Titus Lucretius Carus, a philosopher, and an all around Epicurean poet. He wrote in the middle years of the first century B.C. Epicureanism was one of four leading philosophical systems that any aspiring philosophy student was expected to master. The education did not include science or mathematics, which makes his statements all the more interesting. Lucretius was a visionary and a thinker ahead of his time. A person who probably never stopped analyzing his surrounding world till the day he died. He wrote a six book poem in Latin in Latin “Dererum Natura” this translates to “On the nature of things. Lucretius’ poem was written for and to a Roman aristocrat named Memius. He passionately and respectfully gives his depictions of the meaning of existence, of death, and expresses a hope to gain Memius’ friendship. He speaks of the nature or phenomena of the soul, such as human emotions. He denounces the fear of death and its significance to its relationship with the living. His stance is fascinating. He directly shuns religion by denouncing it’s purity as follows.
[1]“When human life, all too conspicuous, lay foully groveling on earth, weighed down By grim Religion looming from the skies Horribly threatening mortal men, A Greek, first raised his mortal eyes bravely against the menace.
[2]“ The fear of Acheron Must, first and foremost, be dismissed; fear Stains everything with death’s black darkness, laves no pleasure pure and clear it drives a man to violate honor, or to break the bonds of friendship, and, in general, overthrow All of the decencies, Men have betrayed Their country or their parents, desperate to avoid the realms of Acheron.”
[3]“Death is nothing to us, has no relevance To our condition, seeing that the mind Is mortal.”
Within the first quote could he be referring to Socrates? This does not matter, what matters is he saw Roman society’s biggest flaws. He lived in a society which lived in fear of a god or...