What is the best translation of De Rerum Natura?
On the Nature of Things
Lucretius’ single poem, De Rerum Natura, which can be translated ‘On the Nature of Things’ or (as it is here) ‘On the Nature of the Universe’, may well be thought the best philosophy in classical Latin, superior to Cicero or Seneca in intellectual seriousness and sustained power of argument.
Is De Rerum Natura an epic poem?
A poem may be both didactic and epic, the latter term being far more explicit. The De Rerum Natura may be called a Miltonic epic. Lucretius himself seems so to regard his poem, which fits the epic criteria of (a) narrative with hero, (b) war, and (c) great design.
Who discovered On the Nature of Things?
Titus Lucretius Carus
Lucretius, in full Titus Lucretius Carus, (flourished 1st century bce), Latin poet and philosopher known for his single, long poem, De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things).
Why did Lucretius write On the Nature of Things?
Lucretius’s task was to clearly state and fully develop these views in an attractive form; his work was an attempt to show through poetry that everything in nature can be explained by natural laws, without the need for the intervention of divine beings.
What is Rerum Natura?
Definition of in rerum natura : in the nature of things in the world of nature as distinguished from the world of human beings : in the realm of material things they do not signify anything in rerum natura— R. F. McRae.
What is the significance and the beauty of De Rerum Natura?
De Rerum Natura gives us that basic of physics, and a lot more besides: refutations of rival theories, explanations of mirrors and magnets, reasons not to fear death, some strong words about the folly of love, a mini-survey of human history and a range of causes for celestial and meteorological phenomena.
Who wrote De Natura Rerum?
Lucretius
Lucretius On the Nature of Things: A Philosophical Poem, in Six Books/Authors
What did Lucretius argue about fearing death?
The fear of death is irrational, according to Lucretius, because once people die they will not be sad, judged by gods or pity their family; they will not be anything at all. “Death is nothing to us,” he says.
When was De Rerum Natura rediscovered?
1417
Lucretius’s De rerum natura has become a hot topic in contemporary scholarship. Lost until its rediscovery in 1417, Lucretius’s cosmological poem portraying a universe made up of atoms moving in the void has been the subject of at least a dozen major scholarly works since 2003.