On The Nature Of Things

“Mother of Aeneas’ people, delight of human being and the gods, Venus, power of life, it is you who beneath the sky’s sliding stars inspirit the ship-bearing sea, inspirit the productive land. To you every kind of living creature owes its conception and first glimpse of the sun’s light.”

These are the opening lines of the work. Lucretius is using a device that was extremely common in ancient poetry: the invoking of a deity. When invoking a god or goddess, the poet would generally praise them and their particular powers, and then ask the deity to help them with their poem. In this case, Lucretius praises Venus (goddess of love, and mother of the mythical Trojan hero Aeneas, who settled in Italy) as the one who brings life and light to the world. Later in Book I, we learn that Lucretius doesn’t actually believe that the gods are involved in mortal affairs; rather than actually praying to the goddess, Lucretius is perhaps using this device to establish some of the work’s themes.

“As for what follows, Memmius, lend open ears and an alert mind, released from cares, to true philosophy.”

Lucretius often addresses Memmius as if he were the sole intended reader of this poem. In fact, Lucretius did intend to share his work more widely, and we should understand that Memmius is standing for any reader who has not yet embraced Epicureanism (the “true philosophy”). We should note that, even in this early passage, Lucretius is encouraging his audience to read like an Epicurean: “released from cares.