Politics and Poetics, Spring 2013, Week 3
Lucretius’ Epicureanism. Introduction to De Rerum Natura III
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Sources on Epicureanism
• Epicurus, 341-270 BC. Founded the Garden (c. 311). Fragments of his major work on natural
philosophy, the ‘On Nature’ (Peri Physeos, Περὶ Φύσεως), have recently been uncovered at
Herculaneum.
• Lucretius, c. 90s to c. 55 BC, death dated from Cicero’s ad Q. fratrem II.10.3, 54 BC.
• Philodemus of Gadara, c. 110-c.40/35 BC. Greek-speaking Epicurean, came from Gadara in Syria
to Rome c. 75 BC, and was connected with Calpurnius Piso Caesonius, one of the powerful Piso family,
at Herculaneum near Naples. Mentioned in Cicero, In Pisonem (‘Against Piso’) of 55 BC. Several of his
treatises have recently been unearthed at Herculaneum. He also wrote erotic poetry.
• Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book X: a positive history of Epicurus and his school.
Major source for Epicurus’ own writing: quotes three letters (To Herodotus, To Pythocles, To Menoeceus), and
the Kyriai Doxai or ‘Principal Doctrines’.
• Diogenes of Oenoanda (probably second century AD): Greek inscription carved in a stoa in
Oenoanda in Lycia (modern Turkey) presenting Epicurean doctrines for the benefit of the local
citizens
• Hostile accounts of Epicureanism also survive in Cicero (De Natura Deorum and elsewhere) and
Plutarch (Non posse uiuere secundum Epicurum; Aduersus Colotem)
Principal Epicurean Doctrines
The Tetrapharmakon or ‘Fourfold Cure’
• That which is happy and imperishable, neither has trouble itself, nor does it cause it to anything;
so that it is not subject to feelings of either anger or gratitude; for these feelings only exist in what is
weak. (KD 1)
• Death is nothing to us; for that which is dissolved is devoid of sensation, and that which is devoid
of sensation is nothing to us. (KD 2)
• The limit of great pleasures is the removal of everything which can give pain. And where pleasure
is, as long as it lasts, that which gives pain, or that which feels pain, or both of them, are absent. (KD
3)
• Pain does not abide continuously in the flesh, but in its extremity it is present only a very short
time. That pain which only just exceeds the pleasure in the flesh does not last many days. But long
diseases have in them more that is pleasant than painful to the flesh. (KD 4)
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Other doctrines relevant to Lucretius
• Atomism: the universe consists fundamentally of atoms and the void. Epicurus was accused of
plagiarising the atomic theory of the Presocratic Democritus (and the shadowy Leucippus).
• Democritus’ and Epicurus’ ideas of atoms are basically the same, but there are certain key
differences: Democritus may have thought that atoms could be of any size, whereas Epicurus
posited a limit to their size; Democritus may have thought that they moved about randomly in the
void, while Epicurus thought that they moved ‘downwards’ because of their own weight, and
occasionally swerved, as a result of which they collided with each other.
• Epicureanism is a materialistic philosophy: everything which exists is made up of atoms and the
void.
• The soul (animus and anima in Lucretius) is made up of very fine atoms: as such, it too is
perishable.
• Happiness (εὐδαιµονία, the uita beata), the goal of human life, consists in pleasure (ἡδονή,
uoluptas). There are both physical and mental pleasures: all of them are in themselves good, though
sometimes it might be necessary to choose between them.
• The highest pleasure is tranquillity or lack of disturbance (‘ataraxia’, ἀταραξία, tranquillitas).
• Epicureans were also exhorted to ‘live in secret’ (λάθε βιώσας) and ‘keep out of politics’ (μὴ
πολιτεύεσθαι)
Lucretius’ Epicureanism
• Epicurean debates in first-century BC Italy were centred on the circle of Philodemus. As is clear from
the fragments of Philodemus, the Epicureans were particularly concerned to rebut the arguments of the
Stoics, their main rivals at the time; they also attacked the Academics, the sceptical followers of the
Academy founded by Plato.
• Was Lucretius was aware of or interested in his contemporaries’ debates, or did he exclusively follow
the writings of Epicurus?
• How much had Lucretius read of philosophy before Epicurus, including the Presocratics, Plato and
Aristotle?
• Was Lucretius doing something un-Epicurean in using poetry to write about philosophy?
Presentation
• In what ways, if any, is DRN III political?
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Structure of DRN III
Lines 1-30 Hymn to Epicurus
31-93 Introduction to the topic of the soul. Explanation of how the fear of death drives people to seek
power and wealth, and commit crimes.
94-135 The mind is a part of the body. It is not a harmony, but has a specific physical location.
136-160 The mind (animus), which controls the rest of the body, is located in the chest (pectus); the atoms
of vital spirit (anima) are scattered through the body – hence why we can feel pain in any part of the
body.
161-230 Mind and spirit are corporeal – they are also made up of atoms, but extremely smooth, round
and small ones.
231-257 Mind/spirit is a mixture of wind, heat and air, along with a fourth nameless substance, which
is needed to explain how thought can be so swift.
258-322 Lucretius laments the poverty of Latin when explaining these technical details. The atoms of
the mind/spirit are intermingled invisibly in the body. The characteristics of heat (> anger), wind (>
fear), and air (> calm) all are reflected in the human personality. However, none of these character traits
will prevent us from leading a life worthy of the gods.
323-369 You can’t tear mind/spirit out of the body without the human perishing.
370-395 Democritus was wrong to think that soul and body atoms are arranged alternately in equal
proportions throughout the body. In fact, there are fewer soul than body atoms.
396-416 The mind is more necessary to life than the vital spirit – hence why a person can lose many
limbs and still live.
417-444 The mind/spirit is mortal. The body is like a vessel and the soul is like water: if the vessel is
broken, the water runs out and is scattered.
445-525 The soul ages with the body; the soul has diseases like the body; is drunk like the body; and can
be healed like the body.
526-614 More arguments for why the soul behaves like the body and is mortal, and why the soul and
body are interdependent. When we die our soul is scattered like smoke.
615-669 The mind has a fixed location in the body. The mind cannot have its five senses without the
body. If you cut a snake in half, both parts wriggle – this shows that there is spirit in both parts.
670-712 If the soul were immortal, we could remember things from previous incarnations. The spirit is
so closely knitted into the body that we even experience sensation in our teeth. 713-783 Worms grow in dead bodies – therefore some spirit atoms must remain in corpses after death.
Lions, foxes, and deer have their own characters, as appropriate to the types of atoms in their breed. If
the soul was immortal and could migrate between bodies, different species would have the same
characters. Further arguments for the soul’s mortality.
784-818 Each type of thing in nature has its own fixed place – the same is true of the soul, which is
mortal because it grows like other natural things. Only atoms and void are truly ‘immortal’, because they
alone are indestructible.
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819-29 The soul sickens when the body is diseased; it suffers from its own diseases of fear, remorse,
anxiety, and:
830-893
adde furorem animi proprium atque obliuia rerum,
adde quod in nigras lethargi mergitur undas. 829
Add the mind’s own madness and the forgetfulness of the world,
Add that it is submerged in the black waters of lethargy.
nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum 830
quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur.
Therefore death is nothing to us, nor can it affect us in any way,
Since the nature of the soul is held to be mortal.
Compare Epicurus, ‘ὁ θάνατος οὐδὲν πρὸς ἡμᾶς (‘death is nothing to us’): because we are mortal, we
should not fear death.
The past before we were born, such as the Punic wars, did not affect us; neither will the future after we
have died. Only death is immortal (mors immortalis). It is irrational to worry about what might happen to
our bodies after death.
894-911 We should not mourn people who are dead: they are resting.
912-930 We should not pity ourselves in death: we will also be resting.
931-977 The ‘speech of nature’: pleasures are limited; you probably haven’t used your life as well as you
should have done; if you are old, you should willingly give up your ‘material’ (materies) to make other
things.
978-1023 There is no underworld with its horrors; but we make our own lives like a living hell through
not having the right attitude. We are torn with ambition, vain fears, and insatiability for pleasures.
hic Acherusia fit stultorum denique uita. 1023
This at last is the hellish life of fools.
1024-1052 Better people than you have already died: kings, generals, poets, philosophers.
1053-1094 People try to flee from their own boredom; if they had real understanding, they would throw
everything aside and study the nature of the universe (natura rerum). We cannot escape death, no matter
how long we live.
Presentation, Week 4
Text: Lucretius, De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of the Universe) Book V, lines 1-233 and 772-1457
Question: What are the key characteristics of Lucretius’ account of the origins of animals and humans,
and how convincing are they?
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