Myth and Poetry in Lucretius Book

	Preface
	List of abbreviations
	Introduction	1
1	The philosophical background: Greek myth and mythology	6
	The criticism of myth in antiquity	7
	Allegory and allegorism	19
	Lucretius and the mythological tradition	26
	Personification and allegory in the De Rerum Natura	39
	Impiety and irrationality	45
	Parmenides and Empedocles	50
	Appendix 1: Euhemerism	75
	Appendix 2: Allegory in art	80
2	The cultural background: myth and belief in late Republican Rome	85
	Myth and theology	85
	Myth and history	95
3	The literary background: the De Rerum Natura as epic	99
4	Lucretius' theory of myth	129
	The origins of myth	130
	Avia Pieridum loca: poetry and truth	138
5	Latent myth in the De Rerum Natura	156
	Zoogony and Kulturgeschichte (5.783-1457)	156
	Other examples of latent myth	182
	The deification of Epicurus	191
6	The proem and the plague	208
	Conclusion: myth as a poetic and philosophical tool	229
	Bibliography	232
	General index	246
	Index of passages cited	251