LUCRECIO: EL ROL DE LA POESÍA EN LA PRÁCTICA TERAPÉUTICA EPICÚREA

Abstract

Desires for wealth, fame, power or the immortality of the soul constitute, according to Epicureanism, objectives impossible to attain. By not achieving them, the soul becomes sick and to cure it is necessary to carry out certain spiritual exercises continuously: the quadruple remedy is   intended to ensure your health. The reading of the dogmatic treatises of Epicureanism is essential to develop a discipline of desires. However, the knowledge of nature -understood as a bitter potion - needs something sweet that allows it to pass the bad swallow: for Lucretius, poetry is that honey. According to what has been said, it is intended to demonstrate that, in addition to the arguments that make up the tetrafarmakon, i) the poem itself is part of the therapeutic practice, ii) poetic language is able to provide pleasure and enlightenment when achieving a clear perception of the truth, and therefore iii) influence on the psychic relief.