HIST 449 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Lucretius, Pre-Socratic Philosophy, Epicureanism
9 Jun 2018
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HIST 449- Mar 29
Part 1: Epidemic
The plot of the epidemic narrative
• An epidemic is always unprecedented
• It comes from far away
• There is always a patient zero
• Uncanny, ghastly and bizarre symptoms
• It kills uncontrollably
• All people of all ages, all classes and genders are killed
• It can be deadly with and without contact
• Public order breaks down
• Fear of death causes death
• We are writing this down so when the plague returns, we can recognize it
Titus Lucretius Carus
• 99 BCE-55 BCE
• Atomism, materialism and Epicureanism (serenity and freedom from
passions, especially the fear of death)
• Takes Thucycides story and makes it generic
• He turns the plague into a protagonist
• One way that we become free from fear is realizing that everything that we
are scared of is natural
• Epicureans think that the gods live in mt. Olympus and are not scared of us,
so we shouldnt be scared of them
• Titus takes up the banner of pre-socratic philosophy
• Do not be superstitious- no excessive preoccupation on the minutae of the
gods
• Signs of impending death= signs of the plague
• Hippocrates story does not come to dominate the rhetoric about plague
• Epidemic narrative about HIV
Part 2: Disability in Ancient Societies
Begin with an analysis of the pot on the slide
• Shows the doctor doing bloodletting
• Medical literature has nothing to say about dwarfism, begs the question
whether this was a disability in antiquity
• In the past 20 years, there has been an explosion of disability studies in
antiquity
• Came out the disabled rights movement of the 70s and 80s
• Historical and critical assessment of the concepts of disabilities
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