Of Gods and Men by Daisy Dunn

Author:Daisy Dunn
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788546737
Publisher: Head of Zeus

IN THE BEGINNING

De Rerum Natura, Book V

Lucretius

Translated by Rev. John Selby Watson, 1880

The Greek philosopher Epicurus was adamant that humans should not fear death. The keenest proponent of his philosophy in first-century BC Rome, a poet named Lucretius (c. 99–c. 55 BC), sought to stamp out unhealthy ‘superstition’ by providing a more scientific explanation for things. In his De Rerum Natura (‘On The Nature Of Things’) we find references to atoms as well as to Venus. Lucretius did not reject the myths so much as use them for his own ends. His story of early mankind, extracted here, contains an explanation of evolution, but also of the softening of mortal bodies over time. There is a strong parallel with the ancient Greek myths that recount man’s decline from a pre-agricultural Golden Age to the Iron Age of the present day. Lucretius dedicated the poem to his patron, a politician named Gaius Memmius.

In the beginning, then, the earth spread over the hills the growth of herbs, and the beauty of verdure, and the flowery fields, throughout all regions, shone with a green hue; and then was given, to the various kinds of trees, full power of shooting upwards through the air. For as feathers, and hairs, and bristles, are first produced over the limbs of quadrupeds and the bodies of the winged tribes, so the new earth then first put forth herbs and trees; and afterwards generated the numerous races of animals, which arose in various forms and by various modes. For animals, that were to live on the earth, could assuredly neither have fallen from the sky, nor have come forth from the salt depths of the sea. It remains, therefore, to believe that the earth must justly have obtained the name of MOTHER, since from the earth all living creatures were born. And even now many animals spring forth from the earth, which are generated by means of moisture and the quickening heat of the sun. It is accordingly less wonderful, if, at that time, creatures more numerous and of larger size arose, and came to maturity while the earth and the air were yet fresh and vigorous.

First of all, the race of winged animals, and variegated birds, left their eggs, being excluded in the season of spring; as grasshoppers, in these days, spontaneously leave their thin coats in the summer, proceeding to seek sustenance and life.

Next, be assured, the earth produced, for the first time, the tribes of men and beasts; for much heat and moisture abounded through the plains, and hence, where any suitable region offered itself, a kind of wombs sprung up, adhering to the earth by fibres. These, when the age of the infants within them, at the season of maturity, had opened, (escaping from their moist-enclosure, and seeking for air,) nature, in those places, prepared the pores of the earth, and forced it to pour from its open veins a liquid like milk; just as every woman at present, when she has brought forth, is stored with sweet milk, because all the strength of the food is directed to the breasts.

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