The Nature of Things (Penguin Classics) by Lucretius

Author:Lucretius
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780141915371
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2007-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

Book V

Cosmos and Civilization

Who can build a fitting song, who has the strength of heart

To match the Majesty of Things and these truths in his art?

Or who has such a way with words his praise can match the worth

Of him1 who sought these revelations and who brought to birth

Out of his own intellect such gifts of wondrous good

And then bequeathed them to us? None I think, of flesh and blood;

For Memmius, to speak in the exalted tones we need

For the Majesty of Things – he was a god, a god indeed,

Who first discovered this way of living life that we now call

[10] Philosophy – for having found Life tossing in a squall,

He used his science in the dark and murky storm to steer

Into calm waters2 and safe harbour, where the sky was clear.

Take for example those ancient discoveries we call divine:

It’s said that Ceres taught men to grow grain, and as for wine,

That Bacchus introduced the culture of the clustered vine.

And yet life can be lived without these discoveries, for they say

That there are tribes3 that live without them to this very day.

But life was not worth living till the heart was purified.

Thus he deserves his godhead more, whose Word now far and wide

[20] Being broadcast among the mighty nations, sweetly soothes

Troubled spirits with life’s consolation, his great truths.

But if you think the deeds of Hercules4 compare somehow,

You stray from truth and common sense. For what harm could come now

To us from the gaping jaws of the Nemean lion? And what more

Have we to fear now from that bristly brute, the Arcadian boar?

What danger does the Cretan bull now pose? And who now shakes

At Lerna’s scourge, the Hydra picketed with poison snakes?

What threat to us is threefold Geryon with his triple breast?

Or those dire fowl that out by Lake Stymphalus made their nest?

[30] And the fire-breathing mares of Diomedes – would we face

Any peril from them, stabled far away in Thrace?

Or take the guardian of the Hesperides’ apples of bright gold –

The serpent fierce with searing stare whose massive coils enfold

The tree’s trunk – what harm could it do now, living beside

The far Atlantic shore washed by the Ocean’s pitiless tide –

A place we never approach, where even savages fear to tread?

And what of all those other slaughtered monsters that lie dead –

If they had not been slain, what damage could they do alive?

None at all, I tell you, for even now on earth there thrive

Many species of savage brutes, fierce animals in droves,

[40] And chattering Terror teems in mountain lairs, deep woods, dark groves –

The kinds of places as a rule we never need go near.

And yet what dangers threaten if the mind is not washed clear,

What battles we unwillingly invite into the heart!

How biting are desire’s cares that worry man apart,

How menacing the fears! And then consider Pride and Wrath

And Lust – and the catastrophes which are their aftermath –

[50] And Gluttony and Sloth.5 And he who’s conquered all these, then,

And banished them from the mind – not

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