3 Lucretius on the origin and evolution of species

As has been shown in the previous post, when the earth was new, a number of living things were generated that proved to be unfit to survive and were extinguished accordingly. But not any kind of living things could be created:

Sed neque Centauri fuerunt, neque tempor(e) in ullo

esse queunt duplici natur(a) et corpore bino

‘But neither were there Centaurs, nor at any time can there be animals of twofold nature and double body,’

ex alienigenis membris compacta, potestas

hinc illinc par, vis ut sat par esse potissit.

‘so that the power and strength of each, derived from this parent and that, could be equal.’

id licet hinc quamvis hebeti cognoscere corde.

‘That we may learn, however dull be our understanding, from this.’

principio circum tribus actis impiger annis

floret equus, puer haudquaquam; nam saep(e) etiam nunc

ubera mammar(um) in somnis lactantia quaeret.

‘First of all, when three years have come round, the horse is in the prime of vigour, but the child by no means so; for often even now in his sleep he will clutch for the milky paps of his mother’s breasts.’

post ub(i) equum validae vires aetate senecta

membraque deficiunt fugienti languida vita,

‘Afterwards, when the stout strength and limbs of horses fail through old age and droop, as life flees from them,’

tum demum pueril(e) aevo florente iuventas

occipit et molli vestit lanugine malas.

‘then at last youth sets in the prime of boyish years, and clothes the cheeks with soft down;

ne fort(e) ex homin(e) et veterino semin(e) equorum

confieri credas Centauros posse nequ(e) esse,

‘that you may not by chance believe that Centaurs can be created or exist, formed of a man and the load-laden breed of horses,’

aut rabidis canibus succinctas semimarinis

corporibus Scyllas et cetera de gener(e) horum,

‘or Scyllas either, with bodies half of sea-monsters, girt about with ravening dogs, or any other beasts of their kind,’

inter se quorum discordia membra videmus;

‘whose limbs we see cannot agree with one another;’

quae neque florescunt pariter nec robora sumunt

corporibus neque proiciunt aetate senecta

‘for they neither reach their prime together nor gain the full strength of their bodies nor let it fall away in old age,’

nec simili Vener(e) ardescunt nec moribus unis

conveniunt, neque sunt eadem iucunda per artus.

‘nor are they fired with a like love, nor do they agree in a single character, nor are the same things pleasant to them throughout their frame.’

(878-898, translation Cyril Bailey, who prepared the Oxford edition of Lucretius’ De rerum natura)

 

I shall skip the Chimaera (899-906):

quar(e) etiam tellure nova caeloque recenti

talia qui fingit potuiss(e) animalia gigni,

‘Wherefore again, he who feigns that when the earth was young and the sky new-born, such animals could have been begotten,’

nixus in hoc uno novitatis nomin(e) inani,

‘trusting only in this one empty plea of the world’s youth,’

multa licet simili ration(e) effutiat ore,

‘may blurt out many things in like manner from his lips;’

aurea tum dicat per terras flumina vulgo

fluxiss(e) et gemmis florer(e) arbusta suesse

‘he may say that then streams of gold flowed everywhere over the lands, and that trees were wont to blossom with jewels,’

aut hominem tanto membror(um) ess(e) impete natum,

or that a man was born with such expanse of limbs,’

trans mari(a) alta pedum nisus ut ponere posset

‘that he could plant his footsteps right across the deep seas,’

et manibus totum circum se vertere caelum.

‘and with his hands twist the whole sky about him.’

(907-915)

 

Lucretius rejects the creation of such monsters with reference to ‘a fixed law of nature’:

nam quod multa fuer(e) in terris semina rerum

‘For because there were in the earth many seeds of things’

tempore quo primum tellus animalia fudit,

‘at the time when first the land brought forth animals,’

nil tamen est signi mixtas potuisse creari

inter se pecudes compactaque membr(a) animantum,

‘yet that is no proof that beasts of mingled breed could have been born, or the limbs of living creatures put together in one;’

propterea quia quae de terris nunc quoqu(e) abundant

herbarum gener(a) ac fruges arbustaque laeta

‘because the races of herbage and the crops and fruitful trees, which even now spring forth abundantly from the earth’

non tamen inter se possunt complexa creari,

‘yet cannot be created intertwined one with another’

sed res quaque suo ritu procedit et omnes

foedere naturae certo discrimina servant.

‘but each of these things comes forth after its own manner, and all preserve their separate marks by a fixed law of nature.’

(916-924)

 

Follows the depiction of the early men:

At genus humanum multo fuit illud in arvis

durius, ut decuit, tellus quod dura creasset,

‘But the race of man was much hardier then in the fields, as was seemly for a race born of the hard earth:’

et maioribus et solidis magis ossibus intus

fundatum, validis aptum per viscera nervis,

‘it was built up on larger and more solid bones within, fastened with strong sinews traversing the flesh;’

nec facil(e) ex aestu nec frigore quod caperetur

nec novitate cibi nec labi corporis ulla.

‘not easily to be harmed by heat or cold or strange food or any taint of the body.’

(925-930)

 

Primitive men lived like wild beasts, they did not till, but lived on what earth had created:

multaque per caelum solis volventia lustra

‘And during many lustres of the sun rolling through the sky’

vulgivago vitam tractabant more ferarum.

‘they prolonged their lives after the roving manner of wild beasts.’

nec robustus erat curvi moderator aratri

quisquam, nec scibat ferro molirier arva

‘Nor was there any sturdy steerer of the bent plough, nor knew any one how to work the fields with iron,’

nec nova defoder(e) in terram virgula nec altis

arboribus veteres decidere falcibu’ ramos.

‘or to plant young shoots in the earth, or cut down the old branches off high trees with pruning-hooks.’

quod sol atqu(e) imbres dederant, quod terra crearat

sponte sua, satis id placabat pectora donum.

‘What sun and rains had brought to birth, what earth had created unasked, such gift was enough to appease their hearts.’

glandiferas inter curabant corpora quercus

plerumqu(e); et quae nunc hiberno tempore cernis

arbuta puniceo fieri matura colore,

plurima tum tellus etiam maiora ferebat.

‘Among oaks laden with acorns they would refresh their bodies for the most part; and the arbute-berries, which now you see ripening in winter-time with scarlet hue, the earth bore then in abundance, yea and larger.’

multaque praeterea novitas tum florida mundi

pabula dura tulit, miseris mortalibus ampla.

‘And besides these the flowering youth of the world then bare much other rough sustenance, enough and spare for miserable mortals.’

at sedare sitim fluvii fontesque vocabant,

‘But to slake their thirst streams and springs summoned them,’

ut nunc montibus e magnis decursus aquai

‘even as now the downrush of water from the great mountains’

claru’ citat late sitientia saecla ferarum.

‘calls clear far and wide to the thirsting tribes of wild beasts.’

denique nota vagi silvestria templa tenebant

nympharum, quibus e scibant umori’ fluenta

‘Or again they dwelt in the woodland haunts of the nymphs, which they had learnt in their wanderings, from which they knew that gliding streams of water’

lubrica proluvie larga laver(e) umida saxa,

umida saxa, super viridi stillantia musco

‘washed the wet rocks with bounteous flood, yea washed the wet rocks, as they dripped down over the green moss,’

et partim plano scater(e) atqu(e) erumpere campo.

‘and here and there welled up and burst forth over the level plane.’

(931-952)

 

Primitive men did not know how to make fire or how to use skins of wild beasts to clothe their body:

necdum res igni scibant tractare neque uti

pellibus et spoliis corpus vestire ferarum,

‘Nor as yet did they know how to serve their purposes with fire, nor to use skins and clothe their body in the spoils of wild beasts,’

sed nemor(a) atque cavos montis silvasque colebant

‘but dwelt in woods and the caves on mountains and forests,’

et frutices inter condebant squalida membra

‘and amid brushwood would hide their rough limbs,’

verbera ventorum vitare imbrisque coacti.

‘when constrained to shun the shock of winds and the rain-showers.’

(953-957)

 

Primitive men could not see any common good, they did not know morals and laws that they could use in their dealings with one another; love was promiscuous:

nec commune bonum poterant spectare nequ(e) ullis

moribus inter se scibant nec legibus uti.

‘Nor could they look to the common weal, nor had they knowledge to make mutual use of any customs or laws.’

quod cuiqu(e) obtulerat praedae fortuna, ferebat

‘Whatever booty chance had offered to each, he bore it off;’

sponte sua sibi quisque valer(e) et vivere doctus.

‘for each was taught at his own will to live and thrive for himself alone.’

et Venus in silvis iungebat corpor(a) amantum;

‘and Venus would unite lovers in the woods;’

conciliabat enim vel mutua quamque cupido

‘for each woman was wooed either by mutual passion,’

vel violenta viri vis atqu(e) impensa libido

‘or by the man’s fierce force and reckless lust,’

vel pretium, glandes atqu(e) arbuta vel pira lecta.

‘or by a price, acorns and arbute-berries or choice pears.’

(958-965)

 

They hunted many wild animals, feared but a few; at night they lay naked on the ground, wrapping themselves in leaves:

et manuum mira freti virtute pedumque

‘And trusting in their strange strength of hand and foot’

consectabantur silvestria saecla ferarum

‘they would hunt the woodland tribes of wild beasts’

missilibus saxis et magno pondere clavae;

‘with stones to hurl or clubs of huge weight;’

multaque vincebant, vitabant pauca latebris;

‘many they would vanquish, a few they would avoid in hiding;’

saetigerisque pares subus silvestria membra

nuda dabant terrae nocturno tempore capti,

‘and like bristly boars these woodland men would lay their limbs naked on the ground, when overtaken by night time,’

circum se foliis ac frontibus involventes.

‘wrapping themselves up around with leaves and foliage.’

(966-971)

 

They did not spend their nights in fear that the sun might not rise; what made their rest at night time precarious were the wild beasts:

nec plangore diem magno solemque per agros

qaerebant pavidi palantes noctis in umbris,

‘Nor did they look for daylight and the sun with loud wailing, wandering fearful through the fields in the darkness of night,’

sed taciti respectabant somnoque sepulti,

‘but silent and buried in sleep waited mindful,’

dum rosea face sol inferret lumina caelo.

‘until the sun with rosy torch would bring the light into the sky.’

a parvis quod enim consuerant cernere semper

‘For, because they had been wont ever from childhood to behold’

alterno tenebras et lucem tempore gigni,

‘darkness and light begotten, turn by turn,’

non erat ut fieri posset mirarier umquam

‘it could not come to pass that they should ever wonder,’

nec diffidere ne terras aeterna teneret

nox in perpetuum detracto lumine solis.

‘or feel mistrust lest the light of the sun should be withdrawn for ever, and never-ending night should possess the earth.’

sed magis illud erat curae, quod saecla ferrarum

‘But much greater was another care, inasmuch as the tribes of wild beasts’

infestam miseris faciebant saepe quietem.

‘often made rest dangerous for wretched men.’

eiectique domo fugiebant saxea tecta

‘Driven from their home they would flee from their rocky roof’

spumigeri suis adventu validique leonis

‘at the coming of a foaming boar or a mighty lion’

atqu(e) intempesta cedebant nocte paventes

‘and in the dead of night in terror they would yield’

hospitibus saevis instrata cubila fronde.’

‘their couches spread with leaves to their cruel guests.’

(972-987)

 

The life of primitive men for all its misery and horrors compared favourably to society in Lucretius’ days:

Nec nimio tum plus quam nunc mortalia saecla

‘Nor then much more than now would the races of men’

dulcia linquebant lamentis lumina vitae.

‘leave the sweet light of life with lamentation.’

unus enim tum quisque magis deprensus eorum

‘For then more often would some one of them be caught’

pabula viva feris praebebat, dentibus haustus,

‘and furnish living food to the wild beasts, devoured by their teeth,

et nemor(a) ac montis gemitu silvasque replebat

‘and would fill woods and mountains and forests with his groaning’

viva videns vivo sepeliri viscera busto.

‘as he looked on his living flesh being buried in a living tomb.’

at quos effugium servarat corpore adeso,

‘And those whom flight had saved with mangled body,’

posterius tremulas super ulcera taetra tenentes

palmas horriferis accibant vocibus Orcum,

‘thereafter, holding trembling hands over their noisome sores, would summon Orcum with terrible cries’

donec eos vita privarant vermina saeva

‘until savage griping pains had robbed them of life,’

expertis opis, ignaros quid vulnera vellent.

‘all helpless and knowing not what wounds wanted.’

at non multa virum sub signis milia ducta

‘Yet never were many thousands of men led beneath the standards’

una dies dabat exitio nec turbida ponti

aequora lidebant navis ad saxa virosque.

‘and done to death in a single day, nor did the stormy waters of ocean dash ships and men upon the rocks.’

hic temer(e) incassum frustra mare saepe coortum

‘Then rashly, idly, in vain would the sea arise’

saevibat leviterque minas ponebat inanis,

‘and rage, and idly set aside its empty threatenings,’

nec poterat quemquam placidi pellacia ponti

subdola pellicer(e) in fraudem ridentibus undis.

‘nor could the treacherous wiles of the windless waves lure any man to destruction wirh smiling waters;’

improba navigii ratio tum caeca iacebat.

‘then the wanton art of sailing lay as yet unknon.’

tum penuria deinde cibi languentia leto

membra dabat, contra nunc rerum copia mersat.

‘Then, too, want of food would give over their drooping limbs to death, now on the other hand ‘tis surfeit of good things brings them low.’

ill(i) imprudentes ipsi sibi saepe venenum

vergebant, nunc dant <aliis> sollertius ipsi.

‘They all unwitting would often pour out poison for themselves, now with more skill they give it to others.’

 (988-1010)

2 Lucretius on the origin and evolution of species

First, the earth brought forth vegetable life:

Principio genus herbarum viridemque nitorem

terra dedit circum collis camposque per omnis,

‘‘First of all the earth gave birth to the tribes of herbage and bright verdure all around the hills and all over the plains,’

florida fulserunt viridanti prata colore,

‘the flowering fields gleamed in their green hue,’

arboribusque datumst variis exinde per auras

crescendi magn(um) immissis certamen habenis.

‘and thereafter the diverse trees were started with loose rein on their great race of growing through the air.’

ut plum(a) atque pili primum saetaeque creantur

‘Even as down and hair and bristles are first formed’

quadrupedum membris et corpore pennipotentum,

‘on the limbs of four-footed beasts and the body of fowls strong of wing’

sic nova tum tellus herbas virgultaque primum

sustulit, inde loci mortalia saecla creavit

multa modis multis varia ratione coorta.

‘so then the newborn earth raised up herbage and shrubs first, and thereafter produced the races of mortal things, many races born in many ways by diverse means.’

nam neque de caelo cecidiss(e) animalia possunt

nec terrestria de salsis exisse lacunis

‘For neither can living animals have fallen from the sky nor the beasts of earth have issued forth from the salt pools.’

linquitur ut merito maternum nomen adepta

terra sit, e terra quoniam sunt cuncta creata.

‘It remains that rightly has the earth won the name of the mother, since out of earth all things are produced.’

 

Lucretius supports his narrative with reference to the wildly accepted belief in ‘spontaneous generation’.

multaque nunc etiam exsistunt animalia terris

‘And even now many animals spring forth from the earth’

imbribus et calido solis concreta vapore;

‘formed by the rains and the warm heat of the sun;’

quo minus est mirum si tunc sunt plura coorta

et maiora, nova tellur(e) atqu(e) aether(e) adulta.

‘wherefore we may wonder the less, if then more animals and greater were born, reaching their full growth when earth and air were fresh.’

Lucretius says, if I understand him correctly, that in those days, when the earth and air were still young, some greater animals were generated (coorta) in the state of adulthood (adulta).

 

First came the birds, springing from eggs:

Principio genus alituum variaeque volucres

ova relinquebant exclusae tempore verno,

‘First of all the tribe of winged fowls and the diverse birds left their eggs, hatched out in the spring season,’

folliculos ut nunc teretes aestate cicadae

linquunt sponte sua victum vitamque petentes

‘as now in the summer the cicadas of their own will leave their smooth shells, seeking livelihood and life.’ [Like the cicadas ‘in our time’ (ut nunc) leave their smooth shells in adulthood, so did the birds, in the early days of the earth, leave their eggs in the state of adulthood.]

 

Then came the mammals:

tum tibi terra dedit primum mortalia saecla.

‘Then it was that the earth first gave birth to the race of mortal things.’

multus enim calor atqu(e) umor superabat in arvis.

‘For much heat and moisture abounded then in the fields.’

hoc ubi quaeque loci regi(o) opportuna dabatur,

‘thereby, wherever a suitable spot or place was afforded,’

crescebant uteri terram radicibus apti;

‘there grew up wombs, clinging to the earth by their roots;’

quos ubi tempore maturo patefecerat aetas

infantum fugiens umor(em) aurasque petessens,

‘and when in the fullness of time the age of the little ones, fleeing moisture and eager for air, had opened them,’

convertebat ibi natura foramina terrae

‘nature would turn to that place the pores in the earth’

et sucum venis cogebat funder(e) apertis

‘and constrain them to give forth from their opened veins a sap,

consimilem lactis, sicut nunc femina quaque

‘most like the milk; even as now every woman’

cum peperit, dulci repletur lacte, quod omnis

impetus in mammas convertitur ill(e) alimenti.

‘when she has brought forth, is filled with sweet milk, because all the current of her nourishment is turned towards her paps.’

terra cibum pueris, vestem vapor, herba cubile

praebebat mult(a) et molli lanugin(e) abundans.

‘The earth furnished food for the young, the warmth raiment, the grass a couch rich in much soft down.’

at novitas mundi nec frigora dura ciebat

‘But the youth of the world called not into being hard frosts’

nec nimios aestus nec magnis viribus auras.

‘nor exceeding heat nor winds of mighty violence:’

omni(a) enim pariter crescunt et robora sumunt.

‘for all things grow and come to their strength in like degrees.’

 

The earth therefore fully deserves to be called mother:

Quar(e) eti(am) atqu(e) etiam maternum nomen adepta

terra tenet merito, quoniam genus ipsa creavit

human(um) atqu(e) animal prope certo tempore fudit

omne quod in magnis bacchatur montibu’ passim,

‘Wherefore, again and again, rightly has the earth won, rightly does she keep the name of mother, since she herself formed the race of men, and almost at a fixed time brought forth every animal which ranges madly everywhere on the mighty mountains,

aeriasque simul volucris variantibu’ formis.

‘and with them the fowls of the air with their diverse forms.’

 

But in time the earth ceased to bear:

sed quia fin(em) aliquam pariendi debet habere,

‘But because she must needs come to some end of child-bearing,’

destitit, ut mulier spatio defessa vetusto.

‘she ceased, like a woman worn with the lapse of age.’

 

The earth’s child-baring came to an end because the universe constantly changes:

mutat enim mundi naturam totius aetas

‘For time changes the nature of the whole world,’

ex alioqu(e) alius status exciper(e) omnia debet

‘and one state after another must needs overtake all things,’

nec manet ulla sui similis res: omnia migrant

‘nor does anything abide like itself: all things change their abode,’

omnia commutat natura et vertere cogit.

‘nature alters all things and constrains them to turn.’

namqu(e) aliud putrescit et aevo debile languet,

‘For one thing rots away and grows faint and feeble with age,’

porr(o) aliud succrescit et <e> contemptibus exit

‘thereon another grows up and issues from its place of scorn.’

sic igitur mundi naturam totius aetas

mutat et ex alio terram status excipit alter,

‘So then time changes the nature of the whole world, and one state after another overtakes the earth,’

quod tulit ut nequeat, possit quod non tulit ante.

‘so that it cannot bear what it did, but can bear what it did not of old.’

(V. 783-836)

 

Nature first created many deformities, which could not survive, unable to feed themselves and incapable of propagating their kind (837-848). Many things must concur so that the living things can find sustenance and be able to propagate their races:

multa videmus enim rebus concurrere debere,

‘For we see that many happenings must be united for things,’

ut propaganda possint procudere saecla;

‘that they may be able to beget and propagate their races;’

pabula prim(um) ut sint, genitalia deinde per artus

semina quae possint membris manare remissis;

‘first that they may have food, and then a way whereby birth-giving seeds may pass through their frames, and issue from their slackened limbs.’

Feminaqu(e) ut maribus coniungi possit, habere

mutua qui mutent inter se gaudi(a) uterque.

‘and that woman may be joined with man, they must needs each have means whereby they can interchange mutual joys.’ (849-854)

 

Only those that fitted survived:

Multaque t(um) interiiss(e) animantum saecla necessest

‘And it must needs be that many races of living things then perished’

nec potuisse propagando procudere prolem.

‘and could not beget and propagate their offspring.’

nam quaecumque vides vesci vitalibus auris

‘For whatever animals you see feeding on the breath of life,’

aut dolus aut virtus aut denique mobilitas est

ex ineunt(e) aevo genus id tutata reservans.

‘either their craft or bravery, aye or their swiftness has protected and preserved their kind from the beginning of their being.’

multaque sunt, nobis ex utilitate sua quae

commendata manent, tutelae tradita nostrae.

‘And many there are, which by their usefulness are commended to us, and so abide, trusted to our tutelage.’

proncipio genus acre leonum saevaque saecla

tutatast virtus, vulpis dolus et fuga cervos.

‘First of all the fierce race of lions, that savage stock, their bravery has protected, foxes their cunning, and deer their fleet foot.’

at levisomna canum fido cum pectore corda

‘But the lightly-sleeping minds of dogs with their loyal heart,’

et genus omne quod est veterino semine partum

‘and all the race which is born of the seed of beasts of burden,’

lanigeraeque simul pecudes et bucera saecla

‘and withal the fleecy flocks and the horned herds,’

omnia sunt hominum tutelae tradita, Memmi.

‘are all trusted to the tutelage of men, Memmius.’ [Gaius Memmius was a nobleman to whom Lucretius dedicated his poem.]

nam cupide fugere feras pacemque secuta

sunt et larga suo sine pabula parta labore,

‘For eagerly did they flee the wild beasts and ensue peace and bounteous fodder gained without toil of theirs,’

quae damus utilitatis eorum praemia causa.

‘which we grant them as a reward because of their usefulness.’

at quis nil horum tribuit natura, nec ipsa

sponte sua possent ut vivere nec dare nobis

utilitat(em) aliquam quare pateremur eorum

praesidio nostro pasci genus esseque tutum,

‘But those to whom nature granted none of these things, neither that they might live on by themselves of their own might, nor do us any useful service, for which we might suffer their kind to feed and be kept safe under our defence,’

scilicet haec aliis praedae lucroque iacebant

‘you may know that these fell a pray and spoil to others’

indupedita suis fatalibus omnia vinclis,

‘all entangled in the fateful trammels of their own being,’

donec ad interitum genus id natura redegit.

‘until nature brought their kind to destruction.’

(V. 855-877, translation Cyril Bailey)

1 Lucretius on the origin and evolution of species

Greenblatt writes: ‘When in the nineteenth century he set out to solve the mystery of the origin of human species, Charles Darwin did not have to draw on Lucretius’ vision of an entirely natural, unplanned process of creation and destruction, endlessly renewed by sexual reproduction. That vision had directly influenced the evolutionary theories of Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin (’The Swerve, p. 262).’

Lucretius opens this topic with the formation of the world (V. 416-431):

Sed quibus ille modis coniectus materiai

fundarit terr(am) et caelum pontique profunda,

solis lunai cursus, ex ordine ponam.

Bailey translates: ‘But by what means that gathering together of matter established earth and sky and the depths of ocean, and the courses of sun and moon, I will set forth in order’

nam certe neque concilio primordia rerum

ordine se suo quaeque sagaci mente locarunt

‘for in very truth not by design did the first-beginning of things [Lucretius uses this Latin term for the Greek atoms] place themselves each in their order with foreseeing mind’

nec quos quaque darent motus pepigere profecto,

‘nor indeed did they make compact what movements each should start’

sed quia multa modis multis primordia rerum

ex infinito iam tempore percita plagis

‘but because many first-beginnings of things in many ways, driven on by blows from time everlasting until now’

ponderibusque suis consuerunt concita ferri

‘and moved by their own weight, have been wont to be born on’

omnimodisque coir(e) atqu(e) omnia pertemptare,

quacumque inter se possent congressa creare,

‘and to unite in every way and essay everything that they might create, meeting one with another’

propterea fit uti magnum vulgata per aevum

‘therefore it comes to pass that scattered abroad through a great age’

omne genus coetus et motus experiundo

‘as they try meetings and motions of every kind’

tandem convenient ea quae conventa repente

magnarum rerum fiunt exordia saepe,

‘at last those come together, which, suddenly cast together, become often the beginnings of great things’

terrai maris et caeli generisqu(e) animantum.

‘of earth, sea and sky, and the race of living things.’

***

Concerning his use of Latin terms Lucretius says in the first book, I.136-139:

Nec m(e) animi fallit Graior(um) obscura reperta

difficile inlustrare Latinis versibus esse,

‘Nor does it pass unnoticed of my mind that it is a hard task in Latin verses to set clearly in the light the dark discoveries of the Greeks’

multa novis verbis praesertim cum sit agendum

‘above all when many things must be treated in new words’

propter egestatem lingu(ae) et rerum novitatem.

‘because of the poverty of our tongue and the newness of the themes’.

 

Concerning bodies and atoms of which they are composed Lucretius writes at I. 483-486:

Corpora sunt porro partim primordia rerum,

‘Bodies, moreover, are in part the first-beginnings of things’

partim concilio quae constant principiorum.

‘in part those which are created by the union of first beginnings.’

sed quae sunt rerum primordia, nulla potest vis

stinguere; nam solido vincunt ea corpore demum.

‘Now the true first-beginnings of things, no force can quench; for they by their solid body prevail in the end.’

***

At V. 772-782 Lucretius summarises his description of the self-creation of the world – mentioning in particular his theories concerning the eclipses of the sun and moon - and introduces the theme of the creation of living things/beings:

Quod superest, quoniam magni per caerula mundi

qua fieri quicquid posset ratione resolvi,

‘For the rest, since I have unfolded in what manner each thing could take place throughout the blue vault of the great world,’

solis ut varios cursus lunaeque meatus

noscere possemus quae vis et causa cieret,

‘so that we might learn what force and what cause started the diverse courses of the sun, and the journeyings of the moon,’

quove modo <possent> offecto lumin(e) obire

‘and in what way they might go hiding with their lights obscured,’

et neque opinantis tenebris obducere terras,

‘and shroud the unexpecting earth in darkness,

cum quasi conivent et aperto lumine rursum

omnia convisunt clara loca candida luce,

‘when, as it were, they wink and once again open their eye and look upon all places shining with their clear rays,’

nunc rede(o) ad mundi novitat(em) et mollia terrae

arva, novo fetu quid prim(um) in luminis oras

toller(e) et incertis crerint committere ventis.

‘now I return to the youth of the world, and the soft fields of earth, and what first with new power of creation they resolved to raise into the coasts of light and intrust to the gusty winds.’

Lucretius’ description of ‘what the world in its youth and the soft fields of earth resolved to raise into the coasts of light’ – i.e. his theory of the origin and evolution of the living beings – I shall unfold, or begin to unfold, in my next post.

***

A note for the beginners – like myself – in reading Latin poetry:

Elision (from ēlīdō -ere to eject) occurs when a vowel/diphthong at the end of a word is followed by a word beginning with a vowel/diphthong; the former is ejected, that is, it is not pronounced and does not count metrically. Elided vowels are enclosed in parentheses for purposes of scansion. Since h does not count metrically, elision also occurs when a word beginning with h is preceded by a word ending in a vowel/diphthong [nesciaqu(e) humanis precibus mansuescere corda, Vergil, Georgics 4.470]. Further elision occurs even with words ending in a vowel plus m. This reflects the weak pronunciation of final m in Latin. (Cavin Betts and Daniel Franklin, Beginning Latin Poetry Reader, p. 259).

Jerome of Prague on Wikipedia

It was only after I put ‘Stephen Greenblatt on Jerome of Prague’ on my blog that it occurred to me to look at Google, what, if anything, can be found on Jerome on the internet. I found two extensive entries on Wikipedia, one in Czech and one in English. I learnt that Poggio Braccioli’s letter to Leonardo Bruni concerning Jerome is well known.

I thought of revising or simply cancelling my post on Greenblatt’s Jerome, but on second thoughts I decided to leave it as it stands. Greenblatt’s account has a freshness and authenticity of an author who thought about Poggio’s account of Jerome’s greatness in a new way.

In the Czech Wikipedia entry on Jerome I learnt that during his stay in Paris at Sorbonne, in the year 1404/05, ‘he got acquainted with the whole of Plato’.

Having read all this within the framework of Greenblatt’s The Swerve HOW THE RENAISSANCE BEGAN I can’t help thinking that Jerome would deserve to be written about under the heading HOW THE RENAISSANCE IN BOHEMIA WAS UNTIMELY ENDED. Had Hus and Jerome continued working at Charles’ University, a renaissance could have developed in Bohemia within the framework of and on the basis of their critical thinking.

Stephen Greenblatt on Jerome of Prague

On June 22 I wrote on my blog: ‘I wrote the last entry on my blog two months ago; I have decided to end my work on Plato for the time being. How do I spend my break? I have decided to improve my Latin.’

(Incidentally, the last entry on my blog was the ‘Digression 5, Meno and the Meno, Xenophon and the Meno’, published on April 22. I don’t know how it happened that it now figures as published on July 7. Perhaps I looked at it and made some correction on that day.)

I decided to devote my time to Latin poetry, and so I began to read Lucretius’ De rerum natura. It was lying on my bookshelf for some thirty-seven years, untouched. As I opened it, a little envelope fell out, with a note from Professor Ackrill:

‘Oxford Aristotelian Society

Fortnightly meetings will take place as usual at 8.30 p.m.in LR IX at Brasenose College. The first meeting this term will be on Tuesday 18 October. We continue with Lucretius: I. 449-482, then IV. 722-906.

October 1983                                                                                                              J.L.A.’

I finished reading the third book of De rerum natura when I was thinking of returning to Plato, but then I came across the video presenting a conversation on Lucretius with Margaret Graver, Professor of Classics, Dartmouth College. Margaret Graver led me to Stephen Greenblatt. I ordered Greenblatt’s The Swerve HOW THE RENAISSANCE BEGAN, and realised that I cannot leave Lucretius before reading his poem in its entirety, thinking him through and discussing him on my blog.

In the meantime, yesterday, in the middle of Greenblatt’s Swerve I came across a text that compelled me to send him an email: ‘May I ask you a great favour? Would you send me the Latin text of Poggio's letter to Leonardo Bruni on Jerome of Prague, and of his letter to Leonardo Arentino concerning his find of the manuscript of Quintilian. I would like to put the Latin text of these letters on my website with Czech translation, and with your permission, the text with which you link the two together in The Swerve, in English and in Czech.

I have a great time with The Swerve.’

Professor Greenblatt replied: ‘Thank you for your letter. I am sorry to say that I do not have access, because of the pandemic, to my office or to the library.  I wish you success in your search.’

I therefore decided to put the relevant texts in English, as they stand in Greenblatt’s book. But I must say a few introductory words concerning his book.

The main hero of Greenblatt’s book is Poggio Bracciolini, who discovered Lucretius’ De rerum natura in 1417. Poggio became a secretary of Pope John XXIII, who was deposed by the Council at Constance. There were three popes at that time, and ending the schism was the council’s most important item of business. But another major issue was the repression of heresy: ‘The correspondence that the secretaries copied out for their pope attempted to turn the focus away from the schism and from papal corruption and towards someone whose name Poggio must have begun to write in official documents again and again. Forty-four-year-old Jan Hus, a Czech priest and religious reformer, had been for some years a thorn in the side of the Church’ (Greenblatt, p. 165-166).

What Greenblatt writes on Hus will warm every Czech’s heart, for I hope his book will be translated in Czech. But concerning Hus he writes little, if anything, which is not known in my country, at least by specialists. On Hus I shall therefore quote just a few things I knew nothing of: ‘The Bohemian nobles who accompanied him rode ahead to meet with the pope and ask whether Hus would be allowed to remain in Constance free from the risk of violence. “Had he killed my own brother,” John replied, “not a hair on his head should be touched while he remained in the city.” (p. 167) … Wycliffe had died in his bed, much to the disappointment of his ecclesiastic enemies, but the council now ordered that his remains be dug up and cast out of consecrated ground. It was not an auspicious sign for their reception of Jan Hus … Notwithstanding the assurances that the pope, the council, and the emperor had given him, Hus was almost immediately vilified and denied the opportunity to speak in public. On November 28, barely three weeks after he arrived, he was arrested on order of the cardinals and taken to the prison of a Dominican monastery on the banks of the Rhine. There he was thrown into an underground cell through which all the filth of the monastery was discharged … In the face of protests from Hus and his Bohemian supporters about the apparent violation of his safe-conduct, the emperor chose not to intervene. He was, it was said, uncomfortable about what seemed a violation of his word, but an English cardinal had reportedly reassured him that “no faith need be kept with heretics” (p.168) … There is no direct record of what Poggio personally thought of these events in which he had played his small part … and he was, after all, in the service of the papacy whose power Hus was challenging. (A century later, Luther, mounting a more successful challenge, remarked: “We are all Hussites without knowing it.”) But when, some months later, Hus’ associate, Jerome of Prague, was also put on trial for heresy, Poggio was not able to remain silent.

A committed religious reformer with degrees from the universities of Paris, Oxford, and Heidelberg, Jerome was a famous orator whose testimony on May 26, 1416, made a powerful impression on Poggio. “I must confess,” he wrote to his friend Leonardo Bruni, “that I never saw any one who in pleading a cause, especially a cause on the issue of which his own life depended, approached nearer to the standard of ancient eloquence, which we so much admire.” Poggio was clearly aware that he was treading on dangerous ground, but the papal bureaucrat could not entirely restrain the humanist’s passionate admiration:

It was astonishing to witness with what choice of words, with what closeness of argument, with what confidence of countenance he replied to his adversaries. So impressive was his peroration, that it is a subject of great concern, that a man so noble and excellent a genius should have deviated into heresy. I cannot help entertaining some doubts. But far be it from me to take upon myself to decide in so important a matter. I shall acquiesce in the opinion of those who are wiser than myself.

This prudent acquiescence did not altogether reassure Bruni. “I must advice you henceforth,” he told Poggio in reply, “to write upon such subjects in a more guarded manner.” (p.172-173)

It was the dream of persuading an audience through the eloquence and conviction of public words that had drawn Hus and Jerome of Prague to Constance. If Hus had been shouted down, Jerome, dragged from the miserable dungeon where he had been chained for 350 days, managed at least to make himself heard. For a modern reader, there is something almost absurd about Poggio’s admiration for Jerome’s “choice of words” and the effectiveness of his “peroration” – as if the quality of the prisoner’s Latin were the issue; but it was precisely the quality of the prisoner’s Latin that unsettled Poggio and made him doubt the validity of the charges against the heretic. For he could not … disguise from himself the tension between the bureaucrat who worked for the sinister John XXIII and the humanist who longed for the freer, clearer air, as he imagined it, of the ancient Roman Republic. Poggio could find no real way to resolve this tension; instead, he plunged into the monastic library with its neglected treasures.

“There is no question,” Poggio wrote, “that this glorious man, so elegant, so pure, so full of morals and wit, could not much longer have endured the filth of that prison, the squalor of the place, and the savage cruelty of its keepers.” These words were not a further lapse into the kind of imprudent admiration of the eloquent, doomed Jerome that alarmed Leonardo Bruni; they are Poggio’s description of the manuscript of Quintilian that he found at St. Gall:

He was sad and dressed in mourning, as people are when doomed to death; his beard was dirty and his hair caked with mud, so that by his expression and appearance it was clear that he had been summoned to an undeserved punishment. He seemed to stretch out his hands and beg for the loyalty of the Roman people, to demand that he be saved from an unjust sentence.

The scene he had witnessed in May appears still vivid in the humanists’ imagination as he searched through the monastery’s books. Jerome had protested that he had been kept “in filth and fetters, deprived of every comfort”; Quintilian was found “filthy with mold and dust.” Jerome had been confined, Poggio wrote to Leonardo Aretino, “in a dark dungeon, where it was impossible for him to read”; Quintilian, he indignantly wrote of the manuscript in the monastic library, was “in a sort of foul and gloomy dungeon … where not even men convicted of a capital offence would have been stuck away.” “A man worthy of eternal remembrance!” So Poggio rashly exclaimed about the heretic Jerome whom he could not lift a finger to save. A few moths later in the monastery of St. Gall, he rescued another man worthy of eternal remembrance from the barbarians’ prison house.

It is not clear how conscious the link was in Poggio’s mind between the imprisoned heretic and the imprisoned text. At once morally alert and deeply compromised in his professional life, he responded to books as if they were living, suffering human beings. “By heaven,” he wrote of the Quintilian manuscript, “if we had not brought help, he would surely have perished the very next day.” Taking no chances, Poggio sat down and began copying the whole lengthy work in his beautiful hand. It took him fifty-four days to complete the task.’ (p.177-179)