Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature, Second Edition features more than 500 entries covering the literary works, writers, and concepts of the ancient world, from the beginnings to approximately 500 CE. Ranging from ancient Greece and Rome to China, Egypt, Japan, India, Persia, Babylonia, the Hebrew world, and more.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Writers Covered, by Language of Composition
• Authors’ Time Line
• A
• Academic sect of philosophy
• The Acharnians
• Acontius and Kidippe
• Adelphi
• Ælius Aristides
• Aeneid
• Æschines
• Aeschylus
• Aesop
• Agamemnon
• Agathias of Myrina
• Ajax
• Akkadian
• Alcaeus (lyric poet)
• Alcestis
• Alkman
• alphabet
• Ambrose, Saint
• Ammianus Marcellinus
• Amphitryon
• Anacreon
• Analects
• ancient Chinese dynasties and periods
• ancient Japanese literature
• ancient Mesoamerican writing
• Andocides
• Andria
• Andromache
• annalists and annals of Rome
• Annals of Spring and Autumn
• anthologies of Greek verse
• Antigone
• Antiphon of Rhamnus
• apocrypha
• Apollonius of Rhodes
• Apology of Socrates
• The Apostolic Fathers of the Christian Church
• Appendices to Book of Changes
• Apuleius
• Aratus of Soli
• The Arbitration
• Archilochus
• Archimedes
• The Argonautika
• Aristophanes
• Aristotle
• Arrian
• The Art of Love
• The Art of Poetry
• Atellane fables or farces
• Athanasius, Saint
• Atharva-Veda
• Athenian festival of Lenaea
• “Attis”
• Augustine, Saint
• Augustus Caesar
• Ausonius, Decimus Magnus
• Avianus, Postumius Rufus Fes
• B
• The Bacchae
• Bacchides
• “The Ballad of Sawseruquo”
• Basil, Saint
• Bhagavad Gita
• Bion of Smyrna
• Birds
• Boethius
• Book of Changes
• Book of Judith
• Book of Lord Shang
• Book of Odes
• Book of Rites
• Book of the Dead
• Books from the Foundation of the City
• The Braggart Soldier
• Buddha and Buddhism
• Buddhist texts
• C
• Caesar, Julius
• Callimachus
• Callinus of Ephesus
• Calpurnius, Titus Siculus
• Catullus, Caius Valerius
• cento
• Chinese classical literary commentary
• Chinese ethical and historical literature in verse and prose
• Chinese invention of printing
• The Choephori
• chorus in Greek theater
• Chrysostom
• ci
• Cicero, Marcus Tullius
• The City of God
• Civil War
• The Civil Wars
• Classic of Filial Piety
• Claudian
• The Clouds
• Code of Hammurabi
• comedy in Greece and Rome
• Commentary on the Gallic Wars
• Confessions
• Confucius
• The Consolation of Philosophy
• conventions of Greek drama
• Cosmas Indicopleustes
• Crito
• Ctesias of Cnidos
• cuneiform
• Curtius, Quintus Rufus
• Cyclops
• Cynicism
• Cyropædia
• D
• Damasus
• Daoism
• De Rerum Natura
• Dead Sea Scrolls
• The Deipnosophists
• Demosthenes
• Dialogues of the Dead
• Dialogues of the Gods
• Dialogues of the Sea Gods
• Didache: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
• didactic poetry
• didactic satires
• Dinarchus
• Dio Cocceianus Chrysostomus
• Diodorus
• Diogenes Laertius
• Dionysius of Halicarnassus
• Diphilus
• Discourses of the States
• Donatus, Ælius
• Dyskolos
• E
• Eclogues
• Electra
• elegy and elegiac poetry
• Empedocles
• Encountering Sorrow
• Ennius, Quintus
• epic
• Epicharmus
• Epicurus
• Epigenes the Sicyonian
• Epigrams
• Epigrams
• The Epistle of Barnabas
• “The Epistle to Diognetus”
• Epistles
• epode
• Eratosthenes
• Euclid
• Euhemerus
• Eumenides
• Euripides
• Eusebius of Caesarea
• Eutropius, Flavius
• F
• fables of Greece and Rome
• Fasti
• Fayan
• female lyricists of ancient Greek
• female poets of ancient Japan
• The Ferryboat
• fiction as epistle, romance, and erotic prose
• The First and Second Books of Esdras (in the Apocrypha)
• The First Letter of Clement to the Corinthians
• Fragments of Papias and Quadratus
• The Frogs
• Frontinus, Sextus Julius
• fu poems
• G
• Galen
• Gallus, Gaius Cornelius
• Gāthās
• Geography
• Georgics
• Gilgamesh
• gnomic poetry and prose
• Gnostic apocrypha and pseudepigrapha
• The Golden Ass
• Gorgias
• Gorgias
• The Gospel of Thomas
• grammar and grammarians in Greece
• grammarians of Rome
• Great Dionysia
• Greek and Latin epigrams
• Greek and Roman biography
• Greek and Roman geography and geographers
• Greek prose romance
• Gregory of Nazianzen, Saint
• gushi
• H
• Han Feizi
• Hanji
• Hebrew Bible
• Hecabe
• Hecale
• Hedupatheia
• Helen
• Hellenika
• Hellenistic Age
• Hephæstion of Alexandria
• Heracles
• Heraclitus of Ephesus
• Herodotus
• Heroides
• Hesiod
• hieroglyphs
• Hippolytus
• The Histories
• History of the Former Han Dynasty
• Homer
• Homeridae
• Horace
• “How a Man May Become Aware of His Progress in Virtue”
• “How to Profit by One's Enemies”
• Huainanzi
• hubris
• “Hymn to Aphrodite”
• hymns to Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, and others
• I
• “I more than envy him…”
• Idylls
• The Iliad
• Intrigues of the Warring States
• Ion
• Iphigenia in Aulis
• Isaeus
• Isidore of Seville, Saint
• Isocrates
• Italic school of philosophy
• Itinerary of Greece
• J
• Jain texts
• Jerome, Saint
• Jewish War
• Ji Kang
• Jia Yi
• Josephus, Flavius
• Julianus
• Juvenal
• K
• Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
• The Knights
• Kojiki
• L
• Laozi
• Leonidas of Tarentum
• Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians
• Letters
• The Letters of Ignatius
• Libanius of Antioch
• Liezi
• The Life of Apollonius of Tyana
• The Life of Saint Anthony
• Linear B
• Lives of Eminent Philosophers
• Livius Andronicus, Lucius
• Livy
• The Lock of Bereníkê
• Lokāyata
• Lucan
• Lucian of Samosata
• Lucilius, Gaius
• Lucretius
• Lun Heng
• Lycophron
• lyric poetry
• Lysias
• Lysistrata
• M
• Macrobius
• Mad Hercules
• Mahabharata
• Mani
• Manichaean writings
• Man’yōshū
• Marcus Aurelius
• Martial
• “The Martyrdom of Polycarp”
• Medea
• Medea
• Meditations
• Meleager of Gadara
• Menander
• Mencius
• The Merchant
• Metamorphoses
• Milesian Tales
• Mimnermus of Colophon
• Moralia
• Moschus of Syracuse
• Mozi
• The Mozi
• Musæus (1)
• Musæus (2)
• Muses
• myth
• mythography in the ancient world
• N
• Nart Sagas
• Nemesianus
• New Testament
• Nicander of Colophon
• The Nicomachean Ethics
• Nihon Shoki
• O
• Octavia
• ode
• Odes
• The Odyssey
• Oedipus
• Oedipus at Colonus
• Oedipus Rex
• Old Persian
• “Olympian 1”
• On Literary Composition
• On the Crown
• On the Nature of the Gods
• On the Sublime
• Oppian of Corycus
• oral formulaic tradition
• Oratorical Institute
• orators and oratory
• The Oresteia
• Orestes
• Origen
• Origines
• Orpheus
• Ōtomo no Yakamochi
• Ovid
• Oxyrhynchus
• P
• Pacuvius
• palimpsest
• Pāniņi
• Parallel Lives
• Parthenius of Nicaea
• pastoral poetry
• Pastorals of Daphnis and Chloe
• patristic exegesis
• Pausanias
• The Peloponnesian War
• “Pericles” and “Fabius” (from Parallel Lives)
• Peripatetic school of philosophy
• The Persians
• Persius
• Petronius
• Phaedrus
• Philemon
• Philetas of Cos
• Philoctetes
• Philostratus, L. Flavius
• Photius, Saint
• Phrynicos of Athens
• Pictor, Quintus Fabius
• Pindar
• Plato
• Plautus
• Pleiad of Alexandria
• Pliny the Elder
• Pliny the Younger
• Plotinus
• Plutarch
• Poetics
• Polyænus
• Polybius
• Porphyry
• Proba, Faltonia Betitia
• Proclus of Byzantium
• Procopius
• Prometheus Bound
• Propertius, Sextus
• Protagoras
• Prudentius, Aurelius
• Pseudolus
• Ptolemy
• “Pythian 3”
• Q
• Qu Yuan
• quantitative verse
• Quintilian
• Quintus Smyrnaeus
• quipu
• R
• Ramayana
• Ras Shamra texts
• “Record of the Peach Blossom Spring”
• The Republic
• rhapsodes
• rhetoric
• Rig-Veda
• Rosetta Stone
• Rutilius, Claudius Numantianus
• S
• Sallust
• Sappho
• satire in Greece and Rome
• Satires
• Satires
• Satires
• Saturnian verse
• satyr plays
• Satyricon
• scholion
• The Second Letter of Clement to the Corinthians
• Sedulius, Caelius
• The Self-Tormentor
• Seneca, Lucius Annaeus
• Septuagint Old Testament
• The Seven against Thebes
• Seven Incitements
• Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove
• The Shepherd
• shi poems
• Shiji
• sibyls and sacred verse
• Silius Italicus
• Sima Qian
• Sima Xiangru
• Sima Xiangru's fu poems
• Simonides
• Socrates
• Solon
• Song Yu
• Sophist
• Sophocles
• The Spring and Autumn of Mr. Lü
• Statius
• stoicism
• Suetonius
• Sulpicia
• Sumerian literature
• The Suppliants
• Symposium
• T
• Tacitus
• Tao Qian
• Terence
• Thaletas of Crete
• Themistius Euphrades
• Theocritus
• Theognis
• Theogony
• Theophrastus of Eresus
• “Theseus” and “Romulus” (from Parallel Lives)
• Thesmophoriazusae
• Thespis
• Three-Dollar Day
• Thucydides (historian)
• Thyestes
• Tibullus, Albius
• Titans
• “Tlepsh and Lady Tree”
• The Trachiniae
• tragedy in Greece and Rome
• Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto
• The Trojan Women
• Turnus
• Tusculan Disputations
• Tyrtaeus
• U
• Upanishads
• V
• Valerius Flaccus, Gaius
• Valerius Maximus
• Varro, Marcus Terentius
• victory odes
• Virgil
• Vyāsa
• W
• Wang Chong
• The Wasps
• The Woman from Samos
• Works and Days
• X
• Xenophon
• Xenophon of Ephesus
• Xunzi
• Y
• Yamanoue no Okura
• Yang Xiong
• Yantielun
• Yanzi chunqiu
• yuefu (yüeh-fu)
• Z
• Zhuangzi
• Zoroaster
• Zosimus
• Zuozhuan
• Selected Bibliography