The Nature of Things (Revised)

Jacket Description/Back: Based on the tenets of Epicurean philosophy, The Nature of Things sets forth a world view anticipating our own. All that exists is composed of atoms that united to form matter and dissipate with time. Even the soul is made up of atoms; however, there is no place in the Epicurean universe for the Roman gods, whose existence Lucretius refutes. Lucretius considers the fear of death to be the source of most human ills, and seeks to dispel it by demonstrating that the soul, like the body, dissolves painlessly into its constituent atoms after death. There is no afterlife, therefore no cause for fear. Publisher Marketing: This great poem stands with Virgil's Aeneid as one of the vital and enduring achievements of Latin literature. Lost for more than a thousand years, its return to circulation in 1417 reintroduced dangerous ideas about the nature and meaning of existence and helped shape the modern world.

Contributor Bio:  Lucretius David R. Slavitt is the author of more than eighty books of poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and drama. His "Propertius in Love "is available from University of California Press. Contributor Bio:  Copley, Frank O Frank O. Copley was a preeminent translator of Latin. His publications include Catallus: The Complete Poetry; Plautus: Menaechmi, Mostellaria, Rudens; Vergil: The Aeneid and Lucretius's On the Nature of Things.