Holy Terror

Lucretius proposes to push back the frontiers of superstition and extend the frontiers of enlightenment by exposing credulity, on the one hand, and, on the other, propagating his science of natural causes. Both efforts serve to liberate men from the unnecessary fear inspired by religion. And there is a moral benefit, as well. Conventional religion, according to Lucretius, not only intensifies fear but stirs up all the passions. The terrifying anticipation of posthumous sorrows provokes extravagant ambitions for immortal fame, and desperate lusts for any pleasure that may afford distraction from the terror. Although Lucretian teachings may appear to give license to every sort of pleasure, Lucretius claims that they will moderate passions and thus should placate moralists. He recognizes, though, that his materialistic hedonism must fend off a further objection: that it undermines heroism and the poetry of heroic deeds. On this score, he defends himself in De Rerum Natura, by enlisting poetic charm in the service of Epicurean doctrine. The poem celebrates a new kind of hero in Lucretius' teacher, Epicurus, who surpasses the heroism of Homer's Achilles and Odysseus by braving priests to enlighten humanity.

For so-called "naturalists" who assume the ancients have nothing of great value to teach sundry oh so "cool," "hip," and priapic "libtaryyuns" -- riding the historical crest-wave of "coolness" -- I commend to your perusal this review of Eve Adler's pathbreaking study of Vergil. Adler happened to be one of my profs at Middlebury College and she's the most formidable intellect among the college faculty (one which is none too shabby) -- and, for that matter, she's among the most redoubtable intellects to be found anywhere. In respects similar to her late friend Seth Benardete, she's possessed of intellectual hobbies ranging from the latest in physics to honing her fluency in a passel of dead and living languages.

http://www.claremont.org/writings/crb/fall2004/alvis.html