Copyright by Laura Chason Takakjy 2018 The Dissertation Committee for Laura Chason Takakjy Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Dissertation: POETIC GENETICS: FAMILY, SEXUAL REPRODUCTION, AND COMMUNITY IN LUCRETIUS’ DE RERUM NATURA Committee: Lesley A. Dean-Jones, Supervisor Pamela Gordon G. Karl Galinsky Ayelet H. Lushkov Stephen A. White Robert J. Hankinson POETIC GENETICS: FAMILY, SEXUAL REPRODUCTION, AND COMMUNITY IN LUCRETIUS’ DE RERUM NATURA by Laura Chason Takakjy Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin August 2018 Dedication To my mother, Carol Randolph Chason Acknowledgements Thank you to all the faculty in the Classics Department at The University of Texas at Austin for the instruction, mentorship, and opportunities I received over the years. For their support and guidance over the duration of this project, I offer gratitude to the members of my dissertation committee: Lesley Dean-Jones, Pamela Gordon, Karl Galinsky, Jim Hankinson, Ayelet Haimson Lushkov, and Steve White. I extend special thanks to Lesley Dean-Jones for her unwavering belief in me as a scholar and in my project. She has been an encouraging presence in my education from the first day of graduate school. I also am so grateful to Pam Gordon for her mentorship and for becoming an important part of my education these last two years. I also want to thank Jim Hankinson for his encouragement and support over the years. I offer warm appreciation to Paula Perlman, whose advising and instruction shaped my education profoundly over the course of my graduate studies. I thank Tom Hubbard for his guidance over the years and for taking an interest in my various projects. For their support in helping me to navigate my dissertation project in the latter stages, I thank Andrew Riggsby and Tom Palaima. I am so grateful to the phenomenal staff in the Classics Department at UT- Austin. I thank Beth Chichester for everything she has done, which are too many to name here, and I thank Vanessa Noya and Khoa Tran for their expertise and compassionate presence. I offer immense gratitude to all my teachers and professors whose careful instruction and guidance led me to become the scholar I am today. My Latin career began at Merion Mercy Academy in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, and I am so thankful to Suzanne Walker whose enthusiasm for all things Rome is only matched by her astonishing knowledge of the Latin language. The Classical Studies Department at Dickinson College nourished my enthusiasm, and I am so thankful for the many opportunities the department has given me. For their amazing teaching and caring personalities, I thank v professors Chris Francese and Marc Mastrangelo. Last but not least, I thank Meaghan Reedy, a role model in so many ways, for introducing me to Lucretius. I thank my family, especially my mom and dad, for providing me every opportunity they could for pursuing my dreams. I thank my younger brother Mark Takakjy for tolerating it all and for inspiring me with his resilience. I extend appreciation to all the graduate students at UT-Austin for their support, especially to the members of my entering graduate cohort: Kyle Sanders, Olga Koutseridi, Matt Sibley, and Brandi Buckler. I owe much appreciation to the graduate student dissertation writing group. For their unwavering encouragement and friendship throughout this dissertation process, I thank Lauren Bock and Cassie Donnelly. Finally, I thank my confidant, Andrew Schneider, for his humor and support. vi POETIC GENETICS: FAMILY, SEXUAL REPRODUCTION, AND COMMUNITY IN LUCRETIUS’ DE RERUM NATURA Laura Chason Takakjy, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 Supervisor: Lesley Dean-Jones My dissertation examines family, sexual reproduction, and community in Lucretius’ poem De Rerum Natura and reconsiders the importance of these topics in Lucretius’ formulation of Epicureanism for a Roman audience. I argue that Lucretius modifies Epicurus’ teachings about family and sex to render Epicureanism more palatable to a Roman audience. I explore the cultural resonance of the social metaphors Lucretius uses to explain atomic movement, particularly in Books 1-3, and I argue that Lucretius presents the atomic world as built on cooperative relationships. In light of my findings regarding Lucretian atomic movement, I propose a new reading of Lucretius’ views on love and sexual reproduction in Book 4. I argue that Book 4 presents love as a bivalent phenomenon and that Lucretius finds conjugal love as most natural and in line with the atomic universe. Building on my analysis of Lucretian theories of love and sexuality, I propose a new reading of Lucretius’ presentation of marriage in Book 5. I argue that family, rather than friendship, is presented in Lucretius’ anthropology as the foundational social relationship in society, and, in this respect, that Lucretius departs from Epicurus. Next, I propose that Lucretius considers religio to be the greatest harm to the family, and I offer a contextualization of Lucretian pietas in Roman culture. I conclude my project with an vii analysis of the “Sacrifice of Iphigenia,” which I propose portrays Agamemnon as committing a crime against nature since he interferes with the cycle of generational renewal by killing his daughter. I contend that in this episode Lucretius formulates an Epicurean virtue of pietas, which aims, above all, at maintaining the integrity of the Roman family. viii Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 The Pleasure of Epicurus’ Garden ................................................................................ 3 Epicureanism outside Greece and in Rome .................................................................. 8 Methodological Considerations and Chapter Overviews .......................................... 12 Chapter 1: Social Metaphor and the Foedera Naturae ....................................................... 15 Tradition and Innovation in Lucretian Political Metaphors ...................................... 17 Foedera Naturae and Consensus ................................................................................ 27 Leges Naturae ............................................................................................................... 41 Conclusions .................................................................................................................. 46 Chapter 2: Love and Sexual Reproduction .......................................................................... 47 Epicureans on Love ...................................................................................................... 48 Violence of Love and Muta Cupido ............................................................................ 50 Mutua Voluptas ............................................................................................................ 60 Fertility, Children, and Consuetudo ............................................................................ 73 Conclusions .................................................................................................................. 78 Chapter 3: Family and Conjugal Relations .......................................................................... 80 Epicurean Views on Marriage ..................................................................................... 81 Primitive Sexuality in Book 5 ..................................................................................... 86 The Invention of Family ............................................................................................ 100 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 112 Chapter 4: Pietas, Religio, and the Family ........................................................................ 114 Epicurean Cult Practices ............................................................................................ 118 ix Religio in De Rerum Natura ...................................................................................... 123 Pietas in De Rerum Natura ....................................................................................... 135 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 150 Conclusion............................................................................................................................ 152 Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................... 158 Bibliography......................................................................................................................... 159 x Introduction My project seeks to answer why sexual reproduction and family loom so large as topics of concern in Lucretius’ poem De Rerum Natura. This question is significant since extant texts from Epicurus shed little light on these topics. I find that Lucretius deliberately departs from Epicurus’ position on issues of love, sex, and marriage and that he does so to appeal to his Roman audience. My work enriches an understanding of Epicureanism at Rome, and more broadly, it enriches an understanding of