Description A universe dotted with infinite worlds that are born, thrive, and die; a theory of the evolution of species that foreshadows Darwin; a theology that outlines the Theological delusion, catechizing humanity in the carefree bliss of gods who neither punish nor reward and celebrates the mortality of the soul; a prompt for sex without romantic admixtures; a Guide to Happiness that scorns metaphysical consolations.

Can these issues give rise to great poetry? The answer is provided by the Roman Lucretius, the most faithful of the believers in the materialistic and therapeutic philosophy of Epicurus, in On the Nature of Things, written in the 1st century B.C.

The metered translation of the epic is accompanied by an extensive study on the persistent presence of Lucretius in the Christian Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment up to the gurus of postmodernity and the activism of the second decade of the 21st century – from Machiavelli and Voltaire to Palamas and Karyotakis.