The ignis sacer : a miniature giant? On Lucr. VI 660-661 (and 547)

In De rerum natura VI 660-661 Lucretius characterises the disease named ignis sacer as a burning snake, a choice justified by the “fiery” and “creeping” nature of that disorder. In this note, I suggest a parallelism between such imagery and the traditional depiction of Typhon – or, alternatively, the Giant Enceladus –, the serpent-like creature which was thought to be buried under Mount Etna and whose movements were supposed to cause volcanic eruptions. The verb disserpunt at VI 547, used to describe the propagation of seismic tremors, could also be suggestive of similar mythological associations.