Page, Stage, Image: Confronting Ennius with Lucretius' On the Nature of Things (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Six Books of Lucretius’ \u3cem\u3eDe Rerum Natura\u3c/em\u3e: Antecedents and Influence
2010
Lucretius’ De rerum natura is one of the relatively few corpora of Greek and Roman literature that is structured in six books. It is distinguished as well by features that encourage readers to understand it both as a sequence of two groups of three books (1+2+3, 4+5+6) and also as three successive pairs of books (1+2, 3+4, 5+6). This paper argues that the former organizations scheme derives from the structure of Ennius’ Annales and the latter from Callimachus’ book of Hynms. It further argues that this Lucretius’ union of these two six-element schemes influenced the structure employed by Ovid in the Fasti. An appendix endorses Zetzel’s idea that the six-book structure of Cicero’s De re publica marks that work as well as a response to Lucretius’ poem
2007
Within the corpus of texts potentially available to him-of which we only have tiny i fraction-which Epicurean texts were the sources used by Lucretius? The identity of these texts remains disputed, not because we doubt their ultimate Epicurean origin, even when Lucretius is our only source, but because of changes Lucretius sometimes can make where strongparallels are otherwise possible. For if Lucretius can changeat feast the structure of arguments, e.g. for rhetorical effect in book 3, this then blurs the line we might otherwise use to establish such parallels. Various degrees of remove from the original are possible without necessarily excluding the validity of a proposed source, thereby openingthe field to speculation. ' So as not to overburden this introduction with references, I will, for now, merely sketch key interpretative alternatives, and substantiate these claims with references to argued scholarly positions in later sections. My thanks to Richard Sorabji and Bob Sharples. | am particularly grateful to Bob Sharples for permission to recycle someofhis notes in section IV although he should not be held responsible for the views therein, as I have modified them to suit my purposes.
William Dominik's contribution on Ennius places a new and distinct focus on Ennius' poetic self-consciousness and his fruitful mingling of individual, 'Homeric', and inherited Roman mannerisms and techniques to produce a powerful, if sometimes primitive, style well suited to the epic's primary purpose. This purpose Dominik sees as the glorification of the emerging Roman nation rather than the partisan political eulogy of particular historical figures. Dominik does not subscribe to the ingratiating poeta cliens view of Ennius fashionable in the last two decades.
Lucretius’ Allegoresis and Invective: De rerum natura 2.598-660
Mnemosyne, 2024
The present paper suggests that Lucretius’ Magna Mater interpretation (2.598-660) can fruitfully be approached through the lens of invective oratory. While this difficult passage of De rerum natura has long puzzled scholars, this article argues that in his interpretation Lucretius masterfully transforms the encomiastic topos of allegoresis into a powerful means of blame: the poet allegorically interprets various aspects of the cult of Cybele with a view to showing how religious convictions and customs go awry. When thus exposing the cult as impious, Lucretius ingeniously exploits several topoi of rhetorical hymns (nurture, propitiation, etc.) for the purpose of making his vituperation all the more compelling. Hence, on the reading advocated here, the Magna Mater interpretation is a carefully constructed invective against those aspects of the cult (of Cybele) which an Epicurean is bound to frown upon (providential illusion, divine punishment, etc.).
A Journal of the Centre for Ancient Philosophy and the Classical Tradition
2013
The first issue of the seventh volume (January 2013) is dedicated to Ancient cosmology and psychology. The first article is concerned with the physical side of Stoic anthropology, while the second and the third ones are dedicated to the discussions on the eternity of the world in Antiquity and the image of Demiurge in Ancient cosmogony. The studies are followed by three translations: Pseudo-Timaeus of Locri, On the nature of the world and the soul, Porphyry, On how embryos are ensouled, and Priscianus, Solutiones ad Chosroes (Introduction and Chapter 1). The second issue of the volume (June 2013) contains a series of articles, translations and reviews, dedicated to various aspects of Ancient philosophy and culture, including the articles on Heraclitus, Plato, the concepts of beauty and justice in Antiquity, the archaic concept of law, etc. Our next thematic issue (January 2014) will be dedicated to the Athenian school of Neoplatonism. Studies and translations are due by November 2013. Interested persons are welcome to contribute. I wish to express my gratitude to all those friends and colleagues who participate in our collective projects and seminars and would like to remind that the journal is abstracted / indexed in The Philosopher's Index and SCOPUS, wherefore the prospective authors are kindly requested to supply their contributions with substantial abstracts and the lists of keywords. All the issues of the journal are available online at the following addresses: www.nsu.ru/classics/schole/ (home page); www.elibrary.ru (Russian Index of Scientific Quotations); and www.ceeol.com (Central and Eastern European Online Library).
A Note on the Ascription of Ennius, Annales 5 Skutsch
Classical Quarterly, 2021
to relying on his reasonable account. However, the reason why one cannot have God's approval is related to the specific issue which Timaeus is dealing with here. Indeed, the generation of mortal living beings is not produced directly by the Demiurge but by the lower Gods, who are called to imitate the Demiurge's reasoning and action, though dealing with much more unstable objects (41a7-43a6). In other words, the Demiurge cannot give his confirmation here since he is not the divinity who produced human beings 15and, more generally, since the objects at stake (that is, individual living beings) have a lower ontological status than the world itself. This, though, does not apply to the generation of the world, which is directly accomplished by the Demiurge, whose reasoning has been clearly and fully unravelled at 30c-31b: briefly, God has already confirmed the metaphysical reasons why there is just one perfect world. 16 Hence text A is not only (at least) as well attested as text F philologically and more suitable syntactically but also much more effective philosophically. Keeping text A generates a significant philosophical pay-off: not only does Timaeus' account of the uniqueness of the world become much more consistent, but it also confirms that his reasonable account (and, hence, Plato's cosmology) in any case relies on strong metaphysical premisses, which limit the instability of our grasp on the sensible world as far as possible and make Timaeus' account stronger than (or at least not inferior to) any other reasonable account (29c7-d3).