Lucretius and the Transformation of Greek Wisdom

by David N. Sedley

This book studies the structure and origins of De Rerum Natura (On the nature of things), the great first-century BC poem by Lucretius. By showing how he worked from the literary model set by the Greek poet Empedocles but under the philosophical inspiration of the Greek philosopher Epicurus, the book seeks to characterize Lucretius' unique poetic achivement. It is addressed to those interested both in Latin poetry and in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Matt McCormick]

I first became aware of Lucretius through Stephen Gleenblatt's Pulitzer Prize winning book The Swerve. This is a very academic discussion of Lucretius's De rerum natura. It focuses on the structure of the poem, its relationship to other Greek and Latin philosophy. Needless to say, its a few rungs higher on the intelligence scale that where I stand. There is much discussion ancient scrolls and scraps of writing and how they effected the design and order of the poem. This, however, led to one enjoyable section of the book - the discussion of the Herculaneum papyri find.

[Robert Murphy]

He writes extremely well, has good argumentation, and his thesis is compelling. This is also a very informative book for the composition of De Rerum Natura and how Lucretius interacts with his Greek source material (primarily Epicurus).