Environmental Thought in Antiquity

One thing I find very interesting about Lucretius is his concerns with the environment. Before taking this class, I did not really consider that those in the Ancient world had viewpoints on the environment, but this text shows just how concerned these cultures were with it. Lucretius makes many striking points about nature and the way the world works, all of which are thought-provoking and applicable to today’s society. I really liked how Lucretius Book 5 connected to the article we had to read for class, “The Original Affluent Society”. Both these texts provided commentary on hunting, but what stood out to me from Lucretius is the explanation of how animals came to be and why animals existed on Earth beginning around line 785. Books 5 and 6 of Lucretius that we had to read for class both had a very Biblical feel in my opinion. By describing the way animals came from the heavens because “there was a great abundance of warmth and moisture in the ground” feels very much like a story straight out of Genesis. Rather, instead of creating the world for men, Lucretius describes creation as resulting from the desire in nature itself. Rather than designing the world in God’s image, animals seem to come straight from nature. 

Another somewhat Biblical reference I picked up on from Lucretius was the description of the plague at the end of Book 6. Because of it’s placement at the end of the book and it’s daunting, almost warning language, this read like something that could possibly be found in Revelation. Although the plague mentioned in Lucretius did not bring about the end of the world, there is a very intimidating tone to the text. The way Lucretius describes it seems to warn those reading about the dangers associated with the plague. Reading this really allowed an insight into just how destructive this plague actually was, both for humankind and for the world around us. The most striking part of this text in my opinion was that “some were so afraid...that they cut off their sexual organs and so prolonged their existence.” This stood out to me because even though these people were suffering terrible symptoms, they still feared death above all else. More than wanting to end their pain, they wanted to live on earth. Going back to our discussion on Monday, this definitely shows the Epicurean belief that fear of death can affect happiness, because these people feared death so much that they would rather suffer terrible pain than cross over.