by jac3 | Aug 18, 2019
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...
by jac3 | Jul 18, 2019
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...
by jac3 | Jul 18, 2019
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...
by jac3 | Jul 18, 2019
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...
by jac3 | Jun 18, 2019
England Composed: ca. 700-1000 CEEarliest extant manuscript: ca. 975-1025 CE Beowulf Set in sixth-century Scandinavia, Beowulf is a simple story about a hero who fights three monsters: as a young warrior he grapples with the cannibalistic Grendel and his...
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