Empedocles' "Roots" in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura

This article contributes to our ever-widening understanding of Empedocles' influence on Lucretius' De Rerum Natura by arguing that the noun "roots" (radices; stirpes) in the DRN often functions as a reflexive annotation of Lucretius' engagement with his didactic precursor, serving as a calque on the four generative substances (ῥιζώµατα) of Empedoclean physics. This noun and related forms function metapoetically (Lucretius suggests that the "roots" of his material and many Epicurean ideas are found in Empedocles) and almost always entail endorsement of Empedoclean philosophy, showing that the poetic and philosophical aspects of Lucretius' engagement with Empedocles are intertwined.