Lucretius and the End of Masculinity

by Michael Pope

From beginning to end, the De rerum natura upsets expectations. This book's premise is that Lucretius intentionally provokes his imagined male audience, playfully and forcefully proving to them that they are not the men they suppose themselves to be. From astral bodies to the magnetic draw of human sexuality to the social bonds linking parents to children, Lucretius shows that everything is compounded material, both a source of atomic issue and receptacle of atomic ingress. The universe, as Lucretius presents it, is a never-ending cycle of material interpenetration, connectivity, and dissolution. Roman men, in the vastness of it all, are only exceptional in their self-defeating fantasies. Close analysis of Lucretius' poetics reveals an unremitting assault upon the fictions that comprise Roman masculinity, from seminal conception in utero to existential decomposition in the grave. Nevertheless, Lucretius offers an Epicurean vision of masculinity that just might save the Republic.

238 pages, Paperback

Published September 18, 2025

Reviews

[Martmota · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO GOOD. For a moment (namely while reading it) it made me forget my scepticism toward monographs; this has to do with the topic, of course, since it’s aligned to my taste and research, but most of all with the way it’s written AND how it engages with other scholarship. I’d have liked the chapters to have some kind of breakdown, subsections, because it was difficult to know where a text change or a topic change would come, so I could take breaks that made sense during my reading and not leave arguments or passages being discussed right in the middle.

[Ava · Rating 2 out of 5]

Genuinely this was one of the most confusing research texts I’ve ever read. There was very little cohesion between the chapters and the overarching thesis of the book, and many chapters focused on the same three pieces of evidence, making it feel like Pope didn’t have other evidence to support his claims. On top of this, his translations were very targeted to fit his own conclusions, as many trusted, literal translations of the original DRN came nowhere close to his interpretations. He expects too much trust from his audience for the lack of evidence, justification, and overall in-depth analysis of the text that he displays in his research.

[Just · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was interesting to go back in history and explore thoughts of Lucretius, who was showing in his work that everything is compaunded material and that Universe is a never ending "cycle of material interpretations, connectivity, and dissolution."