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LucretiusOn The Nature Of Things
Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1910A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book IIIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Book III Summary
Book III focuses on the nature of the mind and spirit, establishing the argument that we should not fear death.
Lucretius begins by invoking Epicurus, the philosopher who originated this school of philosophy. Lucretius sets the stage for the following arguments by reminding us that Epicureans believe that fear of death is an evil born of ignorance. Once we understand the mind and spirit, we will no longer fear death.
Lucretius treats the mind and the spirit as similar but distinct parts of the body. The mind is the seat of intelligence, and it resides in the breast. The spirit is under the mind’s control, and it occupies the entire body; it doesn’t reside in any particular part.
Lucretius tells us which types of atom make up the spirit and mind. The spirit has particles of heat, wind, air, and an unnamed fourth. The fourth element, though it seems to defy description, can be seen as “the very soul of the whole soul” (Book III, line 281; page 75). The mind is also made up of heat, wind, and air, and the distribution of these elements in the mind helps to explain different dispositions. Deer, for example, have more wind and air in their minds, making them flighty and timid.
Lucretius describes the relationship between the mind, spirit, and the body. Mind, spirit, and body cannot be separated without mutual destruction. They are also born together, all at once, and they mature together. This must mean that they also die together: “So it is natural to infer that the substance of the spirit too is all dissolved...since we observe that it is born with the body, develops with it, and…succumbs with it to the stress and strain of age” (Book III, lines 455-459; page 80). The mortality of the soul is one of Lucretius’s central arguments, and it is the reason why we should not fear death.
The mind and spirit evaporate out of the body upon death. This is what causes the body to rot, because the particles of the spirit are no longer providing a foundation for the rest of the body, so it collapses in on itself. Lucretius also tells us that the spirit has no senses of its own, so that, without a body, it would be entirely without perception. This contradicts traditional images of souls residing in the Underworld.
Lucretius contradicts other philosophers who believe in the transmigration of souls. Instead, as we’ve learned, the soul is born with the rest of the body. Furthermore, when the spirit leaves the body upon death, it disintegrates; it can’t survive outside the body. Finally, Lucretius points out that it is impossible to mix mortal and immortal elements like an immortal spirit with a mortal body. Therefore, the spirit cannot move on to inhabit new bodies.
With all of this in mind, “Death, then, is nothing to us and does not affect us in the least, now that the nature of the mind is understood to be mortal” (Book III, lines 830-831; page 89). This is the crux of Book III. Since the spirit and mind die with the body, death is simply a return to the oblivion of before we were born. We will not be aware that we are dead, so there is nothing to fear from it.
A major cause of people’s fear of death is the fear of punishment in the Underworld. Lucretius tells us, though, that the sufferings of hell in fact exist on Earth. Suffering is the natural result of greed, envy, and fear, which turn people against each other and lead to war and struggle.
Lucretius concludes his comforting arguments by pointing out that all the great men of the past have died (so there is no avoiding it, and it happens to the best of us), that ignorance causes misery (so knowledge is the only way to find pleasure), and that it is silly to prolong life past the point of enjoyment.
Book III Analysis
The central achievement of this book is its argument that mortals should not fear death. This is a foundation for the work’s major premise that only an Epicurean lifestyle can lead to contentment, since a life lived in fear and ignorance of death will only lead to suffering.
We are prepared for a major Epicurean argument by the opening passage of this book, which features an invocation of Epicurus. Generally, gods and minor deities receive such invocations in poetry, not humans. We would generally expect lines such as, “You are our father and the discoverer of truth: you supply us with fatherly precepts…” (Book III, line 10; page 68) to be used in praise of a god, not a mortal philosopher. Lucretius specifically recalls the invocation of Venus that opens Book I: addressing Epicurus directly (as he did with Venus), he says, “You, who out of such deep darkness first found a way to raise such a brilliant light and illumine life’s comforts…” (Book III, lines 1-2; page 67). This language is reminiscent of Lucretius’ praise of Venus as the one who brings mortals to their first glimpse of light; here, however, we have moved from the mythical to the real, and the light of life has been replaced by the light of understanding.
Lucretius continues to subvert the genre of epic poetry, as he did in Book II, by using poetic language to deny traditional models of the universe. When he says, “Plainly visible are the gods in their majesty, and their calm realms which...are ever pavilioned by a cloudless ether that smiles with widespread flood of radiance...On the other hand, nowhere are the precincts of Acheron visible…” (Book III, lines 18-28; page 68), he is evoking traditional images of the gods on Mt. Olympus and in the Underworld; however, he is using this language to deny that either place exists.
As before, poetic interludes serve to break up the philosophical arguments and to bridge changes in topic. In these interludes, Lucretius hints at other poetic influences. Describing what the mind does to the body when it is struck with fear, he says, “...sweating and pallor break out all over the body; the tongue stutters and the voice falters; the eyes grow bleary, the ears buzz, and the limbs give way…” (Book III, lines 152-158; page 72). This is a direct reference to a poem by the Greek poet Sappho, which describes the physical symptoms of love: “my tongue is frozen in silence; instantly a delicate flame runs beneath my skin; with my eyes I see nothing; my ears make a whirring noise. A cold sweat covers me, trembling seizes my body…” (Sappho, fragment 31, lines 9-14). This was a widely-celebrated piece, much imitated by Greek and Roman poets. We can again see Lucretius subverting traditional poetry in this passage, since he is transforming a pithy celebration of love into a serious scientific examination of physical symptoms.
