The Song of the Swan

Creating a new Lucretius of renewed significance, Harold Donohue rejects the view of Lucretius's poetic isolation and explains the philological traditions underpinning it. This book opens up an extensive relation between Callimachus and Lucretius as it compares the nature and role of poetry in their respective eras in view of the relationship. Donohue redefines the placement of Lucretius in the poetic activities and traditions of Rome, examining certain images (swan, water, poetry as enchantment) which mark him as an adherent to the tradition of Callimachean poetry. Contents: Lucretius and Antipater of Sidon: The Link to Callimachus; Lucretius and Callimachus: The Aims of Poetry; Alexandria and the Poetry of Callimachus; Rome and the Poetry of Lucretius.