Lucretius' De rerum natura and satire

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  • September 6, 2022
Creator
  • Gellar, Theodore Harry McMillan
    • College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Classics
Abstract
  • This dissertation provides the first extended, systematic analysis of De Rerum Natura (DRN)'s engagement with the Graeco-Roman satiric traditions and argues that DRN plays an important part in the development of the Roman genre of satire. Chapter 1 treats key preliminaries to the topic: the prior scholarship on satire in DRN, the typology of ancient didactic, the poem's contexts (literary, philosophical, intellectual), the distinction between the mode of satire and the genre of satire, and methodology. Chapter 2's first half develops a portrait of the satirist-figure in Graeco-Roman literature, in a synthesis of satiric poetry (works that employ the broader mode of satire, as opposed to works of the actual Roman genre of satire) and current scholarship on the topic: the satirist employs a personal voice of comic mockery from a self-contradictory position of moral superiority and social abjection. Chapter 2's second half evaluates how DRN's speaker takes on the role of satirist both in familiar diatribal or invective passages (against the Presocratics in book 1, the fear of death in 3, love in 4) and in other passages less often connected with satire and comic mockery. Chapter 3 focuses on other features of DRN's engagement with the satiric mode, particularly the formal characteristics of satire and the tensions between satire and didactic in both satiric literature and DRN--which, as both chapters show, deserves inclusion in the category of satiric literature. Chapter 4 turns to the Roman genre of satire. After examination of ancient definitions of the genre, the term satura, and the programmatic statements by later satirists about Lucilius, the chapter considers the thematic, stylistic, generic, and poetic connections between DRN and earlier Roman satire--not only Lucilius but also Ennius' Saturae. Chapter 5 argues that DRN takes advantage of generic tropes in Roman satire; that Lucretius' poem influences how the later satirists Horace, Persius, and Juvenal use such tropes; and that these satirists allude prominently to DRN. The chapter also argues that the ends of DRN books 2-6 are satires on Roman civic life. A general conclusion speculates on implications of the dissertation's line of inquiry.
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  • In Copyright
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  • ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Classics.
Advisor
  • O'Hara, James
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Date uploaded
  • August 30, 2013

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