Italy Composed: ca. 80-92 CEFirst published: 91 or 92 CE Publius Papinius Statius, Thebaid (Thēbaïs) Statius’s Thebaid relates the strife of two brothers, Polynices and Eteocles, the sons of Oedipus, who struggle for control of an Ancient Greek city. The myth...
Italy 94-96 CE Publius Papinius Statius, Achilleid (Achilleis) Most of what is known about Publius Papinius Statius (c. 45-96 CE) is derived from his Siluae, occasional poems in five books. Born in distinctly Greek Naples, he was the son of a successful...
Greece 2nd century CE Apollodorus, Library (Bibliotheke) We have lost to the centuries an enormous body of Greek literature. There are entire epic sagas whose plots we know only through scholars who consolidated their versions in Roman times. The most...
China 8th century CE The Legend of Darkness The Legend of Darkness is an amalgamated creation story passed down orally through untold generations among the Han people in China and likely first written down during the Tang Dynasty. Traditionally sung during funerary...
Central America Recorded in writing c. 1554-1558; transcription in K’iche’ and Spanish translation in 18th century Anonymous Popol Wuj (Popol Vuh, Pop Wuj) “One of the several surviving—in some ways, thriving—highland Maya groups in Guatemala is the...
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