Showing titles in Ancient, Classical & Medieval Literature

Euripides (c. 480-406 B.C.E.) is the author of eighteen extant plays and many more only surviving in fragments. He is the youngest of the three great Athenian tragedians with Aeschylus and Sophocles. Hippolytus, bastard son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyta, has sworn chaste allegiance to the goddess Artemis, thus severely offending the goddess Aphrodite by failing to revere her. Aphrodite swears revenge and promises that he will die before the day is done, taking with him Queen Phaedra, wife of Theseus.

To fully experience the ecstatic poetry of the Middle and Near East, you must hear it as originally intended: stirred ablaze by inspired music and rhythms before a live audience. In I Want Burning, Coleman Barks fuses his passionate scholarship with a deep feeling for the poetry of Rumi, Hafiz (a 14th-century Sufi mystic, called "one of the jewels in the necklace of Persian poetry"), and Lalla (an exquisite Kashmiri female poet of the 14th century).

Tales of Troy and Greece by classicist and gifted storyteller Andrew Lang is an ideal introduction to the The Iliad and The Odyssey, recounting the Homeric legend of the wars between the Greeks and the Trojans. Paris, Achilles, the lovely Helen of Troy, Penelope, Hector, Ulysses, the Amazons, and the Wooden Horse all feature in this evocative introduction to one of the greatest legends ever told.

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.

Blood, gore, thrills, chills, and romance abound in these plays by three of the great Greek authors. Included are "Medea" by Euripides; "Antigone" by Sophocles; and "Agamemnon" by Aeschylus.

A collection of recordings written and read by one of the greatest literary and cultural figures of the 20th. The collection is accompanied by a special 64 page booklet containing the poems. Upon the release of his first published work, Howl and Other Poems (1956), Allen Ginsberg became the...

The Waste Land is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the October issue of Eliot's The Criterion and in the United States in the November issue of The Dial. It was published in book form in December 1922. Eliot's poem loosely follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King combined with vignettes of contemporary British society.

His victories won him many supporters, but they also earned him enemies. This easy-to-listen-to biography offers a fascinating look at the life of Alexander and the world in which he lived.

Walt Whitman said, "...poetry is the voice of the nation, expressing its deepest concerns, ambitions and longings," which is certainly true of the great classic poetry of America. This wide-ranging anthology, from the earliest poets of the 16th century to the present day, reflects the changing preoccupations and visions of Americans, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, E.E. Cummings, and more.

Dive into the epic adventure of the "Epic of Gilgamesh," a journey through time that takes you back to the origins of literature with one of the oldest stories ever told.

Abraham Lincoln read it with approval, but Emily Dickinson described its bold language and themes as "disgraceful." And Ralph Waldo Emerson found Leaves of Grass "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed," calling it a "combination of the Bhagavad Gita and the New York Herald."

كتاب "روضة المحبين ونزهة المشتاقين" كتاب يعد من أهم الكتب التي ألفت في الحب، وفيه يجد القارئ ما يشبع فهمه إلى هذا النوع من المعرفة، لأنه يجمع رأي الشريعة وحكمتها...

This is a full-cast, unabridged performance with comprehensive commentary and analysis, enabling any student to fully understand and appreciate the play. Judge for yourself whether Lear is "a man more sinned against than sinning" in this moral tale that pits wisdom and age against ambition and youth. Experience and examine the power of Shakespeare's most cruel and violent tragedy.

A towering epic of adventure, cunning, and the longing for home, The Odyssey follows the journey of Odysseus after the fall of Troy. Cursed to wander for ten years across a treacherous sea, the king of Ithaca confronts monsters and gods alike—outwitting the Cyclops, resisting the Sirens’ song, and braving the wrath of Poseidon—while his wife Penelope fends off suitors determined to claim his throne. Rich with suspense, humor, and lyric beauty, Homer’s poem explores what it means to be human: the bonds of family, the cost of pride, the power of endurance, and the pull of memory and home.

Der Prinz von Guastalla verliebt sich in die tugendhafte Emilia und spinnt ein tödliches Komplott: Er lockt ihren Verlobten, Graf Appiani, in einen Hinterhalt, um selbst an Emilias Seite zu gelangen. Doch er unterschätzt ihre moralische Standhaftigkeit – und die Geschichte nimmt eine dramatische Wendung. Lessings Stück prangert Machtmissbrauch und Willkürherrschaft an, stellt aber auch zeitlose Fragen zu Pflicht, Ehre und Selbstbestimmung.

In König Lear inszeniert William Shakespeare ein dramatisches Familienschicksal, das bis heute zu den eindrucksvollsten Tragödien der Weltliteratur zählt. Der greise König Lear will seine Macht abgeben – und löst damit einen zerstörerischen Sturm aus. Was als Prüfung der Tochterliebe beginnt, endet in Verrat, Wahnsinn und einem erbarmungslosen Blick auf die Tiefen der menschlichen Natur. Ein zeitloses Werk über Eitelkeit, Wahrheit, Machtmissbrauch – und den schmalen Grat zwischen Klarsicht und Wahnsinn.

Dorfrichter Adam muss über den Fall eines zerbrochenen Kruges urteilen – doch wie sich bald zeigt, war er selbst der Täter. Zwischen Ausreden, Verwirrspielen und absurden Ausflüchten entspinnt sich ein meisterhaftes Lustspiel voller sprachlicher Raffinesse und satirischer Tiefe. Der zerbrochne Krug ist Heinrich von Kleists wohl beliebtestes Werk – eine Komödie, die mit feiner Ironie und großem Witz die menschliche Schwäche bloßlegt.

The ancient Greeks revered Homer and Hesiod and often cited their names together in theological and theological works. While the two could have been contemporaries, some estimate that Hesiod lived up to 100 years after Homer. Sappho was an ancient Greek poetess and musician. She pioneered song lyrics and the ancient Greeks included her in the canon of nine lyric poets. Plato even numbered her among the Parnassian goddesses, referring to her as the tenth muse.

A sparkling translation that gives new life in English to Dante’s Vita Nuova, his transcendent love poems and influential statement on the art and power of poetry, and the most widely read of his works after the Inferno A Penguin Classic Dante was only nine years old when he first met young...

"Les Métamorphoses" d'Ovide (43 avant J-C-17 après J-C) constituent une œuvre épique de douze mille vers composée en 15 Livres. Deux cent quarante-six fables racontent les transformations d'hommes, de dieux ou de héros en animaux, plantes ou minéraux par la magie ou la volonté des dieux. On y reconnaît des légendes antiques, comme le jugement de Pâris, ou les mythes de Phaéton conduisant le char du Soleil, celui de Persée et Andromède, ou encore ceux des Argonautes et du roi Midas.