Epic Poetry: Did you mean...?

The Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic where the main story revolves around two branches of a family - the Pandavas and Kauravas - who, in the Kurukshetra War, battle for the throne of Hastinapura. Interwoven into this narrative are several...

The Old Norse word saga means 'story', 'tale' or 'history' and normally refers specifically to the epic prose narratives written mainly in Iceland between the 12th- and 15th centuries CE, covering the country's history as well as Scandinavia's...

In honour of World Poetry Day which is celebrated on March 21st, we are introducing three prominent Female Poets from the Ancient World! Enheduanna is the first author that we know of by name, and she was writing in Mesopotamia between 2285-2250...

Gilgamesh is a semi-mythical king of Uruk, an ancient city of Mesopotamia, and is best known as the star of the first epic poem ever written, the Epic of Gilgamesh, where he searches for immortality after the death of his friend Enkidu. Even...

Callimachus of Cyrene (l. c. 310-c. 240 BCE) was a poet and scholar associated with the Library of Alexandria and best known for his Pinakes ("Tablets"), a bibliographic catalog of Greek literature, his poetry, and his literary aesthetic...

In this gallery, we cross the ancient Mediterranean world four times to follow the adventures of four great heroes from Greek and Roman mythology. Here are visual representations of timeless tales of heroism, divine challenges, and fearsome...

Chretien de Troyes (l. c. 1130-1190 CE) was the greatest romantic poet of his era, regarded today as the Father of Arthurian Romance (along with Geoffrey of Monmouth) and also Father of the Novel owing to his narrative form. He was most likely...

Anthology of Persian Poetry with the poems of Hafez Shiraz Folios 33r-32v Iran, 17th century CE

Gregory of Tours is forced to listen to the bad poetry of King Chilperic I (r. 561-584) of Neustria. Illustratuon by Jean-Paul Laurensfor the work of Augustin Thierry, Récits des temps mérovingiens (Paris, 1881).

Persian literature derives from a long oral tradition of poetic storytelling. The first recorded example of this tradition is the Behistun Inscription of Darius I (the Great, r. 522-486 BCE), carved on a cliff-face c. 522 BCE during the period...