Showing titles in Epic

The Bhagavadgita is part of the great Indian epic the Mahabharata, and it is one of the major religious documents of the world, occupying in Hinduism a position not unlike the Sermon on the Mount in Christianity. One of the most celebrated treasures of world literature as well, it is in the form of a poetic dialogue between the epic's hero, Arjuna, and his friend Krishna, believed to be an incarnation of God.

This groundbreaking 2025 edition presents the most complete and seamless version of The Epic of Gilgamesh ever published in English. Meticulously reconstructed and translated from the Standard Babylonian tablets—along with integrated Sumerian and Old Babylonian variants—it delivers the full poetic journey of Gilgamesh and Enkidu with clarity, emotional power, and mythic resonance.

A biography of Gaius Valerius Catullus, Rome’s first great poet, a dandy who fell in love with another man’s wife and made it known to the world through his verse. This superb book gives a rare portrait of life during one of the most critical moments in world history through the eyes of one...

The heroic story of the siege of Troy is as enthralling today as it ever was. The Greeks are entering the tenth year of their war with the Trojans, but their armies are fractured and their best warrior Achilles has abandoned the battle on a mission of revenge. Only the death of his best friend Patroclus persuades Achilles to return to battle and confront the Trojan leader Hector in single combat.

Grande capolavoro rinascimentale tutto incentrato sulle vicende della prima Crociata, la Gerusalemme Liberata rappresenta di fatto una epopea Cristiana. Le avventure guerresche si intrecciano continuamente con passioni amorose, magie, nobili gesta, avventure, fughe, inseguimenti. Il Tasso attribuisce all'amore un ruolo centrale, in forte contrasto con il tema guerresco e religioso, intrecciando così conflitti epici e amorosi, motivi religiosi ed intenzioni profane, facendone un dramma Cristiano sempre in bilico tra peccato e redenzione.

The Odyssey is the greatest adventure story ever written, and one of the great epic masterpieces of Western literature For almost 3,000 years, it has been a storehouse of ancient Greek folklore and myth. It is also our very first novel, if we think of it in terms of romantic plot development, realistic characterizations, frequent change of scene, and heroic dramatic devices.

Primo capolavoro della letteratura occidentale, scritto probabilmente intorno all'VIII secolo a.C., l'Iliade è, insieme con l'Odissea, uno dei pilastri di tutta la cultura occidentale. Nel poema si narrano i 51 giorni della guerra di Troia, dall'ira di Achille ai funerali di Ettore, densi di battaglie ed imprese nelle quali si intrecciano continuamente i destini di dèi ed eroi.

Kara is not hero material. She trips. She panics. She makes terrible decisions. But when the Vanaheim System chooses her as its Champion in a multiversal arena where realms invest resources into mortal warriors, something unexpected happens. She survives. In a progression fantasy where divine beings at the Table wager worlds, champions are meant to be optimized, disciplined, and lethal. Kara is none of those things. She is statistically impossible.

There is something about the boy. When he is angry, clouds darken. When he cries, rivers burst their banks. And when he touches a basketball, deities want courtside seats. Half Nigerian mortal, half Grecian god: Demi is the Half-God of Rainfall. His mother, Modupe, looks on with a mixture of pride and worry. From close encounters, she knows that gods are just like men: the same fragile egos, the same subsequent fury, the same sense of entitlement to the bodies of mortals. The gods will one day tire of sports fans, their fickle allegiances and their prayers to Demi.

The Argonautica, also known as Jason and the Golden Fleece or Jason and the Argonauts, is the only surviving epic poem from Hellenistic Greece. It is a masterpiece whose story was well known to the audiences of the time. Virgil and other later poets were greatly influenced by it. Its author, Apollonius, was a well-known third century BC scholar living in Alexandria during the great age of Ptolomaic scholarship, and his bold attempt at writing a Homeric epic about Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece faced a daunting audience of knowledgeable contemporaries.

One of the finest German medieval epic poems, The Lay of the Nibelungs is perhaps best known now as one of the principal sources for Wagner’s four-part music drama The Ring of the Nibelung. It is easy to see how Wagner was enthralled by the story and the poetry for the power of the tale drives the narrative: intense love, loyalty, jealousy, murder, duty, honour and massacre are all interwoven into a classic. 

THE RAMAYANAM, an itihasa of the highest order, is considered adi kavya, the first poem to have been composed. Written by Valm ki during Rama’s time, and ratified by him, this timeless epic has been treated with utmost care by all acaryas in their famed commentaries. Since the advent of human civilization, it has inspired many poets and dramatists across the subcontinent and has been transcreated in almost all Bharat ya languages. Multiple layers of philosophy and theology are an embellishment to this classic. Its influence on Bharat ya music, dance, sculpture and textiles is unfathomable.

I hate and love. How do I do this, you might ask. I don't know but I feel it and am tortured. A Penguin Classic Award-winning translator Stephanie McCarter presents a translation of the surviving poems of Catullus (84-54 BCE), the Roman poet and punk, the lover and the hater, the hedonist and...

Out of the mixture of Latin and Germanic paganism and the Christianity of the Early Middle Ages has sprung one of the world's supremely great pieces of literature. J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, delivered a famous lecture to the British Academy in 1936 in which he maintained that Beowulf was a poem all of a piece, and not (as had been suggested) a jumble of fragments for pedantic scholars to paw over.

The Iliad is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the Odyssey, the poem is divided into 24 books and was written in dactylic hexameter. It contains 15,693 lines in its most widely accepted version. Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek states, the poem depicts significant events in the siege's final weeks.

Achilles has quarrelled with Agamemnon and sulks in his tent while Hector brings his Trojans to the brink of victory; but fate will have the last word. While the heroes fight before the walls of Troy the gods have also drawn up battle lines, and it is their disagreements as much as the heroes' efforts which will decide the conflict. Despite the poem's antiquity, the very real, human qualities of the protagonists and their dilemmas make The Iliad immediately accessible.

The origins, history and authorship of Beowulf are shrouded in uncertainty. This heroic epic probably began, as most do, with a wandering troubadour strumming a stringed instrument, sitting before a hearth-fire, and singing the verses to a spellbound audience arrayed before him. Beowulf is a rousing adventure story, filled with intrepid heroes, monsters and fire-breathing dragons, which can be listened to for the sheer enjoyment of the tale.

Here are the most exciting and essential parts of two historic, epic poems: the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey". The ancient words of Homer find a new home in today's world - spoken aloud, just as Homer intended. Translated by Stanley Lombardo.

Who says Thor and Odin are the good guys? Loki Ragnarok is a story of betrayal, madness, and murder based on the Norse myth of the end of the world.

The Arthurian legend of Camelot has been told many times, but never better than by Alfred Tennyson. Employing some of the most stirring and beautiful blank verse ever written, Tennyson crafted his version of the Knights of the Round Table over the course of nearly fifty years, completing it in 1885. Despite the length of time, Tennyson managed to maintain a high level of style and continuity throughout.