Lucretius and the End of Masculinity

Michael Pope

doi:10.1017/9781009242349

From beginning to end, the De rerum natura upsets expectations. This book's premise is that Lucretius intentionally provokes his imagined male audience, playfully and forcefully proving to them that they are not the men they suppose themselves to be. From astral bodies to the magnetic draw of human sexuality to the social bonds linking parents to children, Lucretius shows that everything is compounded material, both a source of atomic issue and receptacle of atomic ingress. The universe, as Lucretius presents it, is a never-ending cycle of material interpenetration, connectivity, and dissolution. Roman men, in the vastness of it all, are only exceptional in their self-defeating fantasies. Close analysis of Lucretius' poetics reveals an unremitting assault upon the fictions that comprise Roman masculinity, from seminal conception in utero to existential decomposition in the grave. Nevertheless, Lucretius offers an Epicurean vision of masculinity that just might save the Republic.

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Lucretius and the End of Masculinity

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Contents

Lucretius and the End of Masculinity
pp i-ii

Lucretius and the End of Masculinity - Title page
pp iii-iii

Copyright page
pp iv-iv

Contents
pp v-v

Acknowledgments
pp vi-vi

Abbreviations
pp vii-viii

Chapter 1 - Odd Men Out
pp 1-34

Chapter 2 - Humbled Beginnings
pp 35-56

Chapter 3 - Nature’s Assault upon the Senses
pp 57-82

Chapter 4 - Death: The Hole That Gapes for All
pp 83-119

Chapter 5 - The Ties That Bind
pp 120-146

Chapter 6 - Vir Recreandus
pp 147-193

Bibliography
pp 194-216

Index
pp 217-225

Subject Index
pp 226-230

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Lucretius and the End of Masculinity

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