Lucretius III 1053-1075

1053-1075: Only an understanding of the physical nature of the universe can free people from the fear of death. The closing theme of the book is more concerned with curing a disease than with securing happiness or vigor. The thought at 1070-1075 is subtle; we are told that what is in question in the study of philosophy is not the state in which people will spend a 'single hour' (perhaps (a.) 'a short time', or (b.) 'the hour of one's death'?), but the state in which they will spend all time. In fact, except for the duration of one's life, the Epicurean thinker is convinced that all time will not in fact be experienced by him, so what is really at stake for the philosopher is the remainder of his life, the quality and character of which will be informed by his unshakable confidence in the fact that after death he will have no experience.

1053-1059:  The sentence is a future less vivid condition: si possent homines ... haud ita vitam agerent (1057). The complement of possent is noscere (1055) of which the objects are two indirect questions: e quibus id fiat causis (1055) and unde / tanta mali ... moles in pectore constet (1055-1056). The comparative clause proinde ac sentire videntur /pondus inesse animo, quod se gravitate fatiget (1053-1054) serves as adverbial adjunct of possent ... noscere in the protasis, while in the apodosis the comparative clause ut nunc plerumque videmus / ... nescire ... quaerere commutare (1057-1058) modifies vitam agerent. A prolate comparative clause quasi onus deponere possit (1059) further modifies quaerere cummutare. The subject of nescire is extracted from quisque, just as in the first book lines 14-15 (ita capta lepore /te sequitur cupide quo quamque inducere pergis) the subject of sequitur is extracted from quamque.

Line 1060: foras (adv.) place to which "(to the) outside", but foris (adv.) place in which "(in the) outside"

Line 1061: pertaesumst = pertaesum est < per-taedet, impersonal "it exhausts someone [acc. person] to [infinitive].

Line 1062: quippe ... qui sentiat "as he is obviously one who ...". foris nihilo melius ... esse is authorized by sentiat.

1068-1069: hoc se quisque modo fugit, at quem scilicet, ut fit,  /effugere haut potis est, ingratius haeret et odit have rightly vexed readers and commentators over the centuries. One solution (Bailey's) is to extract complements for haeret and odit (sibi and se, respectively) from quem: "In this way, each person runs away from himself, but each person still clings to, and hates, that man whom he, of course, cannot as it turns out escape from" (not Bailey's translation). A different reading would entail placing a colon after potis est: "In this way each person flees himself, but of course he flees the very one whom he as it turns out, is not able to escape: he holds on unwelcome and is vexed because...." The core of the problem is that quisque, se, quem as well as the inferred subjects (and complements, if any) of haeret and odit are all the same notional person. This fact at once renders the propositional meaning clear and the exact intent of Lucr.'s syntax muddy.

Line 1071: rebus ... relictis ablative absolute; rebus here refers to practical affairs.

Line 1073: temporis aeterni ... non unius horae both phrases modify status; note chiasmus resulting in the juxtaposition of aeterni and unius.

Line 1074: quo the antecedent is status

Line 1075: quae ... cumque tmesis. sit (1074) ... manenda "must be endured"; the manuscripts have manendo, but many editors have emended the word to agree with aetas.