Lucretius III 350-380

350-369: A living body is itself capable of sensation. This is a fine point: it is not true that the anima has sensation when it is simply in a body, but rather that the body itself has sensation when anima is properly present in it. The function of the eyes are offered as an example; the mind does not look out through them as if they were windows. Instead, the mind seems to make sense of the imperfect (e.g., unable to see well when the light is too bright), but separate sensory power of the eyes.

351: permixtam not "when it is mixed,” but rather "although it is indeed mixed.”

352: nominitamus < nominito (1), frequentative < nomino (1) with the same meaning. This verb is found only in L, who uses it five times.

353: vel is here the intensive particle (v. L&S vel II). ".

354: enim is a conjunctive adverb connecting the following rhetorical question to the preceding sentence. quis adferet "who will explain?" adfero often has the sense of "bring forth [an explanation, report, or suggestion]". Supply some such word as rationem as its object. quid sit ... corpus sentire ("what the sensation of a body is") indirect question in which subjective predicative complement of quid is the infinitive phrase corpus sentire, where corpus is subject ("a body's feeling"). The indirect question may be thought to stand in apposition to an understood rationem (not included in the diagram below). The construction [rationem adferre + indirect question] is well-attested in classical authors, for example Cicero (e.g.. rationem cur ita fiat adfert -Tusc. Disp. 1.78.6), and see lines 258 and 856 for similar constructions.

355: si non <adferet> quod "unless he explains ..." quod introduces a fused relative construction in which the relative quod has replaced (or fused with) its now-missing antecedent (id) resulting in a noun phrase that, although formally like a relative clause, has the grammatical function of its missing antecedent (i.e., direct object of the implied adferet, or in apposition to the implied direct object of adferet). The elaborated and prosaic form of the idea here is something like: si non <adferet> <id> quod res ipsa nos docuit et dedit. nos is construed closely as object of docuit, but is also felt to suggest an indirect object complement of dedit: nobis.

357: quod non proprium fuit again the fused relative construction (see note on line 355). sensus is not proprium of the corpus insofar as it arises in the body from the admixture of anima. aevo (also in 358) "in its time", i.e., "life" (the time when the body was alive).

358: quom = cum.

359: dicere inf. as subject in a predicative sentence, the subjective predicative complement of which is difficile. difficilest = difficile est (prodelision).

361: sensus .... eorum i.e., our experience of our own eyes.

362: atque joins trahit and detrudit, whose subject is sensus, and whose object is left unexpressed. Lucr. probably intends for the reader to understand that the sensus, in this case the visual sensation, directs itself or its attention in the direction he describes as acies ... ad ipsas "toward the very lines of sight.” i.e., as our attention is drawn to something in the foreground or distance, we adjust the eyes within the field of vision to focus on that thing. Thus, seeing is not simply a gazing of the mind through the eyes, but is rather a partnership of eyes and mind.

364: fulgida "bright things,” a neuter plural substantive, object of cernere. lumina luminibus, an example of polyptoton involving antanaclasis in which two (in this case polysemous) senses of lumen are juxtaposed in different case forms. nobis dative of disadvantage.

365: The constructions of foribus and quā are parallel in a construction that is an extension of the locative ablative, and sometimes referred to as the ablative of the 'way by which' (AG 429.4.a). The fores are presented as a combination of the route and means of seeing, i.e., the path along which which the seeing occurs.

368: iam magis "then all the more.” The sarcastic suggestion that if eyes are like doors, then we would see better by ripping them off the hinges is rhetorically effective while at the same time logically beside the point of the metaphor. debere videtur / cernere res animus "the animus seems to need to sense things...". Lucr.is fond of debeo in the sense of necesse est (v. L&S ad loc. II β). exemptis oculis is instrumental ablative and acts as an adjunct to sublatis postibus ipsis (369), an ablative absolute: "with those very doors having been removed by getting rid of the eyes.” Caesar is fond of this sort of phrase as well: his rebus pace confirmata (DBG 4.28); quibus rebus perturbatis nostris (ibid. 4.34), etc.

370-395: Democritus was wrong to assert that the atoms of corpus and anima alternate in living beings, and are thus equal in number. Lucr.. argues that the atoms of anima are much fewer in number than those of the corpus. Since some things are so fine or light that we may not notice when we make contact with them, it must be that these things can fall, in coming into contact with our bodies, between the atoms of anima.

370: illud ... quod are correlatives (AG 152).

371: viri in the sense of "hero"; Lucr. had great respect for Democritus.

372: primis /alternis hendiadys "in first (places) by turns.”

373: variare ac nectere infinitives in indirect discourse authorized by sententia ponit (371). The atoms of corpus and anima alternate and, in so doing, bind the limbs together, i.e., form the constituents of the body. For membra as a metonym for the body, cf. 319, 346. 

374: multo abl. degree of difference. cum correlative (AG 152) with tum (376): "given that .... then of course..."

374: quibus introduces a fused relative construction, in place of the elaborated construction ea quibus, in which ea is nominative plural neuter following quam and pointing to elementa minora (374). The omission of the antecedent is of a slightly unusual variety here insofar as the form of the antecedent in the elaborated construction would not be the same as that of the relative. e preposition postponed.

375: constant. consto is often used by Lucr. to mean "is" or "is composed of.” Cf. 180.

376: numero ablative of specification.

377: ut hoc promittere possis clause of result following on the comparative notions of minora (374) and numero concedunt (376). dum taxat ("at least") the sense belongs inside the result clause.

378: prima construe with corpora (379), but note that it belongs in the predicate, i.e., adverbially: "so small as are the bodies that first stir sense-carrying motions.” The reference is to the smallest things that humans can feel. corpora prima is a favorite phrase of Lucr. for describing the atoms (cf. lines 1. 61, 171, 510, etc.), but "atoms" would would not make sense in this passage. queant subjunctive in a subordinate clause in indirect discourse.

379: quantula . . . tanta (380) correlatives (AG 152).

380: tenere infinitive in indirect discourse authorized by promittere hoc (377). exordia prima animai i.e., the atoms of anima.