Work · Hellenistic, Roman & Late Antique
De rerum natura
Epicurean physics in hexameters: atoms, void and liberation from fear.
Introduction
A didactic poem of about 7,400 Latin hexameters in six books, addressed to a Roman named Memmius. It opens with a hymn to Venus as the creative power of nature. Books I–II explain atoms and void, Book III argues that the soul is mortal, Book IV treats perception, dreams and sexual love, Book V the origin of the world, of life and of human civilisation, and Book VI weather, earthquakes and disease, ending with the plague of Athens. The poem is the most complete surviving account of Epicurean physics. Stephen Greenblatt’s book “The Swerve” (2011) told the story of its rediscovery for a general audience.
Read the full text
- Wikisource (English)
- Project Gutenberg (English)
- Internet Archive (English)
- Wikisource (French)
- Wikisource (Latin)
- Project Gutenberg (Spanish)
- MDZ Digitale Sammlungen
- MDZ Digitale Sammlungen
Free full text, often an older edition or translation
Connections
Builds on
- Letter to Menoeceusc. 300 BCE · Epicurus
Taken up in
- Essays1580 · Michel de Montaigne
- On the Infinite Universe and Worlds1584 · Giordano Bruno
- Syntagma philosophicum1658 · Pierre Gassendi
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made