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LucretiusOn The Nature Of Things
Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1910A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Book VIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Book VI Summary
The final book of this work focuses on various meteorological and geological phenomena; like the cosmic phenomena of Book V, the purpose of Lucretius’ arguments here is to dispel belief in the gods’ involvement. It ends, rather abruptly, with an explanation of pestilence.
Beginning with meteorology, Lucretius addresses thunder, which strikes fear into the hearts of the ignorant. There are several causes for this loud noise, according to Lucretius. Sometimes, it’s caused by the sound of clouds colliding; since they are somewhat dense, they make a noise when they crash together. Sometimes, too, an air pocket forms inside a cloud, and the sound of it popping creates the sound of thunder. Thunder can also be the sound of lightning being extinguished rapidly, or igniting a cloud.
From thunder Lucretius moves on to lightning. One cause of lightning is the collision of clouds: “The process is similar to that when stone strikes stone or iron; for in that case, too, light leaps out, scattering glowing sparks of fire” (Book VI, lines 161-163; page 183). When air pockets in clouds burst, too, they can spark a bolt of lightning. Regarding the formation of thunderbolts, Lucretius believes that they are honed by the wind inside the clouds. If a cloud is already full of lightning, a fierce wind can cause it to erupt. Lucretius believes that thunderstorms are caused by a mixture of hot and cold air, which is why they are more apt to occur in the autumn and spring than the hot summer or cold winter.
Having explained the nature of thunderbolts, Lucretius makes a few logical arguments to prove that they cannot be from the gods. He points out that the bolts not only harm bad people, but also good people who don’t deserve it: “Why, instead, are those who are guiltless of any heinous offense enveloped and trapped, despite their innocence, in the flames?” (Book VI, lines 394-395; page 188). Furthermore, bolts sometimes strike in places where they can’t cause any harm, and therefore cannot serve a purpose. Tornadoes and whirlwinds are not caused by the gods, either, but occur when fierce winds burst downwards out of clouds.
Lucretius moves on to explain earthquakes, another phenomenon traditionally attributed to the gods. He explains that there are underground caverns that collapse, or else violent winds underground, or underground water being agitated. Volcanoes erupt when hollow caverns full of hot air burst out of a mountaintop, and the air carries molten rocks along with it.
There are several springs that are associated with the gods because their temperature is either particularly cold or particularly hot. Lucretius tells us that water is actually heated underground when the Earth pushes its heat particles into the spring, and it is cooled when the Earth has sent its heat particles out into the atmosphere instead.
From here, Lucretius launches into a lengthy explanation of magnets, whose mysterious attraction to iron appears at first to be magic. The essence of this argument is that the magnet exudes many particles, which collide with the air and displace it, creating a vacuum. The iron particles rush forward en masse to fill that void, clinging to the magnet. Other materials are not attracted to magnets, either because they are too heavy, or because they are too porous for the particles to interact correctly. Lucretius declares that, “The case of iron and the magnet is by no means unparalleled” (Book VI, line 1067; page 206), since many adhesives only work with certain materials, so it is not so strange for magnets to work only with iron. There is therefore nothing magical about them.
Lucretius concludes the work with an exploration of diseases. Pestilence is airborne, he tells us, and the disease particles arrive either from outside our world and descend from the sky, or else they arise from rot in the ground. Different diseases exist in different climates, and affect different races, which is why travelers so often get sick abroad. Plagues occur when noxious air settles over an area. The work ends with a detailed description of the Athenian plague of the 430s BC, its symptoms, and the effect it had upon the people who survived.
Book VI Analysis
As he did in previous books, Lucretius opens Book VI with praise of Epicurus. He particularly emphasizes how Epicurus lifted humanity out of the darkness of superstition and into the light of knowledge. This is perhaps more relevant in this book than in any other, because the particular focus of this book is upon terrifying natural phenomena that are normally attributed to vengeful gods. This interpretation is strengthened by the fact that he follows his evocation of Epicurus with a lengthy digression on the foolishness of fearing the gods, when in fact they are peaceful and benign. A life without Epicurus, then, is a life passed in useless fear.
Following his explanation of atmospheric and geological phenomena, Lucretius concludes his work with a closer look at disease. He particularly focuses on the plague that devastated Athens in the 430s BC and concludes the work abruptly with this discussion. It is difficult to know how to interpret the final passages of this work: Lucretius provides a detailed description of the plague’s symptoms, but he doesn’t employ the usual scientific explanations that we would expect.
Since the rest of the book centers upon disproving the influence of the gods, and Lucretius does outline the fruitlessness of prayer in dispelling the Athenian plague, this passage could be taken as an example of fear or worship of the gods accomplishing nothing. The final paragraph, for example, outlines how useless religion had become to the suffering Athenians: “All the sacred shrines of the gods had been filled by death with lifeless bodies […] By this time neither the worship of the gods nor their divinity counted for much: they were overwhelmed by the pressure of the present calamity” (Book VI, lines 1272-1278; page 211).
Another possible interpretation is that Lucretius wishes to show how the Athenians’ suffering was compounded by a lack of Epicurean tranquility. In the very final lines, he says, “The entire population was in perturbation and panic...With loud clamoring people would place their own relatives on pyres piled high for others...often engaging in bloody brawls rather than abandon the bodies” (Book VI, lines 1280-1286; page 211). The Athenians are behaving boorishly over dead bodies; bodies that, we’ve learned from Lucretius, possess no awareness after death and are now meaningless shells. Perhaps, then, the reader is meant to reflect upon the sensibility of an Epicurean outlook in such a catastrophe.
It is also worth noting that Lucretius’ main source for this passage is the Greek historian Thucydides, who himself actually survived the Athenian plague. Thucydides’ account is similarly lacking in religion; whereas Greeks traditionally ascribed pestilence to wrathful gods, Thucydides has only this to say: “All supplications to the gods and enquiries of oracles and whatsoever other means they used of that kind proved all unprofitable,” (Thucydides, Book II, section 47), and, later, “Neither the fear of the gods nor laws of men awed any man, not the former because they concluded it was alike to worship or not worship from seeing that alike they all perished…” (Thucydides, Book II, section 53). Thucydides is describing a time when his people realized that it was of no use to supplicate or worship the gods, because it would not change their suffering; this is one of the central points of Lucretius’ entire work, and of the final paragraphs of On the Nature of Things. The only meaningful difference in their accounts, then, is that Thucydides had no knowledge of Epicureanism, whereas Lucretius does.
Since this work is unfinished and lacks a clear conclusion, it’s important to note that we can only speculate about Lucretius’ intent in his description of the Athenian plague. He likely would have clarified this section, given the opportunity, but as it is, we must be cautious and open-minded in our interpretations.
