NOTES TITLE. Cf. 25, quos ego de rerum natura pangere conor; 5, 335, denique natura haec rerum ratioque repertast | nuper, et hanc primus cum primis ipse repertus | nunc ego sum in patrias qui possim vertere voces; 4, 969, nos agere hoc autem et naturam quaerere rerum | semper et inventam patriis exponere chartis. By rerum natura Lucretius means all phenomena in the widest sense, the object of the working power and the reason for its working. The term occurs 15 times in the poem in this sense (APA. 22, p. xxxiii). So Numa in Ovid, M. 15, 6, desires to learn of Pythagoras quae sit rerum natura. Humboldt, Cosmos, tr. Otté, Introduction: "Nature- -considered rationally is a unity in diversity of phenomena; a harmony; a blending together of all created things, however dissimilar in form and attributes; one great whole animated with the breath of life" (quoted by Kelsey). Lucr. took the title from Epicurus' Пepl Þúσews, which contained 37 books, yet several philosophers (e.g. Empedocles, Parmenides) had written books with a like title. Ovid, Tr. 5, 10, 9, has 'scilicet in nobis rerum natura novata est.' See on 3, 931. BOOK I 1-43. 'O mother of the Aeneadae, fostering Venus, it is by thy means that the world is peopled and all living things have existence. Help me to unfold this poem in Memmius' honor, cause Mars to rest from cruel war.'-Ov. Tr. 2, 261, sumpserit ‘Aeneadum genitrix' ubi prima; requiret | Aeneadum genitrix unde sit alma Venus. Ausonius, Epigr. 33, Aeneadum genitrix hic habito alma Venus. Priscian, (KGL. 2, 292), cites the first verse to show that Aeneadum is equivalent to Aeneadarum. Tert., de Corona, 12, Veneris enim myrtus, matris Aeneadarum. — The first two words are found as a wall inscription at Pompeii (CIL. 4, 3072), just as Arma virumque cano Tro was also written (CIL. 4, 2361), testifying to the vogue of both Lucretius and Virgil; cf. Friedländer, SG. 3, 302. 1. Aeneadum: the word first occurs here, and frequently (18 times) in Virgil, e.g. Aen. 1, 157; cf. Thesidae, Georg. 2, 383 of the Athenians. Rutil. Itin. 1, 67, auctorem generis Venerem Martemque fatemur, | Aeneadum matrem, Romulidumque patrem; see Thes. LL, 1, 984, 12. — genetrix the spelling genetrix is best attested: Bramb. 85. Suet. Iul. 61, cuius (equi) instar pro aede Veneris Genetricis postea (Iulius) dedicavit. Venus Genetrix was originally a gentile cult of the Julian gens (Caelius, ap. Cic. Fam. 8, 15, 2, vellem quidem Venere prognatus tantum animi habuisset), but on the adoption of the Aeneas legend became a public one. Ennius, Ann. 52, makes Ilia pray te sale nata precor, Venus et genetrix patris nostri; a temple was erected in her honor by Julius Caesar in 708/46, and Augustus extended her cult. Cybele is nostri genetrix in 2, 599.—divom occurs repeatedly; cf. 2, 646; 4, 1008; 5,51; the -om is not a contraction of -orum, but the suffix indicated by most I.E. languages (cf. inπwv); the form survived in the classic language in nostrum vestrum (Lindsay, Lat. Lang. 401, 244). Other words in Lucr. which have this ending are virum, 95, 728, etc.; deum, 54, 68, etc.; squamigerum, 2, 343; Graium, 2, 600, etc.; consanguineum, 3, 73 (see n. there); Chaldaeum, 5, 727; Molossum, 5, 1063; Siculum, 6, 642; this use is part of the antique coloring of the poem. For the antique o for u, cf. aevom, 549, etc.; olivom, 2, 392, etc.; volgi, 1, 315, etc.; volnus, 2, 639, etc.; volpes, 3, 742, etc.; Volturnus, 5, 745; voltu, 3, 293, etc.; volturii, 4, 680; nativom, 5, 66; parvola, 4, 193, etc.; perparvom, 5, 588; vivom, 4, 767; and several others. He seems to use the form deorum certainly but once, 6, 54. Calliope is addressed as requies hominum divomque voluptas, 6, 94. So in the poem Jove, Saturn, Neptune, Ceres, Bacchus, Mars, Phoebus are mentioned; not that L. believes that they take any part in human affairs or that they are personalities to him; but merely for poetic coloring as symbols representing natural forces. So Tennyson's 'Lucretius' would remove an apparent inconsistency in this invocation: Ay, but I meant not thee: I meant not her, Whom all the pines of Ida shook to see Slide from that quiet heaven of hers, and tempt the Trojan, while his neat-herds were abroad; Nor her that o'er her wounded hunter wept Her deity false in humanamorous tears; Nor whom her beardless apple arbiter Decided fairest. Rather, O ye Gods, Poet-like, as the great Sicilian called Calliope to grace his golden verse — Ay, and this Kypris also did I take That popular name of thine to shadow forth The all-generating powers and genial heat Of Nature, when she strikes through the thick blood of cattle, and light is large and lambs are glad, Nosing the mother's udder, and the bird Makes his heart voice amid the blaze of flowers: Which things appear the work of mighty Gods.' Fabricius, Bib. Lat. ed. Ernesti, 79, cites the objection of Clericus and the answer of Victorius to this introduction, viz.: 'rectius facturus fuisse videtur L. si Rationem sive Mentem tamquam Deum in limine poematis potius quam Venerem implorasset. Sed L. sensibus plus quam rationi tribuens, et generationem rerum cupiens exponere, nullum magis physicum numen quam Venerem appellare se posse existimavit.' Quintilian (4, 1) speaks of the custom of poets' invoking divinities: quod si nemo miratur poetas maximos saepe fecisse, ut non solum initiis operum suorum Musas invocarent, sed provecti quoque longius, cum ad aliquem graviorem venissent locum, repeterent vota,' etc. (cf. L. 6, 94). See Sellar's discussion of the logical inconsistency, p. 343. Hume, Nat. Hist. of Religion, Sect. 5, says L. was plainly seduced by the strong appearance of allegory which is observable in pagan fictions. He first addresses himself to Venus as to that generating power which animates, renews, and beautifies the universe, but is soon betrayed by mythology into incoherences when he prays to that allegorical personage to appease the furies of her lover Mars; an idea not drawn from allegory, but from popular religion, and which L. as an Epicurean could not consistently admit of. Martha, Poëme, p. 54, has noticed that the invocation to Venus contains also a compliment to Memmius, inasmuch as many coins of the Memmian gens bear a head of Venus crowning Cupid. The Memmii had adopted the cult of Venus physica from Sulla (Marx, Bonner Studien, 18, 115), and thus L. compliments his patron. Siemering, 13, states the case very succinctly: certainly the goddess in whom the popular belief revered the ideals of beauty, and to whom they ascribed the origin of the strongest impulse in life, seemed to L. to personify the idea of Nature. Poeta erat L. ideoque non neglexit leges suae artis ; Epicureus, ideoque patriae superstitioni subdole obsequitur,' Creech. Bernays cites Porphyr. on Hor. Ep. 1, 20, 1, 'receptum est et principia et fines in omnibus libris nullius legis formula contineri, unde sic L. incipit primum Epicureae sectae librum.' — voluptas: 2, 171, 'quae suadet adire | ipsaque deducit dux vitae dia voluptas | et res per Veneris blanditur saecla propagent, | ne genus occidat humanum. quorum omnia causa | constituisse deos cum fingunt, omnibu' rebus magnopere a vera lapsi ratione videntur.' For this use of voluptas (darling, joy), cf. Aen. 8, 581, 'care puer, mea sola et sera voluptas'; Stat. Theb. 3, 295, 'O mihi, bellorum requies et sacra voluptas | unaque pax animo.' — Reitzenstein quotes (Ρ. 47) ἀφρογενές Κυθέρεια, θεῶν γενέτειρα καὶ ἀνδρῶν, | αἰθερία, χθονία, φύσι παμμήτωρ, ἀδάμαστε. Marx (c. p. 197) describes a fresco of this Venus, which is numbered 295 in Helbig's Wandgemälde, being a tutelary divinity of a colony of Sullan veterans, wherein the goddess is represented in a spangled robe, bearing in the right hand a twig while the left holds a sceptre and rests on a rudder; Marx sees here symbolized heaven, earth, and sea, these being governed by the goddess of the prooemium; note particularly verse 21. See also the Venus of Pompeii, in MauKelsey, Pompeii, 12.- Perhaps Martha (p. 61) goes too far in saying that this 'hymn' is the most beautiful that has proceeded from the mouth of a pagan. Milton was as inconsistent in invoking the Heavenly Muse in Paradise Lost. 2. alma: 'fostering'; cf. 2, 992, alma... mater... terra; 2, 971, dulcedinis almae; 5, 230, almae nutricis; 6, 750, Tritonidis almae; 2, 390, liquor almus aquarum; the epithet logically follows genetrix. M. tr. 'increase giving' from the etymology (ab alendo). Horace has almae progeniem Veneris,' C. 4, 15, 31. Alma Venus occurs in Aen. 1, 618; 10, 332; Ov. F. 4, 90; M. 14, 478, 15, 844; Anth. Meyer, 535, 15; Germanicus, Arat. Prog., 4, 50. Munro cites alma Venus from the Basis Capitolina, reg. xii; Aethicus Cosmographia, 83 R.; Macr. Sat. 3, 8, 3 quoting Laevius, Venerem igitur almum adorans, sive femina sive mas est'; and Plaut. Rud. 694; — all to show that the epithet had passed into the language of the people. Other references in Carter's Epitheta Deorum, 100. - Marx, in the N. Jahrb. 1899, 543, describes the Venus Pompeiana and the Venus of Aphrodisias, the latter particularly having attributes such as are given by L. here. His woodcut shows symbolically her control over heaven, earth, and sea, and the goddess was frequently joined with Roma as sharing the government of the world. — Venus: to be interpreted by 227, unde animale genus generatim in lumina vitae redducit Venus.' Cf. Eurip. Fr. 890 quoted by Cudworth, Intellectual System, 1, 645, 'Do you not see how great a god Venus is? But you are never able to declare her greatness, nor to measure the vast extent thereof. For this is she who nourisheth both thee and me and all mortals, and who makes heaven and earth friendly to conspire together.' Apul. 4, 29, 'en rerum naturae prisca parens, en elementorum origo initialis, en orbis totius alma Venus.' — subter labentia signa: cf. for the rhythm Georg. 2, 157, subter labentia muros. Subter is rare as a preposition, and when so used is more frequent with the acc. than the abl. - labentia : a word frequently used by L. to describe the motion of the heavenly bodies: 5, 712, '(luna) labitur, ex alia signorum parte'; cf. 5, 718; 4, 444, 'splendida signa videntur | labier'; Georg. 1, 365, 'stellas . . . praecipites caelo labi.' M. cites Cic. Arat. Fr. 3, 'cetera labuntur celeri caelestia motu.'-signa, for constellations, occurs frequently, e.g. 5, 627 sq.; Ovid, F. 3, 113, caelo labentia signa.'- (This introduction is translated by Dryden, imitated by Spenser, F. Q. Bk. 4, Canto 10, St. 44-47; cf. Chaucer, Troilus and Cressida, near the end of Book 3. Sellar, Poets of Rep. 343 sq.). 3. navigerum is not cited before L., who uses it but once; it occurs in Mart. 12, 98, 4. For the invention and use by L. of compounds in -ger and -fer see on 3, 11. — quae for the postponement of the relative in the clause cf. 84, 145, 149, and Holtze, 109.- terras: he uses the plural to express the wide extent of the action: cf. 30, 278; 2, 144, 256; 4, 203, and elsewhere (the whole world). Ov. M. 1, 22, nam caelo terras, et terris abscidit undas, | et liquidum spisso secrevit ab aere caelum.' Mark here the threefold division of the world into mare, terra, caelum, as Plaut. Tr. 1070 has it. Bentley cited Eurip. Hipp. 449, Φοιτᾷ δ ̓ ἀν ̓ αἰθέρ ̓, ἔστι δ' ἐν θαλασσίῳ κλύδωνι Kúжρis, пáνта dÈK TAÚTηS ou, but the imitation, as M. notices, goes back to Homeric Hymn, 4, 1, Αφροδίτης Κύπριδος, ἥ τε θεοῖσιν ἐπὶ γλυκὺν ἵμερον ὦρσε, Καί τ' ἐδαμάσσατο φύλα καταθνητῶν ἀνθρώπων, Οἰωνούς τε διιπέτεας καὶ θηρία πάντα, Ημὲν ὅσ ̓ ἤπειρος πολλὰ τρέφει ἠδ ̓ ὅσα πόντος; cf. Orphic Hymn, 55, 4 in M. For the rhythm cf. 278, 'quae mare, quae terras, quae denique nubila caeli.' L. has abl. terris 33 times, dat. once, 5, 630; terras 51, terram 49, terrā 32, terrarum 32, terrae, nom., once, 2, 1109. Terrae = tellus in L. usually.—frugiferentis. Evelyn translates comfort bring and mirth To the ship-bearing seas, corn-bearing earth;' ǎpovpai πνpopópoi, Hom. E 122; jeldwpov äpovpav, 7 332. Ennius had used frugifer, Ann. 479; but frugiferens is är. Xey.; cf. aedituentes 6, 1275 for aeditui. - 4. concelebras: 'people,' i.e.' cause to throng,' cf. 2, 344, ' volucres, laetantia quae loca aquarum concelebrant' (= throng), to which pervolgant in the following line corresponds; 5, 1380, 'ante fuit multo quam levia carmina cantu | concelebrare homines possent' (= cause to abound). L. uses the simple verb but once, 5, 1167. Fillest with thy presence' M.; du erfüllst, bevölkerst, B.; 'reples et exornas,' Creech; 'celebras et cultas reddis vel colis et frequentas,' Lamb.; besucht, Br. comparing adventumque tuum 7, tuumque . . . initum, 12–13, see Phil. 23, 455; Giussani, 'riempi di te, ti diffondi per, sei la vita di.' Bernays is right: Venus omnia loca . . . animantibus celebria ac frequentia reddit' like celebrare in 5, 1167.- per te: also 6, 70. For per expressing means cf. 2, 258, ‘(voluntas) per quam progredimur'; 4, 753, cernere per simulacra'; 5, 72, 'vesci per nomina rerum.' quoniam: this and other words are frequently postponed in the clause for metrical reasons: cf. 21, III; proper position in 32. As Bock. notes, quoniam introduces the necessary reason to justify the statement to an Epicurean. — Cf. in general, Incerti Ponticon, Praefatio 14, in the Anthology: 'tu foetibus auges | cuncta suis: totus pariter tibi parturit orbis.' L. has quoniam with subj. 6 times; with indic. 121. — - genus omne animantum: 194, 'natura animantum | propagare genus possit'; 1033, 'summissaque gens animantum | floreat'; 2, 78, 'saecla animantum'; 2, 1063, 'generisque animantum'; 2, 1071, ‘aetas animantum,' in middle of the line; the prevailing position of animantum is the sixth place (1. 4, 194, 350, 1033, 1038; 2. 78, 921, 1063; 5. 431, 919; middle, 2. 880, 1071; 3. 266, 720; 5. 855); but in formulas like this in 1, 4 it is usually at the end. In all these passages animantium would be excluded by the metre. - Cf. Ovid's invocation to Venus, Fasti, 4, 87 sq., especially 93 sq., 'iuraque dat caelo, terrae, natalibus undis, | perque suos initus continet omne genus. | illa deos omnes, longum est numerare, creavit; | illa satis causas arboribusque dedit.' 5. visitque: cf. 22 and 2, 576, ‘vagor | quem pueri tollunt visentis luminis oras.' exortum: cf. 23, and with Bernays, 2, 545, unde ea progigni possit concepta'; hence exortum = progigni.-lumina solis, for the light of life; in this sense frequent in L.: cf. on 3, 681 and 542. The expression occurs also in Aen. 6, 255; 7, 130 (lumini), 8, 68, solis | lumina. Ennius seems to have first used lumina solis as a verse ending (Ann. 290), and through L. his influence extended to Ovid also: lumina solis, M. 1, 767, and Tr. 2, 325. L. has lumina vitae, 1, 227, 3, 861 ; lumina solis, 1, 5; 2, 660; lumine vitae, 3, 1042, luminis oras, 5, 224, 1455; 1, 22, 170, 179; 2,577, 617; hence the singular he uses in these phrases 8 times and the plural 4; he has lumina solis for páos heλíolo, 2, 108, 114, 741, but 4, 371, lumine solis, the singular. Doubtless the plural suggested 'rays' to a Roman mind. In 2, 114, lumina is opposed to radii. Woltjer, Serta Romana, puts a comma after solis; Lachm, and Br. a period; M. colon. Reitzenstein, Drei Vermuthungen, etc., 44, thinks 21 corresponds to 3; 22 to 4; and 23 to 6-9 which he would not, therefore, bracket with Br. ... ... 6. te te te: for the anaphora cf. ' nulla est restandi, nulla facultas,' 110; quae mare, quae terras, quae denique nubila caeli,' 278; unde haec animantibus exstat unde est haec,' 2, 256; iure, ut opinor, agat, iure increpet,' 3, 962; 'nempe aliae quoque sunt, nempe hac sine viximus ante; | nempe eadem facit,' 4, 1173; 'tria corpora, Memmi, | tris species tam dissimilis, tria talia texta,' 5, 93; 'inde mare inde aer inde aether,' 5, 498; 'tum ioca, tum sermo, tum dulces esse cachinni,' 5, 1397. Anaphora occurs frequently in other forms. — fugiunt: because at the coming of Venus all is calm. Claudian De Nupt. Hon. 184, 'adventu Veneris pulsata recedunt | nubila.' So in Theocr. Id. 20, 19, at the appearance of the Dioscuroi, vepéλai dè diédpaμov äXXvdis äλλai. Stat. Silv. 1, 2, 51, serenati qua stat plaga lactea caeli where alma Venus iacebat. — venti of course are winter winds and nubila winter clouds. nubila for nubes is poetical. L. has it frequently, and also nubes; nubila caeli closes the line also in 278 and 6, 214; nubila caelum, 5, 466, n. caelo, Aen. 3, 586; Ov. M. 5, 286, Am. 1, 8, 9; n. caelum, F. 2, 493. — te . . . adventumque tuum: for the pleonasm cf. te tuumque initum, 12; vos et vestrum numen, Aen. 2, 154; te violo aut tua iura resolvo, id. 4, 27, and Conington on the former. Lucr. 3, 919, 'se vitamque requirit'; Enn. Ann. 107, 'quod mihi meaeque fide,' Sc. 186, 'per vos et vostrum imperium'; Aen. 4, 492, 'te . . . tuumque dulce caput.' M. notices a like use of te after vocatives and relatives in Hor. C. 1, 35, 5; Catull. 2, 9. — Br. brackets 6-9 as interrupting the thought. He has discussed the question in the Jahresbericht for 1889, 233, and in Phil. 23, 455. See also Stürenberg, 8, and Giuss. Note L. 6. They seem to me to be an ascription of praise within the invocation. 7. Alliteration: tumque tuum tibi tellus. —tibi: cf. Georg. 2, 4, 'huc, pater O Lenaee, tuis hic omnia plena | muneribus, tibi pampineo gravidus autumno | floret ager.' Pervig. Ven. 76, ‘rura fecundat voluptas, rura Venerem sentiunt.' — suavis is to be taken with flores; adjectives ending in -is are sometimes ambiguous in case in L.: so omnis, 56, 353, 558; 5, 383; ingentis, 2, 956; fortis, 3, 8; inanis, 3, 116; suavis, 3, 222 with spiritus unguenti, where the sweetness of odor is plainer than ... |