6, 7. quid…cycnis: for in what respect could the swallow vie with swans? 8. consimile…et: that could compare with. 16. terrores: of superstition. To remove these by demonstrating the uncontested supremacy in the universe of natural law is Lucretius' main purpose. moenia ff.: Lucretius thinks of the earth as at rest in the centre of our system,— or mundus,—surrounded by the air in which move the moon and the sun. The air is encompassed by the fiery aether,—or flammantia moenia mundi, 'the flaming walls of the world,'—which, as it rotates, carries the stars with it. Beyond is the 'illimitable inane' (inmensum inane) in which are set an infinite number of other worlds, and in the midst of these the dwellings where the gods 'live the great life…center'd in eternal calm' (deos securum agere aevom, 6. 58). To the poet's instructed vision aether opens and earth becomes transparent. 18-24. Inspired by Odyssey, 6. 42-45. Cf. Tennyson, Lucretius:
The Gods, who haunt
The lucid interspace of world and world,
Where never creeps a cloud, or moves a wind,
Nor ever falls the least white star of snow,
Nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans,
Nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar
Their sacred everlasting calm!
and his description of the
island-valley of Avilion,
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly
in the Passing of Arthur. Observe the melody of the Latin due to the skilful alliteration, and cf. Munro's translation of it for a like effect.
25. nusquam apparent: Lucretius has proved that they do not exist. 26. nec…dispiciantur: though earth is no bar to all things being descried.—Munro. 28, 29. voluptas adque horror: delight mixed with shuddering awe.—Munro.
3. 1-4. Zephyr and Flora precede Spring and Venus. viai: genitive of archaic form dependent on cuncta, translate as all the way. 5. loci: partitive genitive after inde; translate the two words by then. 8. aliae…ventique: other stormy winds, i.e. Volturnus and Auster. 10. bruma: midwinter.
4. 1. Ergo: because of visions of the night and day and because of their observation of natural phenomena men at large came to the incorrect belief that the gods govern the world. (Lucretius denies the providence of the gods, not their existence.) 2. tradere, facere: infinitives used substantively in apposition to perfugium. 3. templa: realms. 5. severa: stern, austere. Properly the epithet of noctis, but poetically transferred to signa. 6. faces, flammae: meteors. 7. The heaping up of substantives without a copula is not uncommon in Lucretius. 8. fremitus: distant, rumbling thunder. murmura magna minarum: the near loud, threatful thunderclaps.—Munro. minarum is equivalent to a limiting adjective. 13. velatum: the Romans prayed with covered head. 14. vertier: middle. The reference is to a Roman custom by which the suppliant approached with the statue on his right; after praying, he turned to the right so as to face it and then prostrated himself. 17. vota: votive tablets. 18 ff. It is true piety, not to perform these rites, but to possess a tranquil mind, and this is difficult, for the grandeur and terror of nature are almost overwhelming. 20. super fixum: fast above.—Munro. 21. et…viarum: and direct our thoughts to the courses of the sun and moon.—Munro. viarum: B. 206, 3. 26. rationis egestas: lack of power to solve the question.— Munro. 27. genitalis origo: birthtime.—Munro. 28. quoad: how long. 34. contrahitur: shrink into itself.—Munro. 38. corripiunt: like contrahitur, but stronger. 40. poenarum: genitive depending on solvendi. 45. viris quae ff.: powers sufficient to, etc.
LUCRETIUS AS OBSERVER AND WORD-PAINTER.—The following groups of phrases and sentences are given as illustrative of the accuracy, variety, and splendor of Lucretius' descriptions:
1. Shells on the Shore.