Approaches to Lucretius is a close-knit patchwork of thirteen chapters divided into five parts, which, in an apt homage to the DRN, take the reader from the minute detail of textual criticism, through a sequence of didactic, structural and intertextual questions, and out to a ‘broad chronological and conceptual coverage’ (12). Uniting them is the view, which Donncha O'Rourke puts forward in his lucid introduction, that ‘every interpretation is mediated by, and a product of, its tradition’ (4). The result, therefore, is a sustained focus on reception and open reading, finding justification in the peculiar nature of Lucretius’ versified philosophical treatise, which consistently encourages the reader to question how it itself functions in relation to the reality it portrays.
This volume is not conceived as introductory, and comprises novel and challenging perspectives on the DRN. Familiar insights — such as Paul Friedländer's linguistic atomism and Don Fowler's didactic plot — become springboards. The reader is rarely left wallowing in ignorance as the authors generally summarise these foundational views before developing their own, but the motley of angles from which the DRN is illuminated does mean that the reader is taxed with code-switching even within the volume's individual parts. Yet this is more more a strength than a weakness — to grumble at such variety would be to detract needlessly from the refreshing breadth of perspectives which make this volume so appealing, and which nonetheless take the reader smoothly from one part of the volume to the next. For, as Lucretius gradually brings one to a sublime view of the universe, so Approaches consistently reveals new dimensions from which to study his work.
In the sole chapter of part one, ‘The Text’, David Butterfield focuses on the incongruity of lines 1.44–9 in relation to their surroundings. Clearly and systematically, he shows that there is little reason to view these lines as anything other than ‘the marginal copying by an ancient reader of 2.646–51’ (36); in book 2 they fit, rather than obfuscate, the course of argument. The reader is thus immediately reminded how the text itself is open to reception, and it is somewhat fitting that Butterfield's chapter should contain one of the volume's few typos: ‘uacaus’ for uacuas, citing Lachmann's emendation of 1.50 (28).
Three studies comprise the second part, ‘Lucretius and his Readers’, which treats the triangulation between the author, addressee and reader, and blurs the boundaries between them. Nora Goldschmidt takes a theoretical approach, grounded in Wayne Booth's concept of the ‘implied author’, to rehabilitate Lucretius’ authorial voice and view his constructed presence as ‘a mode of reception encoded in the text’ (48); far from leading us down a biographical rabbit hole, the concept allows us to consider how emotive passages in the first person rub against the sense of the author gleaned from the whole work. Barnaby Taylor, meanwhile, focuses on the striking multiplicity of first-person plurals to posit instances of ‘ambiguity … likely to produce different interpretations from different readers’ (60). He sensibly classifies these first-person plurals into a number of categories and shows the various means by which Lucretius establishes common ground between himself and his reader, in whatever way one subscribes to the Epicurean message or shares the empirical experiences described. Fabio Tutrone then argues that the Cartesian duality of body and mind that dominated the Western tradition does not reflect Epicurean views. For Tutrone, Lucretius presents an ancient variation on the modern extended-mind hypothesis — where ‘the boundaries of the mind extend into the world at large’ (82) — and ‘constructs his text as an extended cognitive device … simultaneously interacting with the reader's mental representations … and the elements of physical reality’ (95).
The relationship of the DRN to world beyond is then taken up further in the third part of the volume, ‘The Word and the World’. Donncha O'Rourke examines how the DRN mediates between the infinite universe it describes, the finite nature of its text and the goal of ataraxia. He argues that Lucretius’ description of Epicurus traversing omne immensum challenges Aristotle's distinction between actual and potential infinity, and that if his verbal repetitions and lists of proofs deny a comforting sense of closure, they also mirror the endless nature of the Epicurean cosmos. Jason Nethercut subsequently investigates the intertextuality of Lucretius’ aside on the nature of echoes — which parallels the real phenomenon by alluding to its other textual representations — and proceeds to argue that this crasis of form and content finds approval in Philodemus (who is, however, oddly absent from his conclusion). Wilson H. Shearin then follows with the ‘aim to defamiliarize’ (141) by considering Saussure's (self-consciously playful) search for anagrams within the DRN. Shearin rightly treats Saussure's games as such, but his salient points concerning the performative and constructive power of letters and atoms may leave one wanting more evidence from the ancient text.
The fourth part, ‘Literary and Philosophical Sources’, begins with Andrew Morrison's look at the interaction between two main forms of reading the DRN: that which compares it to a key philosophical ‘Master Text’ and that which derives meaning from its relation to one or multiple intertexts. His chapter is emblematic of the volume's direction: arguing for the ‘value of critical disagreement on classical texts’ (173), he astutely suggests this multimodal reception is a product of the ‘the strangeness’ (174) of Lucretius’ versification of Epicureanism. In turn, Tim O'Keefe asks whether Lucretius looked to philosophical sources other than Epicurus, only to answer that the question ‘is inconclusive and will probably remain so’ (183). He reasonably suggests a path forward that considers Lucretius as an innovative philosopher in his own right (much like Cicero), where rhetoric is viewed as an extension of the philosophy. Emma Gee explores the Ciceronian connection further. She reads Lucretius’ description of the soul against the intertext of Cicero's Aratea, showing convincingly that the latter text presents a parallel view of the universe against which Lucretius can contrast the distinctive nature of his own.
The final part is titled ‘Worldviews’ — fittingly broad in scope to encompass its three very distinct chapters. Joseph Farrell eloquently argues that Memmius’ likely historical background adds an important piquancy to Lucretius’ rhetoric concerning social behaviour. Accepting the (speculative) constructive relationship between Memmius and Lucretius proposed in Morgan and Taylor (CQ (2017), 528–41), Farrell posits that, unlike Philodemus’ Piso, ‘Memmius was an ideal addressee because he was so much in need of the lessons that Lucretius had to teach’ (239). Elizabeth Asmis follows by outlining how Marx found in Lucretius’ swerve an atomistic self-consciousness that extends to humanity and the universe as a whole. Far from simply critiquing Marx's argument, she carefully explains his post-Hegelian background and understanding of the ancient philosophical milieu to justify his fascinating, if flawed, reading of the DRN. The concluding chapter falls to Duncan F. Kennedy, who sees the importance of thought for Platonic metaphysics reflected in Lucretius, with the doxa of the former replaced by sophia for the latter. Ornate with theory and entertaining to read, it might have, however, benefitted from a tighter conclusion — but then again, the same might be said for the DRN.
