"What makes her [Gale] discussion exciting, at least for this reader, is the sense that this complex of ideas remains vital after two millennia; it is far more robust and viable than notions of aestheticism, art for art's sake, or the autonomous text." Classical Views

• Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. The philosophical background: Greek myth and mythology; 2. The cultural background: myth and belief in late Republican Rome; 3. The literary background: the De Rerum Natura as epic; 4. Lucretius' theory of myth; 5. Latent myth in the De Rerum Natura; 6. The proem and the plague; Conclusion: myth as a poetic and philosophical tool; Bibliography; General Index; Index of passages cited.

"What makes her [Gale] discussion exciting, at least for this reader, is the sense that this complex of ideas remains vital after two millennia; it is far more robust and viable than notions of aestheticism, art for art's sake, or the autonomous text." Classical Views

• Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. The philosophical background: Greek myth and mythology; 2. The cultural background: myth and belief in late Republican Rome; 3. The literary background: the De Rerum Natura as epic; 4. Lucretius' theory of myth; 5. Latent myth in the De Rerum Natura; 6. The proem and the plague; Conclusion: myth as a poetic and philosophical tool; Bibliography; General Index; Index of passages cited.

"What makes her [Gale] discussion exciting, at least for this reader, is the sense that this complex of ideas remains vital after two millennia; it is far more robust and viable than notions of aestheticism, art for art's sake, or the autonomous text." Classical Views

• Preface; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. The philosophical background: Greek myth and mythology; 2. The cultural background: myth and belief in late Republican Rome; 3. The literary background: the De Rerum Natura as epic; 4. Lucretius' theory of myth; 5. Latent myth in the De Rerum Natura; 6. The proem and the plague; Conclusion: myth as a poetic and philosophical tool; Bibliography; General Index; Index of passages cited.