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...
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...
Germany 10th century CE Walthariuslied It seems almost ironic to realize that the older some of the heroic epics from the pre-modern era are, the more appealing they seem to be. Beowulf, the “Hildebrandslied,” El Poema de Mío Cid, the Chanson de Roland, the...
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...
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