Epic Poetry: Did you mean...?

Chinese literature is among the most imaginative and interesting in the world. The precision of the language results in perfectly realized images whether in poetry or prose and, as with all great literature, the themes are timeless. The Chinese...

Horace's Epistles are a series of letters, providing sage advice to various friends. Quintus Horatius Flaccus, better known as Horace (65-8 BCE) wrote 20 letters around 20-19 BCE, collected in Epistles I, while Epistles II, most likely written...

The Odyssey, traditionally attributed to Homer and composed around the 8th–7th century BCE, recounts the decade-long journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he attempts to return home after the Trojan War. Although set in a recognizable Mediterranean...

Myths are a part of every culture in the world and are used to explain natural phenomena, where a people came from and how their civilization developed, and why things happen as they do. At their most basic level, myths comfort by giving...

He who saw everything in the broad-boned earth, and knew what was to be known, Who had experienced what there was, and had become familiar with all things. The Epic of Gilgamesh. The tornado has started After the US-led invasion of...

Writing is the physical manifestation of a spoken language. It is thought that human beings developed language c. 35,000 BCE as evidenced by cave paintings from the period of the Cro-Magnon Man (c. 50,000-30,000 BCE) which appear to express...

The Arthurian legend begins with the Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 - c. 1155 CE). Earlier history writers such as Gildas, Bede, and Nennius had already established the existence of a British war-chief who defeated the Saxons...

Elves and dwarves represent minor divine figures in Norse mythology. Elves (álfar) and dwarves (dvergar) have in common their talent for creating precious objects, skill, agility, and moral ambiguity. Dwarves appear in several important stories...

The Bhagavad Gita (“Song of God” or “Song of the Lord”) is among the most important religious texts of Hinduism and easily the best known. It has been quoted by writers, poets, scientists, theologians, and philosophers – among others – for...

The Ramayana is an ancient Indian epic, composed some time in the 5th century BCE, about the exile and then return of Rama, prince of Ayodhya. It was composed in Sanskrit by the sage Valmiki, who taught it to Rama's sons, the twins Lava and...