Il mondo animale nell'opera di Lucrezio. Poikilia del genere didascalico (alcuni mirabilia del VI libro)

Abstract

As Lucretius' debt to Callimachus' art of poetry is already known, as moreover the didactic poetry admits various stylistic means, we are entitled to investigate in which way Lucretius realizes in his De rerum natura the Challimachus' principle called poikilia. In order to illustrate this principle, we especially pay attention to some aspects of the paradoxography concerning Averna loca in Lucretius' De rerum natura VI 739 ff. This investigation permits to individuate some Hellenistic sources of the piece (Antigonus Charistius, Callimachus and Euphorio).