Long before the novel, epic poetry was how civilizations decided what was worth remembering: gods, wars, ancestors, the stories that told a people who they were. This list moves from Gilgamesh, the oldest surviving epic, through the great foundational works of Mesopotamia, India, Persia, Greece, Rome, Mesoamerica, Scandinavia, Ireland, and medieval Christendom, into a still-living oral tradition in Tibet, and finally into the hands of contemporary poets.
That last turn matters. For most of history, epic poetry's subjects were kings and gods, and its authors wrote from within dominant cultures. The poets closing out this list take that same ancient form and turn it toward histories the canon long ignored: slavery, missing and murdered Indigenous women, generations of Black family life in the American South. The form built to hold what a people cannot afford to forget is still being used for exactly that purpose, by voices it once excluded.
Daniel Mendelsohn's line-for-line translation of Homer's most popular epic, forged to complete University of Chicago Press's classical canon six decades after Lattimore's Iliad. Rather than modernizing the text, Mendelsohn preserves its archaic…
Emily Wilson's translation of Homer's most revered war poem, following her landmark 2017 Odyssey. Rendered in language paced to match its legendary battle scenes, this Iliad captures the clamor of arms and the anguish of the dying alongside the…
Stephen Mitchell's acclaimed translation of literature's oldest epic, dating from as early as 1700 BCE — a thousand years before the Iliad — and lost for nearly two millennia before its rediscovery on clay tablets at Nineveh. It follows Gilgamesh,…
A collaborative translation of Virgil's Roman epic, rendered in unrhymed iambic pentameter to balance readability with poetic grandeur. It follows Aeneas's adventures, losses, and divine entanglements as he strives to found the empire that will…
A lavishly illustrated edition of India's beloved epic, drawing on Valmiki's earliest composition and created in consultation with scholar Dr. Bibek Debroy. It follows Rama, the exiled prince of Ayodhya, as he battles Ravana to rescue his abducted…
One of the longest epics ever composed and among the most widely read works in world literature, the Mahabharata chronicles a dynastic struggle culminating in a devastating battle between two branches of a single ruling family. Equal parts history,…
Laird's illustrated retelling of Ferdowsi's 11th-century epic, composed of 60,000 rhymed couplets and considered the national epic of the Persian-speaking world. It traces Iran's kings and heroes from mythical origins through the sweeping tragedy of…
One of the only epics indigenous to the Americas, this Mayan creation story begins with the world spoken into being and follows the twin heroes Hunahpu and Xbalanque on a journey to the underworld to defeat the lords of death. Originally sung and…
Maria Dahvana Headley's radical, feminist verse translation recontextualizes the classic tale of monsters and heroes, unearthing elements lost across centuries of prior translation. Her twenty-first-century rendering blurs the line between monster…
Ireland's oldest epic: the warrior Cú Chulainn defends Ulster single-handedly against the army of Connacht in a war fought over the Brown Bull of Cooley. Rooted in oral tradition, it blends heroic combat, magic, and myth, and stands as the…
Jackson Crawford's vivid modern translation of the 13th-century Icelandic manuscript that gives us most of what survives about the Norse gods and heroes — Odin, Thor, Loki, and the rest of the pantheon — along with their mythic vision of how the…
A collection of a dozen medieval Icelandic sagas, including the Vinland Sagas, which contain the oldest descriptions of North America. Set during the Viking Age, they chronicle the lives and deeds of the Norse settlers of Iceland and their…
Martin Shaw and Tony Hoagland's bold retellings of Celtic bardic lyrics, folkloric sagas, and hero's journeys, originally composed centuries ago across Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Ranging from the unlikely rise of unknown heroes to the shrouded…
Dante's journey through Hell, up the mountain of Purgatory, and through the spheres of Heaven in search of redemption stands as one of the summits of Western literature and medieval thought. This 700th anniversary edition, translated in verse by…
Gesar's Magical Birth, Early Years, and Coronation as King
Tibet's national epic and a still-living oral tradition (recognized by UNESCO), this volume covers Gesar's origins: his divine conception and human birth, a mischievous childhood, outwitting his jealous uncle Trothung, and a climactic horse race…
Milton's two great epics, collected here in one volume, explore the moral problem of divine justice through the fall of humanity and its promised redemption. Paradise Lost recounts Satan's rebellion and the temptation of Adam and Eve, while Paradise…
Tolkien's unfinished alliterative-verse epic recounts King Arthur's last campaign, as news of Mordred's treachery pulls him back from the edge of Mirkwood to face rebellion at home, all while reeling from Guinevere's infidelity with the exiled…
The book's title poem is a book-length "found" epic: its entire narrative is assembled from titles of Western artworks depicting the Black female figure, spanning ancient times to the present. Framed by autobiographical lyric poems, it traces how a…
Two companion epic poems by Gayl Jones set in the fugitive slave enclave of Palmares, destroyed by Portuguese colonists in the late 17th century, continuing the story from her novel of the same name. Song for Anninho follows Almeyda as she moves…
"Muskrat Woman," the central epic poem in this collection by Métis poet Gregory Scofield, reimagines a sacred Cree creation story (âtayôhkêwin) to confront the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Bracketed by sound poetry on identity…
