Italy Composed: 29-19 BCE Virgil, Aeneid The Aeneid is a narrative poem in twelve bookrolls on the legendary origins of Rome that fully annexes the world of Greek mythological epic to the Roman thought-realm. More specifically, the Aeneid is a foundation story for the...
Italy 8 CE Ovid, Metamorphoses Ovid’s programmatic exploration of his place in literary history in general, and his progress along a Vergilian poetic career path in particular, is especially visible in his surviving masterpiece, the epic Metamorphoses, on which...
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...
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