Prostrati in gramine molli. Il locus amoenus come modello di comunità ideale in Lucrezio e nell'Ovidio dei Fasti

Lucretius works out the ancient theme of the locus amoenus in a very typical way, as it is shown by 2,29-33 and 5,1392-1396: it represents a pattern of the ideal ‘wise’ community and, at the same time, of the prehistoric, simple life; the setting is always in Spring. In Ovid’s reception of this system of motifs (esp. in Fast. 3,523-542) the community of the Urban plebs is involved, instead of Lucretian wise people or primitives, or even instead of Virgilian peasants (cfr. Georg. 2,513-540).