Customer Reviews

Lucretius and the Transformation of Greek Wisdom

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The previous review of David Sedley's important work on Lucretius should not dissuade potential readers from spending some time with the book. Anyone who has spent much time studying ancient philosophy knows that Sedley is one of the most important scholars in the field, and anyone who has spent much time studying Epicureanism knows that this book is one of the standard works that anyone writing on Lucretius' philosophy must confront. The previous reviewer seems not even to have understood Sedley's book, let alone judged it fairly. The issue of Epicurean theology that the reviewer singles out is indeed one of Sedley's concerns, but it is by no means the subject of his book. Rather, as the subtitle suggests, Sedley is primarily interested in determining how and why Lucretius adapted Epicureanism for Roman readers, and that question leads him through most of the central issues of the De Rerum Natura and Epicureanism. The previous reviewer may not like Sedley's position on Epicurean theology, but everyone must admit that it is at the very least not entirely obvious why a poem promoting a philosophy that maintains that the gods have no concern for human beings should begin with a hymn of praise to a goddess for all of her blessings. This problem has been recognized as such since antiquity; the manuscript tradition seems to preserve a copyist's witty attempt to refute Lucretius with his own words, inserting into the hymn to Venus some lines from later in the poem where Lucretius presents the standard Epicurean position that the gods have no concern for human beings. Sedley's handling of this issue is, of course, not the only one, but it is far from ridiculous. Anyone interested in Lucretius or Epicureanism will benefit from reading Sedley's book, even if they disagree with the vast majority of what he has to say.

Scholarly, insightful, and illuminating study of Lucretian art and the poet's version of Epicureanism. A must-read for anyone interested in one of Rome's greatest poets. Of particular interest is the author's detailed analysis of the DRN to illuminate Lucretius' contributions both to Latin poetry and to the Romanization of Epicureanism.

This whole book is largely devoted to trying to convince us that Lucretius could not have possibly meant what he obviously did mean in the opening lines of De Rerum Natura. Those lines comprise one of the most beautiful hymns of praise from classical Paganism. The object of praise is the Goddess Venus - and quite rightly so, seeing as she is the Goddess of Nature.

But "everyone knows" that Epicureans were atheists, right? So how could Lucretius "really" write a hymn in praise of the Goddess Venus - he must not have really meant it - right? Sedley is a smart man and a good scholar - and it says a lot about modern scholarship that he not only engages in such a mind-boggling anachronism (projecting modern secularist notions into the mind of a Pagan who lived 2000 years ago) - but that Sedley is apparently taken seriously in his crude attempt to force the nice, round Lucretius into a square hole.

I give it two stars rather than just one because there are so few books out there on Lucretius!