Lucretius and the Logic of Venus

<p>Why did Lucretius begin his poem on physics and the philosophy of materialism with an invocation of the Goddess Venus? Is love a mere attraction a kind of helpless gravity or is there a holy logic to it a divine sense to be made both in and beyond cosmic matter a logic to not only feeling it but to sustaining it and meaning it?</p><p><br></p><p>These questions are what V. B. Price sets out to explore in his response to the Roman poet Lucretius's classic <em>On the Nature of Things</em>. The result is timeless while reaching across time a philosophical and heartfelt call for pleasure in a world too often reluctant to embrace it.</p>