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7574
Lucretius Carus, On The Nature Of Things, 5.109-5.155
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Qua prius adgrediar quam de re fundere fataBut ere on this I take a step to utter Oracles holier and soundlier based Than ever the Pythian pronounced for men From out the tripod and the Delphian laurel, I will unfold for thee with learned words Many a consolation, lest perchance, Still bridled by religion, thou suppose Lands, sun, and sky, sea, constellations, moon, Must dure forever, as of frame divine- And so conclude that it is just that those, (After the manner of the Giants), should all Pay the huge penalties for monstrous crime, Who by their reasonings do overshake The ramparts of the universe and wish There to put out the splendid sun of heaven, Branding with mortal talk immortal things- Though these same things are even so far removed From any touch of deity and seem So far unworthy of numbering with the gods, That well they may be thought to furnish rather A goodly instance of the sort of things That lack the living motion, living sense. For sure 'tis quite beside the mark to think That judgment and the nature of the mind In any kind of body can exist- Just as in ether can't exist a tree, Nor clouds in the salt sea, nor in the fields Can fishes live, nor blood in timber be, Nor sap in boulders: fixed and arranged Where everything may grow and have its place. Thus nature of mind cannot arise alone Without the body, nor have its being far From thews and blood. Yet if 'twere possible?- Much rather might this very power of mind Be in the head, the shoulders, or the heels, And, born in any part soever, yet In the same man, in the same vessel abide But since within this body even of ours Stands fixed and appears arranged sure Where soul and mind can each exist and grow, Deny we must the more that they can dure Outside the body and the breathing form In rotting clods of earth, in the sun's fire, In water, or in ether's skiey coasts. Therefore these things no whit are furnished With sense divine, since never can they be With life-force quickened.
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Illud item non est ut possis credere, sedesLikewise, thou canst ne'er Believe the sacred seats of gods are here In any regions of this mundane world; Indeed, the nature of the gods, so subtle, So far removed from these our senses, scarce Is seen even by intelligence of mind. And since they've ever eluded touch and thrust Of human hands, they cannot reach to grasp Aught tangible to us. For what may not Itself be touched in turn can never touch. Wherefore, besides, also their seats must be Unlike these seats of ours,- even subtle too, As meet for subtle essence- as I'll prove Hereafter unto thee with large discourse. Further, to say that for the sake of men They willed to prepare this world's magnificence, And that 'tis therefore duty and behoof To praise the work of gods as worthy praise, And that 'tis sacrilege for men to shake Ever by any force from out their seats What hath been stablished by the Forethought old To everlasting for races of mankind, And that 'tis sacrilege to assault by words And overtopple all from base to beam,- Memmius, such notions to concoct and pile, Is verily- to dote. Our gratefulness, O what emoluments could it confer Upon Immortals and upon the Blessed That they should take a step to manage aught For sake of us? Or what new factor could, After so long a time, inveigle them- The hitherto reposeful- to desire To change their former life? For rather he Whom old things chafe seems likely to rejoice At new; but one that in fore-passed time Hath chanced upon no ill, through goodly years, O what could ever enkindle in such an one Passion for strange experiment? Or what The evil for us, if we had ne'er been born?- As though, forsooth, in darkling realms and woe Our life were lying till should dawn at last The day-spring of creation! Whosoever Hath been begotten wills perforce to stay In life, so long as fond delight detains; But whoso ne'er hath tasted love of life, And ne'er was in the count of living things, What hurts it him that he was never born? Whence, further, first was planted in the gods The archetype for gendering the world And the fore-notion of what man is like, So that they knew and pre-conceived with mind Just what they wished to make? Or how were known Ever the energies of primal germs, And what those germs, by interchange of place, Could thus produce, if nature's self had not Given example for creating all? For in such wise primordials of things, Many in many modes, astir by blows From immemorial aeons, in motion too By their own weights, have evermore been wont To be so borne along and in all modes To meet together and to try all sorts Which, by combining one with other, they Are powerful to create, that thus it is No marvel now, if they have also fallen Into arrangements such, and if they've passed Into vibrations such, as those whereby This sum of things is carried on to-day By fixed renewal.
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Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

3 results
1. Lucretius Carus, On The Nature of Things, 1.62-1.79, 1.103, 1.117-1.119, 1.124, 1.129, 1.202, 1.328, 1.370-1.371, 1.442, 1.471-1.482, 1.486, 1.505, 1.586, 1.593, 1.624, 1.634, 1.638, 1.741, 1.856, 1.926-1.927, 1.955, 1.968-1.983, 1.992, 1.999, 1.1082, 2.242, 2.302, 2.573, 2.605, 2.1030-2.1039, 2.1041-2.1047, 2.1129, 3.3, 3.17, 3.27, 3.416, 3.523-3.525, 3.948, 3.997, 4.481, 4.488, 4.1119, 4.1210, 4.1285, 5.43-5.51, 5.84, 5.91-5.108, 5.194, 5.306, 5.310, 5.343, 5.727-5.730, 5.735, 5.1104, 5.1271, 5.1321, 5.1439, 5.1444, 6.32, 6.60, 6.121-6.131, 6.186, 6.489, 6.608, 6.615, 6.708, 6.906-6.907, 6.910, 6.1012, 6.1056 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)

2. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.257-1.258, 2.319-2.323, 15.847-15.851, 15.857-15.860 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)

3. Seneca The Younger, Natural Questions, 6.1 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)



Subjects of this text:

subject book bibliographic info
anger Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
atomism Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 58
augustus, in ovids works Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 123
bible, responses to Sattler, Ancient Ethics and the Natural World (2021) 52
cosmology Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
diogenes laertius Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
diogenes of oenoanda Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
earthquakes, in lucretiuss works Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 57
earthquakes Sattler, Ancient Ethics and the Natural World (2021) 52
emotions (passions, affections, pathē), in response to catastrophe Sattler, Ancient Ethics and the Natural World (2021) 52
ennius Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
epicureanism, in lucretiuss works Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 58
epicureanism Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 199
epicureans, epicureanism Sattler, Ancient Ethics and the Natural World (2021) 52
epicurus Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
fear Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
fertility Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 57
formulae Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 199
gods Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
homer Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
imagery, military Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
julius caesar, in ovids works Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 123
julius caesar, venus and Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 123
jupiter, in ovids works Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 123
lucretius, formulae in Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 199
lucretius, mirabilia in Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 199
lucretius, natura in Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
lucretius, religion in Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
lucretius, war in Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
lucretius Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 57, 58
materialism Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
meteorology' Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70
metus Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 199
mirabilia, in lucretius Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 199
natura Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236; Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 57, 58, 123
ovid, metamorphoses Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 123
phaethon, death of Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 123
phaethon, in ovids works Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 123
plato Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 199
poetry and poetics Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
rebirth and renewal narratives, in lucretiuss works Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 58
religion, in lucretius Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
saturn Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 123
stars, in ovids works Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 123
volcanic eruptions" Sattler, Ancient Ethics and the Natural World (2021) 52
war, and poetry Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
war, in lucretius Gale, Virgil on the Nature of Things: The Georgics, Lucretius and the Didactic Tradition (2000) 236
wickedness Star, Apocalypse and Golden Age: The End of the World in Greek and Roman Thought (2021) 58
xenophanes Lehoux et al., Lucretius: Poetry, Philosophy, Science (2013) 70