Lucretius III 182-227

185: quorum (here neuter plural) has as its antecedent res ulla (line 184); the sense of res as "stuff" permits fluid uses of this type. In English we sometimes call this "agreement by sense" rather than agreement "by strict grammar." in promptu "easily."

186: tanto operest = tantopere est ("is really," "is indeed"); the two elements of tantopere are separated and the second is attached to est by prodelision. Lucr. writes tanto opere ten times, but tantopere only twice. rutundis seminibus ... minutis is ablative of description.

188: possint inpulsa refers back to seminibus (line 187)

189: flutat = fluitat

190: quippe "because;" quippe is sometime emphatic, and sometimes (as here) it introduces a causal subordinate clause.

192: understand mellis (genitive singular) with natura, latices, and actus.

194: extat (= exstat) "is made of;" the more common meaning of exto (1) is to "stand out" or "stand above," but it is sometimes used as an alternative for sum or consto.

196: cogere ut "bring it about that;" ut ... diffluat substantive clause of result; diffluat "blow/fly away in different directions" the subject of diffluat is papaveris . . . altus acervus.

199: noenu an unusual alternative for non. pro quam "in accord with"

204: perquam is the adverb ("exceedingly") modifying parvis, levibus, and rotundis (line 205), as egregie modifies mobilis (note chiastic order). The noun phrase corporibus parvis [et] levibus [atque] rutundis is ablative with constare in the sense of "consist of" (v. L&S consto II. B. 3. β. 5).

206: quae connecting relative (AG 308f.)

208-230: The lightness and fineness of the anima is proven by the fact that after death a body seems no smaller or lighter.

208: eius has as its referents both the anticipated animi natura animaeque in line 212 and the already-established subject of discourse animi natura in line 203. There is, however, no change of semantic reference; the arguments about the quality of the natura apply equally to the quality of the animus because the latter is composed of the former.

209: The indirect question quam ... conglomerari is a noun phrase in apposition to naturam in line 208. verb phrases of the indirect question are constet and contineat.

210: possit "if it could..." (with the implication that it cannot).

211: quod ("the fact that" v. AG 572) introduces a substantive clause standing in apposition to haec ... res (l. 208). simul atque ("as soon as" v. AG 543) introduces a temporal clause within the quod clause; its verb phrases are est indepta and recessit.

212: indepta < indipiscor, is to be taken with est in line 211 (pf. dep. ind. 3rd. sg.).

213: cernas, along with praestat (l. 214), is a verb of the quod clause that begins in line 211. The subjunctive of cernas is the general (potential) second person singular, v. AG 447. 2 and cp. the somewhat formal use of the indefinite pronoun "one" in English, v. OED ad loc. VI. 17. a.; substantive clauses of fact introduced by quod typically authorize the indicative mood.

214: ad speciem and ad pondus: "with respect to appearance....weight." (v. L&S ad I. D. 1.) praestat (< praesto (2) v. L&S II. C. 2. a.) in the sense of "preserve" or "maintain," i.e., death, in this case standing for "the state of a body's being dead" instead of the more technical "dissolution into component parts" (which, in the Lucretian system, befalls all compound bodies, including animate and inanimate beings as well as entire worlds) keeps everything of a once-living person (e.g., mass and appearance), while only sensation and breath escape. The sentiment is poetic and should not be understood to imply that the anima can somehow escape death or exist apart from the body.

216: perparvis ... seminibus is abl. of material (v. AG 403 note 1). esse with nexam (l. 217) is pf. pass. inf., complement of necessest.

218: qua tenus (= quatenus) in the causal sense, "since," v. L&S II. D.

219: circumcaesura (< circumcaesura, -ae (f.) "outline,") here nom., is the head of the noun phrase extima membrorum circumcaesura ("external shape of the limbs") that is the subject of praestat (l. 220). circumcaesura is in form similar to a fut. act. part. < *circumcaedo, a form never written as a closed compound in classical Latin (but cf. dum modo ne ... / circum caedasaciem solamque relinquas DRN 3. 411). The similarity of form arises from the habit of forming abstract nouns by the addition of -ra to stems in -tu (e.g., na-tu-ra). The nominal ending -tura (-sura after stems in -d or -t) was commonly used to form abstract nouns from verb stems (as here), following the same phonetic changes as those at work in the formation of the supine stem (caed- + -tum => caesum). v. AG § 178, 238b.

220: incolumem (acc. sg. in accord with se in line 219, and fem. in accord with circumcaesura (l. 219), to which se is anaphoric) is objective predicative complement after praestat: "keeps itself safe" or "preserves itself in safety.”

221: quod genus est "which (= "as") is the case.” Other examples of this usage in book 3 can be found at 221, 266, 276, and 327. Bacchi < Bacchus, -i (m.) a Greek wine god (Βάκχος), used here as a metonym for "wine.”

222: suavis probably to be pronounced with a short -i- to agree with spiritus, giving a reading more Lucretian in shape than would taking suavis with unguenti.

223: sucus here in the sense of both the "flavor" (v. L&S ad loc. I. C.), and (medicinal or herbal) "power" of a substance (L&S ad loc. II). L's logic here is often misunderstood. In essence an a fortiori argument, the passage claims that given that the departure of some particles of odor and flavor from liquids and solids would be impossible (for scientists of L's day) to measure by massing those substances, the particles of anima, whose complete departure leaves a once-living body as measurably large and heavy as it was when alive, must be very small indeed (perparvis l.216). Readers should consider this passage closely together with 1. 270-330 and 3. 333-1022 to understand two key points: (1) L's system predicts that a dead body is, in fact, lighter than a living one, just not measurably so (for L's scientific contemporaries), for particles of anima, being corpora prima, must have both size and weight, and (2) spiritus and sucus are examples of particles perceptible, in these cases by taste and smell, that could not be massed or measured by any experiments L's contemporaries could design, and that continually depart from compound substances without those compound bodies' measurable loss of mass or size. Importantly, these two are not examples of a species of particle that, if entirely removed from a compound body, would leave that body without any visible or measurable diminution (N.B.: e toto iam corpore (line 218) of the anima, but de corpore (line 223) of spiritus and sucus). Furthermore, these two examples do not merely restate the general point made at 1. 270-330. Instead, the specific importance of spiritus and sucus here is that these particles (a) compose characteristics that are an intrinsic part of certain compound bodies, but not the sole constituent of those bodies, and (b) depart of their own accord into the air (i.e., they are not worn away by contact with anything other than aer).

226: multa we know that there must be many of them because the odors of some substances (e.g., unguentum) persist for a long time.