The Aesthetics of Disgust in Lucretius’ De rerum natura

Abstract

This paper argues that the plague in Lucretius’ De rerum natura facilitates an aesthetic experience founded on disgust that is distinct from the sublime, or the notion of aesthetic fear more regularly recognized in Book 6. Fear and disgust each respond to a different kind of death—sudden demise or slow decay—and a different aesthetic category is needed to describe the reader’s experience of overcoming each form of death. The reader’s ability to derive positive pleasure from the plague is a culmination of the philosophical education for which the poet has been preparing his audience throughout De rerum natura.