{"id":1351,"date":"2026-06-23T09:11:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T09:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/?page_id=1351"},"modified":"2026-08-19T07:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:58:19","slug":"lucrezio-de-rerum-natura","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/lucrezio-de-rerum-natura\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucrezio"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1331.2px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p class=\"translation-block\">Titus Lucretius Carus (Pompeii or Herculaneum, 98\/94 BC \u2013 Rome, 15 October 50 BC or 55 BC) was a Roman\npoet and philosopher, a follower of Epicureanism.\n\u201cTitus Lucretius Carus, having been driven mad by a love potion, after writing some books during the lucid intervals\nleft to him by his madness, died by suicide.\u201d\nThus wrote Saint Jerome in the 4th century AD. These are the scant pieces of information available to us about\nthe life of Lucretius, which remains almost entirely unknown.\nWhat is known with certainty is that he was the author of De Rerum Natura, a didactic epic poem divided into\nsix books (each exceeding one thousand hexameters), entirely devoted to transmitting the teachings of the\nGreek philosopher Epicurus to the Roman world, and regarded as one of the absolute masterpieces of Latin\nliterature.\nIn this poem, Lucretius becomes the spokesman for Epicurean theories concerning the reality of nature governed\nby a \u201cnatural order\u201d independent of the gods and the role of humankind in an atomistic and materialistic\nuniverse: it is a call to personal responsibility and an encouragement to mankind to become aware of reality, in\nwhich human beings are victims from birth of passions they are unable to understand.\nThe author assumes the task of providing humanity with the tools to eliminate fear and attain ataraxia (absence\nof disturbance), with the aim of freeing mankind from the fear of the gods and of death through reason,\ncriticizing religion and presenting a material, infinite universe governed by natural laws indifferent to human\nbeings.\nIn Book V of De Rerum Natura, the one devoted to cosmology and life on earth, Lucretius explicitly mentions\nthe mythological figure of Scylla.\nHis reference occurs in a section dedicated to \u201cportenta et monstra\u201d (prodigies and monsters), where the poet,\napplying the principles of Epicurean physics, questions the existence of monstrous and supernatural creatures.\nScylla thus becomes an exemplary case through which Lucretius refutes traditional mythological beliefs, maintaining\nthat such beings can neither come into existence nor survive according to the laws of nature, reaffirming\nthe primacy of a rational explanation of phenomena, including, precisely, those marine phenomena that occur\nin the waters before the Rock of Scylla.<\/p>\n<p class=\"translation-block\"><i>\u201cBut there were never Centaurs, nor can there ever exist creatures of double nature and double body, put together\nfrom heterogeneous limbs, so that the faculties of beings born from this species and that could correspond\nsufficiently. This may be understood even by a dull mind. First of all, within three years the spirited horse\nis in its prime, but the child is not at all; for often he will still seek in sleep the milk-filled breasts of his mother.\nThen, when old age robs the horse of its mighty strength and its limbs grow weak as life departs, only then\ndoes the boy reach the flower of youth, and adolescence begins for him, clothing his cheeks with soft down.\nTherefore, do not be led to believe that from man and the seed of beasts of burden, of horses, Centaurs can be\nformed and exist, or Scyllas with half-marine bodies girded with savage dogs, and all other creatures of this\nkind, whose limbs we see to be discordant with one another; which neither flourish, nor gain bodily strength,\nnor lose it through old age at the same time, nor burn with similar passions, nor agree in uniform habits, nor\nare the same things beneficial to their limbs.\nFor often one may see that bearded goats grow fat on hemlock, while for man it is a violent poison. Since, moreover,\nflame is accustomed to cook and burn the tawny bodies of lions just as much as any other species of flesh\nand blood that exists upon the earth, how could it have come to pass that a single creature with a threefold\nbody, lion in the forepart, dragon in the hindpart, and a goat in the middle\u2014the Chimera\u2014could breathe from\nits mouth a fierce flame issuing from its body?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"translation-block\">In the text, Lucretius explains that the existence of hybrid beings such as Centaurs, Chimeras and Scylla is materially\nimpossible according to the principles of nature (atomism).\nHis argument is based on the idea that every creature is born from its own \u201cseeds\u201d (specific atoms) and follows\nits own life cycles and stages of development, which are incompatible among different species. Lucretius\nmentions one of the legends associated with the myth of Scylla, which portrays her as a beautiful nymph whose\nlower body was composed of ferocious dogs and who, dwelling in the cave at the base of the rock bearing her\nname, terrified sailors passing through the Strait, as an example of a mythological monster that cannot exist in\nnature because the different parts of her body (woman and dogs) are not subject to the same laws of growth\nand development.\nLucretius\u2019 argument is based on the different rates of growth and ageing of Scylla\u2019s various body parts: a creature\ncomposed of a woman and dogs would possess parts with incompatible life cycles. The human part would\nreach maturity at one rate, while the canine parts (with their \u201cbarking entrails\u201d or \u201cbarking dogs\u201d) would do\nso at another.\nWhat would be nourishment for one part could be poison for the other, making its biological existence impossible.\nLucretius argues that nature does not allow the fusion of limbs from different species into a single living\nand functioning organism, nor can there exist animals of double nature and double body, composed of heterogeneous\nlimbs, since the different parts would require different and incompatible nourishment and conditions\nof growth.\nThrough this reasoning, consistent with his Epicurean philosophy, which seeks to free mankind from fear of the\ngods and from superstition, Lucretius dismantles the idea that mythological monsters are real manifestations\nof nature or divine signs, reaffirming that the universe is governed by physical and rational laws, not by divine\nwhims or monstrous exceptions, thus illustrating the absurdity of mythological legends.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-2\"><p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Giuseppe Ribuffo<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-2 fusion-flex-container has-pattern-background has-mask-background nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-flex-wrap:wrap;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start fusion-flex-content-wrap\" style=\"max-width:1331.2px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div ><a class=\"fusion-button button-flat fusion-button-default-size button-custom fusion-button-default button-1 fusion-button-default-span\" style=\"--button_accent_color:#f20800;--button_border_color:#2038b2;--button_accent_hover_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_border_hover_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_top_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_bottom_color:var(--awb-color1);--button_gradient_top_color_hover:var(--awb-color4);--button_gradient_bottom_color_hover:var(--awb-color4);--button_text_transform:none;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/stazio-le-selve\/\"><i class=\"fa-angle-double-right fas awb-button__icon awb-button__icon--default button-icon-left\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><span class=\"fusion-button-text awb-button__text awb-button__text--default\">Next page: 70. Statius, The Woods, 1st century AD.<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1877,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1351","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lucrezio - Discover Scilla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/lucrezio-de-rerum-natura\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lucrezio - Discover Scilla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/en\/lucrezio-de-rerum-natura\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Discover Scilla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-19T07:58:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.discoverscilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/69-Pompeo-Schiantarelli-1784-1024x750.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.discoverscilla.com\\\/lucrezio-de-rerum-natura\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.discoverscilla.com\\\/lucrezio-de-rerum-natura\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lucrezio - 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