M, W, F: 2.10-3.00                                                                                                                                                        Dr. Daniel Solomon                       
Required texts: Bonnie Catto, Lucretius: Selections from De Rerum Natura (Bolchazy-Carducci, 1998)
    Lucretius: On the Nature of the Universe, tr. Ronald Latham, rev. John Godwin (Penguin, 1994)
           
Objectives:    1)  Linguistic: translation and grammatical/stylistic analysis of the pre-Virgilian epic poetry of Lucretius; 2) Philosophical: interpretation of Lucretius' adaptation of Epicurean doctrines in both physics and ethics;  3) Historical: contextualization of Lucretius in the socio-political crisis of Late Republican Rome.
    We will read all the passages in your Latin textbook except for #23, covering on average 40 verses per 50-minute session.  As you prepare your translations at home you must read not only the vocab notes but also the discussion questions and ANCIENT quotations as well.  These will help us in class to consider Lucretius as a Roman, as a poet, as a philosopher, and especially as a native speaker of Latin; to this end we will compare the poem to short counterexamples from Virgil and Horace in Latin, and from Epicurus and Philodemus in English.  Finally, we will devote some (though little) attention to scansion of dactylic hexameters, which will serve you in your reading of any Greco-Roman epic poet.
    Your goal in preparing your translation is to respect the grammatical structure of the Latin original, showing that you understand the cases of nouns, their agreement with their adjectives, the tenses and moods of verbs, and the identification of other parts of speech (especially adverbs).  Please note that there is not one single translation on the market that directly replicates the Latin (this is poetry after all!).  You may refer to your modern translation for difficult renderings of specific phrases, but copying entire clauses constitutes plagiarism. Therefore, your primary reference tool must be the abundance of notes provided by your own textbook.

Requirements:  

Course grade:

Class preparation and  contribution	10 %
First and Second Paper	5% and 10%
Review Exams	13 % each
Final Exam	23 %

    
Grading scale                       
               
       
               

Latin reading assignment: passage # (book and verses). 
Don’t forget to read the skipped verses in English.

Fri Jan 14 Mon Jan 17 Wed Jan 19 Fri Jan 21 Mon Jan 24 Wed Jan 26 Fri Jan 28 Mon Jan 31 Wed Feb 2 Fri Feb 4 Mon Feb 7 Wed Feb 9 Fri Feb 11 Mon Feb 14 Wed Feb 16 Fri Feb 18 Mon Feb 21 Wed Feb 23 Fri Feb 25 Mon Feb 28 Wed Mar 2 Fri Mar 4 Mar 5-13 Mon Mar 14 Wed Mar 16 Fri Mar 18 Mon Mar 21 Wed Mar 23 Fri Mar 25 Mon Mar 28 Wed Mar 30 Fri Apr 1 Mon Apr 4 Wed Apr 6 Fri Apr 8 Mon Apr 11 Wed Apr 13 Fri Apr 15 Mon Apr 18 Wed Apr 20 Fri Apr 22 Mon Apr 25

#1 (1.1-43) ##2, 3 (1.50-79) ##3, 4 , 5 (1.80-116, 146-58).  ##5, 6, 7 (1.159-73, 215-36, 250-64) ##8, 9 (1.265-84, 295-321). ##10, 11 (1.329-45, 358-69, 400-09) ##12, 13 (1. 419-32, 485-502, 528-30, 565-76). #14 (1.921-50) ##15, 16 (1.958-59, 963-83, 1021-37) BOOK 1 EXAM #17 (2.1-33) #18 (2.37-61) #19 (2.95-99, 114-22, 142-64) ##20, 21 (2.216-24, 251-68, 289-93, 308-22) ##21, 22 (2.323-35, 338-370) ##24, 25 (2.646-60, 991-1022) ##26, 27, 28 (2.1023-47, 1052-65, 1074-76, 1090-1104) #29 (2.1150-52, 1157-74) BOOK 2 EXAM #30 (3.1-30) ##31, 32 (3.37-64, 94-97, 136-60) ##33, 34 (3.323-49, 830-42)  SPRING BREAK ##35, 36 (3.894-903, 912-51) ##36, 37 (3.952-65, 978-1023) Book 4 in English; paper 1 due ##38, 39 (4.1058-64, 1089-1101, 1120-40) ##39, 40 (4.1144-59, 1177-79, 1278-87) BOOKS 3-4 EXAM #41 (5.1-2, 6-27, 37-51) ##42, 43 (5.64-77, 195-234) ##44, 45 (5.235-46, 432-48) ##46, 47 (5.925-47, 953-72, 1011-23) #48 (5.1028-29, 1041-45, 1050-51, 1056-61) #49 (5.1161-68, 1183-89, 1194-1203) #50 (5.1392-1404, 1412-35) #51 (5.1448-57) BOOK 5 EXAM #52 (6.58-78) Book 6 in English; paper 2 due #53 (6.1090-97, 1138-44, 1256-58, 1267-86) General review

Bibliography:

Amory, A.  “Obscura de Re Lucida Carmina : science and poetry in Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura,” in Yale Classical Studies, 21 (1969): 145-168.
Anderson, W.  “Discontinuity in Lucretian symbolism,” in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philogical Association, 91 (1960): 1-29.
Bailey, C. Commentary on Lucretius,  Oxford, 1947.
Brown, R. D.  Lucretius on Love and Sex, a Commentary on  De Rerum Natura, IV. 1030-1287, with Prolegomena, Text, and  Translation,  Leiden, 1987.
Classen, C. J.  “Poetry and Rhetoric in Lucretius,” in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philogical Association 99 (1968): 77-118
Clay, D. Lucretius and Epicurus, Ithaca,1983.
Commager, H. S.  “Lucretius’ interpretation of the Plague,” in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 62 (1957): 105-118.
Conte, Gian Biagio, Genres and Readers (transl. G. W. Most), Baltimore, 1994, ch. 1.
Duban, J. M.  “Venus, Epicurus, and naturae species ratioque,” in American Journal of Philology, 103 (1982): 65-177.
Edwards, M. J.  “Aeternus Lepos: Venus, Lucretius and the Fear of Death,” in Greece & Rome 40 (1993): 68-78
Elder, J. P. "Lucretius 1.1-49" in Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philogical Association, 85 (1954): 88-120.
Fowler, D. P.  “Lucretius and Politics,” in M. Griffin and J. Barnes, edd., Philosophia Togata - Essays on Roman Philosophy and Society (vol. 2), Oxford, 1989: 20-150.
Furley, D.J.  pp. 1-17 of “Lucretius the Epicurean. On the history of man,” in Gigon, ed. Lucrèce (Fondation Hardt Entretiens, 24), Vandoeuvres-Geneva, 1978.   
Gale, M.  Myth and Poetry in Lucretius, London, 1994.
Hardie, P. H., pp. 193-200 of Virgil’s Aeneid: Cosmos and Imperium, Oxford, 1986.
Jope, J.  “Lucretius’ Psychological Insight: His Notion of Unconscious Motivation,” in Phoenix 37 (1983): 224-238.
---------   "The Didactic Unity and the Emotional Import of Book 6 of de Rerum Natura," in Phoenix 43 (1989): 16-34.
Kenney, E. J.  “Doctus Lucretius,” in  Mnemosyne 23 (1970): 366-392
Mitsis, P.  “Didactic coercion: committing philosophy on the reader and reader autonomy in the De Rerum Natura,” in Mega Nepios [Materiali e discussioni, 31 (1993)]: 111-129.
Nussbaum, M. C.  The Therapy of Desire, Princeton, 1994, chh. 4-7.
Obbink, D.  Philodemus On Piety, Oxford, 1996.
Sedley, D. N. Lucretius and the Transformation of Greek Wisdom, Cambridge, 1998.
Segal, C. P. pp. 193-204 of "Poetic immortality and the fear of death" in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology,  92 (1989).
Solomon, D. "Lucretius’ Progressive Revelation of Nature in DRN, 1.149-502," in Phoenix, 58.3-4 (2004): 260-283.
Summers, Kirk “Lucretius and the Epicurean Tradition of Piety,” in Classical Philology, 90 (1995),  pp. 32-57, esp. 32-45 on 5.1161ff.
Snyder, J. M. Puns and Poetry in Lucretius’ de Rerum Natura, Amsterdam, 1980.
Volk, K.  The Poetics of Latin Didactic. Oxford, 2002
West, D. The Imagery and Poetry of Lucretius, Edinburgh, 1969.