Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature

The story of Troy speaks to all of us - the kidnapping of Helen, a queen celebrated for her beauty, sees the Greeks launch a thousand ships against the city of Troy, to which they will lay siege for 10 whole and very bloody years.... 

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are unquestionably two of the greatest epic masterpieces in Western literature....

The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a modern English translation that would do them justice. Here it is at last (Odin be praised!). These amazing texts from a 13th-century Icelandic manuscript are of huge historical, mythological, and literary importance....

Parzival is a romantic poem written by Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German. Regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages, the romance was the most popular vernacular verse narrative in medieval Germany....

This anonymous fourteenth-century text is the glory of English mysticism, and one of the most practical and useful guides to finding union with God ever written....

In this book, for the first time, Philip Freeman brings together the best stories of Celtic mythology....

In a world where social media, online relationships, and relentless self-absorption threaten the very idea of deep friendships, the search for true friends is more important than ever. Roman politician and philosopher Cicero offers a compelling guide to finding, keeping, and appreciating friends.... 

The great Marcus Tillius Cicero was a well-known statesman during the time of Caesar and a revolutionary orator. In On Invention, Cicero offers his reflections on rhetoric at only 21 years of age....

These lectures make classical mythology fresh, absorbing, and often surprising....

You'll become engrossed in "the romance of the intellect," as Professor Sugrue opens a path for you into the inner structure of these timeless dialogues....

The ancient Greek poet Hesiod lived around the same time as Homer. He is considered to be an economist and also wrote works on mythology, ancient time-keeping, and farming techniques....

Albert Finney, Claire Bloom, Edith Evans and Hilton Edwards perform an unabridged version Shakespeare's tradegy about two young lovers whose deaths unite their feuding families....

Hardly anyone who was educated was unaware of at least some of the more famous stories of Roman myth and history as told by Titus Livius....

The tale of the fifth king of the first dynasty of Uruk (in what is modern-day Iraq), who reigned for 126 years, according to the ancient Sumerian list of kings....

Professor Vandiver gives you a full overview of Greek tragedy, in its original setting and as a lasting contribution to the artistic exploration of the human condition....

The secret of their identities has fueled debate for hundreds of years: Who are the nameless nobleman and the dark-haired mistress?....

Little is known about the Ancient Greek oral poet Homer, the supposed 8th century BC author of the world-read Iliad and his later masterpiece, The Odyssey....

Is reality stable? What is happiness? How shall we best live our lives? In this series of 24 lectures, Professor Roochnik invites you to join this eternal discussion....

Paradise Lost is a well-known and integral part of the English literary canon. Told as an epic poem in blank verse, Paradise Lost is John Milton’s retelling of the biblical story of Satan’s fall from grace and the beginning of humanity....

A selection of the very best of Chinese poetry over the course of a thousand years, from 100 years before Christ was born up to the middle ages....

Learn how authors "write into the gap" to flesh out-or, in some cases, reimagine altogether-old stories, making them new for new readerships with different values....

The great legacy of The Iliad is itsshattering revelation of what it means to be human in the face of life's uncertainty and fleeting mortality....

Compiled by Thucydides, an Athenian historian and general during the Peloponnesian War....

Sophocles was born at Colonus, near Athens in about 496 BC and is considered to be one of the premier playwrights of Greek tragedy. His stories may have been filled with strife....

Peer Gynt (1867), the five-act romantic play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, is one of the most widely performed Norwegian plays. Based on a Norwegian folk hero, the title character is a rogue who will be destroyed unless the love of a woman saves him....

The Iliad. Join Achilles at the Gates of Troy as he slays Hector to Avenge the death of Patroclus. Here is a story of love and war, hope and...

This multicast dramatisation of Arabian Nights: Volume 1 is an Audible Original reenvisioning of three iconic tales - with a twist....