Statius, Thebaid

Statius, Thebaid

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...
Statius, Achilleid

Statius, Achilleid

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...
Apollodorus, Library

Apollodorus, Library

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...
Chanson de Roland

Chanson de Roland

France Composed: ca. 1040-1115 CEEarliest extant manuscript: ca. 1129-1165 CE Anonymous The Song of Roland (La chanson de Roland) Halt sunt li pui e li val tenebrus… the high hills and foreboding valleys of the Pyrenees pass at Rencesvals reverberate with...
Cantar de Mio Cid

Cantar de Mio Cid

Spain Composed: ca. 1140-1207 CE Earliest extant manuscript: ca. 1300 CE Anonymous Cantar de mio Cid The oldest and most intact of the three Spanish epic poems to survive in writing, the Cantar de mio Cid—known also as the Poema de mio Cid—recounts the deeds of a...