Latin 115. Lucretius (4 units)
Carey Seal
Course Description: In this course we will read selections from On the Nature of Things (c. 55 BCE), Lucretius’ poem on the physical world and the place of human beings within it. What is the universe made of? Does it have a beginning and an end? Is there life after death? How did civilization arise? These are all questions that we will explore in the company of the greatest philosopher-poet of antiquity, whose rediscovery, as documented in Stephen Greenblatt’s recent best-seller The Swerve, supplied the spark for much of what we now call modernity.
This is the more advanced of the two Latin offerings this quarter, intended for students in at least their third year of studying Latin.
Prerequisite: Latin 100 or consent of instructor (cseal@ucdavis.edu).
GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.
Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Textbooks:
- Titus Lucretius Carus, Lucretius: Selections from De Rerum Natura (Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1998)
- Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe (Oxford University Press, 2009)