Lucretius, Venus, Cybele, Love, the Gods

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to plot the indirect method in Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura of introducing the reader to a new Epicurean theology that is far removed from the ‘theology’ of Roman religion. He begins with Venus in the proem, but leaves her behind; he goes on with Cybele and other godly figures – love and echo among them –, and ends with a description of the grim, godless world of the plague that struck Athens in the age of Pericles.