Great Ancient Literature (The Really Long List)
The Greatest Literature of All Time and The Greatest Nonfiction together present more than a thousand titles of the world's most acclaimed writing, both creative and factual. But in case you find that too restrictive, we present The Really Long List of Great Literature with triple the number of titles.
The Really Long List includes all works of literature considered great by a significant number of readers, writers, critics or scholars.
This longer list gives you many more great reading choices and offers more diversity in forms, cultures and genres. It encourages you to stray from the established canon and discover amazing works you might otherwise never have come across.
We've broken the list into time periods, so you can pick the era you're most interested in. This is the Great Ancient Literature section of that list, featuring works published from 2100 BCE to 400 CE.
Latest update: May 25, 2025
c.2100–2000 BCE
Descent of Inanna into the Underworld
Anonymous, Sumer
Epic poem, also known as Descent of Ishtar into the Underworld or Angalta
c.2100–1200 BCE
Gilgamesh
Epic poem, also known as
The Epic of Gilgamesh or
He Who Saw the Deep
It's maybe not the oldest story in the world, as The Epic of Gilgamesh is sometimes called. There had been other stories floating around the ancient world before the various versions of Gilgamesh, and who knows.... Critique • Quotes • Translations • Buy
c.2030 BCE
"A Love Song of Shu-Suen"
Anonymous, Sumer
Poem, also known as "Bridegroom" or "Spend the Night in Our House Till Dawn"
c.1990 BCE
"The Shipwrecked Sailor"
Story, also known as "The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor", "The Sailor and the Serpent", or "The Island of Enchantment"
Here's a story so old it was "written" before our alphabet was invented. It was first "published" on papyrus. It's also so short you can read a modern translation of it in only a slightly longer time than it takes.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy
c.1800 BCE
Enuma Elish
Anonymous, Babylon
Epic poem, originally Enūma Eliš
c.1875 BCE
"The Tale of Sinuhe"
Story, also known as "The Story of Sinuhe"
We know only a handful of ancient Egyptian stories—as opposed to ancient laments, instructions, prayers and the like—and even fewer of those have come down to us in complete form. "The Tale of Sinuhe" though.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy
"The Eloquent Peasant"
Story, also known as "The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant", "The Plea of the Eloquent Peasant" or "The Tale of the Peasant and the Workman"
The three fictional works from ancient Egypt remaining in nearly full condition are all very different. "The Shipwrecked Sailor" is an adventure. "The Tale of Sinuhe" is a patriotic epic. And "The Eloquent Peasant" is something else.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
c.1500–900 BCE
The Vedas
Anonymous, India
Religious texts
c.1200 BCE
"Tale of Two Brothers"
Anonymous, Egypt
Story
c.1100 BCE
"Story of Wenamun"
Anonymous, Egypt
Story, also known as "Wenamun"
c.1200–100 BCE
The Hebrew Bible (The Old Testament)
by various authors, Israel and Babylon
Prose and poetry anthology includes books "Genesis", "Exodus", "Leviticus", "Numbers", "Deuteronomy", "Job", "Psalms", "Song of Songs", and others.
What wrecks the Bible as literature is too much God. On the surface this may sound like an odd comment, prompting the response, "Well, what did you expect? It's a religious text and isn't religion all about gods?" But.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy
c.1000 BCE
Dialogue of Pessimism
Anonymous, Assyria
Dialogue
c.1000–600 BCE
Classic of Poetry
by various authors, China
Poetry anthology, also known as Book of Songs or Book of Odes
c.750 BCE
Iliad
Epic poem
Many notable literary figures have acclaimed the Iliad as a transporting work of art. I don't entirely get it. Even after having read several different translations of the epic poem. I suspect any.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Translations • Buy
The Odyssey
Epic poem
This one has it all. The Odyssey is not only a great romantic, adventure epic, but it's terribly realistic in its depiction of human nature and a brilliantly crafted narrative. Authors today could learn from.... Critique • Quotes • Translations • Buy
c.700 BCE
Theogony
Poem
The greatest thing about Hesiod's Theogony is that it's short. It was important to the ancient world for other reasons as well, but this does not translate into a particularly rich experience for modern readers. Unless they're.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
Works and Days
Poem
Works and Days is so different from Theogony that many scholars think it couldn't have been composed by the same author. Which sounds like welcome news for anyone who yawned through Theogony and now faces the.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
c.600–200 BCE
Ramayana
by Valmiki, India
Poem
c.610–580 BCE
Sappho's Poems
by Sappho, Greece
Poetry collection
c.600 BCE
Aesop's Fables
by Aesop, Greece
Story collection, also known as Fables, includes "The Fox and the Grapes", "The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs", "The Tortoise and the Hare", and others.
c.520–440 BCE
Epinician Odes
by Pindar, Greece
Poetry collection
c.500 BCE
The Art of War
by Sun Tzu, China
Nonfiction
Hero and Leander
by Musaeus Grammaticus, Greece
Poem
475 BCE
Olympian
by Pindar, Greece
Play
472 BCE
The Persians
by Aeschylus, Greece
Play
467 BCE
Seven Against Thebes
by Aeschylus, Greece
Play
c.462 BCE
The Suppliant Maidens
by Aeschylus, Greece
Play, also known as The Suppliants
458 BCE
Oresteia
by Aeschylus, Greece
Play trilogy includes
Agamemnon,
The Eumenides, and
The Libation Bearers.
Separately the plays in Aeschylus's house of Atreus trilogy are skimpy. Or they may seem so to the modern reader or theatre-goer. In each instalment the narrative turns on a single great dramatic incident. In Agamemnon.... Critique • Quotes • Buy
c.450–425
Prometheus Bound
by Aeschylus, Greece
Play
The Women of Trachis
by Sophocles, Greece
Play
442–441 BCE
Ajax
by Sophocles, Greece
Play
Antigone
by Sophocles, Greece
Play
It's the concluding instalment of Sophocles's so-called Theban trilogy about the tragedy of Oedipus and its ramifications. But Antigone was actually the first written and produced—more than a decade before the supposed.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy
438 BCE
Alcestis
by Euripides, Greece
Play
431 BCE
Medea
by Euripides, Greece
Play
431–404 BCE
Histories
by Herodotus, History
Play
c.430 BCE
Children of Heracles
by Euripides, Greece
Play
429 BCE
Oedipus Rex
by Sophocles, Greece
Play, also known as
Oedipus,
Oedipus Tyrannus, or
Oedipus the King
For a modern reader, the ancient drama of Oedipus Rex can be startlingly accessible. There is little of the struggle through the language that one experiences with even more recent plays, such as Shakespeare's.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy
428 BCE
Hippolytus
by Euripides, Greece
Play
Andromache
by Euripides, Greece
Play
c.427 BCE
Hecuba
by Euripides, Greece
Play
425 BCE
The Acharnians
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
424 BCE
The Knights
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
423 BCE
The Clouds
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
The Suppliants
by Euripides, Greece
Play, also known as The Suppliant Women
422 BCE
The Wasps
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
c.420–410 BCE
Electra
by Sophocles, Greece
Play
418 BCE
Electra
by Euripides, Greece
Play
c.416
Herakles
by Euripides, Greece
Play, also known as Heracles Mad
415 BCE
The Trojan Women
by Euripides, Greece
Play
414 BCE
The Birds
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
414–412 BCE
Ion
by Euripides, Greece
Play
411 BCE
Women at the Thesmophoria
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
412 BCE
Helen
by Euripides, Greece
Play
c.412 BCE
Iphigenia Tauris
by Euripides, Greece
Play
411 BCE
Lysistrata
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
409 BCE
Philoctetes
by Sophocles, Greece
Play
406 BCE
The Bacchae
by Euripides, Greece
Play
c.405 BCE
Cyclops
by Euripides, Greece
Play
405 BCE
The Frogs
by Aristophanes, Greece
Play
401 BCE
Oedipus at Colonus
by Sophocles, Greece
Play
c.400 BCE
Tao Te Ching
by Lao Tzu, China
Nonfiction
On the Murder of Eratosthenes
by Lysias, Greece
Speech
c.400 BCE–400 CE
Mahābhārata
Anonymous, India
Poem
c.385–370 BCE
The Symposium
by Plato, Greece
Dialogue
c.380 BCE
The Republic
by Plato, Greece
Dialogue, also known as
Plato's Republic
It is hard to know how to classify the philosophical classic The Republic, or any writing by Plato, as literature. Or to know even whether it is a literary work. It's published writing, so it is literature in the broadest sense. But.... Critique • Quotes •
Text • Buy
History of the Peloponnesian War
by Thucydides, Greece
History
c.380 BCE
Meno
by Plato, Greece
Dialogue
c.370 BCE
Phaedrus
by Plato, Greece
Dialogue
Anabasis
by Xenophon, Greece
History, also known as The March of the Ten Thousand
Cryopedia
by Xenophon, Greece
Biography
c.350 BCE
Nichomachean Ethics
by Aristotle, Greece
Philosophy
Metaphysics
by Aristotle, Greece
Philosophy
317–316 BCE
Dyskolos
by Menander, Greece
Play
c.300 BCE
The Mencius
by Mencius, China
Philosophy
Zhuangzi
by Zhuang Zhou, China
Story collection
c.270 BCE
Epigrams
by Asclepiades of Samos, Greece
Poetry collection
Idylls
by Theocritus, Greece
Poetry collection
c.270–240 BCE
Aetia
by Callimachus, Greece
Poem
c.250 BCE
Voyage of the Argonauts
by Appollonius of Rhodes, Greece
Epic poem
c.200–300 BCE
Panchatantra (Five Treatises)
Anonymous, India
Story collection
c.200 BCE
The Analects
by Confucious, China
Sayings collection, , also known as Sayings of Confucius
The Twin Brothers
by Plautus, Rome
Play, also known as The Brothers Menaechmus
Miles Gloriosus
by Plautus, Rome
Play, also known as The Braggart Soldier
191 BCE
Pseudolus
by Plautus, Rome
Play
166 BCE
Andria
by Terence, Rome
Play, also known as The Girl from Andros
163 BCE
The Self-Tormenter
by Terence, Rome
Play
161 BCE
Eunuchus
by Terence, Rome
Play
c.50 BCE
On the Nature of Things
by Lucretius, Rome
Epic poem
c.46 BCE
Commentaries on the Civil War
by Julius Caesar, Rome
History
c.41–37 BCE
Eclogues
by Virgil, Rome
Poetry collection, also known as Bucolics
c.35–30 BCE
Satires
by Horace, Rome
Poetry collection
30–26 BCE
Marathus cycle
by Tibullus, Rome
Poetry cycle
29 BCE
Georgics
by Virgil, Rome
Poem
c.29–16 BCE
Elegies
by Sextus Propertius, Rome
Poetry collection
c.29–19 BCE
Aeneid
by Virgil, Rome
Epic poem
23–13 BCE
Odes
by Horace, Rome
Poetry collection
27–9 BCE
History of Rome
by Livy, Rome
History, also known as Ab urbe condita (From the Founding of the City)
c.19 BCE
The Art of Poetry
by Horace, Rome
Poem
c.10 BCE
The Art of Love
Poem
c.8 CE
Metamorphoses
Poem
My first reaction to Ovid's Metamorphoses was mystification. This was one of the great books of Western culture. Ovid was said to be wickedly delightful to read compared to other ancients. And I was reading.... Critique • Quotes • Translations • Buy
The Book of Days
Poem in six books, also known as On the Roman Calendar
c.48–110 CE
The New Testament
anthology, Middle East and Greece
Prose and poetry collection
It's often called "the greatest story ever told". But is the New Testament—or more precisely the gospel story within the New Testament—even one of our best stories? Of course, when they make that "greatest" claim.... Critique • Quotes • Text • Buy
c.50 CE
Callirhoe
by Chariton, Greece
Novel
Medea
by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Rome
Play
Hercules Furens
by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Rome
Play
c.54 CE
Phaedra
by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Rome
Play
c.55 CE
Thyestes
by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Rome
Play
c.60-70 CE
Satyricon
by Gaius Petronius Arbiter, Rome
Novel
61–65 CE
Pharsalia
by Lucan, Rome
Epic poem, also known as On the Civil War
65 CE
Letters from a Stoic
by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Rome
Philosophy, also known as Moral Epistles, originally Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium
c.79 CE
Argonautica
by Valerius Flaccus, Rome
Epic poem
c.86–103 CE
Epigrams
by Martial, Rome
Poetry collection
c.92 CE
Thebaid
by Statius, Rome
Epic poem
c.93–96 CE
Silvae
by Statius, Rome
Poetry collection
c.100 CE
Parallel Lives
by Plutarch, Greece
Biography collection, also known as Plutarch's Lives or The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
c.100–127 CE
Satires
by Juvenal, Rome
Poetry collection
c.116 CE
Annals
by Tacitus, Rome
History, originally Annales
121 CE
The Twelve Caesars
by Suetonis, Rome
Biography, also known as Lives of the Caesars
c.150 CE
Daphnis and Chloe
by Longus, Greece
Novel
The Golden Ass
by Lucius Apuleius, Numidia
Novel, also known as The Metamorphoses of Apuleius
c.160 CE
A True Story
by Lucian, Syria
Novel
175 CE
Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius, Rome
Philosophy
c.220 CE
Aethiopica
by Heliodoris of Emesa, Syria
Novel, also known as Theagenes and Chariclea or Ethiopian Stories, originally Theagénēs kaì Kharíkleia
c.290 CE
Records of Diverse Matters
by Zhang Hua, China
Story collection
c.300 CE
The Vision of Vasavadatta
by Bhāsa, India
Play, originally Swapnavasavadatta
397–400 CE
Confessions
by Augustine of Hippo, Numidia
Memoir
c.400 CE
The Recognition of Sakuntala
by Kalidasa, India
Play
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