Empedocles Redivivus

Despite the general scholarly consensus about Lucretiusâ debt to Empedocles as the father of the genre of cosmological didactic epic there is a major disagreement regarding Lucretiusâ applause for his Presocratic predecessorâs praeclara reperta (DRN 1. 732). In the present study Garani suggests that by praising Empedoclesâ discoveries Lucretius points to his predecessorâs epistemological methods of inquiry concerning the unseen methods upon which he himself draws extensively and creatively enhances. In this way he successfully penetrates into the invisible natural world deciphers its secrets and thus liberates his pupil from superstitious fears about death and physical phenomena. To justify this proposition Garani undertakes a systematic analysis of Lucretiusâ integration of Empedoclesâ methods of creating analogies in the form of literary devices -- personifications similes and metaphors -- and demonstrates that his intertextual engagement with Empedoclesâ philosophical poem is direct and intensive at both the poetic and the philosophical levels. . Language: English