Lucretius: De rerum natura Book III PDF
Preview Lucretius: De rerum natura Book III
CAMBRIDGE GREEK AND LATIN CLASSICS General Editors P. E. Easterling RegiusProfessorEmeritusofGreek,UniversityofCambridge Philip Hardie SeniorResearchFellow,TrinityCollege,Cambridge Richard Hunter RegiusProfessorofGreek,UniversityofCambridge E. J. Kenney KennedyProfessorEmeritusofLatin,UniversityofCambridge S. P. Oakley KennedyProfessorofLatin,UniversityofCambridge LUCRETIUS D E R E R V M N A T V R A BOOK III edited by E. J. KENNEY KennedyProfessorEmeritusofLatin, UniversityofCambridge second edition UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521173896 (cid:2)C CambridgeUniversityPress1971,2014 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firsteditionpublished1971 Secondeditionpublished2014 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyCPIGroupLtd,Croydoncr04yy AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary isbn978-1-107-00211-1Hardback isbn978-0-521-17389-6Paperback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof urlsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication, anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. CONTENTS Prefacetotheirstedition pageix Prefacetothesecondedition xi Listofabbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1 Thedoctrine 1 2 Thepoet 5 3 Thepoem 7 (a) Scope 7 (b) Structure 10 4 Thepoetry 11 (a) Thetwotraditionsandthetwostyles 11 (b) Languageandmetre 16 5 BookIII 24 (a) Subject,structureandargument 24 (b) The‘consolatio’ 26 6 Thetext 28 SupplementaryIntroduction 31 TITI LVCRETI CARI DE RERVM NATVRA LIBER TERTIVS 37 Commentary 73 Bibliography 230 1 Editions,commentariesandtranslations 230 2 Workscitedinshortform 231 Indexes 1 Greekwords 246 2 Latinwords 246 3 General 250 vii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION The conscientious commentator will offer his work to the public in a mood of doubt and self-questioning. As an Editor of the series in which this edition appears I have felt a special duty to keep in the forefront of my mind its declared aim: ‘to provide the student with the guidance that he needs for the interpretation and understanding of the book as a work of literature’. The amount of guidance here provided may, how- ever,strikesomereadersasexcessive.Ifso,itisbecauseithasseemedto methatinthepastLucretius’interpretershavenotalwaystakenenough painstodisentangleandfollowhisargumentasheintendedittobefol- lowed,andthis,whatevershortcomingsmaybefoundintheexecution,is what I have attempted to do. The De Rerum Natura, in spite of the lucid style of which the poet was rightly proud, is a dificult book, and I have often preferred the risk of telling the reader what he already knows to that of leaving him in the lurch – the besetting sin of commentators. It may also be felt that there is here too much expatiation on the poetical techniques of Lucretius. In this department the existing commentaries seemtoleavemuchtobedesired.InspiteoftheleadgivenbyH.Sykes DaviesinhisCriterionarticleof1931–2andinspiteofmorerecentcon- tributionsinthisieldsuchasProfessorDavidWest’sexcellentTheimagery andpoetryofLucretius(1969),theconventionalideaofLucretius’artstill persists: ingenio maximus, arte rudis. Cicero knew otherwise; but posterity has yet to be convinced. The student who inds some notes inordinately longmaycaretonotethatanefforthasbeenmadeto,sotosay,‘grade’ theircontentssothattheessentialinformationisusuallypresentedatthe beginning. It would have been tedious in the extreme to record each and every debttomypredecessors.Mygeneralobligationtothecommentariesof,in particular,Munro,Ernout–RobinandBaileywillbeevident.Imustmake speciicmention,however,ofthewayinwhichmyapproachtotheunder- standingandexegesisofBookiiihasbeeninluencedbythesuperbedi- tionofRichardHeinze–unworthilyneglectedbyBailey,whomakesquite inadequate use of it. I have not been able to bring myself to reproduce anyexistingtext;inpreparingmyownIhavereliedprincipallyonBailey’s reportsofthemanuscripts. Itisapleasuretorecordmythanks,forhelpandadviceofvariouskinds, to Dr M. Baltes, Dr H.-D. Blume, Dr R. D. Dawe, Dr G. E. R. Lloyd, Mr RolandG.Mayer,DrD.O’Brien,MrN.H.ReedandProfessorH.Tra¨nkle. IamparticularlyindebtedtomyeditorialcolleagueMrsEasterlingforsug- gestionsleadingtoanumberofimportantimprovementsinbothpresen- tationandsubstance.ProfessorR.G.M.Nisbetkindlyagreedtoreadthe ix x PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION proofs,andanumberofweaknesseshavebeenexposedbyhisacutecriti- cisms.Iregretonlythatitwasnotpossibletoincorporatemoreofhissug- gestions.HisandMrsEasterling’svigilancehassavedmefrommoreerrors thanIcaretoremember;thosethatremainmustbelaidatmydoor,where theybelong. March1971 E.J.K. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION Twoconsiderationshavepromptedthethoughtthatasecondeditionof this book may not be unwelcome. As informed interest in Lucretius has continuedtogrow–afactstrikinglyillustratedbythenumberoftransla- tionsthatcontinuetoappear–soitmustbeacceptedthatstudentsnow cometohimlesswellpreparedlinguisticallythanwasthecaseinthe1970s. AccordinglytheCommentaryhasbeenextensivelyrevisedandenlarged, with,itishoped,dueaccounttakenofthecommentsofreviewers–though myoldfriendandcriticProfessorDavidWestwouldnowmissinthenotes the‘brevitythatcomesclosetowit’thatheadmiredintheirstedition. ThreepassagesintheIntroductiontotheirsteditionhavecalledfor reconsideration:whatwassaidthereaboutthe‘middle’or‘lorid’styleof oratory,thediscussionofthediatribeandwhatissaidaboutthespelling of seorsum. These points are dealt with at p. 13 n. 51, p. 14 n. 55 and p.18n.73respectively.Thesectiononthetexthasbeenrewritteninthe lightofsubsequentworkinthatield,especiallythatofProfessorMichael Reeve and Dr David Butterield, to both of whom I am greatly indebted forhelpandadvicegenerouslygiven.Theapparatuscriticushasalsobeen revised in accordance with Dr Butterield’s advice. Otherwise the Intro- duction is reprinted unaltered apart from a handful of additions to the footnotesinadditiontothethreenotedabove,andadjustmentoftheref- erencestothesecondaryliteratureinconformitywithcurrentseriesstyle. In the Supplementary Introduction I have conined myself for the most part to comments on such post-1971 contributions to Lucretian studies (some of which are in any case noticed in the revised Commentary) as seemlikelytobeusefultoreadersofthisbookoftheDeRerumNatura.I regretthatithasnotbeenpossibletoincludereferencestoalltheimpor- tantworkofProfessorFergusonSmithontheOenoandainscription. AsthebookpassesthroughthepressItaketheopportunityofrecord- ingmygratefulacknowledgementsofthehelpIhavereceivedinthepro- cess of revising it for this new edition. Dr Monica Gale has generously takentimefromthepreparationofhereagerlyexpectededitionofCatul- lusinthisseriestoreviseandamplifytheSupplementaryIntroductionto itsgreatbeneit.DrRobertMacfarlanehaskindlypermittedmetorepro- ducethepassagefromhisinebookThewildplacesasasecondepigraph,so providingtheperfectruefulEpicureanglossontheIrishpeasant’sdour verdict: ‘There’s not much fun in being dead.’ Professor Roland Mayer volunteeredofhisgoodnesstoreadtheproofs–anundertakingthatcost him more time and wrestling with my type- and manuscript than either of us had initially bargained for. Finally I must thank and apologize to the members of the Production staff of the Cambridge University Press xi xii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION whowerefacedwiththetaskoftransformingcopypresentedincomputer- unfriendlyguiseintowhatisnowofferedtothereader.Ioweaspecialdebt ofgratitudetoDrIvetaAdams.Hersearchingscrutinyhasdetectedand eliminated a great many loose ends, inconsistencies and authorial slips ofpen,typewriterandattention,andmanyothershavebeenrevealedby thevigilanceofmyfelloweditors.Foranythatmayhaveeludedourjoint effortstheresponsibilityrestswithme.Mywifehasneversparedherselfin the labour of retrieving books from shelves now inaccessible to me, and thiseditionisdedicatedtoherinloveandgratitude. May2014 E.J.K.
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