![]() ![]() The birth of the world was chaotic, according to Lucretius, with the four elements in imbalance and its component atoms forming a disordered cloud. eNotes critical analyses help you gain a deeper understanding of On the Nature of Things so you can excel on your essay or test. Lucretius shows that the world must be mortal by demonstrating how all of its component elements are mutable and weak (“soft,” as established in Book I) evidence that the world will collapse, since something that is made of mortal components cannot itself be immortal. Discussion of themes and motifs in Lucretius On the Nature of Things. The main elements that make up our world are earth, water, air, and fire. The gods, therefore, did not have a hand in the world’s creation. Lucretius also reminds us that the combination of chance and time created the world: particles traveling at random were bound to create these circumstances eventually. Though this is inevitable, he does express the hope that “reasoning rather than reality convince you that the whole world may give way and collapse with a horrendous crash” (Book V, lines 108-109 page 139). The title of Lucretius’s work translates that of the chief work of Epicurus, Peri physes (On Nature). Lucretius introduces his detailed cosmology by announcing that the ‘world,’ by which he means the sky, the sea, and the land, will collapse one day. On the Nature of Things, long poem written in Latin as De rerum natura by Lucretius that sets forth the physical theory of the Greek philosopher Epicurus. ![]()
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