Poetics

This chapter considers Epicurean engagement with poetry and poetics from Epicurus until Philodemus and Lucretius in the first century bce. In general, Epicureans have two concerns; the first is to clarify that poetry is not an authoritative source of truth, and the second is to understand poetry on its own terms. So far as sources allow, earlier Epicureans emphasize the first goal, probably because it was important to draw a clear line between Epicurus’ teaching and the claims made by (or attributed to) poets. The second concern is emphasized in the later school, in the treatises of Demetrius Laco and Philodemus of Gadara, though, I suggest, they rely on philosophical positions developed in the first generations of the school to support their arguments. The chapter examines Epicurus’s views in some detail, because of their importance, though it seems that Metrodorus’ treatise On Poems was in fact the major work on poetry in the early Garden. The chapter also discusses Philodemus’s account of poetry at length, given that a relatively high proportion of his treatise survives. Several important views emerge, e.g. poetry per se is useless, but in the right hands, its contents can be used as raw material for ethical discussions, and good poetry consists of an interrelationship between good form and good content that provokes a certain reaction in the audience.