Frigida cura

Why does Lucretius attack love in De Rerum Natura, book fourth?

'Perciò non è maraviglia che la speranza
Sia sempre maggior del bene'[1]

Love, a festering force, acknowledged as an incessant frenzy in the
literatures of all the ages, is the principal subject of the book IV of the
didactic poem by the masterful hand of Lucretius. Before considering book
IV, we must focus our attention in the first place both on the Epicurean
doctrine, since it is the necessary philosophical basis for the existence
of this grand poem, and on the poetic style, which allows Lucretius to
convey his assault through detailed and material images. Finally, to
understand the reason of this sharp attack we must distinguish the two
kinds of love, Venus and Amor, the former being identified with the sexual
desire that permeates the entire cosmos, the latter being the insane
madness and disappointing hope against which the poet turns his violent and
bitter word.

The De Rerum Natura, is a philosophical account of the Epicurean physics,
in hexameters. Of course, if we think about physics there seems to be no
reason why considering love and its ethical remedies and moreover the
Epicurean doctrine refused poetry. These facts must be explained in order
to have a complete account of how Lucretius' gem is set into the
philosophical system he claims to introduce Memmius to.
The Epicurean doctrine is a Hellenistic philosophy that defines itself as a
τετρᾰφάρμᾰκος, a fourfold remedy for the pains that afflict the human soul,
preventing the happy life. The ἡδονή (pleasure) is the vital condition to
reach a happy life in ἀταραξία, i.e. in the peaceful tranquillity granted
by the absence of pain. We must not imagine a hedonistic and dissolute way
of life, yet a very strict conception of how the choice of pleasures and
pains must be balanced with an eye on the future.
The Greek philosopher approached this issue giving a rational and physical
explanation of those phenomena fearful to us (e.g. death and gods). In this
way, he removed the causes of anxiety for men and opened the path to
pleasure. To explain how we can be persuaded not to trust these common and
traditional concepts he created a new materialistic physics, in which
everything comes to light or to darkness (the two processes are parallel
and closely interwoven) through the random clustering and scattering in the
infinite void of these uncuttable particles, the atoms. Thus, he
demonstrated the inner materiality of our world, freeing us from the
perspective of any immaterial, intangible and supernatural reality and
reducing death to a simple decomposition of atoms into nothing/something
else. Therefore, physics gives the basis for a disenchanted view of the
universe. What remains to the Epicurean follower is a balanced and peaceful
life of retirement, searching for a static pleasure.
Surely, Lucretius follows the path of his master, even if he lingers a
little longer on the various causes of anxiety, focusing on the one
instilled by love.[2]
He not only chooses to expand the main doctrine but he decides even to
change the formal means, conveying his rationalizing message disguised as a
poem. Verse was not highly esteemed by Epicurus, since it was one of those
traditional ways in which irrational beliefs had been instilled into human
minds. In his decision, the poet was moved by the concern of his audience,
which had never casted so close glances at the Epicurean philosophy, being
something rather far from Romans' mos maiorum. Thus, he started where his
public was, and, as he makes us notice, in this way he has sweetened the
harshness of the subject matter. This was a lucky intuition. For,
hexameters make him achieve three prodigious goals, evident from this
single line:
'Multa minuta modis multis per inane videbis'[3]
First of all, through the opening alliteration of 'm' and the assonance of
'u' and 'a', he presents in a pleasant attire a philosophy that could have
seem out of the Roman fashion. Secondly, defining the void, where atoms
whirl, 'inane', he moulds Latin language to fit the scientific and
philosophical subject matter, making assume to usual words new meanings
('Inanis, e' is an adjective that means 'Empty'). Finally, poetry, having a
freer structure than prose, allows Lucretius to make swirl words, as they
were atoms[4], e.g. the accumulation of the first four words gives a visual
and dynamic image of the moving masses of atoms.
Focusing on the poetic language is fundamental to understand how Lucretius'
attack against Love acquires its effectiveness and harsh violence even
through this device, which has a materializing and visualizing power. The
use of verse lets Lucretius create in the fourth book, a language that is
the counterpart of the one of love poems through parodies[5] of the trite
love poems and thanks to the discordant iuncturae: '…inlidunt […]
labellis…' and 'Osculaque adfligunt […]'. [6]
To conclude, the philosophical content and the poetic style are the vital
background in which this new and fresh blossom flourished.

The kind of love, which Lucretius despises so forcefully, is of a
particular sort and we should start from one of the most quoted line of
this book:
'Haec Venus est nobis; hinc autemst nomen amoris […]'[7]
This line comes at a turning point of the account on love and 'Autem'[8]
remarks precisely the juxtaposition between Venus and Amor. 'Haec' has an
epanaleptic function that recalls the medical and detached description made
just in the fifty lines preceding this passage. Whereas, the second part of
the line focuses the attention on what will follow as something that
derives ('Hinc') from the previous description, but ('Autem') is deeply in
contrast with it. In the previous section, Lucretius has been describing
the physiological mechanism of the erection and ejaculation: a perfectly
natural process, against which the poet has nothing to say. For, this is
Venus: love is considered as the natural impulse of sexual desire, as it is
presented in the glorious hymn to Venus, opening the De Rerum Natura. This
force is the 'Aeneadum genetrix, hominum divomque voluptas'[9], which
conceived 'Genus omne animatum'[10], it is the 'Wille zum Leben'[11], in
Schopenhauer's words, the impulse that leads all the creatures of the
universe to reproduction and thus, to life.
Thence human creatures, being more complex than animals, have originated
the concept of love, the Amor, that is accepted by the Epicureans as
natural but unnecessary, as soon as it trespasses the limits of
reproduction's aim, i.e. something that is enjoyable but with watchfulness.

Before focusing on the meaning of Amor, which will be the object of the
poet's attack, is necessary to underline that the coming human conception
of love is anticipated by some hints both in the lexical and stylistic
choices. From the lexical perspective, Traina[12] has noticed an
interesting iunctura: 'Dira libido'[13]. Lucretius here is still describing
the physical passion (Venus), but he defines it 'Dira', an adjective
peculiar for both its meaning and its usage. The former derives from the
Indo-European root *dwei- common to δείδω, therefore being related with
something fearful, as we know from ancient sources[14], it denotes
something ominous, that can be the result of the cruel wrath of the gods,
supernatural but in the negative sense of repulsive. Here Lucretius has
made a very focused choice: although having at hand other synonymous and
isometric adjectives that he uses elsewhere along the poem ('Foedus' and
'Taeter'), he wants to underline the irrational and destroying passion,
already thinking in the human perspective. He subtly starts his attack.
Considering the style, he does the same making wide use of the military
language, whose love-poetry's abuse Lucretius ironically recalls.
Threrefore, we find the verbs 'Contendit'[15], 'Petit'[16] 'Cadunt in
vulnus'[17] and the nouns 'Saucia'[18], 'Ictu'[19], 'Hostem'[20] typical
of battles and military prose, but recycled by the sermo amatorius and here
used by Lucretius with the purpose to humiliate love poetry beforehand.
Again, the poet is preparing the ground for his ferocius attack.
Now we are able to come at the 'Nomen amoris', which is the human concept
of love. The Venus presented until now is a pleasure and an activity common
with animals, but humans are different and thus they have developed a
deeper conception based on the addiction of a desire and a hope impossible
to fulfil, causing therefore frustration and delusion, the 'Frigida
cura'[21] that incessantly is instilled dripping into the lover's heart.
Thus, Amor generates a wound[22] in the soul that makes this sort of
passion collide with the Epicurean doctrine. A powerful line expresses the
unattainable aim of the lovers:
'Nequiquam, quoniam nil inde abradere possunt
Nec penetrare et abire in corpus corpore toto'[23]
This line occurs during the description of love making, when the two lovers
have believed as possible the insane and impure hope of penetrating one in
the other, becoming one thing. This fusion is physically impossible but
they cannot accept it, continuing to strive for it. The poetic language
reveals violently this obstacle both with the repetition of the negations
at the beginning of each line, and with the polyptoton 'In corpus corpore',
which stresses the closeness of this two bodies eager to become a unique
being. The use of the verbs is underlining the strength of their desire:
'Abradere' means 'To remove scraping off', so a harsh and burning abrasion
of bodies is represented here; we find even 'Abire' and here I leave the
explanation to Traina: 'Abire si dice di una dislocazione che può arrivare
fino all'immedesimazione'[24]. Therefore, this is the violent desire that
defeats and wears out the two beings and that causes the piercing and sharp
attack of the poet. This assault is carried out in the contents with
description of the brute lovemaking[25] and the following parody on the
blindness of the lover[26], mocking and downplaying all the conventions of
love as depicted by the contemporary comedies and poems. Even on the
stylistic level, we find references to the language of love closely
combined with aggressive or military expressions in powerful oxymora
('Teneris abradere membris'[27]).
Therefore, Lucretius leads this attack in a fully didactic way: first he
shows what it is to be considered natural, then he points out where the
fault is: human beings add an extra desire, which is absolutely useless
and, moreover, damaging in the Epicurean conception. Finally, he proceeds
deconstructing this human idea through a bitter irony both in the content
and in the style.


To draw a conclusion, Amor is attacked both through the philosophical
contents, which provide the arguments, and through the style, which
enhances the strength thanks to the visualizing ability of Lucretius'
poetry. The objective of this striking poetic assault is the conception of
Love as conveyed in years of literature: that psychological love starting
as a cold anxiety, but growing incessantly into a 'furor'[28], the madness
that renders the lover a foolish, disturbed and deluded man who longs for a
fanciful physical fusion with the beloved. This is a men's creation which
goes against both the Epicurean doctrine, since it undermines the vital
concept of the ἀταραξἰα, and Nature, because it turns the natural sexual
desire of the world into something tormented and burdened with hopes not
existing in its original essence. We have totally yielded to Amor with the
consequence that this famous passage of literature has often been
neglected, yet probably had Lucretius been listened, many great pieces of
literature would not have been composed.

Sperindio Lucrezia, King's College London






















Words' number: 2062.



Bibliography

Fitzgerald, W. (1984) "Lucretius' Cure for Love in the De Rerum
Natura", Classical World 78, 73-86, Baltimore;

Fitzgerald, W. (2013) How to read a Latin poem: if you can't read
Latin yet, ch. 6, Oxford;

Godwin, J. (1986) Lucretius: De Rerum Natura IV, a commentary,
Warminster;

Leopardi, G., Zibaldone;

Nussbaum, M. (2013), The Therapy of Desire, ch. 5, Princeton;

Schopenhauer, A., The World as Will and Representation;

Traina, A. (1981) 'Dira libido (sul linguaggio lucreziano dell'eros)',
Poeti Latini e Neolatini, Bologna.


-----------------------
[1] 'Therefore, it is not a surprise that the hope is always greater than
the good' G. Leopardi, Zibaldone, P167.
[2] Of course, not having the entire work of Epicurus, we cannot state
exactly at what extent"1?@AZm ˆ??®¾ØÙÛè* L e f o t –
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÷í÷åÝÖÏÖÂÖϾϷϷ³·Ï¯Ï¯Ï«Ï§Ï ³ÏœÏ he spoke about love, yet Lucretius indeed
underlines the theme, dedicating to it more than two hundred lines.
[3] II, 116.
[4] Fitzgerald, (1984).
[5] IV, 1159-1170.
[6] IV, 1080-1081.
[7] IV, 1058.
[8] Not all the commentators agree on this point, but in my opinion is here
that the author draws our attention on the different object attacked.
[9] I, 1.
[10] I, 4.
[11] Schopenhauer, A., The World as Will and Representation.
[12] A. Traina, 1981.
[13] IV, 1046.
[14] 'Dirum est triste, infestum, et quasi deorum ira missum' Nonius (43
Linds.).
[15] Ibidem 12.
[16] IV, 1048.
[17] IV, 1049.
[18] Ibidem 15.
[19] IV, 1050.
[20] IV, 1051.
[21] Ibidem 2.
[22] IV, 1068.
[23] IV, 1110-1111.
[24] 'Abire is said of a dislocation that can reach even the
identification', A. Traina, p.27, 1981.
[25] IV, 1076-1120.
[26] IV, 1158-1170.
[27] IV, 1103.
[28] IV, 1069.