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The World according to Lucretius - AGLV00025
Title: Svět podle Lucretia
Guaranteed by: Institute for Greek and Latin Studies (21-URLS)
Faculty: Faculty of Arts
Actual: from 2023 to 2023
Semester: summer
Points: 0
E-Credits: 4
Examination process: summer s.:
Hours per week, examination: summer s.:0/2, Ex [HT]
Capacity: unknown / unknown (unknown)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
Key competences:  
State of the course: not taught
Language: Czech
Teaching methods: full-time
Teaching methods: full-time
Level:  
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
can be fulfilled in the future
Guarantor: Mgr. Michal Ctibor, Ph.D.
Class: Exchange - 09.5 Classical Philology
Schedule   Noticeboard   
Annotation -
Last update: Mgr. Michal Ctibor, Ph.D. (13.02.2020)
The course is intended for advanced students of Latin and/or philosophy with a good knowledge of Latin. The course will present several key questions and answers of the Epicurean philosophy as this philosophy can be reconstrued from Lucretius´ monumental epic poem De rerum natura and it will also pay attention to the poetic qualities of the Lucretius´ poem.
Course completion requirements
Last update: Mgr. Michal Ctibor, Ph.D. (13.02.2020)

To pass the exam, student must:

1) attend the classes regularly (maximum of 3 absences);

2) read the whole poem De rerum natura in a translation (or in Latin, if he/she prefers)

3) read two scientific articles (or a monography) on Lucretius/epicureanism of one´s own choice. (Recommended articles and book can be found in Sylabus below.)
Literature -
Last update: Mgr. Michal Ctibor, Ph.D. (21.07.2023)

Editions and Commentaries:

LUCRETIUS Carus, Titus: De rerum natura libri VI. Bibliotheca Teubneriana. Ed. Marcus Deufert. Berlin: De Gruyter 2019.

LUCRETIUS Carus, Titus. De rerum natura libri sex. 3 vol. Ed. C Bailey, ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1947.

LUCRETIUS Carus, Titus. De rerum natura, Book III. Edited by E. J. Kenney. Cambridge: CUP, 1971, 2001; second edition (with some important revisions) 2014.

LUCRETIUS. De rerum natura / On the Nature of Things. With an English translation by W. H. D. Rouse; revised by Martin Ferguson Smith. Loeb Classical Library 181. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press 2013.

DEUFERT, Marcus: Kritischer Kommentar zu Lukrezens De rerum natura. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 2018.

DEUFERT, Marcus: Prolegomena zur Editio Teubneriana des Lukrez. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 2017.

 

English Translations:

LUCRETIUS Carus, Titus. On the Nature of the Universe. Trans. and with an introduction by Roland Latham. Baltimore 1965.

See also the first volume of LUCRETIUS 1947 (ed. Bailey) and LUCRETIUS 2013 above.

 

Czech Translations:

LUKRECIUS. O podstatě světa. Přel. Julie Nováková. Praha: Pohořelý 1945.

LUCRETIUS Carus, Titus. O přírodě. Přel. Josef Kolář. Praha: Jan Laichter 1948.

LUCRETIUS Carus, Titus. O přírodě. Přel. Julie Nováková. Praha: Svoboda 1971.

 

Recommended reading:

DIOGENÉS LAERTIOS: Životy, názory a výroky proslulých filosofů. Přel. A. Kolář. Pelhřimov: Nová tiskárna 1995(1964). Especially Book 10.

M. Tullius CICERO: O nejvyšším dobru a zlu. In: Antická próza: Dialog a Satira. Příslušnou část přel. Václav Bahník. Praha: Odeon 1977. Especially Books 1 and 2 (p. 179–256).

 

GALE, Monica (ed.). Oxford Reading in Classical Studies: Lucretius. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007.

GILLESPIE, Stuart – HARDIE, Philip (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Lucretius. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007.

LONG, Anthony A. Hellénistická filosofie. Stoikové, epikurejci, skeptikové. Dějiny filosofie, sv. 3. Praha: OIKOYMENH 2003. 

LEHOUX, Daryn – MORRISON, A. D. – SHARROCK, Alyson (eds.). Lucretius. Poetry, Philosophy, Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2013.

MARKOVIĆ, Daniel. The Rhethoric of Explanation in Lucretius' De rerum natura. Leiden a Boston: Brill 2008.

O'HARA, James J. Inconsistency in Roman Epic. Studies in Catullus, Lucretius, Vergil, Ovid and Lucan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2007.

 

Further reading:

ALGRA, Keimpe A. et al. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambrdige: Cambridge University Press 1999.

ASMIS, Elizabeth. Epicurean epistemology. In: The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Algra, Keimpe – Barnes, Jonatthan – Mansfeld, Jaap – Schofield, Malcolm (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1999, s. 260–294.

BUTTERFIELD, David. The Early Textual History of Lucretius' De rerum natura. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2013.

BUTTERFIELD, David. Some problems in the text and transmission of Lucretius. In: R. Hunter – S. P. Oakley (eds.). Latin Litterature and its Transmission. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2015, s. 22–53.

COMMAGER, H. S. Jr. Lucretius' Interpretation of the Plague. Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 1957, 62, s. 105–118.

CÍSAŘ, Karel. Epicurean Epistemology in Lucretius' "De rerum natura" IV 1-822. Listy filologické / Folia Philologica 124, 1/2, 2001, s, 1–54,

CTIBOR, Michal. Nepřímý důkaz Lucretiovy věrnosti Epikúrovi. Lucretius a Cic. Fin. 1,29–31. Zprávy Jednoty klasických filologů – Auriga. 2017, 59(1), s. 33–44.

FESTUGIÉRE, André-Jean. Epikúros a jeho bohové. Praha: OIKOYMENH 1996.

GARDNER, Hunter H. Pestilence and the Body Politic in Latin Literature. Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press 2019, zejména kapitola 3: Human and Civic Corpora in Lucretius’ Athenian Plague, s. 79–112.

HARDIE, Philip R. – PROSPERI, Valentina – ZUCCA, Diego (eds.). Lucretius, Poet and Philosopher. Background and Fortunes of "De rerum natura". Berlin – Boston: De Gruyter 2020.

KENNEY, E. J. – CLAUSEN, W. von (eds.). The Cambridge History of Classical Literature II. Latin Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1982.

MURLEY, Clyde. Lucretius and the History of Satire. Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. 1939, 70, s. 380–395.

PASTYŘÍKOVÁ, Iveta. Adresát první knihy Lucretiova eposu De rerum natura (1. část). ZJKF – Auriga. 2014, 56(2), s. 23–39.

PASTYŘÍKOVÁ, Iveta. Adresát první knihy Lucretiova eposu De rerum natura (2. část). ZJKF – Auriga. 2015, 57(2), s. 5–24.

Řečtí atomisté. Přel. Karel Svoboda. K vydání připravil M. Mráz. Praha: Svoboda 1980.

SCOTT, Dominic: Recollection and Experience. Plato's Theory of Learning and its Successors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995.

SEDLEY, David. Lucretius and the Transformation of the Greek Wisdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998.

TAYLOR, Barnaby. Lucretius and the Language of Nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2020.

VOLK, Katharina. Lucretius' Prayer for Peace and the Date of "De rerum natura". The Classical Quarterly, New Series. 2010, 60(1), s. 127–131.

WILKINSON, L. P. Lucretius and the Love-Philtre. The Classical Review 1949, 63(2), s. 47–48.

ZIEGLER K. Der Tod des Lucretius. Hermes 1936, 71(4), s. 421–440.

 
Syllabus
Last update: Mgr. Michal Ctibor, Ph.D. (08.02.2023)

I. Introduction

14. 2. Prolegomena

  • See my introduction to Lucretius (in Czech) https://youtu.be/3e6yD-EF93k

  • What do we know about Lucretius? And Epicurus? 

  • Sources for the reconstruction of Epicureanism

  • A basic outline of Epicureanism (canonics, physics, ethics)

  • Structure of the DRN

  • The manuscript tradition of the DRN  

II. Atomism

21. 2. Atoms

  • Exposé: materies, spatium (plenum/inane), corpus, primordia (corpora prima...), minima (minimae partes), concilia, coniuncta, eventa

  • Atoms are invisible but do exist: 1.305–328.

  • Nothing comes out of nothing (nullam rem ex nihilo gigni divinitus umquam): 1.159–191.

  • Nothing vanishes absolutely (into nothing): 1.250–264.

  • Coniuncta and eventa: 1.449–463 (i.e. 87 verses)

28. 2. Motion

  • Exposé: three types of atomic motion (gravitas, plaga, clinamen)

  • Atomic motion compared to dust: 2.112–124.

  • Motion is impossible without void: 1.370–383.

  • Why the things seem to be still, though the atoms are in constant motion: 2.308–332 (i.e. 52 verses).

III. Ethics - Materiality and mortality of soul

7. 3. Animus (mens) and anima are body parts, they are corporeal

  • Animus and anima are body parts: 3.94–97.

  • Corporeality of animus and anima: 3.136–202 (i.e. 71 verses).

14. 3. Mortality of animus and anima, consolation 

  • Animus coevolves with body, gets drunk, gets ill, therefore changes and is mortal: 3.445–486.

  • Our death does not pertain to us: 3.830–842.

  • Melancholy at the banquets: 3.912–915.

  • Lamentation and consolation: 3.894–903 (i.e. 69 verses).

IV. Optics

21. 3. Simulacra

  • At the surface of things, there are thin layers of atoms (simulacra) that are responsible for seeing: 4.26–43

  • Analogies of simulacra: 4.54–64

  • The swiftness of simulacra: 4.209–215

  • How to explain perspective: 4.239–255

  • Rebuke of a rival theory of vision: 3.359–361 + 367–369 (i.e. 69 verses)

28. 3. Optical illusions

  • Examples: 4.364–419

  • Explanation: 4.462–468 (i.e. 63 verses)

V. Evolution of human society:

9. 4. First people

  • Animal life: 5.925–972.

  • Comparison of animal and civilized life: 5.988-1010. (i.e. 71 verses)

4. 4. Early evolution

  • Family, house: 5.1011–1027.

  • Fire, cities, kings, money: 5.1091–1134. (i.e. 51 verses)

11. 4. Later evolution I

  • Laws, republics: 5.1135–1160.

  • Metalurgy: 5.1241–1280 (i.e. 66 verses)

18. 4. Later evolution II

  • Warfare: 5.1281–1340.

  • Ships, poetry, letters: 5.1440-1457. (i.e. 78 verses)

VI. Plague of Athens

25. 4. Symptoms

  • Decay of body: 6.1138–1214 (i.e. 78 verses)

2. 5.  Post-apo

  • Decay of society: 6.1215–1286 (i. e. 72 verses)

9. 5. Leftovers

 
 
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