raise aloft a light so clear, illumining the blessings of life, you I follow, O glory of the Grecian race,aand now on the marks you have left I plant my own footsteps firm, not so much desiring to be your rival, as for love, because I yearn to copy you: for why should a swallow vie with swans, or what could a kid with its shaking limbs do in running to match himself with the strong horse’s vigour? You are our father, the discoverer of truths, you supply us with a father’s precepts, from your pages, illustrious man, as bees in the flowery glades sip all the sweets, so we likewise feed on all your golden words, your words of gold, ever most worthy of life eternal. For as soon as your reasoning begins to proclaim the

nature of things revealed by your divine mind, away flee the mind’s terrors, the walls of the world open out, I see action going on throughout the whole void: before me appear the gods in their majesty,

Footnotes

Epicurus.

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quas neque concutiunt venti nec nubila nimbis

20aspergunt neque nix acri concreta pruina

cana cadens violat semperque innubilus aether

integit, et large diffuso lumine ridet.

omnia suppeditat porro natura neque ulla

res animi pacem delibat tempore in ullo.

25at contra nusquam apparent Acherusia templa,

nec tellus obstat quin omnia dispiciantur,

sub pedibus quaecumque infra per inane geruntur.

his ibi me rebus quaedam divina voluptas

percipit atque horror, quod sic natura tua vi

30tam manifesta patens ex omni parte retecta est.

Et quoniam docui cunctarum exordia rerum

qualia sint et quam variis distantia formis

sponte sua volitent aeterno percita motu

quove modo possint res ex his quaeque creari,

35hasce secundum res animi natura videtur

atque animae claranda meis iam versibus esse

et metus ille foras praeceps Acheruntis agendus,

funditus humanam qui vitam turbat ab imo,

omnia suffundens mortis nigrore, neque ullam

40esse voluptatem liquidam puramque relinquit.

nam quod saepe homines morbos magis esse timendos

infamemque ferunt vitam quam Tartara leti

et se scire animi naturam sanguinis esse

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and their peaceful abodes, which no winds ever shake nor clouds besprinkle with rain, which no snow congealed by the bitter frost mars with its white fall, but the air ever cloudless encompasses them and laughs with its light spread wide abroad.aThere moreover nature supplies everything, and nothing at any time impairs their peace of mind. But contrariwise nowhere appear the regions of Acheron; yet the earth is no hindrance to all being clearly seen, whatsoever goes on below under our feet throughout the void. There upon from all these things a sort of divine delight gets hold upon me and a shuddering, because nature thus by your power has been so manifestly laid open and uncovered in every part.

31And since I have shown of what kind are the

beginnings of all things, and in how varying and different shapes they fly of their own accord driven in everlasting motion, and how all things can be produced from these, following next upon this the nature of mind and spiritbmust now clearly be explained in my verses, and that fear of Acheron be sent packing which troubles the life of man from its

deepest depths, suffuses all with the blackness of death, and leaves no delight clean and pure. For when men often declare that disease and a life of infamy are more to be feared than the bottomless Pit of death, and that they know the nature of the

Footnotes

a18-22 are in imitation of Homer,Od.6.42-46, and 18-24 are imitated by Tennyson inLucretius104-110: “The Gods, who haunt | The lucid interspace of world and world, | Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind, | Nor ever falls the least white star of snow, | Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans, | Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar | Their sacred everlasting calm!”Cf. The Passing of Arthur427-429.

bThe relationship between theanimusandanima,the two constituents of the complete soul, is explained in 136-160. See also Introduction p. xxxvi. The structural identity ofanimusandanimais well emphasized by the use of similar words.

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46aut etiam venti, si fert ita forte voluntas,

4445nec prorsum quicquam nostrae rationis egere,

45hinc licet advertas animum magis omnia laudis

iactari causa quam quod res ipsa probetur:

extorres idem patria longeque fugati

conspectu ex hominum, foedati crimine turpi,

50omnibus aerumnis adfecti denique vivunt,

et quocumque tamen miseri venere parentant

et nigras mactant pecudes et manibu’ divis

inferias mittunt multoque in rebus acerbis

acrius advertunt animos ad religionem.

55quo magis in dubiis hominem spectare periclis

convenit adversisque in rebus noscere qui sit;

nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo

eliciuntur et eripitur persona, manet res.

Denique avarities et honorum caeca cupido,

60quae miseros homines cogunt transcendere fines

iuris et interdum socios scelerum atque ministros

noctes atque dies niti praestante labore

ad summas emergere opes, haec vulnera vitae

non minimam partem mortis formidine aluntur.

65turpis enim ferme contemptus et acris egestas

semota ab dulci vita stabilique videtur

et quasi iam leti portas cunctarier ante;

unde homines dum se falso terrore coacti

effugisse volunt longe longeque remosse,

70sanguine civili rem conflant divitiasque

conduplicant avidi, caedem caede accumulantes,

Footnotes

58manet resCF: manareOQ VBL

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soul to be that of blood or even airaif their whim so direct, and that they have no need of our reasoning, what follows will show you that they make all these boasts in vainglory rather than because the fact itself is established. These same men, driven from their native land and banished far from the sight of men,

stained with some disgraceful charge, in short afflicted with all tribulations, yet live; and in spite of all, wherever the wretches go they sacrifice to their ancestors, and slay black cattle, and send down oblations to the departed ghosts, and in their bitter days direct their minds far more eagerly to superstition. Thus it is more useful to scrutinize a man in danger or peril, and to discern in adversity what manner of man he is: for only then are the words of truth drawn up from the very heart, the mask is torn off, the reality remains.

59Moreover, avarice and the blind lust of distinction,

which drive wretched men to transgress the bounds of law, and sometimes by sharing and scheming crime to strive night and day with exceeding toil to climb the pinnacle of power,bthese sores of life in no small degree are fed by the fear of death. For in general degrading scorn and bitter need are seen to be far removed from sweetness and stability of life, and a lingering as it were before the gates of death; from which men desiring to escape afar and to remove themselves far away, driven by false terror, amass wealth by civil bloodshed and greedily multiply riches, piling murder upon murderc; cruelly

Footnotes

aEmpedocles regarded the blood around the heart as the seat of thought; Anaximenes and Diogenes of Apollonia identified the soul with air. But, as the context shows, Lucr. is referring not to these philosophers, but to those of his contemporaries who arbitrarily adopt one of the popular materialistic conceptions of the soul.

b62-63 (nodes . . . opes) = 2.12-13.

cFor the troubled times in which Lucr. lived, see Introduction p. xxiii.

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crudeles gaudent in tristi funere fratris

et consanguineum mensas odere timentque.

Consimili ratione ab eodem saepe timore

75macerat invidia ante oculos ilium esse potentem,

ilium aspectari, claro qui incedit honore,

ipsi se in tenebris volvi caenoque queruntur.

intereunt partim statuarum et nominis ergo.

et saepe usque adeo, mortis formidine, vitae

80percipit humanos odium lucisque videndae,

ut sibi consciscant maerenti pectore letum

obliti fontem curarum hunc esse timorem:

hunc vexare pudorem, hunc vincula amicitiai

rumpere et in summa pietatem evertere suadet;

85nam iam saepe homines patriam carosque parentis

prodiderunt, vitare Acherusia templa petentes.

nam veluti pueri trepidant atque omnia caecis

in tenebris metuunt, sic nos in luce timemus

interdum nilo quae sunt metuenda magis quam

90quae pueri in tenebris pavitant finguntque futura.

hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest

non radii solis neque lucida tela diei

discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque.

Primum animum dico, mentem quam saepe vocamus,

95in quo consilium vitae regimenque locatum est,

esse hominis partem nilo minus ac manus et pes

atque oculi partes animantis totius extant.

. . . . . . .

sensum animi certa non esse in parte locatum,

Footnotes

94quamCharisius p. 272 Barwick: quemOQ VP

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they rejoice at the mournful death of a brother, they hate and they fear a kinsman’s hospitality.a

74In like manner and through the same fear, they are often consumed with envy that before their very eyes he is clothed in power, he is the sight of the town, who parades in shining pomp, while they complain that they themselves are wallowing in darkness and mire. Some wear out their lives for the sake of a statue and a name. And often it goes so far, that for fear of death men are seized by hatred of life and of seeing the light, so that with sorrowing heart they devise their own death, forgetting that this fear is the fountain of their cares: it induces one man to violate honour, another to break the bonds of friendship, and in a word to overthrow all natural feeling; for often before now men have betrayed fatherland or beloved parents in seeking to avoid the regions of Acheron. For as children tremble and fear everything in the blind darkness, so we in the light sometimes fear what is no more to be feared than the things that children in the dark hold in terror and

imagine will come true. This terror, therefore, and darkness of the mind must be dispersed, not by rays of the sun nor the bright shafts of daylight, but by the aspect and law of nature.b

94First I say that the mind, which we often call

the intelligence, in which is situated the understanding and the government of life, is a part of man, no less than hands and feet and eyes are parts of the whole living being.

98[However, some philosophers have thought] that

Footnotes

aIn case they are poisoned.

b87-93 = 2.55-61,6.35-41. 91-93 = 1.146-148.

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verum habitum quendam vitalem corporis esse,

100harmoniam Grai quam dic*nt, quod faciat nos

vivere cum sensu, nulla cum in parte siet mens;

ut bona saepe valetudo cum dicitur esse

corporis, et non est tamen haec pars ulla valentis.

sic animi sensum non certa parte reponunt;

105magno opere in quo mi diversi errare videntur.

saepe itaque in promptu corpus quod cernitur aegret,

cum tamen ex alia laetamur parte latenti;

et retro fit uti contra sit saepe vicissim,

cum miser ex animo laetatur corpore toto;

110non alio pacto quam si, pes cum dolet aegri,

in nullo caput interea sit forte dolore.

praeterea molli cum somno dedita membra

effusumque iacet sine sensu corpus onustum,

est aliud tamen in nobis quod tempore in illo

115multimodis agitatur et omnis accipit in se

laetitiae motus et curas cordis inanis.

Nunc animam quoque ut in membris cognoscere

possis

esse neque harmonia corpus sentire solere,

principio fit uti detracto corpore multo

120saepe tamen nobis in membris vita moretur;

atque eadem rursum, cum corpora pauca caloris

diffugere forasque per os est editus aer,

deserit extemplo venas atque ossa relinquit;

noscere ut hinc possis non aequas omnia partis

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the feeling of the mind is not situated in any fixed part, but that it is a sort of vital condition of the body, called harmonyaby the Greeks, which makes us live

endowed with feeling, although the intelligence is not situated in any part; as when the body is often said to have good health, and yet this health is no part of the healthy creature. Thus they do not place the feeling of the mind in any fixed part; and in this they seem to me to wander very far astray. For

indeed the body which we can see plain before us is often sick, although we are yet happy in the other part which lies hidden; and again it often happens that the contrary is true in its turn, when one wretched in mind is happy in all his body, not otherwise than if the sick man’s foot gives him pain when there is no pain meanwhile in the head. Besides,

when the frame is given over to soft sleep, and the body lies outspread heavy and without sensation, there is yet something in us which at that time is agitated in many ways, and admits into itself all the motions of joy and cares of the heart, which have no meaning.

117Next, that you may recognize that the spirit

also lies within the frame and that it is not harmony that causes the body to feel, firstly it happens that if a great part of the body be taken away, yet life often remains in our frame; and again when a few particles of heat have dispersed abroad and air is driven out through the mouth, the same life in a moment deserts the veins and leaves the bones; so that from this you may recognize that not all particles

Footnotes

aBy “harmony” is meant a proper adjustment or “attunement” of the bodily constituents. The doctrine, which was probably influenced by both Pythagoreanism and Sicilian medical theory, is expounded in Plato’sPhaedo(85 e—86 d) by Simmias and refuted there (91 c—95 a) by Socrates. In the fourth century b.c. it was developed by Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus. Aristoxenus was a musician, and Lucr.’s reference to musicians in 132 suggests that he is thinking chiefly of him (cf.Cicero,Tusc. Disp.1.10.19). See also note on 132.

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125corpora habere neque ex aequo fulcire salutem,

sed magis haec, venti quae sunt calidique vaporis

semina, curare in membris ut vita moretur.

est igitur calor ac ventus vitalis in ipso

corpore qui nobis moribundos deserit artus.

130Quapropter quoniam est animi natura reperta

atque animae quasi pars hominis, redde harmoniai

nomen, ad organicos alto delatum Heliconi,

sive aliunde ipsi porro traxere et in illam

transtulerunt, proprio quae tum res nomine egebat.

135quidquid id est, habeant; tu cetera percipe dicta.

Nunc animum atque animam dico coniuncta teneri

inter se atque unam naturam conficere ex se,

sed caput esse quasi et dominari in corpore toto

consilium quod nos animum mentemque vocamus.

140idque situm media regione in pectoris haeret.

hic exultat enim pavor ac metus, haec loca circum

laetitiae mulcent: hic ergo mens animusquest.

cetera pars animae per totum dissita corpus

paret et ad numen mentis momenque movetur.

145idque sibi solum per se sapit, id sibi gaudet,

cum neque res animam neque corpus commovet una.

et quasi, cum caput aut oculus temptante dolore

laeditur in nobis, non omni concruciamur

corpore, sic animus nonnumquam laeditur ipse

150laetitiaque viget, cum cetera pars animai

per membra atque artus nulla novitate cietur.

Footnotes

146unaOQV:ullaF (according to Büchner), attributed by many modern editors to Havercamp, but already read by ed. Juntina, Naugerius, Lambinus, Gifanius, and others

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have a like function or support life equally, but rather that those which are seeds of wind and warming heat see to it that life lingers in the frame. There is therefore within the body itself a heat and a vital wind which deserts our frame on the point of death.

130Therefore, since the nature of the mind and spirit

has been round to be in some way a part or the man, give back the name of harmony, brought down to musicians from high Helicon,aor perhaps the musicians themselves drew it from some other source and applied it to that which then lacked a name of its own. Be that how it may, let them keep it; do you now learn what else I have to say.

136Next, I say that mind and spirit are held in

conjunction together and compound one nature in common, but that the head so to speak and lord over the whole body is the understanding which we call mind and intelligence. And this has its abiding-place

in the middle region of the breast. For in this place throbs terror and fear, hereabouts is melting joy: here therefore is the intelligence and the mind. The rest of the spirit, dispersed abroad through the

whole body, obeys and is moved according to the will and working of the intelligence. This alone by itself has sense, alone for itself rejoices, when nothing affects either spirit or body at the same time. And

just as when head or eye is hurt by an attack of pain in us we are not tormented in the whole of our body, so the mind sometimes is hurt by itself, and is eager with joy, when the rest of the spirit throughout the limbs and frame is not stirred by any new sensation.

Footnotes

aIt should be noted that in Greek music ἁρμoνία meant not the combination ofsimultaneousnotes so as to form chords, but rather the tuning of an instrument in a particular key or mode, and hence a scale or tune ofsuccessivenotes. This is not what we call a “harmony.”

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verum ubi vementi magis est commota metu mens,

consentire animam totam per membra videmus

sudoresque ita palloremque existere toto

155corpore et infringi linguam vocemque aboriri,

caligare oculos, sonere auris, succidere artus,

denique concidere ex animi terrore videmus

saepe homines; facile ut quivis hinc noscere possit

esse animam cum animo coniunctam, quae cum animi vi

160percussast, exim corpus propellit et icit.

Haec eadem ratio naturam animi atque animai

corpoream docet esse; ubi enim propellere membra,

corripere ex somno corpus mutareque vultum

atque hominem totum regere ac versare videtur,

165quorum nil fieri sine tactu posse videmus

nec tactum porro sine corpore, nonne fatendumst

corporea natura animum constare animamque?

praeterea pariter fungi cum corpore et una

consentire animum nobis in corpore cernis.

170si minus offendit vitam vis horrida teli

ossibus ac nervis disclusis intus adacta,

at tamen insequitur languor terraeque petitus

suavis, et in terra mentis qui gignitur aestus,

interdumque quasi exsurgendi incerta voluntas.

175ergo corpoream naturam animi esse necessest,

corporeis quoniam telis ictuque laborat.

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But when the intelligence is moved by more vehement

fear, we see the whole spirit throughout the frame share in the feeling: sweatings and pallor hence arise over the whole body, the speech falters, the voice dies away, blackness comes before the eyes, a sounding is in the ears, the limbs give way beneatha; in a word we often see men fall to the ground for mental terror; so that everyone may easily recognize from this that the spirit is conjoined with the mind, and when this has been smitten by the mind’s power, straightway it strikes and drives forward the body.

161This same reasoning teaches that the nature

of mind and spirit is bodily; for when it is seen to drive forward the limbs, to arouse the body from sleep, to change the countenance, to guide and steerbthe whole man, and we see that none of these things can be done without touch, and further that there is no touch without body, must we not confess that mind and spirit have a bodily nature? Besides you perceive the mind to suffer along with the body, and

to share our feeling in the body. If the grim force of a weapon driven deep to the dividing of bones and sinews fails to hit the life, yet a languor follows and a blissfulcfall to the ground, and upon the ground a turmoil that comes about in the mind, and sometimes a kind of hesitating desire to rise. Therefore the nature of the mind must be bodily, since it suffers by bodily weapons and blows.

Footnotes

a154-156 were probably influenced by lines in the same ode of Sappho (fr. 31 Lobel-Page) that inspired Catullus 51.

bFor the nautical metaphorcf.4.896-904.

cThe epithetsuavis,rejected by some editors, will surprise only those who have never fainted.Cf.Seneca,Ep.77.9, describing the death of Marcellinus; Montaigne,Essais 2.6,describing his fall from a horse: “je fermoy les yeulx pour ayder, ce me sembloit, à la poulser hors, et prenoy plaisir à m’alanguir et à me laisser aller”; Wakefield describing his experience as a small boy “vi lapidis capiti impacta.”

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Is tibi nunc animus quali sit corpore et unde

constiterit pergam rationem reddere dictis.

principio esse aio persubtilem atque minutis

180perquam corporibus factum constare, id ita esse

hinc licet advertas animum ut pernoscere possis:

nil adeo fieri celeri ratione videtur

quam sibi mens fieri proponit et inchoat ipsa;

ocius ergo animus quam res se perciet ulla,

185ante oculos quorum in promptu natura videtur.

at quod mobile tanto operest, constare rutundis

perquam seminibus debet perquamque minutis,

momine uti parvo possint inpulsa moveri.

namque movetur aqua et tantillo momine flutat,

190quippe volubilibus parvisque creata figuris.

at contra mellis constantior est natura

et pigri latices magis et cunctantior actus;

haeret enim inter se magis omnis materiai

copia, nimirum quia non tam levibus extat

195corporibus neque tam subtilibus atque rutundis.

namque papaveris aura potest suspensa levisque

cogere ut ab summo tibi diffluat altus acervus,

at contra lapidum coniectum spicarumque

noenu potest. igitur parvissima corpora proquam

200et levissima sunt, ita mobilitate fruuntur;

at contra quaecumque magis cum pondere magno

asperaque inveniuntur, eo stabilita magis sunt.

nunc igitur quoniam est animi natura reperta

mobilis egregie, perquam constare necessest

205corporibus parvis et levibus atque rutundis.

Footnotes

183sibiWakefield:siOQVP, Martin

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177Now I shall go on to explain to you, of what

kind of body this mind is, and of what it is formed. First I say that it is exceedingly delicate and formed of exceedingly minute particles. That this is so, you may consider the following points to convince you. Nothing is seen to be done so swiftly as the mind

determines it to be done and does its own first acta; therefore the mind bestirs itself more quickly than any of these things which are seen plain before our eyes. But that which is so readily moved must consist of seeds exceedingly rounded and exceedingly minute, that they may be moved when touched by a small moving power. For water moves and flows

with so very small a moving power because it is made of small rolling shapes. But on the other hand the nature of honey has more cohesion, its fluid is more sluggish, and its movement more tardy; for the whole mass of its matter coheres more closely, assuredly because it is not made of bodies so smooth or so delicate and round. For a checked and light breath of air can make, as you may see, a high heap of poppy-seed slip down from the top; but contrariwise

it cannot stir a pile of stones or wheat-ears.bSo,

according as bodies are extremely small and smooth, they have power of motion; but contrariwise, whatever is found to be more weighty and rough is by so much the more stable. Now, therefore, since the nature of the mind has been found to be moved with unusual ease, it must consist of bodies exceedingly

Footnotes

aFor the way in which mental visualization activates the body, see 4.877-906.

bThe reason being that, whereas poppy seeds are smooth, round, small, and light, stones are heavy and ears of corn spiky. The immovability of the objects in 198 is emphasized by the heavy spondees (contrast 196-197).

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quae tibi cognita res in multis, o bone, rebus

utilis invenietur et opportuna cluebit.

Haec quoque res etiam naturam dedicat eius,

quam tenui constet textura quamque loco se

210contineat parvo, si possit conglomerari,

quod simul atque hominem leti secura quies est

indepta atque animi natura animaeque recessit,

nil ibi libatum de toto corpore cernas

ad speciem, nil ad pondus: mors omnia praestat

215vitalem praeter sensum calidumque vaporem.

ergo animam totam perparvis esse necessest

seminibus, nexam per venas viscera nervos,

quatenus, omnis ubi e toto iam corpore cessit,

extima membrorum circumcaesura tamen se

220incolumem praestat nec defit ponderis hilum.

quod genus est Bacchi cum flos evanuit, aut cum

spiritus unguenti suavis diffugit in auras,

aut aliquo cum iam sucus de corpore cessit:

nil oculis tamen esse minor res ipsa videtur

propterea neque detractum de pondere quicquam,

226nimirum quia multa minutaque semina sucos

efficiunt et odorem in toto corpore rerum.

quare etiam atque etiam mentis naturam animaeque

scire licet perquam pauxillis esse creatam

230seminibus, quoniam fugiens nil ponderis aufert.

Nec tamen haec simplex nobis natura putanda est.

tenvis enim quaedam moribundos deserit aura

mixta vapore, vapor porro trahit aera secum.

nec calor est quisquam, cui non sit mixtus et aer;

235rara quod eius enim constat natura, necessest

Footnotes

224nilAF:nihilOQV:niloHeinsius, but Lucr. never elidesnilo,and fornilwith comparative cf. 5.569

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small and smooth and round. If this be known to you, my good friend, it will be found of advantage in many ways, and you will call it useful.

208Another thing also makes clear of how fine a

texture it is, and in how small a space it might be contained if it could be gathered together; namely that as soon as death’s peaceful calm has taken possession of a man, when mind and spirit have departed, you could not perceive any jot or tittle to be diminished from the body whether in look or in weight: death presents all, except vital sense and warming heat. Accordingly the whole spirit must consist of very small seeds, being interlaced through veins, flesh, and sinews, since, when the whole has already departed from all the body, nevertheless the outward contour of the limbs presents itself undiminished, nor is one jot of the weight lacking; just as happens when the bouquet of wine has vanished,

or when the sweet breath of ointment has dispersed into the air, or when the flavour has passed from a substance, and yet the thing itself does not seem any smaller to the eye for all that, nor is anything lost in the weight, because assuredly many minute seeds compose the flavour and the smell in the whole substance of the things. Therefore again and again I say, we may understand the substance of mind and spirit to be made of very minute seeds, since in departing it takes nothing from the weight.

231But we must not believe this nature to be

single. For a kind of thin breath mixed with heat leaves the dying, and the heat, moreover, draws air with it. Nor is there any heat which is not mixed with air; for since its nature is rarefied, many first-beginnings

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aeris inter eum primordia multa moveri.

iam triplex animi est igitur natura reperta;

nec tamen haec sat sunt ad sensum cuncta creandum,

nil horum quoniam recipit mens posse creare

240sensiferos motus et quaecumque ipsa volutat.

quarta quoque his igitur quaedam natura necessest

adtribuatur. east omnino nominis expers;

qua neque mobilius quicquam neque tenvius exstat,

nec magis e parvis et levibus ex elementis;

245sensiferos motus quae didit prima per artus,

prima cietur enim, parvis perfecta figuris;

inde calor motus et venti caeca potestas

accipit, inde aer; inde omnia mobilitantur:

concutitur sanguis, tum viscera persentisc*nt

250omnia, postremis datur ossibus atque medullis

sive voluptas est sive est contrarius ardor.

nec temere huc dolor usque potest penetrare neque

acre

permanare malum, quin omnia perturbentur

usque adeo ut vitae desit locus atque animai

255diffugiant partes per caulas corporis omnis.

sed plerumque fit in summo quasi corpore finis

motibus; hanc ob rem vitam retinere valemus.

Nunc ea quo pacto inter sese mixta quibusque

Footnotes

240et quaecumque ipsaT. J. Saunders, Mnem. ser. iv, 28 (1975) 296-298:quaedam (orquodam) quae (orque) menteOQ VP(quaedampresumably from 241):aut quae quis mente Purmann: nedum quae mentePolle:et mens quaecumqueFrerichs

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of air must be moving through it. Already, therefore, the nature of the mind is found to be threefold; yet all these three together are not enough to produce feeling, since the mind cannot admit that any of these can produce sense-bringing motions and the thoughts which it itself revolves. A fourth nature must therefore be added to these;

this is entirely without namea; nothing exists more easily moved and more thin than this, or made of elements smaller and smoother; and this first distributes the sense-giving motions through the limbs. For this is first set in motion, being composed

of small shapes; after that, heat takes on the movement, and the unseen power of wind, then the air; after which all is set in movement, the blood is agitated, the flesh is all thrilled through with feeling, last is communicated to bone and marrow it may be the pleasure, it may be the opposite excitement. Nor is it easy for pain to soak through thus far, or any violent mischief, without throwing all into so great a riot that no place is left for life, and the particles of spirit flee abroad through all the pores of the body. But usually there is an end to the movement almost at the surface of the body; on this account we are strong enough to retain life.

258Now when I long to explain how these thingsb

Footnotes

aCf.Aëtius 4.3.11 (Usener 315): “Epicurus regards the soul as a mixture of four things—something fiery, something airy, something windy, and a fourth nameless element” ’Επίκoυpoς [sc. τήν ψνχὴν]κpᾶμa ἐκ τεττάpων, ἐκ πoιoῦ πυpώδoυς, ἐκ πoιoῦ άεpώδoυς, ἐκ πoιoῦ πνευυaτικoῦ, ἐκ τετάpτoν τινόςάκaτoνoμάστoυ) Also Plutarch,adv. Coloten1118 d-e (Usener 314). The Epicureans felt that the fourth unnamed element, an element of unsurpassed subtlety, was needed to initiate the subtle processes of sensation and thought.

bThe four elements in the soul.

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compta modis vigeant rationem reddere aventem

260abstrahit invitum patrii sermonis egestas;

sed tamen, ut potero summatim attingere, tangam.

Inter enim cursant primordia principiorum

motibus inter se, nil ut secernier unum

possit nec spatio fieri divisa potestas,

265sed quasi multae vis unius corporis extant.

quod genus in quovis animantum viscere volgo

est odor et quidam calor et sapor, et tamen ex his

omnibus est unum perfectum corporis augmen,

sic calor atque aer et venti caeca potestas

270mixta creant unam naturam et mobilis illa

vis, initum motus ab se quae dividit ollis,

sensifer unde oritur primum per viscera motus.

nam penitus prorsum latet haec natura subestque,

nec magis hac infra quicquam est in corpore nostro,

275atque anima est animae proporro totius ipsa.

quod genus in nostris membris et corpore toto

mixta latens animi vis est animaeque potestas,

corporibus quia de parvis paucisque creatast,

sic tibi nominis haec expers vis facta minutis

280corporibus latet atque animae quasi totius ipsa

proporrost anima et dominatur corpore toto.

consimili ratione necessest ventus et aer

et calor inter se vigeant commixta per artus

atque aliis aliud subsit magis emineatque,

Footnotes

267calorOQ VP: colorLambinus (in his notes, but not in his text). Forcolorcf. 2.680-681, but see Giussani and Bailey

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are intermingled and in what ways they are arranged

so as to be active, I am drawn away against my will by the poverty of our mother tonguea; but notwithstanding I will touch upon the chief points, so far as I can.

262The first-beginnings of the elements so interpenetrate one another in their motionsbthat no single element can be separated off nor can its power act divided from the rest by space, but they are, as

it were, the many forcescof a single body. Just as in the flesh of any living creature there is a scent and a certain heat and flavour, and yet from all these is made one body grown complete: so heat and air and the unseen power of wind commingled form one nature along with that quickly moving force, which from itself distributes amongst themdthe beginning of motion, whence first the sense-bringing motion arises spreading through the flesh. For this nature

lies deep down, hidden in the most secret recess, and there is nothing in our body more deeply seated than thise; and it is itself furthermore the spirit of the whole spirit. Just as commingled in our frame and in all our body the force of mind and the power of spirit lies hidden, because it is composed of small and scanty elements: so, I tell you, this force without name composed of minute particles lies hid, and is furthermore itself as it were spirit of the whole spirit and lords it in all the body. In like manner it is necessary that wind and air and heat interact commingled throughout the frame, one element yielding place to another or rising pre-eminent in

Footnotes

aCf.1.136-139, 832.

bOn the interpretation of 262-263, see G. B. Kerferd,Phronesis16, no. 1 (1971) 90-91.

cSee note on 2.586.

dThat is, among the other three elements.

eAlthough Lucr. has found it necessary to use local terms in this description (273-274), he does not mean that the fourth element is situated furthest within the body, but rather that it is more impalpable than anything else in the body.

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285ut quiddam fieri videatur ab omnibus unum,

ni calor ac ventus seorsum seorsumque potestas

aeris interemant sensum diductaque solvant.

Est etiam calor ille animo, quem sumit, in ira

cum fervescit et ex oculis micat acrius ardor;

290est et frigida multa comes formidinis aura,

quae ciet horrorem membris et concitat artus;

est etiam quoque pacati status aeris ille,

pectore tranquillo qui fit voltuque sereno.

sed calidi plus est illis quibus acria corda

295iracundaque mens facile effervescit in ira.

quo genere in primis vis est violenta leonum,

pectora qui fremitu rumpunt plerumque gementes

nec capere irarum fluctus in pectore possunt.

at ventosa magis cervorum frigida mens est

300et gelidas citius per viscera concitat auras,

quae tremulum faciunt membris existere motum.

at natura boum placido magis aere vivit,

nec nimis irai fax umquam subdita percit

fumida, suffundens caecae caliginis umbram,

305nec gelidis torpet telis perfixa pavoris:

interutrasque sitast cervos saevosque leones.

Sic hominum genus est: quamvis doctrina politos

constituat pariter quosdam, tamen illa relinquit

naturae cuiusque animi vestigia prima.

310nec radicitus evelli mala posse putandumst,

quin proclivius hic iras decurrat ad acris,

ille metu citius paulo temptetur, at ille

Footnotes

289acriusOQ VP: acribusLambinus (1565, 1570), comparing Virgil, Aen. 12.102

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such a way that a unity be seen to be made of all, or

else heat and wind apart and the power of air apart would destroy and dissipate the sensation by being separated.

288The mind has also that heat, which it takes on

when it boils in wrath and fire flashes more fiercely from the eyes; it has also abundance of that cold wind, fear’s comrade, which makes the limbs shiver and stirs the frame; it has too that quietude of calm air which comes about when the heart is tranquil and the countenance serene.aBut there is more of the hot in those creatures whose bitter hearts and angry minds easily boil up in wrath. A notable instance of this is the violent fury of the lion,

which so often bursts his breast with roaring and growling, nor can he find room in his heart for the storm of passion. But the cold mind of the stag has more of wind, and more speedily sends currents of cold

breath through his flesh, which cause a tremulous movement to pervade the limbs. But the nature of the cow lives more by the peaceful air; never overmuch

excited by the smoky torch of wrath which when applied spreads a shade of blinding darkness around, never pierced and frozen with cold shafts of fear: she stands between the two, stags and wild lions.

307So also is it in the race of men: although training

may bring some to an equal outside polish, yet it leaves there those original traces of the character of each mind. And we must not suppose that faults can be torn up by the roots, so that one man will not too readily run into bitter anger, another be attacked

Footnotes

aLucr. has been arguing that temporary emotional changes in individuals are caused by the temporary prominence nence of a particular element in the mind. In the following passage (294–322) he deals with permanent differences of character among species of animals and human beings.

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tertius accipiat quaedam clementius aequo.

inque aliis rebus multis differre necessest

315naturas hominum varias moresque sequacis;

quorum ego nunc nequeo caecas exponere causas,

nec reperire figurarum tot nomina quot sunt

principiis, unde haec oritur variantia rerum.

illud in his rebus video firmare potesse,

320usque adeo naturarum vestigia linqui

parvola quae nequeat ratio depellere nobis,

ut nil inpediat dignam dis degere vitam.

Haec igitur natura tenetur corpore ab omni,

ipsaque corporis est custos et causa salutis;

326nam communibus inter se radicibus haerent

nec sine pernicie divelli posse videntur.

quod genus e thuris glaebis evellere odorem

haud facile est, quin intereat natura quoque eius,

sic animi atque animae naturam corpore toto

extrahere haud facile est, quin omnia dissoluantur:

331inplexis ita principiis ab origine prima

inter se fiunt consorti praedita vita;

nec sibi quaeque sine alterius vi posse videtur

corporis atque animi seorsum sentire potestas,

335sed communibus inter eas conflatur utrimque

motibus accensus nobis per viscera sensus.

Praeterea corpus per se nec gignitur umquam

Footnotes

321nobisLachmann:noctisO: noctesQV:dictisMamilas:mentisE. L. B. Meurig Davies, CR 64 (1950) 94-95

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somewhat too soon by fear, a third put up with an affront more meekly than he should. And in many other respects the various natures of men must differ, and the habits that follow from them; I cannot now set forth the hidden causes of these, nor find names enough to fit the shapes assumed by the first-beginnings from which arises this variety in things. One thing I see that I can affirm in this regard is this: so

trivial are the traces of different natures that remain, beyond reason’s power to expel, that nothing hinders faults. our living a life worthy of gods.a

323This naturebthen is contained by the whole

body, and is itself the body’s guardian and source of its existence; for they cling together with common roots, and manifestly they cannot be torn asunder without destruction.cJust as it is not easy to tear out the scent from lumps of frankincense, without its very nature being destroyed: so it is not easy to draw out mind and spirit from the whole body, without

the dissolution of all. So interwoven are their elements from their first origin in the life which they live together; and we see that neither body nor mind has the power to feel singly without the other’s help, but by common motions proceeding from both conjointly sensation is kindled for us in our flesh.

337Besides, a body is never born by itself, nor

Footnotes

aCf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Men.135: “you shall live as a god among men” (ζήσεις δέ ὡς θεὸς έν ἀνθpώπoις). Also Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 125.III-IV Smith, part of a letter from Epicurus to his mother, in which the writer asserts that his condition is godlike, despite his mortality. Since the gods enjoy perfect peace of mind, anyone who achieves perfect peace of mind can be compared to a god—above all Epicurus himself (cf. 5.8, 51), who not only attained perfect happiness, but also enabled others to obtain it.

bThe soul.

cCf.Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 37.I.7-12 Smith: “yet it (i.e.the soul) girdles the whole man and, while being itself confined, binds him in its turn, just as the minutest quantity of acid juice binds a huge quantity of milk.”

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nec crescit neque post mortem durare videtur.

non enim, ut umor aquae dimittit saepe vaporem

340qui datus est, neque ea causa convellitur ipse,

sed manet incolumis, non, inquam, sic animai

discidium possunt artus perferre relicti,

sed penitus pereunt convulsi conque putresc*nt.

ex ineunte aevo sic corporis atque animai

345mutua vitalis disc*nt contagia motus,

maternis etiam membris alvoque reposta,

discidium ut nequeat fieri sine peste maloque;

ut videas, quoniam coniunctast causa salutis,

coniunctam quoque naturam consistere eorum.

350Quod superest, siquis corpus sentire refutat

atque animam credit permixtam corpore toto

suscipere hunc motum quem sensum nominitamus,

vel manifestas res contra verasque repugnat.

quid sit enim corpus sentire quis adferet umquam,

355si non ipsa palam quod res dedit ac docuit nos?

“at dimissa anima corpus caret undique sensu.”

perdit enim quod non proprium fuit eius in aevo;

multaque praeterea perdit cum expellitur aevo.

Dicere porro oculos nullam rem cernere posse,

360sed per eos animum ut foribus spectare reclusis,

difficilest, contra cum sensus ducat eorum;

sensus enim trahit atque acies detrudit ad ipsas,

fulgida praesertim cum cernere saepe nequimus,

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grows by itself, nor is it seen to last long after death.

For it is not as when the liquid of water often throws off the heat which has been given to it,aand yet is not itself torn to pieces for that reason, but remains uninjured; not thus, I say, can the frame endure disruption apart from the spirit which has left it; but it is utterly undone, torn to pieces, and rots away. From the first moment of life, the interdependent contacts of body and spirit, while yet laid away in the mother’s body and womb, so learn the vital motions, that disruption apart cannot be without their ruin and damage; so that you may see that, since conjunction is necessary to their existence, so also theirs must be a joint nature.

350Furthermore, if anyone denies that body can

feel, and believes that it is the spirit mingled through-out with the body that takes on that motion which we name feeling, he fights against things that are quite manifest and true. For who will ever explain what it is for the body to feel, unless it be what experience has openly shown and taught us? “But the spirit gone, the body lacks feeling in every part.” Yes, for it loses that which in life was not its own property; as there are many other things that it losesbwhen it is driven from life.

359Moreover, to say that the eyes can discern

nothing, but that the mind looks out through them as through open portals,cis difficult, when their own feeling leads us to the opposite conclusion; for it is their feeling that draws us and pushes us on to the very eyeballs; especially since we are often unable to perceive glaring objects because our bright eyes

Footnotes

aWhereas scent is an essential attribute of frankincense (cf.327-328), heat is an accident, not a property, of water.

be.g.heat, colour, motion.

cFor the history of the theory that the sense-organs themselves do not perceive, but are “doors” or “windows” through which the mind perceives, see Ernout-Robin on 359 ff. The theory, which may have originated with Heracl*tus, was adopted by the Stoics. It is expounded by Cicero,Tusc. Disp.1.20.46.

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lumina luminibus quia nobis praepediuntur.

quod foribus non fit; neque enim, qua cernimus ipsi,

366ostia suscipiunt ullum reclusa laborem.

praeterea si pro foribus sunt lumina nostra,

iam magis exemptis oculis debere videtur

cernere res animus sublatis postibus ipsis.

370Illud in his rebus nequaquam sumere possis,

Democriti quod sancta viri sententia ponit,

corporis atque animi primordia singula privis

adposita alternis variare, ac nectere membra.

nam cum multo sunt animae elementa minora

375quam quibus e corpus nobis et viscera constant,

tum numero quoque concedunt et rara per artus

dissita sunt; dumtaxat ut hoc promittere possis,

quantula prima queant nobis iniecta ciere

corpora sensiferos motus in corpore, tanta

380intervalla tenere exordia prima animai.

nam neque pulveris interdum sentimus adhaesum

corpore nec membris incussam sidere cretam,

nec nebulam noctu neque aranei tenvia fila

obvia sentimus, quando obretimur euntes,

385nec supera caput eiusdem cecidisse vietam

vestem, nec plumas avium papposque volantis,

qui nimia levitate cadunt plerumque gravatim,

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are hindered by the brightness, which never happens with portals; for an open door through which we look out ourselves never receives any annoyance. Besides, if our eyes act as portals, why then take the eyes away, and it is obvious that the mind should perceive things all the better with doors, posts and all, removed.

370There is another thing, laid down by the revered

judgement of the great Democritus,ato which you could never assent: that the first-beginnings of body and of soul are placed one beside one alternately in pairs, and so link the frame together. For, as the

elements of spirit are much smaller than those which compose our body and flesh, so they are fewer also in numberband are dispersed at rare intervals through the frame; so that at least you may safely say that the first-beginnings of spirit lie at such intervals apart as equal the smallest things which falling upon us are able to awaken sense-bringing motions in our body.cFor sometimes we do not feel

dust clinging to the body, or chalkdshaken on us settling on our limbs, nor do we feel the impact of a mist by night, or a spider’s gossamer threads when we are caught in their net as we go along, nor the withered vesture of the same creature falling on our head, nor birds’ feathers or flying thistle-down, which are so exceeding light that they usually find it a

Footnotes

a371 is repeated at5.622.Lucr.’s great respect for Democritus is implied also in 1039-1041. Epicurus himself, despite his great debt to the earlier atomist, was not always so polite about him:cf.Cicero,Fin.1.6.21,Nat. D.1.33.93.

bCf.Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 37.I.2-5 Smith.

cAn object that impinges on us and is not felt is smaller than the interval between two soul-particles. However, there is a problem below; for,amongthe examplesofobjects whose impingement we do not feel, Lucr. mentions cobwebs, feathers, and thistle-down—all of which obviously extend over more space than the interval between two soul-particles, and are not felt because of their lightness rather than because of their smallness. Either, as Bailey suggests, Lucr. failed to see any difference between his examples; or, as Giussani thinks, he may have believed that there are no soul-particles on the absolute surface of the body.

dChalk was used as a cosmetic and for bleaching clothes.

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nec repentis itum cuiusviscumque animantis

sentimus, nec priva pedum vestigia quaeque,

390corpore quae in nostro culices et cetera ponunt.

usque adeo prius est in nobis multa ciendum

quam primordia sentiscant concussa animai

semina corporibus nostris inmixta per artus,

et tantis intervallis tuditantia possint

395concursare coire et dissultare vicissim.

Et magis est animus vitai claustra coercens

et dominantior ad vitam quamvis animai.

nam sine mente animoque nequit residere per artus

temporis exiguam partem pars ulla animai.

400sed comes insequitur facile et discedit in auras

et gelidos artus in leti frigore linquit.

at manet in vita cui mens animusque remansit;

quamvis est circum caesis lacer undique membris

truncus, adempta anima circum membrisque remota,

405vivit et aetherias vitalis suscipit auras.

si non omnimodis, at magna parte animai

privatus, tamen in vita cunctatur et haeret;

ut, lacerato oculo circum si pupula mansit

incolumis, stat cernundi vivata potestas,

410dummodo ne totum corrumpas luminis orbem

et circum caedas aciem solamque relinquas;

id quoque enim sine pernicie non fiet eorum.

at si tantula pars oculi media illa peresa est,

occidit extemplo lumen tenebraeque sequuntur,

Footnotes

394tantisWakefield(tantis intervallisin his notes, butquam, intervallis tantisin his text): quantisOQ VP: quam in hisLachmann: quam illisM. F. Smith, buttantisis palaeographically closest toquantis,and its sense is acceptable, for, as Kenney points out, the intervals between the soul-atoms are great compared with those between the body-atoms(cf. 376-377)

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heavy task to fall, nor the progress of every creeping thing, nor each of the footsteps that gnats and suchlike place on our body: so true is it that many particles must be moved in us, before the seeds of spirit mingled with our bodies throughout our frame begin to feel that the first-beginningsahave been struck, and before they can go buffeting over such great intervals, run together, meet together, and leap apart in turn.

396And the mind is more potent in holding fast the

barriers of life, and has more dominance over life, than the spirit’s force. For without the mind and intelligence no particle of the spirit can abide in the frame for an instant, but readily follows after it, and departs into the air, and leaves the limbs cold in the chill of death. But he remains in life to whom the mind and intelligence remains. He may be a mutilated trunk dismembered all about, the spirit removed all around and separated from the limbs, yet he lives and breathes the vital air. Deprived of a great part of the spirit, if not of all, yet he lingers and clings to life; just as when the eye is lacerated all round, if the pupil remains unhurt, there abides

the lively power of seeing, provided you do not mangle the whole eyeball and cut round the pupil and leave that isolated; for that will not be done without destroying them both.bBut if that tiny spot in the middle of the eye is eaten through, in a trice the light is out and darkness follows, even though

Footnotes

aThat is, the body-atoms.

bThat is, both pupil and eyeball.

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415incolumis quamvis alioqui splendidus orbis.

hoc anima atque animus vincti sunt foedere semper.

Nunc age, nativos animantibus et mortalis

esse animos animasque levis ut noscere possis,

conquisita diu dulcique reperta labore

420digna tua pergam disponere carmina vita.

tu fac utrumque uno sub iungas nomine eorum,

atque animam verbi causa cum dicere pergam,

mortalem esse docens, animum quoque dicere credas,

quatenus est unum inter se coniunctaque res est.

425Principio quoniam tenuem constare minutis

corporibus docui multoque minoribus esse

principiis factam quam liquidus umor aquai

aut nebula aut fumus—nam longe mobilitate

praestat et a tenui causa magis icta movetur,

430quippe ubi imaginibus fumi nebulaeque movetur:

quod genus in somnis sopiti ubi cernimus alte

exhalare vaporem altaria ferreque fumum;

nam procul haec dubio nobis simulacra geruntur—

nunc igitur quoniam quassatis undique vasis

435diffluere umorem et laticem discedere cernis,

et nebula ac fumus quoniam discedit in auras,

crede animam quoque diffundi multoque perire

Footnotes

431alteLachmann:altaOQ VP. The emendation is probably right, but not certain. C. L. Howard, CPhil. 56 (1961) 150, defendsalta = “piled high.” More probably the meaning would be“lofty,”“stately”;cf. Virgil, G. 4.541,alta . . . delubra 432 vaporemO corr.: vaporeOQ VP, which Wakefield defends by reference to Virgil, Aen. 1.417433 gerunturOQ V: genunturLambinus:ferunturCreech (in his notes)

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the radiant orb is otherwise unharmed.aSuch is the alliance by which spirit and mind are for ever bound.

417Listen now: that you may be able to recognize

that the minds and light spirits of living creatures are born and are mortal, I shall proceed to set forth verses worthy of your calling, long sought out and found with delightful toil.bBe so good as to apply both these names to one thing; and when for example I speak of spirit, showing it to be mortal, believe me to speak also of mind, inasmuch as it is one thing and a combined nature.

425First of all, since I have showncit to be delicate

and composed of minute particles and elements much smaller than the flowing liquid of water or cloud or smoke—for it surpasses these far in quickness, and moves if touched by a more delicate cause, inasmuch as it is moved by images of smoke and mist, as for example when sunk in sleep we perceive altars exhale their steamdon high and send up smoke (for without doubt these are images borne to use)—now, therefore, since, when vessels are shattered, you perceive the water flowing out on all sides and the liquid dispersing, and since mist and smoke disperse abroad into the air, believe that the spirit also is

Footnotes

aThe image in 414-415 is from the sun and its setting.

bCf.2.730-731. William Cowper,The Task2.285-286: “There is a pleasure in poetic pains | Which only poets know.”

c177-230.

dThis translation ofvaporemis preferable to “heat,” for the word surely corresponds tonebulain 430, 436.

eIn 4.26 ff. Lucr. explains how vision, thought, and dreams are caused by the impingement on our eyes or mind of “images,”i.e.the fine atomic films which all objects constantly discharge from their surfaces. The examples of steam and smoke are chosen, because such fine substances would discharge exceptionally fine “images.”

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ocius et citius dissolvi in corpora prima,

cum semel ex hominis membris ablata recessit.

quippe etenim corpus, quod vas quasi constitit eius,

441cum cohibere nequit conquassatum ex aliqua re

ac rarefactum detracto sanguine venis,

aere qui credas posse hanc cohiberier ullo,

corpore qui nostro rarus magis incohibescit?

445Praeterea gigni pariter cum corpore et una

crescere sentimus pariterque senescere mentem.

nam velut infirmo pueri teneroque vagantur

corpore, sic animi sequitur sententia tenvis;

inde ubi robustis adolevit viribus aetas,

450consilium quoque maius et auctior est animi vis;

post ubi iam validis quassatum est viribus aevi

corpus et obtusis ceciderunt viribus artus,

claudicat ingenium, delirat lingua, labat mens,

omnia deficiunt atque uno tempore desunt.

455ergo dissolui quoque convenit omnem animai

naturam, ceu fumus, in altas aeris auras,

quandoquidem gigni pariter pariterque videmus

crescere et, ut docui, simul aevo fessa fatisci.

huc accedit uti videamus, corpus ut ipsum

460suscipere inmanis morbos durumque dolorem,

sic animum curas acris luctumque metumque;

quare participem leti quoque convenit esse.

Quin etiam morbis in corporis avius errat

Footnotes

444incohibescitOQ VP, rightly retained by Ernout. Inceptive forms are common in Lucr. (see Ernout-Robin on 1.252), the inceptive force sometimes hardly being felt, as in 890:incohibens sitJ. Woltjer: incohibessitattributed by the editors to Wakefield, but already recorded by Havercamp, who seems however to meanincohibescit: incohibentistP. T. Eden, CPhil. 72 (1977) 248

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spread abroad and passes away far more quickly, and is more speedily dissolved into its first bodies,

as soon as it has departed withdrawn from the limbs of a man. In fact if the body, which is in a way its vessel, cannot contain it, when once broken up by any cause and rarefied by the withdrawal of blood from the veins, how could you believe that it could be contained by any air, which is a more porous container than our body?

445Besides, we feel that the mind is begotten along

with the body, and grows up with it, and with it grows old. For as toddling children have a body infirm and tender, so a weak intelligence goes with it. Next, when their age has grown up into robust strength, the understanding too and the power of the mind is enlarged. Afterwards, when the body is now wrecked with the mighty strength of time, and the frame has succumbed with blunted strength, the intellect limps, the tongue babbles, the intelligence totters, all is wanting and fails at the same time. It follows therefore that the whole nature of the spirit

is dissolved abroad, like smoke, into the high winds of the air, since we see it begotten along with the body, and growing up along with it, and as I have shown, falling to pieces at the same time worn out with age.

459Add to this that, just as the body itself is liable

to awful diseases and harsh pain, so we see the mind liable to carking care and grief and fear; therefore it follows that the mind also partakes of death.a

463Moreover, in bodily diseases the mind often

Footnotes

aThis same argument had been employed in the second century b.c. by the Stoic philosopher Panaetius:cf.Cicero,Tusc. Disp.1.32.79.

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saepe animus; dementit enim deliraque fatur,

465interdumque gravi lethargo fertur in altum

aeternumque soporem oculis nutuque cadenti,

unde neque exaudit voces nec noscere voltus

illorum potis est, ad vitam qui revocantes

circ*mstant lacrimis rorantes ora genasque.

470quare animum quoque dissolui fateare necessest,

quandoquidem penetrant in eum contagia morbi;

nam dolor ac morbus leti fabricator uterquest,

473multorum exitio perdocti quod sumus ante.

476Denique cur, hominem cum vini vis penetravit

acris et in venas discessit diditus ardor,

consequitur gravitas membrorum, praepediuntur

crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens,

480nant oculi, clamor singultus iurgia glisc*nt,

et iam cetera de genere hoc quaecumque sequuntur,

cur ea sunt, nisi quod vemens violentia vini

conturbare animam consuevit corpore in ipso?

at quaecumque queunt conturbari inque pediri,

485significant, paulo si durior insinuarit

causa, fore ut pereant aevo privata futuro.

Quin etiam subito vi morbi saepe coactus

ante oculos aliquis nostros, ut fulminis ictu,

concidit et spumas agit, ingemit et tremit artus,

Footnotes

474(=510), 475 et pariter mentem sanari corpus inaniare rightly excluded by Naugerius, Lambinus, and all modern editors except Diels, who altersmentem . . . inani(475) tomentei . . . sinapiand explains“incohata est carminis pars, quam postquam 510 aliter continuavit poeta, hic delere oblitus est”

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wanders astray; for it is demented and talks deliriously,

and at times is carried by heavy lethargy into the deep everlasting sleepawith eyes drooping and dejected head, from which it can neither catch the voices nor recognize the looks of those who stand round calling it back to life, their faces and cheeks bedewed with tears. Therefore you must confess that the mind also is dissolved, since the contagion of disease penetrates within it; for both pain and disease are makers of death, as we have been well taught by the perishing of many before now.

476Moreover, when the piercing power of wine

has penetrated into a man, and its fire has been dispersed abroad, spreading through the veins, why does heaviness come upon the limbs, why are his legs impeded, why does he stagger, his tongue grow tardy, his mind soaked, his eyes swim, noise and hiccups and brawls burst out, and all the rest of such things follow, why is this, I say, unless it be that the vehement fury of wine is accustomed to confuse the spirit while yet in the body? But if anything can be confused and impeded, this indicates that, if some cause a little more compelling should penetrate, the thing would perish, and be robbed of its future life.

487Moreover, we have often seen someone constrained

on a sudden by the violence of disease,bwho, as if struck by a thunderbolt, falls to the ground, foams at the mouth, groans and shudders,

Footnotes

aaeternum. . .soporemrefers to the state of unconsciousness thatseemseverlasting to the patient’s relatives and friends (for this use ofaeternus cf.907, 911). But the use of the epithet here may be influenced by the thought that the patient will often pass on into the truly eternal sleep of death (to whichaeternum. . .soporemin 921 refers) without regaining consciousness.

bEpilepsy.Cf.Celsus 3.23:inter notissimos morbos est etiam is qui comitialis vel maior nominatur. hom*o subito concidit, ex ore spumae moventur; deinde interposito tempore ad se redit et per se ipsum consurgit.

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490desipit, extentat nervos, torquetur, anhelat

inconstanter, et in iactando membra fatigat;

nimirum quia vi morbi distracta per artus

turbat agens anima spumas, ut in aequore salso

ventorum validis fervesc*nt viribus undae.

495exprimitur porro gemitus, quia membra dolore

adficiuntur, et omnino quod semina vocis

eiiciuntur et ore foras glomerata feruntur

qua quasi consuerunt et sunt munita viai.

desipientia fit, quia vis animi atque animai

500conturbatur et, ut docui, divisa seorsum

disiectatur eodem illo distracta veneno.

inde ubi iam morbi reflexit causa, reditque

in latebras acer corrupti corporis umor,

tum quasi vaccillans primum consurgit et omnis

505paulatim redit in sensus animamque receptat.

haec igitur tantis ubi morbis corpore in ipso

iactentur miserisque modis distracta laborent,

cur eadem credis sine corpore in aere aperto

cum validis ventis aetatem degere posse?

510Et quoniam mentem sanari, corpus ut aegrum,

cernimus et flecti medicina posse videmus,

id quoque praesagit mortalem vivere mentem.

addere enim partis aut ordine traiecere aequumst

aut aliquid prorsum de summa detrahere hilum,

515commutare animum quicumque adoritur et infit

Footnotes

492viBrieger: visOQ VP, butdistractamust refer to theanima:cf. especially 499-501, also 507, 590, 799, 4.946morbiOQVP: animiC.D.Gilbert, CQ N.S. 23 (1973) 293, retainingvisin 492 andanimamin 493, but his reading and interpretation involve takingper artusnot withdistractabut withturbat,and, especially in view of 4.916, 946, this canhardly be right

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raves, grows rigid, twists, pants irregularly, out-wearies himself with contortions; assuredly because the spirit, torn asunder by the violence of the disease throughout the frame, is in turmoil and foams, just as in the salt sea the waves boil under the mighty strength of the winds. Further, groans are forced out, because the limbs are afflicted with pain, and in general because seeds of voice are ejected and rush forth from the mouth in a mass, where they have been, as it were, accustomed to pass, where is the established highroad. There is raving, because the strength of mind and spirit is set in a turmoil and, as I have shown,adivided apart and separated up and drawn asunder by that same poison. Next, when the cause of the disease has already turned back, and the corroding humour of the diseased body has returned to its secret haunts,bthen first, staggering as it were, the man rises, and by degrees comes back to his full senses and receives back his spirit. Since, therefore, the mind and spirit are tossed about by so great diseases in the very body itself, and are miserably

torn asunder and distressed, why do you believe that the same without body, in the open air, amidst mighty winds, are able to live?

510And since we see that the mind, like a sick

body, can be healed and changed by medicine, this also foreshows that the mind has a mortal life. For it is necessary to add parts or transpose them or draw away at least some tittle from the whole, whenever anyone attempts and begins to alter the mind

Footnotes

a492-494.

bThe humour is compared to a venomous snake:cf. veneno(501),reflexit(502),latebras(503).

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aut aliam quamvis naturam flectere quaerit.

at neque transferri sibi partis nec tribui vult

inmortale quod est quicquam neque defluere hilum;

nam quodcumque suis mutatum finibus exit,

520continuo hoc mors est illius quod fuit ante.

ergo animus sive aegrescit, mortalia signa

mittit, uti docui, seu flectitur a medicina:

usque adeo falsae rationi vera videtur

res occurrere et effugium praecludere eunti,

525ancipitique refutatu convincere falsum.

Denique saepe hominem paulatim cernimus ire

et membratim vitalem deperdere sensum:

in pedibus primum digitos livescere et unguis,

inde pedes et crura mori, post inde per artus

530ire alios tractim gelidi vestigia leti.

scinditur haec animae quoniam natura, nec uno

tempore sincera existit, mortalis habendast.

quod si forte putas ipsam se posse per artus

introrsum trahere et partis conducere in unum,

535atque ideo cunctis sensum deducere membris,

at locus ille tamen, quo copia tanta animai

cogitur, in sensu debet maiore videri;

qui quoniam nusquamst, nimirum ut diximus ante,

dilaniata foras dispargitur, interit ergo.

540quin etiam si iam libeat concedere falsum,

et dare posse animam glomerari in corpore eorum

lumina qui linquunt moribundi particulatim,

Footnotes

531haec animaeW. Clausen, CR N.S. 41 (1991) 545-546:atque animo haec (hec V)OQVP:atqui animaeLambinus:itque animae hocMunro:itque animae haecBailey (1947)

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or indeed to change any other nature whatever. But that which is immortal does not permit its parts to be transposed, or anything to be added, or one jot to ebb away; for whatever by being changed passes outside its own boundaries, at once that is death for that which was before.aTherefore, if the mind is sick, it gives indications of mortality, as I have shown, or if it is changed by medicine: so completely is the truth seen to combat false reasoning, and to cut off its retreat as it flies, and to convict falsehood by a double refutation.

526Furthermore, we often see a man pass away

by degrees, and limb by limb lose the sensation of life: first the toes of the feet grow livid, and the nails, next die feet and legs, afterwards over the other limbs go creeping the cold footsteps of death.bSince in this case the substance of the spirit is divided and does not issue forth whole at one time, it must be considered to be mortal. But if by any

chance you think that it can of its own accord pull itself inwards through the limbs and draw together its portions into one place, and that is how it withdraws sensation from all the limbs, then the place into which all that quantity of spirit is gathered together ought to seem more sensitive; but since this place is nowhere to be found, undoubtedly, as I said before,cthe spirit is torn to pieces and dispersed abroad, perishes therefore. Moreover, if I had the whim after all to concede a falsehood, and to grant you that the spirit might be concentrated in the

body of those who are leaving the daylight by dying

Footnotes

a519-520 = 1.670-671, 792-793, 2.753-754.

bLambinus compares Plato’s account of the death of Socrates (Phd.117 E—118 A).

c531-532.

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mortalem tamen esse animam fateare necesse,

nec refert utrum pereat dispersa per auras

545an contracta suis e partibus obbrutescat,

quando hominem totum magis ac magis undique sensus

deficit et vitae minus et minus undique restat.

Et quoniam mens est hominis pars una, loco quae

fixa manet certo, velut aures atque oculi sunt

550atque alii sensus qui vitam cumque gubernant,

et veluti manus atque oculus naresve seorsum

secreta ab nobis nequeunt sentire neque esse,

sed tamen in parvo liquuntur tempore tabe,

sic animus per se non quit sine corpore et ipso

555esse homine, illius quasi quod vas esse videtur,

sive aliud quid vis potius coniunctius ei

fingere, quandoquidem conexu corpus adhaeret.

Denique corporis atque animi vivata potestas

inter se coniuncta valent vitaque fruuntur;

560nec sine corpore enim vitalis edere motus

sola potest animi per se natura nec autem

cassum anima corpus durare et sensibus uti.

scilicet avolsus radicibus ut nequit ullam

dispicere ipse oculus rem seorsum corpore toto,

565sic anima atque animus per se nil posse videtur.

nimirum quia per venas et viscera mixtim,

per nervos atque ossa, tenentur corpore ab omni,

Footnotes

553liquuntur (“quidam doctus,” according to Lambinus). . . tabeIsaac Voss (except that Voss suggestedtabi;Munro and subsequent editors attributelic*ntur . . . tabe,read by Munro himself, to Creech, but in all the editions which the reviser of the present work has seen Creech suggests the same reading as Voss): linguntur . . . tali (taleV) OQ V: linc*ntur(Lachmann) . . .labiE. Orth, Helmantica 11 (1960) 312

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piecemeal, yet you must confess the spirit to be mortal, for it does not matter whether it passes away dispersed abroad through the air, or draws in its parts upon itself and grows dull, seeing that more and more sensation leaves the whole man on all sides, and on all sides less and less of life remains.

548And since the mind is one part of a man, which

abides planted in a fixed place, just as eyes and ears are and all the other organs of sense that govern life; and just asahand or eye or nose separated from us can neither feel nor be, but rather are soon dissolved in putrefaction, so the mind cannot be by itself without body or without the man himself, which body seems to be a kind of vessel for it or any other similitude you may choose for a closer conjunction, since in fact the body does cling closely to it.b

558Furthermore, the quickened power of body

and mind have vigour and enjoy life only in close conjunction together; for neither can the nature of the mind show vital motions alone by itself without the body, nor again deprived of the spirit can the body endure and use the senses. To be sure, just as the eye torn from its roots cannot by itself distinguish anything apart from the whole body, so it is seen that mind and spirit can do nothing alone. Undoubtedly because their first-beginnings are held in by the whole body, commingled throughout veins

Footnotes

aAn anacoluthon. Thequoniamclause has no apodosis, and Lucr. writeset veluti,as thoughquoniamhad not been written.

bLucr. suggests that his comparison (for whichcf.440) is inadequate, because, whereas body and soul are intimately interconnected (cf.323-349), the vessel and its contents are not intermingled.

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nec magnis intervallis primordia possunt

libera dissultare, ideo conclusa moventur

570sensiferos motus quos extra corpus in auras

aeris haud possunt post mortem eiecta moveri,

propterea quia non simili ratione tenentur.

corpus enim atque animans erit aer, si cohibere

sese anima atque in eos poterit concludere motus

575quos ante in nervis et in ipso corpore agebat.

quare etiam atque etiam, resoluto corporis omni

tegmine et eiectis extra vitalibus auris,

dissolui sensus animi fateare necessest

atque animam, quoniam coniunctast causa duobus.

580Denique cum corpus nequeat perferre animai

discidium, quin in taetro tabescat odore,

quid dubitas quin ex imo penitusque coorta

emanarit uti fumus diffusa animae vis,

atque ideo tanta mutatum putre ruina

585conciderit corpus, penitus quia mota loco sunt

fundamenta, foras manante anima usque per artus,

perque viarum omnis flexus in corpore qui sunt,

atque foramina? multimodis ut noscere possis

dispertitam animae naturam exisse per artus

590et prius esse sibi distractam corpore in ipso,

quam prolapsa foras enaret in aeris auras.

Quin etiam finis dum vitae vertitur intra,

Footnotes

574sese animaOP: esse animaQ:esse animamV: in se animamWakefield (notes only)eosOQ VPeoFaber586 manante anima usqueLachmann: manant animaeque (animequeQ V)OQ VP: anima emananteWakefield, a more considerable change than Lachmann’s, andemananteis not necessarily supported byemanaritin 583, forforas manante = emanante

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and flesh, sinews and bones, and cannot leap freely apart through wide intervals: for this reason, when shut in together, they make those sense-giving motions, which they cannot make outside the body when cast forth into the winds of the air after death, because they are not held in as before. For air will

be a body and a living creature, if the spirit shall be able to keep itself together, and to confine itself to those motions which before it used to make in the sinews and in the body itself. Therefore again and again I say, when all the covering of the body is broken up, and the breath of life is cast forth without, you must confess that the sensations of the mind are dissolved, and the spirit too, since the two exist by union.a

580Again, since the body cannot endure tearing

apart from the spirit without putrefying with a loathsome stench, why do you doubt that the strength of the spirit, after gathering together from its depths and inmost recesses, has oozed out already dispersed abroad like smoke, and that the reason why the body changing and crumbling in such ruin has collapsed altogether, is that its foundations to their inmost recesses have been moved from their place while the spirit was oozing out all through the limbs and through all the meandering passages and pores that are in the body?bSo that in many ways you may learn that the spirit was scattered abroad when it went out through the limbs, and had been torn all apart within the body itself, before it glided out and swam into the winds of the air.

592Moreover, while the spirit still moves about

Footnotes

acausa=causa salutis,the cause of existence:cf.348, 559.

bThat is why it was alreadydiffusawhen it passed out.Cf.4.90-94.

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saepe aliqua tamen e causa labefacta videtur

ire anima ac toto solui de corpore velle,

595et quasi supremo languescere tempore voltus,

molliaque exsangui cadere omnia corpore membra.

quod genus est, animo male factum cum perhibetur

aut animam liquisse: ubi iam trepidatur et omnes

extremum cupiunt vitae reprehendere vinclum;

600conquassatur enim tum mens animaeque potestas

omnis, et haec ipso cum corpore conlabefiunt,

ut gravior paulo possit dissolvere causa.

quid dubitas tandem quin extra prodita corpus

inbecilla foras in aperto, tegmine dempto,

605non modo non omnem possit durare per aevom,

sed minimum quodvis nequeat consistere tempus?

Nec sibi enim quisquam moriens sentire videtur

ire foras animam incolumem de corpore toto,

nec prius ad iugulum et supera succedere fauces,

610verum deficere in certa regione locatam,

ut sensus alios in parti quemque sua scit

dissolui. quod si inmortalis nostra foret mens,

non tam se moriens dissolvi conquereretur,

sed magis ire foras vestemque relinquere, ut anguis.

Denique cur animi numquam mens consiliumque

gignitur in capite aut pedibus manibusve, sed unis

617sedibus et certis regionibus omnibus haeret,

si non certa loca ad nascendum reddita cuique

Footnotes

596cadere omnia corporeF (Bailey’s objection to the reading is answered by Büchner): cadere omniaOQ V:trunco cadere omniaLachmann

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within the bounds of life, nevertheless, when weakened

by some cause or other, it often appears to wish to depart and to be released from the whole body, and the countenance appears to grow languid as at the last hour, and all the limbs to relax and droop from the bloodless body. This is what happens when the phrase is used “the mind fails” or “the spirit faints”a: when all is trepidation, and all those present desire to pull back again the last bond of life. For at that time the intelligence and all the power of the spirit are shaken altogether, and these fail together with the body itself, so that a slightly more serious cause could dissolve them. Why then

after all do you doubt that, when driven without the body, weak, outside, in the open, without a covering, the spirit could not only not endure through all time, but could not last even for the smallest space?

607It is evident that no one in dying feels his soul

go forth from the whole body intact, nor rise first to the throat and then pass up to the gullet; rather he feels it tail m the particular region where it is located, as he knows his other senses to be dispersing abroad each in its own part. But if our intelligence were immortal, in dying it would not so much complain of dispersing abroad, but rather of passing out and quitting its vesture, like a snake.b

615Again, why are the mind’s intelligence and understanding never produced

in the head or feet or hands, but abide in one sole position and fixed region in all men, if not because fixed positions are

Footnotes

aanimo male factumandanimam(oranimum) liquisseare colloquial expressions for fainting.

bThat is, like a snake sloughing its skin(cf.4.60-61). In 614 it seems necessary to assume the ellipse of some verb likegauderet: “but rather would be glad that it was passing out . . .”

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sunt, et ubi quicquid possit durare creatum,

620atque ita multimodis partitis artubus esse,

membrorum ut numquam existat praeposterus ordo?

usque adeo sequitur res rem, neque flamma creari

fluminibus solitast neque in igni gignier algor.

Praeterea si inmortalis natura animaist

625et sentire potest secreta a corpore nostro,

quinque, ut opinor, eam faciundum est sensibus auc-

tam;

nec ratione alia nosmet proponere nobis

possumus infernas animas Acherunte vagare.

pictores itaque et scriptorum saecla priora

630sic animas introduxerunt sensibus auctas.

at neque sorsum oculi neque nares nec manus ipsa

esse potest animae neque sorsum lingua neque aures;

haud igitur per se possunt sentire neque esse.

Et quoniam toto sentimus corpore inesse

635vitalem sensum et totum esse animale videmus,

si subito medium celeri praeciderit ictu

vis aliqua ut sorsum partem secernat utramque,

dispertita procul dubio quoque vis animai

et discissa simul cum corpore dissicietur.

640at quod scinditur et partis discedit in ullas,

scilicet aeternam sibi naturam abnuit esse.

Footnotes

620partitis(cf. 710) Bernays: pertotisOQ VP

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assigned to each thing for its birth and a place where it may endure when made, with its manifold limbs being arranged in such a way that their order is never reversed? So surely one thing follows another; neither is flame accustomed to be produced from streams, nor frost in fire.

624Besides, if the nature of the spirit is immortal

and can feel when separated from our body, we must, I think, assume that it is endowed with the five senses; in no other way can we imagine the spirits below to be wandering in Acheron. Paintersatherefore, and the earlier generations of writers,bhave introduced the spirits thus provided with senses. But apart from the body there can never be either eyes or nose or hand by itself for the spirit, nor tongue apart from the body, nor ears; therefore spirits by themselves cannot either have sensation or exist.

634And since we feel that vital sense inheres in

the whole body, and see that it is the whole that is animated, if suddenly some force with a swift blow shall cut the body through the middle so as to sever the two parts asunder, there is no doubt that spirit also will be sundered apart and cleft apart and cut apart with the body.cBut that which is cleft and divided into parts assuredly renounces all claim to be everlasting.

Footnotes

aNotably Polygnotus at Delphi and Nicias at Athens.

be.g.Homer, Ennius. With this passage of Lucr.cf.Cicero,Tusc. Disp.1.16.37.

cIn 638–639 Lucr. uses three verbs with the prefixdis-to emphasize the parting of the soul. Plato in the same way uses three verbs with the prefix δια- inPhd.80 c 4–5, 84 b 6–7, and it is possible that Lucr. was influenced by him.

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Falciferos memorant currus abscidere membra

saepe ita de subito permixta caede calentis,

ut tremere in terra videatur ab artubus id quod

decidit abscisum, cum mens tamen atque hominis vis

646mobilitate mali non quit sentire dolorem

et simul in pugnae studio quod dedita mens est;

corpore relicuo pugnam caedesque petessit,

nec tenet amissam laevam cum tegmine saepe

650inter equos abstraxe rotas falcesque rapaces,

nec cecidisse alius dextram, cum scandit et instat.

inde alius conatur adempto surgere crure,

cum digitos agitat propter moribundus humi pes;

et caput abscisum calido viventeque trunco

655servat humi voltum vitalem oculosque patentis,

donec reliquias animai reddidit omnes.

Quin etiam tibi si lingua vibrante minanti

serpentis cauda procero corpore utrumque

sit libitum in multas partis discidere ferro,

660omnia iam sorsum cernes ancisa recenti

volnere tortari et terram conspargere tabo,

ipsam seque retro partem petere ore priorem,

volneris ardenti ut morsu premat icta dolore.

omnibus esse igitur totas dicemus in illis

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642They tell how scythed chariots,areeking with

indiscriminate slaughter, often shear off a limb so suddenly that it is seen to quiver on the ground when it falls shorn from the trunk, although the man’s mind and strength can feel no pain, from the swiftness of the blow, and at the same time because the mind is absorbed in the ardour of battle; with what is left of his body he pursues battle and blood, and does not observe that his left arm, it may be, with its shield has been carried off amidst the horses by the wheels and their ravening scythes, or another that his right arm has fallen while he climbs and presses on.bThen another essays to rise with a leg lost, while the dying foot hard by on the ground twitches its toes. Even the head shorn off from the hot and living trunk retains on the ground the look of life and its open eyes, until it has rendered up all that is left of the spirit.

657Moreover, when you see a serpent with flickering

tongue, menacing tail, long body, if it please you to cut up both partscwith your steel into many pieces, you will see all the parts cut away writhing separately while the wound is fresh, and bespattering the earth with gore, and the fore part turning back and seeking to gnaw itself, that by its bite it may assuage the burning pain of the wound which struck it. Shall we say then that there is a whole spirit in

Footnotes

aWar-chariots equipped with scythes were an oriental invention, and were never adopted by the Greeks or Romans (hencememorant,642). They are first mentioned by Xeno-phon,An.1.8.10; Livy, 37.41.7, mentions their use in the war with Antiochus III; and they and their effectiveness are described by the first century a.d. historian Q. Curtius Rufus,Hist. Alex.4.9.5 and 4.15.17.

bi.e.the soldier, who has lost his arm in climbing up to attack the driver of a scythed chariot, continues his attack.

cThe meaning ofutrumqueis uncertain. Does it refer to both the front and back part of the snake’s body? Or does it mean, as supposed by Diels (in his translation) and W. S. M. Nicoll,CRN.S. 20 (1970) 140–141, both body and soul of the snake? The former interpretation derives support from 637, 657–658 (where Lucr. stresses head and tail as well as body) and662; the latter from 668–669, for thereutrumquecertainly refers to body and soul, and the parallelism betweenin multas. . .partis disciditur(669) andin multas partis discidere(658) might be taken as indicating thatutrumquehas the same reference in both places. In any case, no emendation of the text is necessary.

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665particulis animas? at ea ratione sequetur

unam animantem animas habuisse in corpore multas.

ergo divisast ea quae fuit una simul cum

corpore; quapropter mortale utrumque putandumst,

in multas quoniam partis disciditur aeque.

670Praeterea si inmortalis natura animai

constat et in corpus nascentibus insinuatur,

cur super anteactam aetatem meminisse nequimus

nec vestigia gestarum rerum ulla tenemus?

nam si tanto operest animi mutata potestas,

675omnis ut actarum exciderit retinentia rerum,

non, ut opinor, id ab leto iam longiter errat;

quapropter fateare necessest quae fuit ante

interiisse et quae nunc est nunc esse creatam.

Praeterea si iam perfecto corpore nobis

680inferri solitast animi vivata potestas

tum cum gignimur et vitae cum limen inimus,

haud ita conveniebat uti cum corpore et una

cum membris videatur in ipso sanguine cresse,

sed velut in cavea per se sibi vivere solam

685convenit, ut sensu corpus tamen affluat omne.

quare etiam atque etiam neque originis esse putandumst

expertis animas nec leti lege solutas;

nam neque tanto opere adnecti potuisse putan-

dumst

corporibus nostris extrinsecus insinuatas—

690quod fieri totum contra manifesta docet res;

namque ita conexa est per venas viscera nervos

Footnotes

676abOQP: aNonius p. 828 Lindsay, Charisius p. 265 BarwicklongiterNonius, Charisius l.c.: longiusOQP. The 4th cent. grammarians, who quote this line alone as containinglongiter,can hardly have invented the form, defended by S. Timpanaro, Maia 22 (1970) 355–357

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each of these fractions? But in that way it will follow that one living creature had many spirits in its body. Therefore that spirit which was one has been divided apart together with the body; and so each must be considered mortal, since each alike is cut asunder into many parts.

670Besides, if the nature of the spirit is immortal

and creeps into the body as we are born, why can we not remember also the time that has passed before, and why do we keep no traces of things done? For if the power of the mind has been so greatly changed that it has lost all recollection of things done, that, I think, is not far removed from death. Therefore you must confess that the spirit that was before has perished, and that which now is has now been made.

679Besides, if the body is already complete when

the quickened power of the mind is accustomed to be introduced into us, at the moment when we are born and when we enter the threshold of life, it ought not so to live that it should be seen to grow with the body and together with the frame in the very blood, but it should live alone by itself as it might be in a cage, while nevertheless all the body should be full of streams of sensation. Therefore again and again I say that spirits must not be considered to be without beginning or free from the law of death. For we must not believe that they could have been so closely connected with our bodies if they had been introduced from without, when experience

manifestly proves the clean contrary; for the spirit is so closely connected with the body through all the veins, flesh, sinews, and bones that

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ossaque, uti dentes quoque sensu participentur,

morbus ut indicat et gelidai stringor aquai

et lapis oppressus, subiit si e frugibus, asper—

695nec, tam contextae cum sint, exire videntur

incolumes posse et salvas exsolvere sese

omnibus e nervis atque ossibus articulisque.

Quod si forte putas extrinsecus insinuatam

permanare animam nobis per membra solere,

700tanto quique magis cum corpore fusa peribit;

quod permanat enim dissolvitur, interit ergo.

dispertitur enim per caulas corporis omnis;

ut cibus, in membra atque artus cum diditur omnis,

disperit atque aliam naturam sufficit ex se,

sic anima atque animus, quamvis integra recens in

706corpus eunt, tamen in manando dissoluuntur,

dum quasi per caulas omnis diduntur in artus

particulae quibus haec animi natura creatur,

quae nunc in nostro dominatur corpore nata

710ex illa quae tunc periit partita per artus.

quapropter neque natali privata videtur

esse die natura animae nec funeris expers.

Semina praeterea linquuntur necne animai

corpore in exanimo? quod si linquuntur et insunt,

715haud erit ut merito inmortalis possit haberi,

partibus amissis quoniam libata recessit.

sin ita sinceris membris ablata profugit

Footnotes

694subiit si eBernays: subitis eOQP: subsitsi A. C. Clark, CR 25 (1911) 74

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even the teeth feel like the rest, as their aching proves, and the twinge of cold water, and the crunching of rough grit, when it has got into them out of bread; and since they are so closely connected,ait is clear that they are not able to emerge intact and loosen themselves away whole from all the sinews and bones and joints.

698But if by any chance you think that the spirit

is accustomed to creep in from without and so to ooze through our frame, so much the more will it perish, being interfused with the body; for that which permeates is dissolved, perishes therefore. The spirit is distributed through all the pores of the body; just as food, while it is being dispersed into all the members and limbs, perishes and supplies another nature from its substance, so spirit and mind, even though they enter whole into a new body, yet in permeating it are dissolved, while the particles are being dispersed through all the pores, as we may call them, into the limbs, those particles that compose this mind which now lords it in our body, born of that mind which perished at the time when it was distributed through the limbs. Therefore the spirit is seen to be neither without a birthday nor without death.

713Again, do any seeds of spirit remain or not in

the lifeless body? Now if any are left and are in it, it will be impossible rightly to consider the spirit immortal, since it has gone away diminished by the loss of some parts. But if it has departed and fled forth with its component parts so intact that it has

Footnotes

aThat is, since spirits are so closely connected with bodies (cf.691).

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ut nullas partis in corpore liquerit ex se,

unde cadavera rancenti iam viscere vermes

720expirant, atque unde animantum copia tanta

exos et exanguis tumidos perfluctuat artus?

quod si forte animas extrinsecus insinuari

vermibus et privas in corpora posse venire

credis, nec reputas cur milia multa animarum

725conveniant unde una recesserit, hoc tamen est ut

quaerendum videatur et in discrimen agendum,

utrum tandem animae venentur semina quaeque

vermiculorum ipsaeque sibi fabricentur ubi sint,

an quasi corporibus perfectis insinuentur.

730at neque cur faciant ipsae quareve laborent

dicere suppeditat. neque enim, sine corpore cum sunt,

sollicitae volitant morbis alguque fameque;

corpus enim magis his vitiis adfine laborat,

et mala multa animus contage fungitur eius.

735sed tamen his esto quamvis facere utile corpus,

cui subeant; at qua possint via nulla videtur.

haud igitur faciunt animae sibi corpora et artus.

nec tamen est utqui perfectis insinuentur

corporibus; neque enim poterunt subtiliter esse

740conexae neque consensu contagia fient.

Denique cur acris violentia triste leonum

seminium sequitur, volpes dolus, et fuga cervis

a patribus datur et patrius pavor incitat artus?

Footnotes

736cuiBernays: cumOQPquaMarullus: queOQ: quiBF may be right

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left in the body no particles of itself, how do corpses

exhale worms from flesh already grown putrid,awhence comes all the great mass of living creatures, boneless and bloodless, that surge through the swelling limbs? Now if you believe by any chance that

spirits can creep into the worms from without and come one by one into the bodies, if you do not ponder why many thousands of spirits gather together where one has gone away, Here is a question that it seems worth while to ask and to bring under examination,

whether in fact the spirits go a-hunting for all the seeds of little worms and themselves make them a habitation, or whether they creep as it were into bodies already formed. But there is no answer to the question why they should make bodies themselves, or why they should take that trouble. For,

when they are without bodies, they are not plagued with disease as they fly about, or with cold and hunger; for it is the body rather that is troubled through susceptibility to these infirmities, and the mind suffers many maladies by contact with it. Grant, however, that it be as useful as you will that these make them a body to enter: but how they can, there is no way to be seen. Spirits therefore do not make themselves bodies and limbs. Nor is there any possibility that they creep into bodies already made; for they will not be able to conjoin themselves closely together with these, nor will harmony be established through community of sensation.

741Furthermore, why does bitter fury go with the

sullen breed of lions, why craft with foxes, why is the instinct of flight transmitted to deer from their fathers, the lather s timidity impelling their limbs,

Footnotes

aFor the belief in the spontaneous generation of worms, see note on 2.872.

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et iam cetera de genere hoc cur omnia membris

745ex ineunte aevo generasc*nt ingenioque,

si non certa suo quia semine seminioque

vis animi pariter crescit cum corpore quoque?

quod si inmortalis foret et mutare soleret

corpora, permixtis animantes moribus essent:

750effugeret canis Hyrcano de semine saepe

cornigeri incursum cervi, tremeretque per auras

aeris accipiter fugiens veniente columba;

desiperent homines, saperent fera saecla ferarum.

Illud enim falsa fertur ratione, quod aiunt

755inmortalem animam mutato corpore flecti;

quod mutatur enim dissolvitur, interit ergo.

traiciuntur enim partes atque ordine migrant;

quare dissolui quoque debent posse per artus,

denique ut intereant una cum corpore cunctae.

760Sin animas hominum dicent in corpora semper

ire humana, tamen quaeram cur e sapienti

762stulta queat fieri, nec prudens sit puer ullus

764nec tam doctus equae pullus quam fortis equi vis.

765scilicet in tenero tenerascere corpore mentem

confugient. quod si iam fit, fateare necessest

mortalem esse animam, quoniam mutata per artus

tanto opere amittit vitam sensumque priorem.

Quove modo poterit pariter cum corpore quoque

770confirmata cupitum aetatis tangere florem

vis animi, nisi erit consors in origine prima?

Footnotes

747quoqueOP(cf. 769): totoQ

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why are all other qualities of this sort generated in the body and the character from the beginnings of life, if not because in each seed and breed its own fixed power of mind grows along with each body? But if it were immortal, and accustomed to pass from body to body, living creatures would show confused habits: the dog of Hyrcanian breedawould often

flee before the horned stag’s onset; the hawk would tremble, flying through the air from the advancing dove; men would lack reason, the wild generations of wild beasts would have it.

754For it is based on false reasoning to say that an

immortal spirit is altered by a change of body; for that which changes is dissolved, therefore perishes, The parts of the spirit are transposed, and move from their position; therefore they must be capable of being dissolved also through the frame, to perish at last one and all with the body.

760But if they say that the spirits of men always

pass into men’s bodies, I will still ask why a foolish spirit can be made of a wise one, why no child is ever prudent, and no foal ever so accomplished as the horse of powerful strength.bNo doubt they will take refuge in saying that in a tender body the mind becomes tender. But even if this is so, you must confess that the spirit is mortal, since being changed so completely throughout the body it loses its former life and feeling.

769Or how will the power of the mind be able to

grow strong together with any given body and attain the longed-for flowering of life, unless it shall be

Footnotes

aThe dogs of Hyrcania, on the south-east shore of the Caspian Sea, were noted for their ferocity. According to Cicero (Tusc. Disp.1.45.108), the Hyrcanians thought that the best method of burial was to be torn to pieces by their dogs, and kept them especially for this purpose.

bThe mention of the horse shows that the supposition with which Lucr. is dealing is that souls of all animals, and not only human souls, remain constant to the same species.

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quidve foras sibi vult membris exire senectis?

an metuit conclusa manere in corpore putri

et domus aetatis spatio ne fessa vetusto

775obruat? at non sunt inmortali ulla pericla.

Denique conubia ad Veneris partusque ferarum

esse animas praesto deridiculum esse videtur,

expectare inmortalis mortalia membra

innumero numero certareque praeproperanter

780inter se quae prima potissimaque insinuetur;

si non forte ita sunt animarum foedera pacta

ut quae prima volans advenerit insinuetur

prima neque inter se contendant viribus hilum.

Denique in aethere non arbor, non aequore in alto

785nubes esse queunt nec pisces vivere in arvis

nec cruor in lignis neque saxis sucus inesse:

certum ac dispositumst ubi quicquid crescat et insit.

sic animi natura nequit sine corpore oriri

sola neque a nervis et sanguine longius esse.

790quod si posset enim, multo prius ipsa animi vis

in capite aut umeris aut imis calcibus esse

posset et innasci quavis in parte soleret,

tandem in eodem homine atque in eodem vase manere.

quod quoniam nostro quoque constat corpore certum

795dispositumque videtur ubi esse et crescere possit

sorsum anima atque animus, tanto magis infitiandum

totum posse extra corpus durare genique.

quare, corpus ubi interiit, periisse necessest

confiteare animam distractam in corpore toto.

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its partner in the first origin? Or why does it wish

to issue forth from a frame grown old? Does it fear to remain imprisoned in a putrefying corpse, fear lest

its house, worn out with the long lapse of years, fall in upon it? But there are no dangers for the immortal.

776Again, to suppose that spirits stand ready for the

amours and the parturition of wild beasts is plainly too ridiculous—immortal spirits awaiting mortal frames in number numberless, and struggling together in hot haste which first and foremost shall creep in; unless perhaps the spirits have contracts so arranged, that the spirit which comes flying up first may creep in first, and they need not come to blows one whit.

784Again, a tree cannot grow in the sky,anor

clouds be in the deep sea, nor fish live in the fields, nor can blood be in sticks nor sap in rocks. It is fixed and arranged where each thing is to grow and have its being. So the nature of the mind cannot arise alone without body, nor exist far from sinews and blood. But if it could do this, the power of the mind itself could much more easily be in head or shoulders or the heels of the feet, and be born in any part, and at least remain in the same man, the same vessel.bBut since even in our body there is seen to be a fixed rule and ordinance in what place mind and spirit may exist and grow apart, so much the more must we deny that they can endure and be produced wholly outside the body. Therefore, when the body has perished, you must confess that the spirit has passed away, torn to pieces throughout the body.

Footnotes

a784–797 are repeated, with slight alterations, in 5.128–141, where Lucr. is arguing that the earth, sea, sky, sun, moon, and stars are not animate, let alone divine.

bThe argument of 790–793 is this: if the mind could exist outside the body, then, rather than do this, it would be more likely to be found in some part of the body where in fact it cannot exist; in fact, it can only exist in the breast.

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Quippe etenim mortale aeterno iungere et una

801consentire putare et fungi mutua posse

desiperest; quid enim diversius esse putandumst

aut magis inter se disiunctum discrepitansque,

quam mortale quod est inmortali atque perenni

805iunctum in concilio saevas tolerare procellas?

Praeterea quaecumque manent aeterna necessest

aut, quia sunt solido cum corpore, respuere ictus

nec penetrare pati sibi quicquam quod queat artas

dissociare intus partis, ut materiai

810corpora sunt quorum naturam ostendimus ante;

aut ideo durare aetatem posse per omnem,

plagarum quia sunt expertia, sicut inanest,

quod manet intactum neque ab ictu fungitur hilum;

aut etiam quia nulla loci sit copia circum,

815quo quasi res possint discedere dissoluique,

sicut summarum summast aeterna, neque extra

quis locus est quo diffugiant, neque corpora sunt quae

possint incidere et valida dissolvere plaga.

Quod si forte ideo magis inmortalis habendast,

820quod vitalibus ab rebus munita tenetur,

aut quia non veniunt omnino aliena salutis,

Footnotes

814sitOQP: fitLachmann

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800In fact, to yoke mortal with immortal, and to

think that they can be partners in feeling and act upon each other, is folly; for what can be considered more discordant, more contradictory or inconsistent, than that what is mortal can be yoked together in combination with immortal and imperishable, to weather furious storms!

806Besides, whatever bodies abide everlasting must

either, being of solid structure, reject blows and allow nothing to penetrate them that could dissever asunder the close-joined parts within, as the particles of matter are, the nature of which we have shown before; or else the reason why they can endure

through all time must be that they are free from assaults, as the void is, which remains untouched and is not a whit affected by blows; or again because

there is no extent of space around into which things can as it were disperse and dissolve, as the sum of all sumsais eternal, and there is no place without it into which its elements may escape, nor bodies to fall upon it and dissolve it asunder with a strong blow.b

819But if possibly the reason why the spirit is to

be held immortal is rather this,cthat it is sheltered and protected by the forces of life, either because nothing comes at all that is hostile to its existence,

Footnotes

aThe universe.

b806–818 recur, with a few minor alterations, in 5.351–363, where Lucr. is arguing that the world is not eternal. Since the lines are better adjusted to their context in Book 5, it is reasonable to assume that Lucr. first wrote them there, and later inserted them here when it struck him that they were relevant to his argument for the mortality of the soul. It is probable that, if he had lived to complete the revision of his work, he would have incorporated the passage in its new context more satisfactorily, pointing out that since the soul does not satisfy any of the three conditions of immortality, it must be mortal.

cIt is probable that in 819–823 Lucr. is alluding, as Giussani suggests, to the condition of the immortality of the gods, who continually gain new atoms to replace those which they lose, and who survive a constant atomic bombardment in theintermundia.

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aut quia quae veniunt aliqua ratione recedunt

pulsa prius quam quid noceant sentire queamus,

. . . . . . .

praeter enim quam quod morbis cum corporis aegret,

825advenit id quod earn de rebus saepe futuris

macerat inque metu male habet curisque fatigat,

praeteritisque male admissis peccata remordent.

adde furorem animi proprium atque oblivia rerum,

adde quod in nigras lethargi mergitur undas.

830Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum,

quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur;

et, velut anteacto nil tempore sensimus aegri,

ad confligendum venientibus undique Poenis,

omnia cum belli trepido concussa tumultu

835horrida contremuere sub altis aetheris auris,

in dubioque fuere utrorum ad regna cadendum

omnibus humanis esset terraque marique,

sic, ubi non erimus, cum corporis atque animai

discidium fuerit, quibus e sumus uniter apti,

840scilicet haud nobis quicquam, qui non erimus tum,

accidere omnino poterit sensumque movere,

non si terra mari miscebitur et mare caelo.

Et si iam nostro sentit de corpore postquam

distractast animi natura animaeque potestas,

Footnotes

823Lambinus is almost certainly right in assuming a lacuna after this line. He insertsscilicet a vera longe ratione remotumst,which Marullus had supplied after 820. Bailey suggests e.g.hoc fieri totum contra manifesta docet res(cf. 690), already adopted by Munro in his translation. Buchner, who assumes an ellipse instead of a lacuna, overlooks the fact that Wakefield and Heinze take the same view

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or because all that does come goes back, in some way repulsed before we can perceive what harm it does, [experience manifestly shows that this cannot be true.] For not to mention that it sickens along with bodily disease, something often comes that torments it about the future, keeps it miserable in fear, wearies it with anxiety, and, when there has been evil done in the past, its sins bring remorse. Add madness which is peculiar to the mind, and forgetfulness of all things, add that it is drowned in the black waters of lethargy.

830Therefore death is nothing to us,ait matters

not one jot, since the nature of the mind is understood to be mortal; and as in time past we felt no distress, while from all quarters the Carthaginians were coming to the conflict, when the whole world, shaken by the terrifying tumult of war, shivered and quaked under the lofty and breezy heaven, and was in doubt under which domination all men were destined to fall by land and seab; so, when we shall no longer be, when the parting shall have come about between body and spirit from which we are compacted into one whole, then sure enough nothing at all will be able to happen to us, who will then no longer be, or to make us feel, not if earth be commingled with sea and sea with sky.

843And grant for the moment that the nature of

mind and power of spirit does feel after it has been torn away from our body, yet that is nothing to us,

Footnotes

anil. . .mors est ad nos(cf.845, 850, 852, 926, 972) = ὁ

θάνaτoς oὐδὲν πpὸς ἡμᾶς (Epicurus,Sent.2).

bThe reference is chiefly to the Second Punic War (218–201 b.c.).

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845nil tamen est ad nos, qui comptu coniugioque

corporis atque animae consistimus uniter apti.

nec, si materiem nostram collegerit aetas

post obitum rursumque redegerit ut sita nunc est,

atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitae,

pertineat quicquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum,

851interrupta semel cum sit repetentia nostri.

et nunc nil ad nos de nobis attinet, ante

qui fuimus, neque iam de illis nos adficit angor.

nam cum respicias inmensi temporis omne

855praeteritum spatium, tum motus materiai

multimodi quam sint, facile hoc adcredere possis,

semina saepe in eodem, ut nunc sunt, ordine posta

865haec eadem, quibus e nunc nos sumus, ante fuisse.

858nec memori tamen id quimus reprehendere mente;

859860inter enim iectast vitai pausa, vageque

860deerrarunt passim motus ab sensibus omnes.

861Debet enim, misere si forte aegreque futurumst,

862ipse quoque esse in eo tum tempore, cui male possit

863accidere. id quoniam mors eximit, esseque probet

864865illum cui possint incommoda conciliari,

scire licet nobis nil esse in morte timendum,

nec miserum fieri qui non est posse, neque hilum

differre an nullo fuerit iam tempore natus,

mortalem vitam mors cum inmortalis ademit.

Footnotes

853nequeLachmann: omitted by OQ: necMarullus: nilMerrill (1917)

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who by the welding and wedding together of body

and spirit exist compacted into one whole. Even if time should gather together our matter after death and bring it back again as it is now placed, and if once more the light of life should be given to us, yet it would not matter one bit to us that even this had been done, when the recollection of ourselves has once been broken asunder. And even now we are not concerned at all about any self which we have been before, nor does any anguish about it now touch us. For when you look back upon all the past expanse of measureless time, and think how various are the motions of matter, you may easily come to believe that these same seeds of which now we consist have been often before placed in the same arrangement they now are in. And yet we cannot call that back by memory; for in between has been cast a stoppage of life,aand all the motions have wandered and scattered afar from those sensations.b

862For,cif by chance anyone is to have misery and

pain in the future, he must himself also exist then in that time to be miserable. Since death takes away this possibility, and forbids him to exist for whom these inconveniences may be gathered together, we may be sure that there is nothing to be feared after death, that he who is not cannot be miserable, that it makes not one jot of difference whether or notdhe has ever been born, when death the immortal has taken away his mortal life.

Footnotes

aThe tmesisinter. . .iectast(860) well emphasizes the interruption of life which Lucr. is describing.Cf. e.g.5.287, where the interruption of the sun’s light is reflected and emphasized inradios inter quasi rumpere lucis.And the tmesis is similarly appropriate to the sense ine.g.1.452, 651, 3.262, 5.299, 1374, 6.332.

bThe atoms may be the same, but their motions have lost all connexion with the earlier sensations.

cLucr. abruptly resumes his main argument, which he interrupted at 843. The intervening passage (843–861) is parenthetic, though relevant to the contention that death is nothing to us.

dIn 868, betweendifferreandan,supplyutrum aliquo tempore natus fuerit.

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Proinde ubi se videas hominem indignarier ipsum,

871post mortem fore ut aut putescat corpore posto

aut flammis interfiat malisve ferarum,

scire licet non sincerum sonere atque subesse

caecum aliquem cordi stimulum, quamvis neget ipse

credere se quemquam sibi sensum in morte futurum;

876non, ut opinor, enim dat quod promittit et unde,

nec radicitus e vita se tollit et eicit,

sed facit esse sui quiddam super inscius ipse.

vivus enim sibi cum proponit quisque futurum,

880corpus uti volucres lacerent in morte feraeque,

ipse sui miseret; neque enim se dividit illim

nec removet satis a proiecto corpore, et illum

se fingit sensuque suo contaminat astans.

hinc indignatur se mortalem esse creatum,

885nec videt in vera nullum fore morte alium se

qui possit vivus sibi se lugere peremptum

stansque iacentem se lacerari urive dolere.

nam si in morte malumst malis morsuque ferarum

tractari, non invenio qui non sit acerbum

890ignibus inpositum calidis torrescere flammis

aut in melle situm suffocari atque rigere

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870Accordingly, when you see a man resenting his

fate, that after death he must either rot with his body laid in the tomb, or perish by fire or the jaws of wild beasts,ayou may know that he rings false, and that deep in his heart is some hidden sting, although himself he deny the belief in any sensation after death. He does not, I think, admit what he professes to admit, nor the premise from which his profession is derivedb; he does not wholly uproot and eject himself from life, but unknown to himself he makes something of himself to survive. For when

anyone in life anticipates that birds and beasts will mangle his body after death, he pities himself; for he does not distinguish himself from that thing,che does not separate himself sufficiently from the body there cast out, he imagines himself to be that and, standing beside it, infects it with his own feeling. Hence he resents that he was born mortal, and does not see that in real death there will be no other self that could live to bewail his perished self, or stand by to feel pain that he lay there lacerated or burning. Fordif after death it is an evil to be mauled by the jaws and teeth of wild beasts, I do not see how it should not be unpleasant to be laid upon the fire and to shrivel in the hot flames, or to be packed in honey

Footnotes

aPerhaps an allusion to the custom of the Magi.Cf.Cicero,Tusc. Disp.1.45.108:Magorum mos est non humare corpora suorum, nisi a feris sint ante laniata.And see note on 750 for the custom of the Hyrcanians.

bWhat he professes to admit is that there is no feeling after death; the premise is that the soul does not survive after death. For the attitude of the Epicurean,cf.Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 73.1. Smith: “[I follow you (Epicurus)] when you make [these] statements about death, and you have persuaded me to laugh at it. For I have no fear on account of the Tityoses and Tantaluses whom some describe in Hades, nor do I shudder [when I reflect upon] the decomposition of the body, [being convinced that we have no feeling, once the] soul [is without sensation,] or anything else.”

cThat is, from his own dead body.

dnam(888) refers touri(887), its full force being: “I mention being burnt, for ...”

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frigore, cum summo gelidi cubat aequore saxi,

urgerive superne obtritum pondere terrae.

“Iam iam non domus accipiet te laeta neque uxor

895optima, nec dulces occurrent oscula nati

praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.

non poteris factis florentibus esse, tuisque

praesidium. misero misere,” aiunt, “omnia ademit

una dies infesta tibi tot praemia vitae.”

900illud in his rebus non addunt: “nec tibi earum

iam desiderium rerum super insidet una.”

quod bene si videant animo dictisque sequantur,

dissoluant animi magno se angore metuque.

905“Tu quidem ut es leto sopitus, sic eris aevi

quod superest cunctis privatu’ doloribus aegris;

at nos horrifico cinefactum te prope busto

insatiabiliter deflevimus, aeternumque

nulla dies nobis maerorem e pectore demet.”

illud ab hoc igitur quaerendum est, quid sit amari

tanto opere, ad somnum si res redit atque quietem,

911cur quisquam aeterno possit tabescere luctu.

Hoc etiam faciunt ubi discubuere tenentque

Footnotes

893obtritumMarullus: obrutumOQP, Martin: obruptumCodex Bodleianus Auct. F.1.13: operitum (=opertum)Wakefield

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and stifled, and to be stiff with cold lying upon a slab of cold marble,aor to be buried and crushed under a weight of superimposed earth.

894“No longer now will your happy home give

you welcome, no longer will your best of wives; no longer will your sweet children race to win the first kisses, and thrill your heart to its depths with sweetness.bYou will no longer be able to live in prosperity, and to protect your own. Poor man, poor man!” they say, “one fatal day has robbed you of all these prizes of life.”cBut they do not go on to

add: “No longer too does any craving possess you for these things.” If they could see this clearly in mind and so conform their speech, they would free themselves from great anguish and fear of mind.

904“Yes, you, as you now lie in death’s quiet

sleep, so you will be for all time that is to come, removed from all distressing pains; but we beside you, as you lay burnt to ashes on the horrible pyre, have bewailed you inconsolably, and that everlasting grief no time shall take from our hearts.” Of such

a speaker then we may well ask, if all ends in sleep and quiet rest, what bitterness there is in it so great that one could pine with everlasting sorrow.

912This also is the way among men, when they

Footnotes

a“The chilly discomfort of this situation, in which the body has no covering(summo . . . aequore),is ironically contrasted with that of the buried body, which has too much” (Kenney).

b894–896 are imitated by Virgil,G.2.523–524, and almost certainly influenced Thomas Gray,Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard21–24: “For them no more the blazing hearth shall hum, | Or busy housewife ply her evening care: | No children run to lisp their sire’s return, | Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.”

cIt is important to realize that in 894–899 and 904–908 Lucr. is parodying the conventional utterances of the bereaved, with whose sentiments he disagrees (cf. 900–903, 909–911). See D. West,The Imagery and Poetry of Lucretius28–29, and Kenney’s commentary.

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pocula saepe homines et inumbrant ora coronis,

ex animo ut dicant: “brevis hic est fructus homullis;

915iam fuerit neque post umquam revocare licebit.”

tamquam in morte mali cum primis hoc sit eorum,

quod sitis exurat miseros atque arida torrat,

aut aliae cuius desiderium insideat rei.

nec sibi enim quisquam tum se vitamque requirit,

920cum pariter mens et corpus sopita quiesc*nt;

nam licet aeternum per nos sic esse soporem,

nec desiderium nostri nos adficit ullum.

et tamen haudquaquam nostros tunc illa per artus

longe ab sensiferis primordia motibus errant,

925cum correptus hom*o ex somno se colligit ipse.

multo igitur mortem minus ad nos esse putandumst,

si minus esse potest quam quod nil esse videmus;

maior enim turbae disiectus materiai

consequitur leto, nec quisquam expergitus exstat,

930frigida quem semel est vitai pausa secuta.

Denique si vocem rerum natura repente

mittat et hoc alicui nostrum sic increpet ipsa:

“quid tibi tanto operest, mortalis, quod nimis aegris

luctibus indulges? quid mortem congemis ac fles?

935nam si grata fuit tibi vita anteacta priorque

Footnotes

917torratQ, O corr., BL:torretOA:torreat(with synizesis) Gifanius:tortetN. H. Romanes, Notes on the Text of Lucretius (1934), anticipating M. L. West, CR N.S. 11 (1961) 203–204

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have laid themselves down at table and hold goblets

in their hands and shade their brows with garlands, that they often say from their hearts: “Short enjoyment is given to poor mankind; soon it will be gone, and none will ever be able to recall it.” As if

after death their chief trouble will be to be miserably consumed and parched by a burning thirst, a craving possess them for some other thing! In fact, no one feels the want of himself and his life when both mind and body alike are quiet in sleep; for all we care that sleep might be everlasting, and no craving for ourselves touches us at all; and yet those first-beginnings dispersed through our body are not straying far from sense-giving motions at the time when a man, startled from sleep, gathers himself together.aDeath therefore must be

thought of much less moment to us, if there can be anything less than what we see to be nothing; for a greater dispersion of the disturbed matter takes place at death, and no one awakens and rises whom the cold stoppage of life has once overtaken.

931Besides, suppose that nature should suddenly

utter a voice, and thus take her tum to upbraid one of usb: “What ails you so, O mortal, to indulge overmuch in sickly lamentations? Why do you groan aloud and weep at death? For if your former

life now past has been to your liking, if it is not true

Footnotes

aCf.4.916–918.

bBy the skilful rhetorical device of personifying Nature and makingherdeliver the sharp rebukes that follow (933–949, 955–962), Lucr. tactfully avoids offending Memmius and his other readers. Later (1024–1052) he puts a harsh rebuke into the mouth of Memmius himself—another effective device whereby he avoids giving offence.Cf.B. Farrington,Anales de Filología Clásica 1(1959) 29–30.

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et non omnia pertusum congesta quasi in vas

commoda perfluxere atque ingrata interiere,

cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis

aequo animoque capis securam, stulte, quietem?

940sin ea quae fructus cumque es periere profusa

vitaque in offensost, cur amplius addere quaeris,

rursum quod pereat male et ingratum occidat omne,

non potius vitae finem facis atque laboris?

nam tibi praeterea quod machiner inveniamque,

945quod placeat, nil est: eadem sunt omnia semper.

si tibi non annis corpus iam marcet et artus

confecti languent, eadem tamen omnia restant,

omnia si perges vivendo vincere saecla,

atque etiam potius, si numquam sis moriturus”;

950quid respondemus, nisi iustam intendere litem

naturam et veram verbis exponere causam?

955Grandior hic vero si iam seniorque queratur

952atque obitum lamentetur miser amplius aequo,

953non merito inclamet magis et voce increpet acri?

954955“aufer abhinc lacrimas, baratre, et compesce que-

rellas!

omnia perfunctus vitai praemia marces;

sed quia semper aves quod abest, praesentia temnis,

inperfecta tibi elapsast ingrataque vita,

et nec opinanti mors ad caput adstitit ante

960quam satur ac plenus possis discedere rerum.

Footnotes

941offensostQ, O corr. by Dungal, P:offensastCodex Musaei Britannici (Harleian 2554) (cf. Cicero, Att. 9.2a.2): offensustLambinus

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that all your blessings have been gathered as it were

into a riddled jar,aand have run through and been lost without gratification, why not, like a banqueter fed full of life, withdraw with contentment and rest in peace, you fool? But if all that you have enjoyed has been spilt out and lost, and if you have a grudge at life, why seek to add more, only to be miserably lost again and to perish wholly without gratification? Why not rather make an end of life and trouble? For there is nothing else I can devise and

invent to please you: everything is always the same. If your body is not already withering with years and your limbs worn out and languid, yet everything remains the same, even if you shall go on to outlive all generations, and even more if you should be destined never to die.” What have we to answer, but that nature urges against us a just charge and in her plea sets forth a true case?

952But if in this regard some older man, well

stricken in years, should make complaint, wretchedly bewailing his death more than he ought, would she not have reason to cry more loudly still and to upbraid in bitter words?b“Away, away with your tears, ruffian, check your lamentations! All life’s prizes you have enjoyed and now you wither. But because you always crave what you have not, and contemn what you have, life has slipped by for you incomplete and ungratifying, and death stands by your head unexpected, before you can retire glutted and full of the feast. But now in any case dismiss

Footnotes

aAn allusion to the story of the Danaids.Cf.1003–1010; also 6.20–21.

bCf.Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 47.III 10-IV.2 Smith: “How can we justly bring a complaint against nature, if someone who has lived for so many years and months and days [comes to his last day]?”

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nunc aliena tua tamen aetate omnia mitte

aequo animoque agedum iam annis concede: neces-

sest.”

iure, ut opinor, agat, iure increpet inciletque;

cedit enim rerum novitate extrusa vetustas

965semper, et ex aliis aliud reparare necessest;

nec quisquam in barathrum nec Tartara deditur atra:

materies opus est ut crescant postera saecla,

quae tamen omnia te vita perfuncta sequentur;

nec minus ergo ante haec quam tu cecidere, cadent-

que.

970sic alid ex alio numquam desistet oriri

vitaque mancipio nulli datur, omnibus usu.

respice item quam nil ad nos anteacta vetustas

temporis aeterni fuerit, quam nascimur ante.

hoc igitur speculum nobis natura futuri

975temporis exponit post mortem denique nostram.

numquid ibi horribile apparet? num triste videtur

quicquam? non omni somno securius exstat?

Atque ea nimirum quaecumque Acherunte pro-

fundo

prodita sunt esse, in vita sunt omnia nobis.

980nec miser inpendens magnum timet aere saxum

Tantalus, ut famast, cassa formidine torpens;

Footnotes

962agedumABF: agendumOQ: age nuncMerrill (1917) tentativelyiam annis (annis Merrill) A. Krokiewicz, Lucr. III, Lublin (1921), A. Traina, Maia 5 (1952) 283–287 (cf. M. F. Smith, CR N.S. 16 [1966] 264): magnisOQP:iam aliisMarullus:gnatisBernays

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all that does not befit your age, and with equanimity, come now, yield to your years: thus it must

be.” She would be right, I think, to bring her charge, right to upbraid and reproach. For the old order always passes, thrust out by the new, and one thing has to be made afresh from others; but no one is de livered into the pit of black Tartarus: matter is wanted, that coming generations may growa; and yet

they all, when their life is done, will follow you, and so, no less than you, these generations have passed away before now, and will continue to pass away. So one thing will never cease to arise from another, and no man possesses life in freehold—all as tenants.bLook back also and see how the ages of everlasting time past before we were born have been to us nothing. This therefore is a mirror which nature holds up to

us, showing the time to come after we at length shall die. Is there any thing horrible in that? Is there anything gloomy? Is it not more peaceful than any sleep?

978And assuredly whatsoever things are fabled to exist in deep Acheron, these all exist for us in this life. There is no wretched Tantalus,cas the story

goes, fearing the great rock that hangs over him in

Footnotes

aCf.1.263–264, 2.71–79.

bmancipiumis the legal process by which the full ownership of real property and slaves or animals is transferred:usus,the right of use, usufruct.

cAccording to Homer, Tantalus’ punishment was to stand up to his chin in water which receded whenever he stooped to drink, and to be surrounded by fruit-laden branches which, whenever he tried to pluck the fruit, the wind blew out of reach. However, because it better suits his allegorizing purpose (see especially D. West,The Imagery and Poetry of Lucretius98), Lucr. adopts the version of Tantalus’ punishment favoured by the Greek lyric and tragic poets (cf.Cicero,Fin.1.18.60,Tusc. Disp.4.16.35). For Diogenes of Oenoanda’s scorn for the Tityoses and Tantaluses in Hades, see on 876.

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Lucretius

sed magis in vita divom metus urget inanis

mortalis, casumque timent quem cuique ferat fors.

Nec Tityon volucres ineunt Acherunte iacentem

985nec quod sub magno scrutentur pectore quicquam

perpetuam aetatem possunt reperire profecto.

quamlibet immani proiectu corporis exstet,

qui non sola novem dispessis iugera membris

obtineat, sed qui terrai totius orbem,

990non tamen aeternum poterit perferre dolorem

nec praebere cibum proprio de corpore semper.

sed Tityos nobis hic est, in amore iacentem

quem volucres lacerant atque exest anxius angor

aut alia quavis scindunt cuppedine curae.

995Sisyphus in vita quoque nobis ante oculos est,

qui petere a populo fasces saevasque secures

imbibit et semper victus tristisque recedit.

nam petere imperium quod inanest nec datur um-

quam,

atque in eo semper durum sufferre laborem,

1000hoc est adverso nixantem trudere monte

saxum quod tamen e summo iam vertice rursum

volvitur et plani raptim petit aequora campi.

Deinde animi ingratam naturam pascere semper

atque explere bonis rebus satiareque numquam—

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the air and frozen with vain terror; rather it is in

this life that the fear of gods oppresses mortals without cause, and the fallathey fear is any that chance may bring.

984No Tityosblying in Acheron is rummaged by winged creatures, nor assuredly can they find in eternity anything at all to dig for deep in that vast breast. Wide as you will, let that huge body be spread forth, enough to cover not nine acres only with the outstretched limbs, but the whole globe of earth: yet he will not be able to bear pain for ever, nor to provide food from his own body always. But Tityos is here among us, the man who, as he liescin

love, is torn by winged creaturesdand devoured by agonizing anguish or rent by anxieties through some other passion.

995Sisyphusealso appears in this life before our

eyes, athirst to solicit from the people the lictor’s rods and cruel axes, and always retiring defeated and full of gloom: for to solicit power, an empty thing, which is never granted, and always to endure hard toil in the pursuit of it, this is to push laboriously up a hill the rock that still rolls down again from the very top, and in a rush recovers the levels of the open plain.f

1003Then to be always feeding an ungrateful mind,

yet never able to fill and satisfy it with good things—

Footnotes

aLucr. exploits the double meaning ofcasum= “mischance” (figurative) and “fall” (literal, in reference to the stone threatening Tantalus).Cf.992–994, 1002.

bA giant who tried to rape Leto. His punishment was to have two vultures eternally feeding on his liver. Lucr. follows the account of Homer,Od.11.576–581.

cThe repetition ofiacentemfrom 984 is deliberate.

dKenney has rightly argued thatvolucres,which in 984 = “birds,” here (993) refers to theCupidinesor “Loves.” See his commentary and, for a fuller discussion,PCPSN.S. 16 (1970) 44–47. However, it should be noted that the meaning had already been understood by Pius, who comments onvolucres: “curae et alati cupidines.”

eFor the punishment of Sisyphus,cf.Homer,Od.11.593–600, whom Lucr. follows.

fa*gain (cf.983, 992–994) a double meaning:plani raptim petit aequora campisuggests the candidate (petitor) hurrying back to the Campus Martius to seek re-election (see D. West,The Imagery and Poetry of Lucretius102). For the likelihood that a passage about Ixion has dropped out after 1002, see esp. H. D. Jocelyn,Acta Classica29 (1986) 49–51.

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1005quod faciunt nobis annorum tempora, circum

cum redeunt fetusque ferunt variosque lepores,

nec tamen explemur vitai fructibus umquam—

hoc, ut opinor, id est, aevo florente puellas

quod memorant laticem pertusum congerere in vas,

1010quod tamen expleri nulla ratione potestur.

Cerberus et Furiae iam vero et lucis egestas,

Tartarus horriferos eructans faucibus aestus—

qui neque sunt usquam nec possunt esse profecto.

sed metus in vita poenarum pro male factis

1015est insignibus insignis, scelerisque luella—

carcer et horribilis de saxo iactu’ deorsum,

verbera carnifices robur pix lammina taedae;

quae tamen etsi absunt, at mens sibi conscia factis

praemetuens adhibet stimulos torretque flagellis,

1020nec videt interea qui terminus esse malorum

possit nec quae sit poenarum denique finis,

atque eadem metuit magis haec ne in morte graves-

cant.

hic Acherusia fit stultorum denique vita.

Hoc etiam tibi tute interdum dicere possis:

1025“lumina sis oculis etiam bonus Ancu’ reliquit,

qui melior multis quam tu fuit, improbe, rebus.

inde alii multi reges rerumque potentes

Footnotes

1011Munro assumes a lacuna after this verse, and Bailey once argued for a lacuna after 1012. For the probability that some lines are indeed lost, see H. D. Jocelyn, Acta Classica 29 (1986) 47–49

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as the seasons of the year do for us when they come

round bringing their fruits and manifold charms, yet we are never filled with the fruits of life—this, I think, is meant by the tale of the damselsain the flower of their age pouring water into a riddled urn, which, for all their trying, can never be filled.

1011Cerberusbalso and the Furies and the with-holding

of light, and Tartarus belching horrible fires from his throat—these neither exist anywhere nor in truth can exist. But in this life there is fear of punishment for evil deeds, fear as notorious as the deeds are notorious, and atonement for crime—prison, and the horrible casting down from the Rock, stripes, executioners, condemned cell,cpitch, red-hot plates, firebrands; and even if these are absent, yet the guilty conscience, terrified before anything can come to pass, applies the goad and scorches itself with whips, and meanwhile does not see where can be the end to its miseries or the final limit to its punishment, and fears that these same afflictions may become heavier after death. The fool’s life at length becomes a hell on earth.

1024This thought also you may at times address to

yourselfd: “Even good Ancus has closed his eyes on the light,ewho was better than you, unconscionable man, in many ways.fAfter him many other

Footnotes

aThe Danaids.

bThe monstrous watch-dog at the entrance to the lower world.

croburalmost certainly refers to the Tullianum, the execution-cell of the prison at Rome. The most notable prisoners executed there were Jugurtha (104 b.c.) and the Catilinarian conspirators (63 b.c.).saxum(1016) is the Tarpeian Rock on the Capitol.

dSee note on 932.

eA quotation from Ennius,Ann.149V:postquam lumina sis oculis bonus Ancu’ reliquit.According to tradition, Ancus Marcius was the fourth king of Rome.

fCf.Homer,II.21.107: “Even Patroclus died, and he was a far better man than you.”

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occiderunt, magnis qui gentibus imperitarunt.

ille quoque ipse, viam qui quondam per mare magnum

1030stravit iterque dedit legionibus ire per altum

ac pedibus salsas docuit super ire lacunas

et contempsit equis insultans murmura ponti,

lumine adempto animam moribundo corpore fudit.

Scipiadas, belli fulmen, Carthaginis horror,

1035ossa dedit terrae proinde ac famul infimus esset.

adde repertores doctrinarum atque leporum,

adde Heliconiadum comites, quorum unus Homerus

sceptra potitus eadem aliis sopitu’ quietest.

denique Democritum postquam matura vetustas

1040admonuit memores motus languescere mentis,

sponte sua leto caput obvius obtulit ipse.

ipse Epicurus obit decurso lumine vitae,

qui genus humanum ingenio superavit et omnis

restinxit, stellas exortus ut aetherius sol.

1045tu vero dubitabis et indignabere obire,

mortua cui vita est prope iam vivo atque videnti,

qui somno partem maiorem conteris aevi

et vigilans stertis nec somnia cernere cessas

sollicitamque geris cassa formidine mentem

Footnotes

1042lumineOQP: limitePius (notes)

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kings and potentates have fallen, who ruled over

great nations. Even he himself,awho once paved a road across the great sea for his armies to pass over the deep, and taught them to walk on foot over the salt bays, and despised the roarings of the ocean as he trampled upon it with his cavalry, he also was robbed of the light and poured his spirit out of a dying body. The son of the house of Scipio, thunderbolt

of war,bterror of Carthage, gave his bones to the earth as though he had been the humblest menial. Add the inventors in the worlds of science and beauty,

add the companions of the Heliconian maids,cwhose one and only king, Homer, has been laid to rest in the same sleep with all the others. Democritus

again, when ripe old age warned him that the recording motions of his minddwere beginning to fail, of his own free will himself offered his head to death. Epicurus himself died when the light of life had run its course,ehe whose intellect surpassed humanity, who quenched the light of all as the risen sun of heaven quenches the stars. And will you hesitate,

will you be indignant to die? You whose life is now all but dead though you live and see, you who waste the greater part of your time in sleep, who snore

open-eyed and never cease to see dreams, who bear with you a mind plagued with vain terror, who often

Footnotes

aXerxes, who in 480 b.c. built a pontoon bridge over the Hellespont.

bProbably an imitation of Ennius (the end of 1035 is fromAnn.313V). Munro thinks that the comparison may have been suggested by a false derivation of Scipio from σκηπτός (= “thunderbolt”). The Scipio to whom Lucr. refers is the elder Africanus, who defeated Hannibal at Zama in 202 b.c.

cThe Muses.

dLucr. appropriately uses the language of an atomist to describe the failing powers of Democritus, who is said to have starved himself to death (cf.1041).

eThe only mention of Epicurus’ name in the entire poem. The editors point out thatdecurso lumineis a mixture of two metaphors,decurso spatioandextincto lumine.The combination results naturally from the conception of the sun (to which Epicurus is compared) as both lamp and chariot(eer):cf. e.g.5.397–404. 1043–1044 almost certainly owe something to the epigram on Homer by Leonidas of Tarentum(Anth. Pal.9.24)—an epigram of which the reference to Homer in 1037 perhaps put Lucr. in mind.

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1050nec reperire potes tibi quid sit saepe mali, cum

ebrius urgeris multis miser undique curis

atque animi incerto fluitans errore vagaris?”

Si possent homines, proinde ac sentire videntur

pondus inesse animo quod se gravitate fatiget,

1055e quibus id fiat causis quoque noscere et unde

tanta mali tamquam moles in pectore constet,

haud ita vitam agerent, ut nunc plerumque videmus

quid sibi quisque velit nescire et quaerere semper

commutare locum, quasi onus deponere possit.

1060exit saepe foras magnis ex aedibus ille,

esse domi quem pertaesumst, subitoque revertit,

quippe foris nilo melius qui sentiat esse.

currit agens mannos ad villam praecipitanter,

auxilium tectis quasi ferre ardentibus instans;

1065oscitat extemplo, tetigit cum limina villae,

aut abit in somnum gravis atque oblivia quaerit,

aut etiam properans urbem petit atque revisit.

hoc se quisque modo fugit, at quem scilicet, ut fit,

effugere haud potis est, ingratis haeret et odit,

1070propterea morbi quia causam non tenet aeger;

quam bene si videat, iam rebus quisque relictis

naturam primum studeat cognoscere rerum,

temporis aeterni quoniam, non unius horae,

Footnotes

1052animiLambinus:animoOQP

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cannot discover what is amiss with you, when you are oppressed, poor drunken wretch, by a host of cares on all sides, while you wander drifting on the wayward tides of impulse!”

1053Just as men evidently feel that there is a

weight on their minds which wearies with its oppression, if so they could also recognize from what causes it comes, and what makes so great a mountain of misery to lie on their hearts, they would not so live their lives as now we generally see them do, each ignorant what he wants,aeach seeking always to change his place as if he could drop his burden. The man who has been bored to death at home often goes forth from his great mansion, and then suddenly returns because he feels himself no better abroad. off he courses, driving his Gallic poniesbto his country house in headlong haste, as if he were bringing urgent help to a house on fire. The moment he has reached the threshold of the house, he yawns, or falls into heavy sleep and seeks oblivion, or even makes haste to get back and see the city again. Thus each man tries to flee from himself, but to that

self, from which of course he can never escape, he clings against his will, and hates it, because he is a sick man that does not know the cause of his complaint; for could he see that well, at once each would throw his business aside and first study to

learn the nature of things, since the matter in doubt is not his state for one hour, but for eternity, in what

Footnotes

aWith this passage Lambinus (Bailey credits Ernout with the quotation) compares Ennius,Sc.234–241V.

bNoted for their speed. With this whole passagecf.Matthew Arnold,Obermann Once More97–104: “In his cool hall, with haggard eyes, | The Roman noble lay; | He drove abroad in furious guise, | Along the Appian way. | He made a feast, drank fierce and fast, | And crown’d his hair with flowers— | No easier nor no quicker pass’d | The impracticable hours”

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1074ambigitur status, in quo sit mortalibus omnis

aetas, post mortem quae restat cumque, manenda.

Denique tanto opere in dubiis trepidare periclis

quae mala nos subigit vitai tanta cupido?

certa quidem finis vitae mortalibus adstat,

nec devitari letum pote quin obeamus.

praeterea versamur ibidem atque insumus usque,

1081nec nova vivendo procuditur ulla voluptas;

sed dum abest quod avemus, id exsuperare videtur

cetera; post aliud, cum contigit illud, avemus,

et sitis aequa tenet vitai semper hiantis.

posteraque in dubiost fortunam quam vehat aetas,

1086quidve ferat nobis casus quive exitus instet.

nec prorsum vitam ducendo demimus hilum

tempore de mortis nec delibare valemus,

quo minus esse diu possimus forte perempti.

1090proinde licet quot vis vivendo condere saecla:

mors aeterna tamen nilo minus illa manebit,

nec minus ille diu iam non erit, ex hodierno

lumine qui finem vitai fecit, et ille,

mensibus atque annis qui multis occidit ante.

Footnotes

1075manendaLambinus:manendoOQP

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state mortals must expect all time to be passed which remains after death.

1076Besides, what is this great and evil lust of life

that drives us to be so greatly agitated amidst doubt and peril? There is an end fixed for the life of mortals, and death cannot be avoided, but die we must. Again we move and have our being always amidst the same things, and by living we cannot

forge for ourselves any new pleasure; but while we have not what we crave, that seems to surpass all else; afterwards, when we have attained that, we crave something else; one unchanging thirst of life fills us and our mouths are for ever agape. And it is uncertain what fortune the next years may bring, what chance has in store, what end awaits us. And

by protracting life we do not deduct one jot from the duration of death, nor are we able to diminish that, so as to leave perhaps a shorter time after our taking off. Therefore you may live to complete as many generations as you will: nevertheless that everlasting death will still be waiting, and no less long a time will he be no more, who has made an end of life with to-day’s sun, than he who fell many a month and year before.

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Liber Quartus

Avia Pieridum peragro loca nullius ante

trita solo, iuvat integros accedere fontis

atque haurire, iuvatque novos decerpere flores

insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam

5unde prius nulli velarint tempora Musae:

primum quod magnis doceo de rebus et artis

religionum animum nodis exsolvere pergo,

deinde quod obscura de re tam lucida pango

carmina, musaeo contingens cuncta lepore.

10id quoque enim non ab nulla ratione videtur;

nam veluti pueris absinthia taetra medentes

cum dare conantur, prius oras pocula circum

contingunt mellis dulci flavoque liquore,

ut puerorum aetas inprovida ludificetur

15labrorum tenus, interea perpotet amarum

absinthi laticem deceptaque non capiatur,

sed potius tali pacto recreata valescat,

sic ego nunc, quoniam haec ratio plerumque videtur

tristior esse quibus non est tractata, retroque

20volgus abhorret ab hac, volui tibi suaviloquenti

carmine Pierio rationem exponere nostram

et quasi musaeo dulci contingere melle,

si tibi forte animum tali ratione tenere

Footnotes

8pango(cf. 1.933) ABCF: pandoOQL, Wakefield

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Book 4

A pathless country of the Pierides I traverse, where

no other foot has ever trod. I love to approach virgin springs, and there to drink; I love to pluck new flowers, and to seek an illustrious chaplet for my head from fields whence before this the Muses have crowned the brows of none: first because my teaching is of high matters, and I proceed to set free the mind from the close knots of superstition; next because the subject is so dark and the verses I write so clear, touching every part with the Muses’ grace. For even this seems not to be out of place; but as with children, when physicians try to administer rank wormwood, they first touch the rim of the cups all about with the sweet yellow fluid of honey, that unthinking childhood may be deluded as far as the lips, and meanwhile that they may drink up the bitter juice of wormwood, and though beguiled be not betrayed, but rather by such means be restored and regain health, so now do I: since this doctrine commonly seems somewhat harsh to those who have not used it, and the people shrink back from it, I have chosen to set forth my doctrine to you in sweet-speaking Pierian song, and as it were to touch it with the Muses’ delicious honey, if by chance in such a

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versibus in nostris possem, dum percipis omnem

25naturam rerum ac persentis utilitatem.

Atque animi quoniam docui natura quid esset

et quibus e rebus cum corpore compta vigeret

quove modo distracta rediret in ordia prima,

nunc agere incipiam tibi, quod vementer ad has res

30attinet, esse ea quae rerum simulacra vocamus;

quae, quasi membranae summo de corpore rerum

dereptae, volitant ultroque citroque per auras,

atque eadem nobis vigilantibus obvia mentes

terrificant atque in somnis, cum saepe figuras

35contuimur miras simulacraque luce carentum,

quae nos horrifice languentis saepe sopore

excierunt; ne forte animas Acherunte reamur

effugere aut umbras inter vivos volitare

neve aliquid nostri post mortem posse relinqui,

40cum corpus simul atque animi natura perempta

in sua discessum dederint primordia quaeque.

dico igitur rerum effigias tenuisque figuras

mittier ab rebus summo de corpore eorum;

id licet hinc quamvis hebeti cognoscere corde.

Footnotes

43eorum(cf. 101, 1.450) OQABL: rerum(cf. 64) Lachmann

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way I might engage your mind in my verses, while you are learning to understand the whole nature of things and perceive its utility.a

26Now, since I have explained what is the nature

of the mind, from what elements it takes its strength when combined with the body, and how when torn away from the body it returns to its first elements, you shall now see me begin to deal with what is of high importance for this subject, and to show that there exist what we call imagesbof things; which, like filmscdrawn from the outermost surface

of things, flit about hither and thither through the air; it is these same that, encountering us in wakeful hours, terrify our minds, as also in sleep, when we often behold wonderful shapes and images of the dead, which have often aroused us in horror while we lay languid in sleepd; lest by chance we should think that spirits escape from Acheron or ghosts flit about amongst the living, or that anything of us can be left after death, when body and mind both taken off together have dissolved abroad, each into its own first-beginnings. I say, therefore, that semblances and thin shapes of things are thrown off from their outer surface. This can be recognized by the dullest brain from what follows.

Footnotes

a1-25 = 1.926-950, except for minor variations in 11, 24, 25 and possibly (see critical notes) 8, 17.

bsimulacrais Lucr.’s most common term for what Epicurus calls εἴδωλα (“images”) or τύποι (“impressions”), and it is indeed a literal translation of εἴδωλα. Other words which Lucr. uses less frequently areimagines, effigiae, figurae.Thesimulacra,as he is going to explain, are fine atomic films constantly and rapidly discharged from the surface of all things. When the films, which are similar in shape to the objects from which they emanate, impinge on our eyes, they cause vision; when they enter our minds, they cause thoughts or dreams, according to whether we are awake or asleep.Cf.especially Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.46-52, Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 9 Smith, Usener 317–319.

cmembranae(cf.51, 59, 95) is no doubt a translation of ὑμένες, which, though it is not found in Epicurus’ extant works, occurs in Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 10. V.3 Smith.

dCf.1.132-135.

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45[Sed quoniam docui cunctarum exordia rerum

qualia sint et quam variis distantia formis

sponte sua volitent aeterno percita motu

quoque modo possit res ex his quaeque creari,

nunc agere incipiam tibi, quod vementer ad has res

50attinet, esse ea quae rerum simulacra vocamus,

quae quasi membranae vel cortex nominitandast,

quod speciem ac formam similem gerit eius imago

cuiuscumque cluet de corpore fusa vagari.]

Principio quoniam mittunt in rebus apertis

55corpora res multae, partim diffusa solute,

robora ceu fumum mittunt ignesque vaporem,

et partim contexta magis condensaque, ut olim

cum teretis ponunt tunicas aestate cicadae,

et vituli cum membranas de corpore summo

60nascentes mittunt, et item cum lubrica serpens

exuit in spinis vestem (nam saepe videmus

illorum spoliis vepres volitantibus auctas)—

quae quoniam fiunt, tenuis quoque debet imago

ab rebus mitti summo de corpore rerum.

65nam cur illa cadant magis ab rebusque recedant

quam quae tenvia sunt, hiscendist nulla potestas,

praesertim cum sint in summis corpora rebus

multa minuta, iaci quae possint ordine eodem

quo fuerint et formai servare figuram,

70et multo citius, quanto minus indupediri

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45[Butasince I have shown of what kind are the beginnings of all things, and in how varying and different shapes they fly of their own accord driven in everlasting motion, and how all things can be produced from these, you shall now see me begin to deal with what is of high importance for this subject, and to show that there exist what we term images of things, which are to be called as it were their films or bark, because the image bears a look and shape like the object, whatever it is, from whose body it is shed to go on its way.]

54In the first place, since amongst visible things

many throw off bodies, sometimes loosely diffused abroad, as wood throws off smoke and fire heat, sometimes more close-knit and condensed, as often when cicadas drop their neat coats in summer, and when calves at birth throw off the caul from their outermost surface, and also when the slippery serpent casts off his vesture amongst the thorns (for we often see the brambles enriched with their flying spoils): since these things happen, a thin image must also be thrown off from things, from the outermost surface of things. Why thin films should not fall and be thrown off from, things as much as those others,bno one could whisper a reason, especially since there are numerous minute bodies on the outermost side of things, which can be cast off in the same arrangement they were in before, preserving the shape of the object, and far more quickly, as, being fewcand

Footnotes

a45-53 are bracketed in both text and translation, because it is certain that Lucr. did not intend to retain them. They were evidently written at a time when his plan was that Book 4 should follow Book 2, for 45-48, which are, except for three minor variations, identical to 3.31-34, refer to the subject matter of Books 1-2. When he changed his plan, he wrote a new passage (26-44) in which he referred to the subject matter of Book 3 and included two lines (29-30) from the original passage (49-50). (Cf.J. Mewaldt,Hermes43 [1908] 283-295.)

bIf coarse things are thrown off, as they are, there is the more reason to suppose that fine films are discharged.

cFew in comparison with the many that compose a solid mass like a cast-off skin.

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pauca queunt et quae sunt prima fronte locata.

nam certe iacere ac largiri multa videmus,

non solum ex alto penitusque, ut diximus ante,

verum de summis ipsum quoque saepe colorem.

75et volgo faciunt id lutea russaque vela

et ferrugina, cum magnis intenta theatris

per malos volgata trabesque trementia flutant;

namque ibi consessum caveai subter et omnem

scaenai speciem †patrum matrumque deorum†

80inficiunt coguntque suo fluitare colore.

et quanto circum mage sunt inclusa theatri

moenia, tam magis haec intus perfusa lepore

omnia conrident correpta luce diei.

ergo lintea de summo cum corpore fucum

85mittunt, effigias quoque debent mittere tenvis

res quaeque, ex summo quoniam iaculantur utraque.

sunt igitur iam formarum vestigia certa

quae volgo volitant subtili praedita filo,

nec singillatim possunt secreta videri.

Praeterea omnis odor fumus vapor atque aliae res

91consimiles ideo diffusae e rebus abundant,

ex alto quia dum veniunt intrinsecus ortae,

scinduntur per iter flexum, nec recta viarum

ostia sunt qua contendant exire coortae.

Footnotes

71quae suntLachmann:suntOQP:sunt in(cf. 97) Q corr., AB

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stationed in the front rank, they are less able to be impeded. For assuredly we see many things cast off particles with lavish bounty, not only from the depths and from within (as we said before)abut from the outermost surface, amongst others colour not

seldom. This is often done by yellow and red and dark purple awnings, when outspread in the public view over a great theatrebupon posts and beams surface; they tremble and flutter; for then they dye, and force to flutter in their own colour, the assembly in the great hollow below, and all the display of the stage . . . . . . .; and the more the walls of the theatre are enclosed all round, the more all within laughs in the flood of beauty when the light of day is thus confined. Therefore, since canvas throws off colour from its outermost surface, everything else must also cast off thin

semblances, because in each case they throw off from the outermost surface. There are therefore fixed outlines of shapes and of finest texture which flit about everywhere, but singly and separately cannot be seen.

90Besides, all smell, smoke, heat and other such things stream away from objects all diffused abroad, for this reason, because they arise from the depths, and as they come forth they are torn up in their tortuous course, there being no direct openings to the paths to let them push out together when they have

Footnotes

aThe reference is to 56, where Lucr. mentions smoke and heat, but not until 90-94 does he explain that they come from deep inside things.

bRome’s first stone theatre was constructed in 55 b.c, so that Lucretius is presumably referring to temporary theatres with wooden seats and stage. Awnings were first used in 78 b.c. Sockets for the masts that supported the awnings can still be seen in some Roman theatres. See now R. Graefe,Vela erunt: die Zeltdächer der römischen Theater und ähnlicher Anlagen,Mainz (1979).

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95at contra tenuis summi membrana coloris

cum iacitur, nil est quod earn discerpere possit,

in promptu quoniam est in prima fronte locata.

Postremo speculis in aqua splendoreque in omni

quaecumque apparent nobis simulacra, necessest,

100quandoquidem simili specie sunt praedita rerum,

101ex ea imaginibus missis consistere eorum.

104sunt igitur tenues formae rerum similesque

105effigiae, singillatim quas cernere nemo

cum possit, tamen adsiduo crebroque repulsu

reiectae reddunt speculorum ex aequore visum,

nec ratione alia servari posse videntur,

tanto opere ut similes reddantur cuique figurae.

110Nunc age quam tenui natura constet imago

percipe. et in primis, quoniam primordia tantum

sunt infra nostros sensus tantoque minora

quam quae primum oculi coeptant non posse tueri,

nunc tamen id quoque uti confirmem, exordia rerum

115cunctarum quam sint subtilia percipe paucis.

Primum animalia sunt iam partim tantula, quorum

tertia pars nulla possit ratione videri.

horum intestinum quodvis quale esse putandumst?

119quid cordis globus aut oculi? quid membra? quid artus?

quantula sunt? quid praeterea primordia quaeque

Footnotes

101ex eaH. Lotze: exOQ: exinH. Purmann

104formae rerum similesqueH. Purmann, Munro:formarum dissimilesqueOQP:formarum illis similesqueLachmann

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gathered together. But contrariwise when a thin film of surface colour is thrown off, there is nothing to tear it up, since it lies in front and on the very outside.

98Lastly, whatever similitudes we see in mirrors,a

in water, in any bright surface, since they are possessed of the same appearance as the things, must consist of images thrown off from those things. There are therefore thin shapes and like semblances of things, which singly no one can perceive, yet being flung back by incessant and unremitting repulsion give back a vision from the surface of mirrors. Nor does there seem to be any other way in which they could be preserved so that figures so like each thing should be given back.

110Now listen and learn how thin the structure of

this image is.bAnd in the first place, since the first-beginnings are so far below our senses, and so much smaller than the point at which our eyes begin not to be able to see, now to confirm this yet further, let me explain in a few words how fine are the elements of all things.

116Firstly, there are some living creatures so small that their third part cannot possibly be seen. What must you suppose one of their guts is like? the ball of the heart, or the eyes? the limbs and members? How small are they? What further of the first-beginnings

Footnotes

aThe phenomenon of the mirror is introduced again in 150–167, 269–323.Cf.Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 9.1.4-12 Smith: “[And] often mirrors too will be my witnesses [that likenesses] and appearances are real [entities]. For what I say will certainly not be denied at all by the reflection which will give supporting evidence on oath in the mirrors.”

bFor the unsurpassed fineness of the images,cf.Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.47.

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unde anima atque animi constet natura necessumst?

nonne vides quam sint subtilia quamque minuta?

Praeterea quaecumque suo de corpore odorem

expirant acrem, panaces absinthia taetra

125habrotonique graves et tristia centaurea,

quorum unum quidvis leviter si forte duobus

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

quin potius noscas rerum simulacra vagari

multa modis multis nulla vi cassaque sensu?

Sed ne forte putes ea demum sola vagari,

130quaecumque ab rebus rerum simulacra recedunt,

sunt etiam quae sponte sua gignuntur et ipsa

constituuntur in hoc caelo qui dicitur aer,

135quae multis formata modis sublime feruntur;

133ut nubes facile interdum concrescere in alto

134135cernimus et mundi speciem violare serenam,

aera mulcentes motu; nam saepe Gigantum

ora volare videntur et umbram ducere late,

interdum magni montes avolsaque saxa

montibus anteire et solem succedere praeter,

140inde alios trahere atque inducere belua nimbos.

nec speciem mutare suam liquentia cessant

et cuiusque modi formarum vertere in oras.

Footnotes

126A lacuna after this line noted with a cross by Q corr. See note on translation

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which must compose the nature of their mind and spirit? Do you not see how fine and how minute they are?

123Besides, anything that exhales a pungent smell from its body, heal-all, rank wormwood, strong southernwood, bitter centaury, any one of which, if by chance [you hold it] lightly between two [fingers, will impart its smell to them; and yet the particles that cling to them are invisible.]a

1. . . but that you should rather recognize that many similitudes are moving about in many ways, without any intrinsic qualityband devoid of sensation.c

129But that you may not think these images which

pass off from things to be the only ones that move about, there are others which arise of themselves and are formed by themselves in this part of the sky called the aird; which formed in many ways are carried aloft: as we sometimes see clouds quickly massing together on high and marring the serene

face of the firmament, while they caress the air with their motion. For often giants’ countenances appear to fly over and to draw their shadow afar, sometimes great mountains and rocks torn from the mountains to go before and to pass by the sun, after them some monster pulling and dragging other clouds; they never cease to dissolve and change their shapes and tum themselves into the outlines of figures of every kind.

Footnotes

aAfter 126 a passage, probably of considerable length, is missing. The words in square brackets give the probable sense of the first part of the lost passage.

be.g.powers of speech or reasoning. Cf. Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 10.IV. 11–14 Smith.

ccassa ... sensu(128) means not “unable to be perceived”, but, as Pius says“vacua et privata sensu”.127–128 are the closing lines of an argument against the Democritean view thatsimulacraare sentient and rational. Cf. Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 10,43 Smith, and see A. Barigazzi,Emerita49 (1981) 1–15.

dThe formation of compound images in the air is mentioned by Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.48. The present passage should be compared with 732–748.

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Nunc ea quam facili et celeri ratione genantur

perpetuoque fluant ab rebus lapsaque cedant

. . . . . . .

145semper enim summum quicquid de rebus abundat

quod iaculentur. et hoc alias cum pervenit in res,

transit, ut in primis vitrum. sed ubi aspera saxa

aut in materiam ligni pervenit, ibi iam

scinditur, ut nullum simulacrum reddere possit.

150at cum splendida quae constant opposta fuerunt

densaque, ut in primis speculum est, nil accidit

horum;

nam neque, uti vitrum, possunt transire, neque autem

scindi; quam meminit levor praestare salutem.

quapropter fit ut hinc nobis simulacra redundent.

155et quamvis subito quovis in tempore quamque

rem contra speculum ponas, apparet imago;

perpetuo fluere ut noscas e corpore summo

texturas rerum tenuis tenuisque figuras.

ergo multa brevi spatio simulacra genuntur,

160ut merito celer his rebus dicatur origo.

et quasi multa brevi spatio summittere debet

lumina sol ut perpetuo sint omnia plena,

sic ab rebus item simili ratione necessest

temporis in puncto rerum simulacra ferantur

165multa modis multis in cunctas undique partis,

quandoquidem speculum quocumque obvertimus oris,

res ibi respondent simili forma atque colore.

Praeterea modo cum fuerit liquidissima caeli

Footnotes

144A lacuna after this line noted by Lachmann. The missing verse was perhaps similar or identical to 2.66expediam: tu te dictis praebere mementoor 4.931expediam: tu fac ne ventis verba profundam

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143Now [let me tell you] how easily and quickly

these images arise, constantly flowing off from things and gliding away.aFor there is always something streaming from the outermost surface of things for them to shoot off. And this when it meets some

things passes through, particularly through glass. But when it meets rough stone or solid wood, there at once it is broken, so that it can give back no image. But when the opposed object is bright and compact, as particularly a mirror, nothing happens of this sort; for the images cannot pass through as through glass, nor again can they be broken: so much safety the smoothness never forgets to afford. Therefore it follows that the images stream back from it upon us. And no matter how suddenly you

place any object before a mirror at any time, its image appears, so that you may recognize that there is a constant flow from the surface of things of thin textures and thin shapes. Therefore many images arise in brief space, so that there is good reason to call the origin of these things rapid. And just as the

sun must send up many lights in brief space, that all places may be full of them without a break, so in like manner from things also it must be that in a moment of time many images pass off in many ways and in all directions everywhere, since in whatever direction we tum the mirror to the shapes of things, something answers back of like form and colour.

168Besides, when the weather has but now been of

Footnotes

aEpicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.48, says that the creation of the images is as quick as thought.

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tempestas, perquam subito fit turbida foede,

170undique uti tenebras omnis Acherunta rearis

liquisse et magnas caeli complesse cavernas:

usque adeo taetra nimborum nocte coorta

inpendent atrae formidinis ora superne;

quorum quantula pars sit imago dicere nemost

175qui possit neque earn rationem reddere dictis.

Nunc age, quam celeri motu simulacra ferantur

et quae mobilitas ollis tranantibus auras

reddita sit, longo spatio ut brevis hora teratur,

in quem quaeque locum diverso numine tendunt,

180suavidicis potius quam multis versibus edam;

parvus ut est cycni melior canor, ille gruum quam

clamor in aetheriis dispersus nubibus austri.

Principio persaepe levis res atque minutis

corporibus factas celeris licet esse videre.

185in quo iam genere est solis lux et vapor eius,

propterea quia sunt e primis facta minutis

quae quasi cuduntur perque aeris intervallum

non dubitant transire sequenti concita plaga;

suppeditatur enim confestim lumine lumen,

190et quasi protelo stimulatur fulgere fulgur.

quapropter simulacra pari ratione necesse est

inmemorabile per spatium transcurrere posse

temporis in puncto, primum quod parvola causa

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the clearest, all on a sudden the sky becomes ugly

and turbid, so that you might think all the darkness had deserted Acheron from all sides and filled full the great caverns of the sky: so completely has the loathsome night of clouds gathered together, and black faces of fear hang over us on higha: of which clouds how small a fraction the image is, no man can tell orgiveany reasonable account.b

176Now listen: how rapid is the motion which

carries the images along, and what velocity has been given to them in swimming through the air, so that but a brief time is spent over a long space,cto whatever part they tend with diverse inclination, this I will tell in verses few but sweet-voiced, as the short song of the swan is better than that honking of cranes, spread abroad in the skyey clouds of the south.d

183In the first place, you may very often see that

things light and made of minute elements are rapid. An example of these is the sun’s light and his heat, because they are made of minute elements, which are as it were beaten with knocks, and do not hesitate to pass through the intervening air when struck by the blow of that which follows; for instantly light comes up behind light, and flash is pricked on by flash, as in a long team.eTherefore the images in like manner must be able to run through space inexpressible by words in a moment of time, first because

Footnotes

aCf.1.64-65 and see D. West,The Imagery and Poetry of Lucretius58. 170-173 = 6.251-254 with one minor variation.

bThe argument of 174-175 is compressed. The idea is that, if clouds can be formed so swiftly, the images (which are far, far smaller than clouds) will be formed with almost unimaginable rapidity.

cEpicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.47, states that the velocity of the images is unsurpassed.

d180-182 (=909-911) are, as Lambinus points out, very similar to lines of Antipater of Sidon (Anth. Pal.7.713.7-8).

eFor the literal meaning ofprotelumsee note on 2.531.

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est procul a tergo quae provehat atque propellat,

195quod superest, ubi tam volucri levitate ferantur,

deinde quod usque adeo textura praedita rara

mittuntur, facile ut quasvis penetrare queant res

et quasi permanare per aeris intervallum.

Praeterea si quae penitus corpuscula rerum

200ex altoque foras mittuntur, solis uti lux

ac vapor, haec puncto cernuntur lapsa diei

per totum caeli spatium diffundere sese

perque volare mare ac terras caelumque rigare,

quid quae sunt igitur iam prima fronte parata,

205cum iaciuntur et emissum res nulla moratur?

quone vides citius debere et longius ire

multiplexque loci spatium transcurrere eodem

tempore quo solis pervolgant lumina caelum?

Hoc etiam in primis specimen verum esse videtur

210quam celeri motu rerum simulacra ferantur,

quod simul ac primum sub diu splendor aquai

ponitur, extemplo caelo stellante serena

sidera respondent in aqua radiantia mundi.

iamne vides igitur quam puncto tempore imago

215aetheris ex oris in terrarum accidat oras?

quare etiam atque etiam mira fateare necessest

Footnotes

216miraOQP: mittiLambinus (not Lachmann as stated by most modern editors). Ifmirais retained, H. Purmann must be right in assuming a lacuna after 216, andmirawill have qualified (e.g.)mobilitatein the next line. Bailey makes216the start of a new passage, but, in view ofquare etiam atque etiam,this cannot be right. The new passage should begin before 217, but after 216, the opening of it being lost. 217-229 are repeated, with a few minor variations, in 6.923-935, and the reviser of this work thinks it most probable that217was preceded by two lines identical or almost identical to 6.921-922, and that those two lines were preceded by lines in which the new subject was introduced. Moreover, if the lossof a page of the archetype was responsible for the disappearance of the lines, it is possible that we have also lost an argument that intervened between the passage on the speed of the films and the passage on effluences

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there is a very small impulseafar behind which carries them on and pushes them on, also because they move with so swift a lightness, next because they are emitted with such a rarefied texture that they can easily penetrate anything, and as it were ooze through the intervening air.

199Besides, if those particles of things that are

sent forth from their depths, like the sun’s light and heat, are observed to glide and diffuse themselves abroad in a moment of time through the whole space of heaven, to fly over the sea and land and to flood the sky, what then of those which are ready on the very outside, when they are cast off and nothing impedes their discharge? Do you not see that they must travel so much the faster and farther, and run over many times the space in the same time as the sun’s light takes to spread abroad over the sky?

209This further seems a true and pre-eminent indication

to show with how rapid a motion the images are borne along, that as soon as the brightness of water is laid in the open air under a starry sky, at once the serene constellations of the firmament answer back twinkling in the water. Now do you see therefore how in an instant an image falls from the borders of heaven to the borders of earth? Therefore again and again I say you must confess

Footnotes

aThe reference is apparently to the constant vibration of the atoms of compound bodies, which causes the atoms on the surface of objects to be discharged assimulacra. parvolaprobably has concessive force.

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. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

corpora quae feriant oculos visumque lacessant.

perpetuoque fluunt certis ab rebus odores;

frigus ut a fluviis, calor ab sole, aestus ab undis

220aequoris exesor moerorum litora circum;

nec variae cessant voces volitare per auras;

denique in os salsi venit umor saepe saporis,

cum mare versamur propter, dilutaque contra

cum tuimur misceri absinthia, tangit amaror.

usque adeo omnibus ab rebus res quaeque fluenter

226fertur et in cunctas dimittitur undique partis,

nec mora nec requies interdatur ulla fluendi,

perpetuo quoniam sentimus, et omnia semper

cernere odorari licet et sentire sonare.

230Praeterea quoniam manibus tractata figura

in tenebris quaedam cognoscitur esse eadem quae

cernitur in luce et claro candore, necessest

consimili causa tactum visumque moveri.

nunc igitur si quadratum temptamus et id nos

235commovet in tenebris, in luci quae poterit res

accidere ad speciem quadrata, nisi eius imago?

esse in imaginibus quapropter causa videtur

cernundi neque posse sine his res ulla videri.

Nunc ea quae dico rerum simulacra feruntur

240undique et in cunctas iaciuntur didita partis;

verum nos oculis quia solis cernere quimus,

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[that the images move] with a marvellous [velocity].

[. . . . . . . .

In the first place, from everything we see there

must of necessity continually flow and discharge and scatter]abodies which strike our eyes and vision. And there is a continual flow of odours from certain things, as there is of cold from rivers, heat from the sun, surge from the waves of the sea, that devourer of walls about the shore. Manifold voices

also fly through the air without ever slackening. Again, a moisture salt to the taste often comes into our mouth when we walk by the sea, and when we see wormwood being mixed with water in our presence, we have a sense of bitterness. So true it is that from all things the different qualities pass off in a flow, and disperse in every direction around; there is no delay, no rest to interrupt the flow, since we constantly feel it, and we can at all times see all things, smell them, and perceive their sound.

230Besides, since a shape handled in the dark is

recognized to be the same which is seen in the clear light by day, it must be that touch and sight are moved by a like cause. Now, therefore, if we take hold of something square and it excites our feeling in the dark, in the light what square thing can fall upon our vision, if not an image of it? Therefore there is seen to be in images a cause of vision, and without these nothing can be seen.

239Now the images of things I speak of are being

carried all about and thrown off scattered abroad in all directions; but because it is only with eyes we

Footnotes

aOn the lacuna and its probable contents, see critical note on 216.

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propterea fit uti, speciem quo vertimus, omnes

res ibi earn contra feriant forma atque colore.

Et quantum quaeque ab nobis res absit, imago

245efficit ut videamus et internoscere curat;

nam cum mittitur, extemplo protrudit agitque

aera qui inter se cumque est oculosque locatus,

isque ita per nostras acies perlabitur omnis

et quasi perterget pupillas atque ita transit.

251250propterea fit uti videamus quam procul absit

250res quaeque; et quanto plus aeris ante agitatur

et nostros oculos perterget longior aura,

tam procul esse magis res quaeque remota videtur.

scilicet haec summe celeri ratione geruntur,

255quale sit ut videamus et una quam procul absit.

Illud in his rebus minime mirabile habendumst,

cur, ea quae feriant oculos simulacra videri

singula cum nequeant, res ipsae perspiciantur.

ventus enim quoque paulatim cum verberat et cum

261260acre fluit frigus, non privam quamque solemus

260particulam venti sentire et frigoris eius,

sed magis unorsum, fierique perinde videmus

corpore tum plagas in nostro tamquam aliquae res

verberet atque sui det sensum corporis extra.

265praeterea lapidem digito cum tundimus, ipsum

tangimus extremum saxi summumque colorem,

nec sentimus eum tactu, verum magis ipsam

duritiem penitus saxi sentimus in alto.

Nunc age, cur ultra speculum videatur imago

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can perceive them, therefore it happens that where we tum our sight, there all things strike upon it with shape and colour.

244And the image enables us to see and takes care

that we distinguish how far each thing is distant from us; for when it is sent off, at once it pushes and drives all the air that is between itself and our eyes, and thus this air all streams through our eyes and, as it were, brushes the pupils and thus passes through. This is how we come to see how far off each thing is; and the more air is driven before it, the longer the breeze that brushes our eyes, the more distant and far removed the thing is seen to be. Assuredly all

this passes in a supremely rapid manner, so that we see all at once both what it is and how far away.

256But in this regard it should not be thought at all wonderful why the objects themselvesaare per ceived, and yet the images that strike our eyes cannot be seen singly. For when the wind also beats

upon us little by little, and when sharp cold flows upon us, we are not accustomed to feel every single particle of that wind and that cold, but rather the whole at once, and we see that the blows take effect upon our body exactly as if some object were striking us and giving us the feeling of its own body outside. Besides, when we knock a stone with a toe, we touch just the uppermost surface of the stone, and the outermost colour, but we do not feel this by the touch, but rather we perceive the real hardness of the stone in its inmost depths.b

269Now listen while I tell why the image is seen

Footnotes

aStrictly speaking, we never see an object itself, but only the image produced by the continuous stream ofsimulacrafrom the object.

bThis example is more complex. We touch the surface colour, but we feel hardness (not the colour) by the combined effects of the lower strata.

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270percipe; nam certe penitus remmota videtur.

quod genus illa foris quae vere transpiciuntur,

ianua cum per se transpectum praebet apertum,

multa facitque foris ex aedibus ut videantur;

is quoque enim duplici geminoque fit aere visus:

275primus enim citra postes tum cernitur aer,

inde fores ipsae dextra laevaque sequuntur,

post extraria lux oculos perterget et aer

alter et illa foris quae vere transpiciuntur.

sic ubi se primum speculi proiecit imago,

280dum venit ad nostras acies, protrudit agitque

aera qui inter se cumquest oculosque locatus,

et facit ut prius hunc omnem sentire queamus

quam speculum; sed ubi speculum quoque sensimus

ipsum,

continuo a nobis illuc quae fertur imago

285pervenit, et nostros oculos reiecta revisit,

atque alium prae se propellens aera volvit,

et facit ut prius hunc quam se videamus, eoque

distare ab speculo tantum semota videtur.

quare etiam atque etiam minime mirarier est par,

. . . . . . .

290illis quae reddunt speculorum ex aequore visum,

aeribus binis quoniam res confit utraque.

Nunc ea quae nobis membrorum dextera pars est

in speculis fit ut in laeva videatur eo quod,

planitiem ad speculi veniens cum offendit imago,

Footnotes

270remmotaQ:remotaOP: semota(cf. 288) Marullus284 illucW. S. Watt, Mus. Helv. 47 (1990) 123:in eumOQP: in id haecLambinus (1570):in idemMunro:itidemC. L. Howard, CPhil. 45 (1961) 152-153

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beyond the mirror; for certainly it seems to be far

withdrawn. It is the same as with those objects which are seen in their realityathrough the doors outside, when the doorway provides an open view through it and allows us to see from the house many things outside. For this vision also is brought about

by two distinct stretches of air; for first in this case is seen the air on this side of the doors, next follows the door itself right and left leaf, afterwards the external light brushes the eyes, and the other air, and those things which are seen in their reality through the doors outside. So when the image of the mirror has first thrown itself forwards, while it is on the way to our eyes, it pushes and drives all the air that is between itself and our eyes, and makes us able to perceive all this before we perceive the mirror; but when we have perceived the mirror itself also, at once the image which is carried from us to the mirror reaches it, and being flung back, comes back to our eyes, rolling and propelling before it another air, and makes us see this before we see itself; and that is why it seems to be withdrawn so far off from the mirror. Therefore again and again I say, it is by no means right to wonder [that this happens both to those things which are seen through doors and also]bto those things which give back a vision from the surface of a mirror, since the whole is done by two airs in each case.

292Next, that which is the right side of our frame

appears in a mirror on the left, for this reason, that when the approaching image hits on the flat of the

Footnotes

aIn contrast with the images in the mirror.

bThe words in square brackets translate the line suppliedexempli gratiaby Bailey (see critical note).

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295non convertitur incolumis, sed recta retrorsum

sic eliditur, ut siquis, prius arida quam sit

cretea persona, adlidat pilaeve trabive,

atque ea continuo rectam si fronte figuram

323servet et elisam retro sese exprimat ipsa:

324300fiet ut, ante oculus fuerit qui dexter, ut idem

nunc sit laevus, et e laevo sit mutua dexter.

Fit quoque de speculo in speculum ut tradatur imago,

quinque etiam aut sex ut fieri simulacra suërint.

nam quaecumque retro parte interiore latebunt,

329305inde tamen, quamvis torte penitusque remota,

omnia per flexos aditus educta licebit

pluribus haec speculis videantur in aedibus esse:

usque adeo speculo in speculum translucet imago,

et cum laeva data est, fit rursum ut dextera fiat,

334310inde retro rursum redit et convertit eodem.

Quin etiam quaecumque latuscula sunt speculorum

adsimili lateris flexura praedita nostri,

dextera ea propter nobis simulacra remittunt,

aut quia de speculo in speculum transfertur imago,

339315inde ad nos elisa bis advolat, aut etiam quod

circum agitur, cum venit, imago propterea quod

flexa figura docet speculi convertier ad nos.

Indugredi porro pariter simulacra pedemque

ponere nobiscum credas gestumque imitari

344320propterea quia, de speculi qua parte recedas,

Footnotes

299-347Q corr. restores the correct order of lines. OQ have 299-322 and 323-347 (line numbers as given above on the right) in the wrong order, evidently because a loose leaf of the archetype had been turned the wrong way

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mirror, it is not turned round unaltered, but is thrust

out straight backwards, just as if someone should dash upon a pillar or beam some mask of plaster before it were dry, and if it should at once keep its shape undistorted in front and mould a copy of itself dashed backwards: it will happen that what was formerly the right eye now becomes the left, and that the left becomes right in exchange.

302An image may also be transmitted from mirror

to mirror, so that as many as five or six images have often been produced. For whatever lies hidden behind in the inner parts of a house, however tortuous and secluded be the ways in between, may yet be all brought out through these involved passages by means of a number of mirrors and seen to be in the house. So truly does the image shine across from mirror to mirror; and when it has been presented left, it becomes right again, then once more it comes back again and returns to the same position.

311Moreover, all mirrors that have little sides

curved in the same degree as our sides return the images right to our right,aeither for the reason that the image is carried across from one side of the mirror to the other and then flies to us after being twice dashed off, or indeed because the image is driven round when it has arrived, since the curved shape of the mirror teaches it to turn round towards us.

318Furthermore, when the images march along

with us and set down the foot with ours and mimic our gestures, you may believe the reason to be that from whatever part of the mirror you may move, at

Footnotes

aThe reference is to a horizontally concave mirror, which reflects the image twice (and therefore reverses it twice) so restoring it like the original. On the phenomenon described by Lucr. in 311-317, see especially Munro, Ernout-Robin, Leonard-Smith.

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continuo nequeunt illinc simulacra reverti,

omnia quandoquidem cogit natura referri

347ac resilire ab rebus ad aequos reddita flexus.

299Splendida porro oculi fugitant vitantque tueri.

300325sol etiam caecat, contra si tendere pergas,

propterea quia vis magnast ipsius et alte

aera per purum graviter simulacra feruntur

et feriunt oculos turbantia composituras.

praeterea splendor quicumque est acer adurit

305330saepe oculos ideo quod semina possidet ignis

multa, dolorem oculis quae gignunt insinuando.

Lurida praeterea fiunt quaecumque tuentur

arquati, quia luroris de corpore eorum

semina multa fluunt simulacris obvia rerum,

310335multaque sunt oculis in eorum denique mixta,

quae contage sua palloribus omnia pingunt.

E tenebris autem quae sunt in luce tuemur

propterea quia, cum propior caliginis aer

ater init oculos prior et possedit apertos,

315340insequitur candens confestim lucidus aer,

qui quasi purgat eos ac nigras discutit umbras

aeris illius; nam multis partibus hic est

mobilior multisque minutior et mage pollens.

qui simul atque vias oculorum luce replevit

320345atque patefecit quas ante obsederat aer

321ater, continuo rerum simulacra sequuntur

322quae sita sunt in luce, lacessuntque ut videamus.

Footnotes

345aerBernays: aterOP:a . erQ

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once the images are unable to return back from that part, since nature compels them all to be carried back and leap back from things, given back at equal angles.a

324Bright objects, moreover, the eyes avoid and

try not to see. The sun actually blinds if you persist in staring against it, because its own power is great, and from on high through the pure air the images come heavily rushing, and strike the eyes so as to disturb their structure. Besides, whatever brightness is fierce often burns the eyes, because it contains many seeds of fire which cause pain to the eyes by penetrating.

332Moreover, jaundiced persons see everything a

greenish-yellow, because many seeds of this greenish-yellow colour stream out from their bodies to meet the images of things, and besides many are mingled in their own eyes which by their contact paint every-thing with lurid hues.

337Again we see out of the dark what is in the

light, because, when the black air of darkness, being nearer, has entered our open eyes first and possessed them, there follows immediately a bright clear air, which as it were purges them and beats abroad the black shades of the first air; for this bright air is far more mobile and made of far more minute elements and more powerful. As soon as this has filled up again the channels of the eyesbwith light, and opened them out after being beset by that black air, at once those images of things follow that are in the

Footnotes

a“He refers no doubt to the angle of reflexion being equal to the angle of incidence” (Munro).

bBailey thinks thatvias oculorumprobably means “the ways to the eyes,”i.e.in the outer air, but this interpretation seems less natural.

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quod contra facere in tenebris e luce nequimus

propterea quia posterior caliginis aer

350crassior insequitur, qui cuncta foramina complet

obsiditque vias oculorum, ne simulacra

possint ullarum rerum coniecta movere.

Quadratasque procul turris cum cernimus urbis,

propterea fit uti videantur saepe rutundae,

355angulus obtusus quia longe cernitur omnis,

sive etiam potius non cernitur ac perit eius

plaga nec ad nostras acies perlabitur ictus,

aera per multum quia dum simulacra feruntur,

cogit hebescere eum crebris offensibus aer.

360hoc ubi suffugit sensum simul angulus omnis,

fit quasi ut ad tornum saxorum structa terantur—

non tamen ut coram quae sunt vereque rutunda,

sed quasi adumbratim paulum simulata videntur.

Umbra videtur item nobis in sole moveri

365et vestigia nostra sequi gestumque imitari

(aera si credis privatum lumine posse

indugredi, motus hominum gestumque sequentem;

nam nil esse potest aliud nisi lumine cassus

aer id quod nos umbram perhibere suëmus);

370nimirum quia terra locis ex ordine certis

lumine privatur solis quacumque meantes

officimus, repletur item quod liquimus eius,

propterea fit uti videatur, quae fuit umbra

corporis, e regione eadem nos usque secuta.

375semper enim nova se radiorum lumina fundunt

primaque dispereunt, quasi in ignem lana trahatur.

Footnotes

361teranturMunro:tuanturOQP(tuenturL):tuamurLachmann: rotenturMunro (notes): cf. Petron. fr. 29.3–4 nam turris, prope quae quadrata surgit, | detritis procul angulis rotatur

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light, and provoke us to see. But contrariwise we

cannot see out of the light what is in the darkness, for this reason, because a grosser air of the darkness follows second, which nils all pores and besets the passages of the eyes, that no images of anything when thrown upon them may move them.

353And when afar off we see the foursquare towers

of a city, they often appear to be round, for this reason, because every angle at a distance is seen blunted or rather it is not seen at all, its blow is lost and the stroke does not glide across to our eyes; because, while the images are rushing through a great space of air, the air with frequent buffetings forces it to become blunt. By this means when every angle at once has escaped our vision, the stone structures appear as though rounded on a lathe; not, however, like things that are close before us and really round, but they appear somewhat similar in a shadowy fashion.a

364Our own shadow also appears to move in

the sun, and to follow our footsteps, imitating our gestures (if you can imagine air without light able to march along, following the movements and gestures of men; for that which we are accustomed to call shadow can be nothing else but air without light); doubtless because the earth in certain spots one after another is deprived of the sun’s light wherever we in our course obstruct it, and what part of it we have left is filled up again, which causes it to seem that what was the shadow of our body remains the same and follows always opposite to us. For there are always new rays of light pouring out, and the first disappear

Footnotes

aCf. Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 69 Smith.

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propterea facile et spoliatur lumine terra

et repletur item nigrasque sibi abluit umbras.

Nec tamen hic oculos falli concedimus hilum.

380nam quocumque loco sit lux atque umbra tueri

illorum est; eadem vero sint lumina necne,

umbraque quae fuit hic eadem nunc transeat illuc,

an potius fiat paulo quod diximus ante,

hoc animi demum ratio discernere debet,

385nec possunt oculi naturam noscere rerum.

proinde animi vitium hoc oculis adfingere noli.

Qua vehimur navi, fertur, cum stare videtur;

quae manet in statione, ea praeter creditur ire.

et fugere ad puppim colles campique videntur

390quos agimus praeter navem velisque volamus.

Sidera cessare aetheriis adfixa cavernis

cuncta videntur, et adsiduo sunt omnia motu,

quandoquidem longos obitus exorta revisunt,

cum permensa suo sunt caelum corpore claro.

395solque pari ratione manere et luna videtur

in statione, ea quae ferri res indicat ipsa.

Exstantisque procul medio de gurgite montis

classibus inter quos liber patet exitus ingens,

insula coniunctis tamen ex his una videtur.

400Atria versari et circumcursare columnae

usque adeo fit uti pueris videantur, ubi ipsi

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like wool drawn into a flame.aThus the ground is easily robbed of its light, and again filled up as it washes off the black shadows.

379However, we do not grant that the eyes are

deceived in this one jot. For it is their task to see in what place light is, and where shadow; but whether it be the same light or not, whether the same shadow that was here now pass thither, or whether that happen rather which I said before, this nothing must decide but the mind’s reasoning power, and eyes cannot recognize the nature of things. Then do not impute to the eyes this fault of the mind.b

387A ship in which we sail moves on while it seems

to stand still, one which remains in its place is thought to pass by; and the hills and plains, which we row by or sail by, seem to be flying astern.

391The stars all seem to be fixed and stationary in the vaults of ether, yet all are in constant motion, since they rise and return to their far distant settings when they have traversed the sky with bright body. And the sun and moon in like manner appear to remain in their places, while experience proves that they move along.

397And mountains that stand up afar off from the

midst of the ocean, between which is a great channel wide enough for a fleet to pass freely through, these nevertheless seem to be joined into a single island.

400The room seems to children to be turning

round and the columns revolving when they themselves

Footnotes

aThere is always wool at the point where the flame is, looking the same but really different.

bThe function of the eyes is similar to that of a camera: it is simply to receive the images of objects; and, like the camera, the eyes are not at fault, if (e.g.) they receive a round image of a distant square tower (cf.353-363). If the owner of the eyes at once assumes that the distant tower really is round, the fault lies with his mind, whose function it is to interpret the information provided by his senses.Cf.462-468, Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.50-52,Sent.24, Diogenes Laertius 10.34.

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desierunt verti, vix ut iam credere possint

non supra sese ruere omnia tecta minari.

Iamque rubrum tremulis iubar ignibus erigere alte

405cum coeptat natura supraque extollere montes,

quos ibi tum supra sol montis esse videtur

comminus ipse suo contingens fervidus igni,

vix absunt nobis missus bis mille sagittae,

vix etiam cursus quingentos saepe veruti;

410inter eos solemque iacent immania ponti

aequora substrata aetheriis ingentibus oris,

interiectaque sunt terrarum milia multa

quae variae retinent gentes et saecla ferarum.

At conlectus aquae digitum non altior unum,

415qui lapides inter sistit per strata viarum,

despectum praebet sub terras impete tanto,

a terris quantum caeli patet altus hiatus,

nubila despicere et caelum ut videare et aperta

corpora mirande sub terras abdita cernas.

Denique ubi in medio nobis equus acer obhaesit

421flumine et in rapidas amnis despeximus undas,

stantis equi corpus transversum ferre videtur

vis et in adversum flumen contrudere raptim,

et, quocumque oculos traiecimus, omnia ferri

425et fluere adsimili nobis ratione videntur.

Footnotes

406ibied. Juntina:ubiOQP: tibiNaugerius, modern editors, butibiseems palaeographically preferable (for the corruption cf. e.g. 3.28, 5.100, 6.1218, 1231) and the emphatic combinationibi tumis appropriate in this description of a phenomenon that occurs briefly at a precise time

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have ceased to turn, so much so that they can hardly believe all the building is not threatening to fall in upon them.

404Again, when nature begins to uplift on high

the sun’s beam red with flickering fires, and to raise it above the mountains, those mountains which the sun then seems to be above, quite close and touching them with his hot fire, are scarcely distant from us a couple of thousand bowshots, often even scarcely five hundred throws of a javelin; but between them and the sun lie vast stretches of sea below the wide regions of the sky, between them are thrown many thousands of lands inhabited by manifold nations and tribes of wild beasts.

414But a puddle of water no more than one finger

deep, lying between the stones upon a paved street, offers a view downwards under the earth to as great a reach as the open heavens yawn on high, so that you seem to look down upon the clouds and heaven, and you see manifest objects miraculously buried beneath the earth.a

420Furthermore, when our spirited horse has stuck

fast in the middle of a river, and we have looked down upon the swift waters of the stream, while the horse stands there a force seems to be carrying his ways; body sideways and pushing it violently against the stream, and, wherever we tum our eyes, all seems to be rushing and flowing in the same way as we are.

Footnotes

aCf.Shelley,To Jane. The Recollection 53-58:“We paused beside the pools that lie | Under the forest bough, | Each seemed as ’twere a little sky | Gulfed in a world below; | A firmament of purple light | Which in the dark earth lay.”

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Porticus aequali quamvis est denique ductu

stansque in perpetuum paribus suffulta columnis,

longa tamen parte ab summa cum tota videtur,

paulatim trahit angusti fastigia coni,

430tecta solo iungens atque omnia dextera laevis,

donec in obscurum coni conduxit acumen.

In pelago nautis ex undis ortus in undis

sol fit uti videatur obire et condere lumen,

quippe ubi nil aliud nisi aquam caelumque tuentur;

435ne leviter credas labefactari undique sensus.

At maris ignaris in portu clauda videntur

navigia aplustris fractis obnitier undis.

nam quaecumque supra rorem salis edita pars est

remorum, recta est, et recta superne guberna;

440quae demersa liquore obeunt, refracta videntur

omnia converti sursumque supina reverti

et reflexa prope in summo fluitare liquore.

Raraque per caelum cum venti nubila portant

tempore nocturno, tum splendida signa videntur

445labier adversum nimbos atque ire superne

longe aliam in partem ac vera ratione feruntur.

At si forte oculo manus uni subdita subter

pressit eum, quodam sensu fit uti videantur

omnia quae tuimur fieri tum bina tuendo,

450bina lucernarum florentia lumina flammis

binaque per totas aedis geminare supellex

et duplicis hominum facies et corpora bina.

Footnotes

437undisF, Codex Musaei Britannici Butl. 11912, Marullus: undasOQABL:undaeLachmann

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426Again, a colonnade may be of equal line from

end to end and supported by columns of equal height throughout, yet, when its whole length is surveyed from one end, it gradually contracts into the point of a narrowing cone, completely joining roof to floor and right to left, until it has gathered all into the vanishing point of the cone.

432At sea sailors seem to perceive the sun to rise

out of the water and to set in the water, and there to hide its light, naturally because they behold nothing but water and sky, that you may not lightly believe the credit of their senses to be utterly shaken.

436Then those ignorant of the sea think that ships in harbour are maimed and struggling against the waves with stern-fittings broken. For whatever part

of the oars is raised above the sea waterais straight, and the rudders above are straight; but whatever is submerged under water seems to be all broken back and wrenched and turned flat upwards and thus bent back to be almost floating upon the flood.

443And when the winds carry scattered clouds

across the sky in the night time, then the shining stars seem to glide against the clouds and to pass above them in a very different direction from their true one.

447Then, if by chance a hand be put beneath one

eye and press it beneath, a certain sensation follows which makes it appear that all we look at grows double then and there as we look: two lamps flowering with flames, the furniture all over the house multiplied by two, men with double faces and two bodies each.

Footnotes

aRouse’s translation ofrorem salis.However,rosis probably (see note on 1.496) more than a mere synonym for water. Here perhaps “dew-sparkling brine” (M. F. Smith).

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Denique cum suavi devinxit membra sopore

somnus, et in summa corpus iacet omne quiete,

455tum vigilare tamen nobis et membra movere

nostra videmur, et in noctis caligine caeca

cernere censemus solem lumenque diurnum,

conclusoque loco caelum mare flumina montis

mutare et campos pedibus transire videmur,

460et sonitus audire, severa silentia noctis

undique cum constent, et reddere dicta tacentes.

Cetera de genere hoc mirande multa videmus,

quae violare fidem quasi sensibus omnia quaerunt—

nequiquam, quoniam pars horum maxima fallit

465propter opinatus animi quos addimus ipsi,

pro visis ut sint quae non sunt sensibu’ visa.

nam nil aegrius est quam res secernere apertas

ab dubiis, animus quas ab se protinus addit.

Denique nil sciri siquis putat, id quoque nescit

470an sciri possit, quoniam nil scire fatetur.

hunc igitur contra mittam contendere causam,

qui capite ipse sua in statuit vestigia sese.

et tamen hoc quoque uti concedam scire, at id ipsum

quaeram, cum in rebus veri nil viderit ante,

475unde sciat quid sit scire et nescire vicissim,

Footnotes

471mittamMarullus:mituamOQ:mutuamP:minuam (cf. 2.1029) Palmerius (see Havercamp), Martin: metuamGronovius (see Havercamp) tentatively

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453Further, when sleep has fast bound our limbs

with sweet drowsiness, and our whole body lies in profound quiet, yet we seem to ourselves then to be awake and to move our limbs, and in the blind darkness of night we think that we see the sun and the light of day, and we seem to exchange our narrow room for sky and sea, rivers and mountains,aand traverse plains afoot, and to hear sounds though the stern silence of night reigns everywhere, and to utter speech while saying nothing.

462We see in marvellous fashion many things besides

of this kind, which all try as it were to break the credit of our senses; but all in vain, since the most part of them deceives because of opinions of the mind which we bring to them ourselves, so that things are held to be seen which have not been seen by our senses. For nothing is more difficult than to distinguish plain things from doubtful things which the mind of itself adds at once.

469Moreover, if anyone thinks that nothing is

known, he does not even know whether that can be known, since he declares that he knows nothing.bI will therefore spare to plead cause against a man who has placed his head in his own footsteps.cAnd yet even if I grant that he knows that, still I will ask just this: since material things had no truth for his vision to begin with, how he knows what it is to know or not to know as the case may be, what

Footnotes

aIt is probable that editors and translators have misunderstood the construction in 458 and the meaning ofmutarein 459, and that H. Jacobson,CPhil.61 (1966) 155-156 is right in suggesting that there is amutare aliquid aliqua reconstruction, as in Horace,Carm.1.17.1-2.

bAlthough Lucr.’s argument against scepticism is undoubtedly derived from Epicurus, that does not mean that he is not aiming it at contemporary sceptics. See A. Barigazzi in Assoc. G. Budé, Actes du VIIIeCongres 286-292.

cOn 472, see M. F. Burnyeat inPhilologus122 (1978) 197-206.

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notitiam veri quae res falsique crearit,

et dubium certo quae res differre probarit.

Invenies primis ab sensibus esse creatam

notitiem veri neque sensus posse refelli.

480nam maiore fide debet reperirier illud,

sponte sua veris quod possit vincere falsa.

quid maiore fide porro quam sensus haberi

debet? an ab sensu falso ratio orta valebit

dicere eos contra, quae tota ab sensibus orta est?

485qui nisi sunt veri, ratio quoque falsa fit omnis.

an poterunt oculos aures reprehendere, an aures

tactus? an hunc porro tactum sapor arguet oris,

an confutabunt nares oculive revincent?

non, ut opinor, ita est. nam seorsum cuique potestas

490divisast, sua vis cuiquest, ideoque necesse est

et quod molle sit et gelidum fervensve seorsum

et seorsum varios rerum sentire colores

et quaecumque coloribu’ sint coniuncta videre.

seorsus item sapor oris habet vim, seorsus odores

495nasc*ntur, sorsum sonitus. ideoque necesse est

non possint alios alii convincere sensus.

nec porro poterunt ipsi reprehendere sese,

aequa fides quoniam debebit semper haberi.

proinde quod in quoquest his visum tempore, verumst.

500Et si non poterit ratio dissolvere causam,

cur ea quae fuerint iuxtim quadrata, procul sint

Footnotes

491seorsumBentley: videriOQP, Wakefield, Merrill (1917): videreMartin

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gave him the conceptaof true and false, what evidence proved that the doubtful differs from the certain.

478You will find that it is from the senses in the

first instance that the concept of truth has come, and that the senses cannot be refuted.bFor some standard must be found of greater credit, able of itself to refute false things by true. What, moreover, must be held to be of greater credit than the senses? Shall reasoning, derived from false sense, prevail

against these senses, being itself wholly derived from the senses? For unless they be true, all reasoning is false. Will the ear be able to convict the eye, or the touch the ear? Will the taste of the mouth again refute the touch, will nose confound it, or eye disprove it? Not so, I think. For each has its own separate function, each its own power, and it is therefore necessary to decide what is soft and cold or hot by a separate sense, and by a separate sense to perceive the various colours of things and to see whatever is involved in colour.cFor the taste of the mouth has power on a separate sense, smell arises for a separate sense, sound for another. Therefore it is necessary that one sense cannot refute another. Nor furthermore will they be able to convict themselves,

since equal credit must always be allowed to them.dAccordingly, what has seemed to these at any given time to be true, is true.

500And if reasoning shall be unable fully to explain the cause why things that were square close at hand

Footnotes

aSee note on 2.745.

bFor the fundamentally important Epicurean doctrine that sensation is the primary standard of truth, and that there is no other criterion by which it can be refuted,cf.especially Diogenes Laertius 10.31–32; alsoe.g.Epicurus,Sent.23, Lucr. 1.422–425, 699–700, Cicero,Fin.1.19.64.

cThat is, shape.

dThat is, one sense cannot refute its own evidence at another time.

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visa rutunda, tamen praestat rationis egentem

reddere mendose causas utriusque figurae,

quam manibus manifesta suis emittere quoquam

505et violare fidem primam et convellere tota

fundamenta quibus nixatur vita salusque.

non modo enim ratio ruat omnis, vita quoque ipsa

concidat extemplo, nisi credere sensibus ausis

praecipitisque locos vitare et cetera quae sint

510in genere hoc fugienda, sequi contraria quae sint.

illa tibi est igitur verborum copia cassa

omnis, quae contra sensus instructa paratast.

Denique ut in fabrica, si pravast regula prima,

normaque si fallax rectis regionibus exit,

515et libella aliqua si ex parti claudicat hilum,

omnia mendose fieri atque obstipa necesse est

prava cubantia prona supina atque absona tecta,

iam ruere ut quaedam videantur velle, ruantque,

prodita iudiciis fallacibus omnia primis,

520sic igitur ratio tibi rerum prava necessest

falsaque sit, falsis quaecumque ab sensibus ortast.

Nunc alii sensus quo pacto quisque suam rem

sentiat, haudquaquam ratio scruposa relicta est.

Principio auditur sonus et vox omnis, in auris

525insinuata suo pepulere ubi corpore sensum.

corpoream quoque enim vocem constare fatendumst

et sonitum, quoniam possunt inpellere sensus.

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seem to be round at a distance, yet it is better that

one who finds no reason explain the shape of either figure in a faulty manner, rather than anywhere to let slip from your hands the holdfast or the obvious,aand to break the credit from which all begins, and to tear up all the foundations upon which life and existence rest. For not only would all reasoning come to ruin, but life itself would at once collapse, unless you make bold to believe the senses, avoiding precipices and all else that must be eschewed of that sort, and following what is contrary. Therefore, believe me, vain is all that array of words which has been prepared and marshalled against the senses.

513Lastly, as in a building, if the original rulebis

warped, if the square is faulty and deviates from straight lines, if the level is a trifle wrong in any part, the whole house will necessarily be made in a faulty fashion and be falling over, warped, sloping, leaning forward, leaning back, all out of proportion, so that some parts seem about to collapse on the instant, and some do collapse, all betrayed by false principles at the beginning. So therefore your reasoning about things must be warped and false whenever it is based upon false senses.

522Next our reasoning has no stony path to tread,

in showing how each of the other senses perceives its own object.

524In the first place, every sound and voice is

heard, when creeping into the ears they have struck with their body upon the sense.cFor we must confess that voice and sound also are bodily, since they can strike upon the sense.

Footnotes

aThere is a play uponmanibusandmanifesta.

bregula (cf.Cicero,Fin.1.19.63) = κανών literally a mason’s or carpenter’s “rule” or “straight-edge,” the title of a work (cf.Diogenes Laertius 10.31) in which Epicurus expounded his epistemology τὸ κανονικόν. Thus the comparison between sound rules of investigation and sound methods of building is not Lucr.’s own invention.

cEpicurus deals with hearing inEp. ad Hdt. 52-53.

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Praeterea radit vox fauces saepe, facitque

asperiora foras gradiens arteria clamor,

530quippe per angustum turba maiore coorta

ire foras ubi coeperunt primordia vocum,

scilicet expletis quoque ianua raditur oris.

haud igitur dubiumst quin voces verbaque constent

corporeis e principiis, ut laedere possint.

535Nec te fallit item quid corporis auferat et quid

detrahat ex hominum nervis ac viribus ipsis

perpetuus sermo nigrai noctis ad umbram

aurorae perductus ab exoriente nitore,

praesertim si cum summost clamore profusus.

540ergo corpoream vocem constare necessest,

multa loquens quoniam amittit de corpore partem.

551Asperitas autem vocis fit ab asperitate

552principiorum, et item levor levore creatur.

542nec simili penetrant auris primordia forma,

545cum tuba depresso graviter sub murmure mugit

et reboat raucum retro cita barbara bombum,

545et †validis necti tortis† ex Heliconis

cum liquidam tollunt lugubri voce querellam.

Hasce igitur penitus voces cum corpore nostro

550exprimimus rectoque foras emittimus ore,

mobilis articulat verborum daedala lingua

550formaturaque labrorum pro parte figurat.

Footnotes

546reboatQ corr., B:revoratOQ: revocatAFretroOQP: regioLachmann

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528Besides, the voice often scrapes the gullet, and

a cry issuing forth makes the windpipe rougher; for when the first-beginnings of voice gathering in larger quantity begin to issue forth through the narrow passage, naturally the gateway of the mouth also is scraped when the gullet is filled full. There is therefore no doubt that voices and words to be able to hurt consist of bodily elements.

535Nor do you fail to see also how much body is

taken away, what is drawn away from a man’s very sinews and strength, by a speech which is drawn out uninteirupted from the rising gleam of dawn to the shades of black night, especially if it is poured forth with a great volume of sound. Therefore the voice must be bodily, since by much speaking a man loses a part of his body.

542The roughness of voice, moreover, comes from

roughness of the elements, as also smoothness from smoothness. The elements that penetrate the ear are not of like shape when the barbarous horn bellows with low and hollow roar and is re-echoed with a hoarse reverberating boom, and when from the winding valleys of Helicon the swansauplift the mournful tone of their melodious lament.

549When therefore we press out these voices from

the inmost parts of our body, and send them forth straight through the mouth, the quickly-moving tongue, cunning fashioner of words, joints and moulds the sounds, and the shaping of the lips does its part

Footnotes

aFor the text translated in 547, see critical note.

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hoc ubi non longum spatiumst unde illa profecta

perveniat vox quaeque, necessest verba quoque ipsa

555plane exaudiri discernique articulatim;

servat enim formaturam servatque figuram.

at si interpositum spatium sit longius aequo,

aera per multum confundi verba necessest

et conturbari vocem, dum transvolat auras.

560ergo fit sonitum ut possis sentire neque illam

internoscere, verborum sententia quae sit:

usque adeo confusa venit vox inque pedita.

Praeterea verbum saepe unum perciet auris

omnibus in populo, missum praeconis ab ore.

565in multas igitur voces vox una repente

diffugit, in privas quoniam se dividit auris,

obsignans formam verbis clarumque sonorem.

at quae pars vocum non auris incidit ipsas,

praeterlata perit frustra diffusa per auras:

570pars, solidis adlisa locis, reiecta sonorem

reddit et interdum frustratur imagine verbi.

Quae bene cum videas, rationem reddere possis

tute tibi atque aliis, quo pacto per loca sola

saxa paris formas verborum ex ordine reddant,

575palantis comites cum montis inter opacos

quaerimus et magna dispersos voce ciemus.

sex etiam aut septem loca vidi reddere voces,

unam cum iaceres: ita colles collibus ipsi

verba repulsantes iterabant docta referri.

Haec loca capripedes satyros nymphasque tenere

581finitimi fingunt, et faunos esse loquuntur,

quorum noctivago strepitu ludoque iocanti

Footnotes

553illaOQP:unaBentley

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in giving them form. When there is no long race for

each of those utterances to run from start to finish, the words themselves also must necessarily be plainly heard and distinguished in all their joints and moulding; for the sound keeps its shaping and keeps its form. But if the intervening space is longer than it should be, the words passing through much air must necessarily be confused together and the voice blurred while it flies through the air. Therefore it follows that you can perceive a sound, and yet not distinguish what is the meaning of the words: so confused is the voice when it arrives and so hampered.

563Besides, one word often awakens the ears of a whole crowd when uttered by the crier’s lips. Therefore one voice is dispersed suddenly into many voices,

since it distributes itself amongst many separate ears, stamping on the words a shape and clear sound. But those of the voices which do not fall quite into the ears, are carried past and lost, being scattered abroad without effect into the air; some, dashed upon solid places and thrown back, give back a sound and at times delude with the image of a word.

572When you perceive this well, you may be able to give a reason to yourself and others, how it is in solitary places that the rocks give back the same

shapes of words in their order, when we seek straying comrades amongst the shady mountains and call loudly upon them to all sides. I have even seen places give back six or seven cries, when you uttered one: so did hill to hill themselves buffet back and repeat the words thus trained to come back.

580Such places the neighbours imagine to be

haunted by goatfoot satyrs and nymphs, and they say there are fauns, by whose night-wandering noise

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adfirmant volgo taciturna silentia rumpi,

chordarumque sonos fieri dulcisque querellas,

585tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum,

et genus agricolum late sentiscere, quom Pan,

pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans,

unco saepe labro calamos percurrit hiantis,

fistula silvestrem ne cesset fundere musam.

cetera de genere hoc monstra ac portenta loquuntur,

591ne loca deserta ab divis quoque forte putentur

sola tenere. ideo iactant miracula dictis

aut aliqua ratione alia duc*ntur, ut omne

humanum genus est avidum nimis auricularum.

595Quod superest, non est mirandum qua ratione,

per loca quae nequeunt oculi res cernere apertas,

haec loca per voces veniant aurisque lacessant.

conloquium clausis foribus quoque saepe videmus,

nimirum quia vox per flexa foramina rerum

600incolumis transire potest, simulacra renutant;

perscinduntur enim, nisi recta foramina tranant,

qualia sunt vitri, species qua travolat omnis.

Praeterea partis in cunctas dividitur vox,

ex aliis aliae quoniam gignuntur, ubi una

605dissiluit semel in multas exorta, quasi ignis

saepe solet scintilla suos se spargere in ignis.

ergo replentur loca vocibus abdita retro,

omnia quae circumfervunt sonituque cientur.

at simulacra viis derectis omnia tendunt

610ut sunt missa semel; quapropter cernere nemo

Footnotes

608fervuntMunro:fueruntOQBL, Merrill (1917), Ernout: fuerintAF

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and jocund play they commonly declare the voiceless silence to be broken,awith the sound of strings and sweet plaintive notes, which the pipe sends forth touched by the player’s fingersb; they tell how the farmers’ men all over the countryside listen, while Pan, shaking the pine leaves that cover his half-human head, often runs over the open reeds with curved lips, that the panpipes may never slacken in their flood of woodland music. All other signs and wonders of this sort they relate, that they may not perhaps be thought to inhabit a wilderness which even the gods have left. This is why they bandy about these miraculous tales, or they are led by some other reason, since all mankind are too greedy for ears to tickle.c

595To proceed: there is no need to wonder how

pass voices pass and assail the ears through places through which the eves cannot see plain objects. We often witness a conversation going on behind closed doors, of course because the voice can pass unimpaired through tortuous passages in a substance, while images refuse: for they are split up, unless they have straight passages to swim through, such as those of glass through which every appearance can fly.

603Besides, a voice is distributed abroad in all

directions, since voices beget other voices when one voice uttered has once leapt asunder into many, just as a spark of fire is often accustomed to scatter itself into fires of its own. Therefore places hidden away from sight are filled with voices, and all boil and stir round about with sound. But all images tend straight forwards when once they are sped; therefore no one

Footnotes

aCf.Milton,Paradise Lost1.781-784: “... or faëry elves | Whose midnight revels, by a forest side | Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, | Or dreams he sees.”

b585 = 5.1385.

cOrauricularummay be a gen. of respect or reference: “since all mankind are too greedy-eared”.

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saepe supra potis est, at voces accipere extra.

et tamen ipsa quoque haec, dum transit clausa do-

morum,

vox obtunditur atque auris confusa penetrat

et sonitum potius quam verba audire videmur.

615Nec, qui sentimus sucum, lingua atque palatum

plusculum habent in se rationis plus operaeve.

Principio sucum sentimus in ore, cibum cum

mandendo exprimimus, ceu plenam spongiam aquai

siquis forte manu premere ac siccare coëpit.

620inde quod exprimimus per caulas omne palati

diditur et rarae per flexa foramina linguae.

hoc ubi levia sunt manantis corpora suci,

suaviter attingunt et suaviter omnia tractant

umida linguai circum sudantia templa.

625at contra pungunt sensum lacerantque coorta,

quanto quaeque magis sunt asperitate repleta.

Deinde voluptas est e suco fine palati;

cum vero deorsum per fauces praecipitavit,

nulla voluptas est, dum diditur omnis in artus.

630nec refert quicquam quo victu corpus alatur,

dummodo quod capias concoctum didere possis

artubus et stomachi validum servare tenorem.

Footnotes

611saepe supraOQP, N. P. Howard, Journ. Phil. 1(1868) 131, Bailey, Merrill (1917), Diels, Martin, R. Waltz, Rev. Ét. Lat. 29 (1951) 191-193, Büchner,saepebeing taken either as a noun (cf.praesaepe)or (with less probability) as the adverb: saepta supraWakefield, perhaps rightly

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can see over a wall, though he can hear voices through it. And yet even the voice itself, in passing the walls of a house, is blunted and confused when it penetrates the ear, and we seem to hear sound rather than words.

615Nor need one jot more of reasoning be added,

or any more trouble, to explain the tongue and palate, by which we perceive flavours.

617In the first place, we perceive flavour in the mouth while we squeeze it out in munching the food, as if one by chance takes in hand a sponge full of water and begins to press it dry. Then that which we squeeze out is distributed abroad through all the pores of the palate and the tortuous passages of the spongy tongue. Therefore, when the bodies of the

oozing juice are smooth, sweetly they touch and sweetly stroke all the wet trickling regions around the tongue. But contrariwise they prick the sense and tear it as soon as they arise, in proportion as they are more full of roughness.

627Again, the pleasure that comes from flavour does not go beyond the palate; but when it has dropped down through the throat, there is no

pleasure while it is all being distributed abroad through the frame. Nor does it matter at all with what food the body is nourished, so long as you can digest what you take, and distribute it abroad through the limbs, and keep the stomach in a constantly healthy condition.

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Nunc aliis alius qui sit cibus ut videamus

expediam, quareve, aliis quod triste et amarumst,

635hoc tamen esse aliis possit perdulce videri.

tantaque in his rebus distantia differitasque est

ut quod aliis cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum.

est itaque et serpens, hominis quae tacta salivis

disperit ac sese mandendo conficit ipsa.

640praeterea nobis veratrum est acre venenum,

at capris adipes et cocturnicibus auget.

Id quibus ut fiat rebus cognoscere possis,

principio meminisse decet quae diximus ante,

semina multimodis in rebus mixta teneri.

porro omnes quaecumque cibum capiunt animantes,

646ut sunt dissimiles extrinsecus et generatim

extima membrorum circumcaesura coercet,

proinde et seminibus constant variante figura.

semina cum porro distent, differre necessest

650intervalla viasque, foramina quae perhibemus,

omnibus in membris et in ore ipsoque palato.

esse minora igitur quaedam maioraque debent,

esse triquetra aliis, aliis quadrata necessest,

multa rutunda, modis multis multangula quaedam.

655namque figurarum ratio ut motusque reposc*nt,

proinde foraminibus debent differre figurae,

et variare viae proinde ac textura coercet.

hoc ubi quod suave est aliis aliis fit amarum,

illi, cui suave est, levissima corpora debent

Footnotes

633cibus ut videamusOQP: cibu’ suavis et almusMunro: a lacuna after 633 assumed by Brieger

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633Next I will explain and enable us to see how

different food is suited to different creatures, and why what is sour and bitter for some may yet seem very delicious to others. Indeed, there is so great a difference and distinction in these things that what is food to some creatures, is to others rank poison. Thus there is even a serpent, which when touched by man’s spittle perishes and gnaws itself to death.aBesides, hellebore is rank poison to us, but given to goats and quails makes them fat.

642That you may know how this comes about, in

the first place you must remember what I said before,bthat things contain many seeds mingled in various ways. Further, all creatures that take food, as they are different in outward appearance, and as the contour and circ*mscription of their shape limits and defines each according to its kind, so they are composed of seeds differing in shape. Since further

the seeds differ, the intervals and channels, which we call passages, must also differ throughout the frame and so also in mouth and palate. Some therefore must be smaller and some larger, some triangular and some square, many round, some again with many angles in many arrangements. For as the relation of shapes and as the motions demand, so the shapes of the passages must differ, and so the channels must vary as the texture compels. Therefore if what is sweet to some is bitter to others, for the creature to whom it is sweet very smooth bodies

Footnotes

aFor the idea that human spittle is fatal or harmful to snakes,cf.Aristotle,HA607 a, Pliny,HN 1.2.15.

bCf.1.814-829, 895-896, 2.333-380.

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660contractabiliter caulas intrare palati,

at contra quibus est eadem res intus acerba,

aspera nimirum penetrant hamataque fauces.

Nunc facile est ex his rebus cognoscere quaeque.

quippe ubi cui febris bili superante coorta est

665aut alia ratione aliquast vis excita morbi,

perturbatur ibi iam totum corpus, et omnes

commutantur ibi positurae principiorum;

fit prius ad sensum ut quae corpora conveniebant

nunc non conveniant, et cetera sint magis apta,

quae penetrata queunt sensum progignere acerbum;

671utraque enim sunt in mellis commixta sapore—

id quod iam supera tibi saepe ostendimus ante.

Nunc age, quo pacto naris adiectus odoris

tangat agam. primum res multas esse necessest

675unde fluens volvat varius se fluctus odorum,

et fluere et mitti volgo spargique putandumst;

verum aliis alius magis est animantibus aptus

dissimilis propter formas. ideoque per auras

mellis apes quamvis longe duc*ntur odore,

680volturiique cadaveribus. tum fissa ferarum

ungula quo tulerit gressum promissa canum vis

ducit, et humanum longe praesentit odorem

Romulidarum arcis servator, candidus anser.

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must enter the pores of the palate with soothing touch; but contrariwise if the same thing is bitter to any when it gets in, doubtless rough and hooked elements penetrate the gullet.a

663It is easy now from these explanations to understand every separate case. For when fever arises in

anyone, from overflow of bile, or when the energy of some disease is excited in another way, then the whole body is thrown into a riot and all the positions of the first-beginnings are changed about; it follows that the bodies which once were suitable to cause sensation, are so no longer, and the other things are more apt, which in penetrating can engender a bitter sensation; indeed both these are commingled in the savour of honeyb—a matter which I have explained to you often before.c

673Now listen and I will deal with the question,

how the impact of odour affects the nose.dFirst there must be a large number of things from which rolls flowing a manifold stream of odours, and we must think these flow and are sped and scattered everywhere; but different odours are more fitted to different creatures, because of their differing forms. And therefore bees are drawn through the air to any distance by the scent of honey, vultures by carrion. Then let loose a pack of hounds, it leads you on wherever the cloven hoof of wild beasts has set its step; and from afar the scent of man is caught by the white goose, preserver of the citadel of the

Footnotes

aBrieger, Bailey, and others are probably wrong in thinking thatfaucesrefers to theforaminaor their entrances.

bCf.Seneca,Ep.109.7:sunt enim quidam quibus morbi vitio mel amarum videatur.According to Sextus Empiricus,Pyr.2.63, Democritus maintained that honey is neither sweet nor bitter, Heracl*tus that it is both sweet and bitter.

cCf.2.398-407, 3.191-195. However, in neither of these passages is it stated that honey contains both smooth and rough particles.

dEpicurus gives a brief explanation of smell inEp. ad Hdt.53.

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sic aliis alius nidor datus ad sua quemque

685pabula ducit et a taetro resilire veneno

cogit, eoque modo servantur saecla ferarum.

Hic odor ipse igitur, naris quicumque lacessit,

est alio ut possit permitti longius alter;

sed tamen haud quisquam tam longe fertur eorum

quam sonitus, quam vox, mitto iam dicere quam res

691quae feriunt oculorum acies visumque lacessunt.

errabundus enim tarde venit ac perit ante,

paulatim facilis distractus in aeris auras,

ex alto primum quia vix emittitur ex re

695(nam penitus fluere atque recedere rebus odores

significat quod fracta magis redolere videntur

omnia, quod contrita, quod igni conlabefacta);

deinde videre licet maioribus esse creatum

principiis quam vox, quoniam per saxea saepta

700non penetrat, qua vox volgo sonitusque feruntur.

quare etiam quod olet non tam facile esse videbis

investigare in qua sit regione locatum;

refrigescit enim cunctando plaga per auras,

nec calida ad sensum decurrit nuntia rerum.

705errant saepe canes itaque et vestigia quaerunt.

Nec tamen hoc solis in odoribus atque saporum

in generest, sed item species rerum atque colores

Footnotes

704decurritLambinus: decurruntOQP,-untperhaps having come in fromnuntia

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Roman race.aSo different scent is given to different creatures, leading each to its food, and compelling it to leap back from loathsome poison, and in this manner the generations of wild beasts are preserved.

687Take all the smells then that assail the nostrils:

one may be carried further than another, but yet no smell is ever carried so far as sound, as the voice, I need not add as all that strikes the sight of the eyes and assails the vision. For it wanders about and comes slowly, and is ready gradually to die away too soon,bbeing dispersed abroad into the breezes of the air: first because it is emitted with

difficulty from the depths of each thing; for since all things seem to smell stronger when broken, when ground up, when disintegrated in fire, this means that odour comes flowing released out of the depths of things; again it may be seen that smell is made

of larger elements than voice, since it does not penetrate through stone walls,cthrough which voice and sound commonly do pass. For this reason also you will see that it is not so easy to trace out in what part the scent is situated; for the blow grows cold in its leisurely course through the air, and does not run in hot to the sense with news of the object. This is why hounds often are at fault and cast for a scent.

706Nor yet is thisdbe found only in smells and

tastes, but also the look of things and their colours

Footnotes

aWhen Rome was sacked by the Gauls in 387 b.c., the Capitol was saved by the vigilance of the sacred geese of Juno.Cf.Livy 5.47, Pliny,HN10.51, Cicero,Rose. Am.20.56, Virgil,Aen.8.655-656.

bperit ante, i.e.“evanescit antequam perveniat ad nares” (Pius).

cAnd yet in 6.951-952 Lucr. states that smell, like sound, cold, and heat, does passper dissaepta domorum saxea.

dThe state of things described in 684-686. The fact that the present passage is not perfectly adjusted to its context is a mark of lack of revision.

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non ita conveniunt ad sensus omnibus omnes,

ut non sint aliis quaedam magis acria visu.

710quin etiam gallum, noctem explaudentibus alis

auroram clara consuetum voce vocare,

noenu queunt rabidi contra constare leones

inque tueri: ita continuo meminere fugai,

nimirum quia sunt gallorum in corpore quaedam

715semina, quae cum sunt oculis inmissa leonum,

pupillas interfodiunt acremque dolorem

praebent, ut nequeant contra durare feroces;

cum tamen haec nostras acies nil laedere possint,

aut quia non penetrant aut quod penetrantibus illis

720exitus ex oculis liber datur, in remorando

laedere ne possint ex ulla lumina parte.

Nunc age, quae moveant animum res accipe, et

unde

quae veniunt veniant in mentem percipe paucis.

Principio hoc dico, rerum simulacra vagari

725multa modis multis in cunctas undique partis

tenvia, quae facile inter se iunguntur in auris,

obvia cum veniunt, ut aranea bratteaque auri.

quippe etenim multo magis haec sunt tenvia textu

729quam quae percipiunt oculos visumque lacessunt,

corporis haec quoniam penetrant per rara cientque

tenvem animi naturam intus sensumque lacessunt.

Centauros itaque et Scyllarum membra videmus

Footnotes

712rabidei (= rabidi)Wakefield in notes:rapidiOQP, retained by Merrill (1917), Diels, Martin, Büchner in sense ofrapaces.Cf. 5.892

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are not always so suitable to the senses of all, that

some things are not too stinging for some spectators. Why, even the co*ck, clapping out the night with his

wings, who is accustomed to summon the dawn with clear voice, is one before whom ravening lions dare not stand fast or stare: so surely do they think at once of flight, no doubt because there are certain

seeds in the co*ck’s body, which, when they are sped into the eyes of a lion, dig holes in the pupils and cause stinging pain, so that they cannot endure against it for all their courage; and yet these cannot hurt our sight at all, either because they do not penetrate, or because when they do penetrate they find a free exit from the eyes, that they may not in lingering hurt the eyes in any part.

722Now listen, and hear what things stir the mind,

and learn in a few words whence those things come into the mind that there do come.a

724In the first place I tell you that many images

of things are moving about in many ways and in all directions, very thin, which easily unite in the air when they meet, being like spider’s web or leaf of gold. In truth these are much more thin in texture than those which take the eyes and assail the vision, since these penetrate through the interstices of the body,band awake the thin substance of the mind within, and assail the sense.

732Thus it is we see Centaurs, and the frames of

Footnotes

aIn the Epicurean view, thought and dreams are closely-related to vision. Vision is caused by the impingement of images on the eyes, thought and dreams by the entry of finer images into the mind.Cf.especially Epicurus,Ep. ad Hdt.49–51, Cicero,Fin.1.6.21, Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 9–10 Smith.

bCf.Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 9. III.6–14 Smith, quoted below in note on 977.

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Cerbereasque canum facies simulacraque eorum

quorum morte obita tellus amplectitur ossa,

735omne genus quoniam passim simulacra feruntur,

partim sponte sua quae fiunt aere in ipso,

partim quae variis ab rebus cumque recedunt

et quae confiunt ex horum facta figuris.

nam certe ex vivo Centauri non fit imago,

740nulla fuit quoniam talis natura animalis;

verum ubi equi atque hominis casu convenit imago,

haerescit facile extemplo, quod diximus ante,

propter subtilem naturam et tenvia texta.

cetera de genere hoc eadem ratione creantur.

745quae cum mobiliter summa levitate feruntur,

ut prius ostendi, facile uno commovet ictu

quaelibet una animum nobis subtilis imago;

tenvis enim mens est et mire mobilis ipsa.

Haec fieri ut memoro, facile hinc cognoscere possis.

750quatenus hoc simile est illi, quod mente videmus

atque oculis, simili fieri ratione necesse est.

Nunc igitur docui quoniam me forte leonem

cernere per simulacra, oculos quaecumque lacessunt,

scire licet mentem simili ratione moveri

755per simulacra leonum et cetera quae videt aeque

nec minus atque oculi, nisi quod mage tenvia cernit.

Nec ratione alia, cum somnus membra profudit,

mens animi vigilat, nisi quod simulacra lacessunt

haec eadem nostros animos quae cum vigilamus,

Footnotes

740animalisLambinus (1570): animaOQ: animaiP:animantum “in quibusdam codicibus” (Pius): animantisGifanius:animataMerrill (1917)

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Scyllas,aand faces of dogs like Cerberus, and images

of those for whom death is past, whose bones rest in earth’s embrace, since images of all kinds are being carried about everywhere, some that arise spontaneously in the air itself, some that are thrown off from all sorts of things, others that are made of a combination of these shapes. For certainly no image of a Centaur comes from one living, since there never

was a living thing of this nature; but when the images of man and horse meet by accident, they easily adhere at once, as I said before,bon account of their fine nature and thin texture. All other things of this class are made in the same way. And since these are carried about with velocity because of their extreme lightness, as I explained before,cany given one of these fine images easily bestirs our mind by a single impression; for the mind is itself thin and wonderfully easy to move.

749That this happens as I say, you may easily recognize

from what is now to be said. Since this is like that—what we see with the mind like what we see with the eye—it must come about in a like way.

752Now therefore, since I have shown that I perceive a lion, it may be, by means of images which in such a case assail the eyes, we may be sure that the mind is moved in a like way, by means of the images of lions and of all else it sees, equally and no less than the eyes, except that it perceives what is more

thin.

757Nor is there any other reason why the mind’s

intelligence is awake, when sleep has relaxed the limbs, except that the same images assail our minds

Footnotes

aFor Lucr.’s demonstration that Centaurs, Scyllas, and such monsters never existed, see 5.878-924.

b726.

c4.176-215.

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LUCRETIUS, De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

760usque adeo, certe ut videamur cernere eum quem

rellicta vita iam mors et terra potitast.

hoc ideo fieri cogit natura, quod omnes

corporis offecti sensus per membra quiesc*nt

nec possunt falsum veris convincere rebus.

765praeterea meminisse iacet languetque sopore,

nec dissentit eum mortis letique potitum

iam pridem, quem mens vivom se cernere credit.

Quod superest, non est mirum simulacra moveri

bracchiaque in numerum iactare et cetera membra;

770nam fit ut in somnis facere hoc videatur imago;

quippe ubi prima perit alioque est altera nata

inde statu, prior hic gestum mutasse videtur.

scilicet id fieri celeri ratione putandumst:

tanta est mobilitas et rerum copia tanta,

775tantaque sensibili quovis est tempore in uno

copia particularum, ut possit suppeditare.

Multaque in his rebus quaeruntur multaque nobis

clarandumst, plane si res exponere avemus.

Quaeritur in primis quare, quod cuique libido

780venerit, extemplo mens cogitet eius id ipsum.

anne voluntatem nostram simulacra tuentur

et simul ac volumus nobis occurrit imago,

Footnotes

761rellicta (orrēlicta)Isaac Voss: redditaOQP

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as when we wake, and to such a degree, that we seem surely to see him who has left his life, and of whom now death and dust are masters. This nature compels to happen, for the reason that all our senses are obstructed and quiet throughout the frame, and unable to refute the false by the true.aBesides,

in sleep memory lies inactive and is relaxed, and does not urge in contradiction that he has long since been in the power of death and destruction whom the mind believes itself to see alive.

768Moreover, it is not wonderful that images move, and stir their arms rhythmically, and the rest of their limbs; for it does happen that the image seems to do this in our sleep; the truth is that, when the first

image perishes and a second is then produced in another position, the former seems to have altered its pose. Of course this must be supposed to take place very swiftly: so great is their velocity, so great the store of things, so great the store of particles in any single moment of sensation, to enable the supply to come up.b

777There are many questions to be asked on this

topic, many explanations to be given, if we wish to make the matter clear.

779The first question is why the mind immediately

thinks of whatever the whim takes it to think of. Do the images wait on our will, and as soon as we wish it does an image present itself to us, be it sea,

Footnotes

aCf.Diogenes of Oenoanda fr. 9. IV.7-VI.3 Smith: “When we are asleep, with all the senses as it were paralysed and extinguished [again in] sleep, the soul, which is [still wide] awake [and yet is unable to recognize] the predicament and condition of the senses at that time, on receiving the images that approach it, conceives an untested and false opinion concerning them, as if it were actually apprehending the solid nature of true realities; for the means of testing the opinion are asleep at that time. These are the senses; for the rule and standard [of truth] with respect to [our dreams] remain [these].”

bA moment of sensation, as Lucr. explains below (794), is the shortest time in which one can feel or perceive. In this time many movements may combine to make one impression. Cinematographic pictures make this easy to understand.

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LUCRETIUS, De Rerum Natura

Lucretius

si mare, si terram cordist, si denique caelum?

conventus hominum pompam convivia pugnas,

785omnia sub verbone creat natura paratque?

cum praesertim aliis eadem in regione locoque

longe dissimilis animus res cogitet omnis.

Quid porro, in numerum procedere cum simulacra

cernimus in somnis et mollia membra movere,

790mollia mobiliter cum alternis bracchia mittunt

et repetunt oculis gestum pede convenienti?

scilicet arte madent simulacra et docta vagantur,

nocturno facere ut possint in tempore ludos.

An magis illud erit verum? quia tempore in uno,

795cum sentimus, id est, cum vox emittitur una,

tempora multa latent, ratio quae comperit esse,

propterea fit uti quovis in tempore quaeque

praesto sint simulacra locis in quisque parata:

tanta est mobilitas et rerum copia tanta.

800hoc, ubi prima perit alioque est altera nata

inde statu, prior hic gestum mutasse videtur.

et quia tenvia sunt, nisi quae contendit, acute

cernere non potis est animus; proinde omnia quae

sunt

praeterea pereunt, nisi si ad quae se ipse paravit.

805ipse parat sese porro speratque futurum

Footnotes