A dead(ly) air: Lucretius on epidemics and the perishability of air in De rerum natura VI 1090-1137

This article takes into consideration two main themes developed in Lucretius’ theorical explanation on the origins of epidemics (VI 1096-1137). Firstly, it deals with the poet’s strategy to debunk the belief that the plague was a godsent punishment against wicked individuals. On a literary level, Lucretius makes this antitheological argument by referencing and subverting not only the widely recognized model of Iliad Book I, but also two Hesiodic passages (op. 96-104 and 240-243). Secondly, the paper deals with the apocalyptic scope given to epidemics by employing some of the tropes deployed in the poem’s previous eschatological passages. Lucretius makes an argument for the plague as evidence of the corruptibility of the air and, thus, of the mortality of the world and its impending end. The presence of the same argument in Theophrastus’ fr. 184 FHSG shows that Lucretius in the analytical exposition of the origin of epidemics further engages with the philosophical debate on the destructibility of the cosmos.