Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature

One of the most significant books ever written by a head of state, the Meditations are a collection of philosophical thoughts by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius....

A lean, fleet-footed translation that recaptures Homer’s “nimble gallop” and brings an ancient epic to new life....

Wilson has returned with an equally revelatory translation of Homer’s other great epic―the most revered war poem of all time....

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

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....

The great adventure story tells of Odysseus, a veteran of the Trojan War, who - through a landscape peopled with monsters, sea nymphs, evil enchantresses, and vengeful gods....

Rome’s epic origin story, brilliantly rendered in a vivid, rhythmic idiom.

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....

Abraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as "disgraceful"....

This is the story of the Mayan Popol Vuh, “the book of the woven mat,” one of the only epics indigenous to the Americas.

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....

In Paradise Lost, Milton produced a poem of epic scale, conjuring up a vast, awe-inspiring cosmos and ranging across huge tracts of space and time....

In this BBC full-cast production of Much Ado About Nothing, some handsome soldiers return from battle. Yet one soldier finds himself locked in a merry war of his own....

Shakespeare's most sophisticated comedy is a riotous tale of hopelessly unrequited passions and mistaken identity....

The Aeneid is the great national epic of ancient Rome, and one of the most important works of literature ever written....

Everyone knows something of Shakespeare's sonnets, even if only in memorable fragments like "the darling buds of May," or "remembrance of things past," or "the marriage of true minds"....

The definitive translation by Dick Davis of the great national epic of Iran is now newly revised and expanded to be the most complete English-language edition.

Antigone is a famous Greek tragedy attributed to the ancient playwright Sophocles at around 440 BCE. The play expands on the Theban legend of Oedipus that predates it, dealing with Antigone’s burial of her brother Polyneices in defiance of the law....

We live in an era rife with cultural conflict. The 21st century is by no means free of wars, terrorism, riots, famine, nor epidemics. We may attempt to solve...

The legendary Academy Award–winning actress reflects on her love affair with poetry and makes us believers.

In the hands of Sophocles, the master dramatist, the anguished tale of a man fated to kill his father and marry his mother retains its power to shock and move beyond any Freudian reference....

One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode in the Trojan War....

The Divine Comedy describes Dante's descent into Hell with Virgil as a guide, his ascent of Mount Purgatory and his encounter with his dead love Beatrice, and finally, his arrival in Heaven....

When you join Professor Vandiver for this lecture series on the Iliad, you'll come to understand what has enthralled and gripped so many people....

Oedipus the King is the story of a man whose life is destroyed by his own good intentions. When a terrible secret from his past is brought to the light of day, the consequences are chilling....

With a rich and informative introduction from Emily Wilson, maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, genealogies, extensive notes, and helpful summaries of each book, this gorgeous edition of Rome’s founding poem will capture the imaginations and stir the souls of a new generation of listeners.

After the long hardships of the Trojan War, Odysseus is on his way home. But since the Gods in Olympos are still mad at Odysseus, they put lots of obstacles in his way: The nymph Calypso, Circe, Cyclops, the deadly Scylla and Charybdis - only the ever-cunning Odysseus is able to survive all these deadly traps. Finally, he makes it home, all by himself, at last. However, the story doesn't end there. In his house, there is a host of wooers who want to marry his faithful wife Penelope; they eat all his food, they drink his best wine, and they conspire to kill his son Telemachus.

La Vita nuova è la prima opera di attribuzione certa di Dante Alighieri, scritta tra il 1293 e il 1294. Si tratta di un prosimetro nel quale sono inserite 31 liriche (25 sonetti, 1 ballata, 5 canzoni) in una cornice narrativa di 42 capitoli.

Maudits selon l'expression consacrée et l'ouvrage éponyme que Verlaine publie en 1884, les poètes amants ont exploré ensemble les nouvelles voies poétiques, rejetant les conventions et embrassant l'expérimentation formelle et thématique. C'est ce jeu de sons allié à la puissance du verbe que l'on goûte avec délice grâce à l'interprétation passionnée de cette sélection de leurs poèmes par les grands de la Comédie-Française tels que Robert Hirsch, Jean Piat ou Jean-Louis Barrault.

Hesíodo describe el nacimiento de diversas deidades y criaturas mitológicas, como Gea (la Tierra), Urano (el Cielo), los Titanes, los Cíclopes y los Hecatónquiros. También relata la lucha entre los Titanes y Zeus, conocida como la Titanomaquia, así como la historia de Prometeo y la creación de Pandora, el primer ser humano femenino. Esta obra fue fundamental para la religión y la literatura griega, pues organizó y estructuró los mitos dispersos en una narración coherente.