LAT 459 Lucretius
The principal focus of this course is a close reading of the Latin of Lucretius' powerful and perennially controversial poem. While consistent attention will be paid to the poetic craft and nascent Alexandrianism of the De rerum natura, the poet's adaptation and transformation of Epicureanism will be kept in mind as well through regular reference both to the surviving fragments of Epicurus himself and what we know of the activities of his "garden"/school. Thus, Epicurean theories of perception, cosmology, even theology -- distant, blissfully disinterested gods residing in the spaces between universes -- as well as the considerable Nachleben of this keen, philosophical rival of Christianity in the Roman Empire and beyond, into the modern era, will be considered and discussed.