List of epic poems
This is a list of epic poems.
Ancient epics (to AD 500)
Before the 8th century BC
- Epic of Gilgamesh
- Epic of Lugalbanda
- Epic of Enmerkar
- Atrahasis
- Enuma Elish
- The Descent of Inanna into the Underworld
- ''Legend of Keret''
8th to 6th centuries BC
- Iliad, ascribed to Homer
- Odyssey, ascribed to Homer
- Works and Days, ascribed to Hesiod
- Theogony, ascribed to Hesiod
- Shield of Heracles, ascribed to Hesiod
- Catalogue of Women, ascribed to Hesiod
- Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliupersis, Nostoi and Telegony, forming the so-called Epic Cycle
- Oedipodea, Thebaid, Epigoni and Alcmeonis, forming the so-called Theban Cycle
- A series of poems ascribed to Hesiod during antiquity : Aegimius, Astronomia, Descent of Perithous, Idaean Dactyls, Megala Erga, Megalai Ehoiai, Melampodia and Wedding of Ceyx
- Capture of Oechalia, ascribed to Homer or Creophylus of Samos during antiquity
- Phocais, ascribed to Homer during antiquity
- Titanomachy ascribed to Eumelus of Corinth
- Danais, Minyas and Naupactia, almost completely lost
5th to 4th centuries BC
- Heracleia, tells of the labors of Heracles, almost completely lost, written by Panyassis
- Mahābhārata, ascribed to Veda Vyasa
- Ramayana, ascribed to Valmiki
3rd century BC
2nd century BC
1st century BC
1st century AD
- Metamorphoses by Ovid
- Pharsalia by Lucan
- Argonautica by Gaius Valerius Flaccus
- Punica by Silius Italicus
- Thebaid and Achilleid by Statius
2nd century
2nd to 5th centuries
- Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi by Faltonia Betitia Proba
- The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature: Cilappatikāram, Manimekalai, Cīvaka Cintāmaṇi, Valayapathi, ''Kundalakēci''
3rd to 4th centuries
- Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna
- De raptu Proserpinae by Claudian
4th century
- Kumārasambhava by Kālidāsa
- Raghuvaṃśa by Kālidāsa
- ''Blemyomachia''
5th century
- Argonautica Orphica by Anonymous
- Dionysiaca by Nonnus
- Mahavamsa, written in Pali
- Yadegar-e Zariran, written in Middle Persian
Medieval epics (500–1500)
6th century
- Iohannis by Corippus, Latin epic on the Byzantine conquest of North Africa
- Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, This epic narrates the story of Ardashir I, the founder of the Sassanid dynasty, written in Middle Persian
7th century
- Táin Bó Cúailnge
- Bhaṭṭikāvya, Sanskrit courtly epic based on the Rāmāyaṇa and the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini
- Kiratarjuniya by Bharavi, Sanskrit epic based on an episode in the Mahabharata
- Shishupala Vadha by Magha, Sanskrit epic based on another episode in the Mahabharata
8th to 10th centuries
- Beowulf
- Waldere, Old English version of the story told in Waltharius, known only as a brief fragment
- Alpamysh, a Turkic epic
- Karolus magnus et Leo papa
- Daredevils of Sassoun
- Bhagavata Purana "Stories of the Lord", based on earlier sources
- Lay of Hildebrand and Muspilli
- Kakawin Ramayana, Javanese version of the Ramayana
- Shahnameh
- Waltharius by Ekkehard of St. Gall ; about Walter of Aquitaine
- Poetic Edda
- Vikramarjuna Vijaya and Ādi purāṇa, Kannada poems by Adikavi Pampa
- Ajitha Purana and Gadaayuddha, Kannada poems by Ranna
- ''Neelakesi''
11th century
- Taghribat Bani Hilal ; see also Arabic epic literature
- Andhra Mahabharatam by Nannayya
- Ruodlieb, by a German author
- Digenis Akritas ; about a hero of the Byzantine Empire
- Epic of King Gesar
- Garshaspname by Asadi Tusi
- Carmen Campidoctoris, the first poem about El Cid
- Song of Armouris
- Borzu Nama, ascribed to 'Amid Abu'l 'Ala' 'Ata b. Yaqub Kateb Razi
- Faramarz Nama
- Mushika-vamsha by Atula
- ''The Song of Roland''
12th century
- Khamba Thoibi
- Acallam na Senórach
- Historia Regum Britanniae
- The Knight in the Panther's Skin by Shota Rustaveli
- Alexandreis by Walter of Châtillon
- De bello Troiano and the lost Antiocheis by Joseph of Exeter
- Carmen de Prodicione Guenonis, version of the story of the Song of Roland in Latin
- Architrenius by John of Hauville,
- Liber ad honorem Augusti by Peter of Eboli, narrative of the conquest of Sicily by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
- The Tale of Igor's Campaign and Bylinas
- Gita Govinda by Jayadeva
- Naishadha Charita by Sriharsha
- Parishishtaparvan by Hemachandra
- Prithviraja Vijaya by Jayanaka
- Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure
- Roman de Brut and Roman de Rou by Wace
- Poem of Almería
- Eupolemius by an anonymous German-speaking author
- Bahman Nama and Kush Nama ascribed to Hakim Īrānšāh b. Abi'l Khayr
- Banu Goshasp Nama
- Ramavataram by Kambar, based on the "Ramayana"
- Cycle of the First Crusade by Graindor de Douai and others
13th century
- Nibelungenlied
- Kudrun
- Daniel von dem blühenden Tal
- Brut by Layamon
- Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise
- Antar ; see also Arabic epic literature
- Sirat al-Zahir Baibars ; see also Arabic epic literature
- Osman's Dream
- Epic of Sundiata
- El Cantar de Mio Cid, Spanish epic of the Reconquista
- De triumphis ecclesiae by Johannes de Garlandia
- Gesta Regum Britanniae by William of Rennes
- Van den vos Reynaerde
- Poema de Fernán González, cantar de gesta by a monk of San Pedro de Arlanza; 1250–1266
- Jewang ungi by Yi Seung-hyu
- Basava purana by Palkuriki Somanatha
- Jahangirnameh by Qāsem-e Mādeḥ
14th century
- Alliterative Morte Arthure
- Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
- Cursor Mundi by an anonymous cleric
- Africa by Petrarch
- The Tale of the Heike, Japanese epic war tale
- The Brus by John Barbour
- La Spagna attributed to Sostegno di Zanobi
- Mocedades de Rodrigo
- Siege of Jerusalem
- Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer
- Mabinogi
- Zafarnamah by Hamdollah Mostowfi
15th century
- Hammira Mahakavya by Nayachandra Suri
- The Fall of the Princes by John Lydgate
- Yuan Phai by Royal Poets of King Borommatrai-lokkanat
- Mahachat Kham luang a Siamese retelling of Vessantara Jataka by Royal Poets of King Borommatrai-lokkanat
- Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo
- Shmuel-Bukh
- Mlokhim-Bukh
- Book of Dede Korkut
- Le Morte d'Arthur
- Morgante by Luigi Pulci, with elements typical of the mock-heroic genre
- The Wallace by Blind Harry
- Troy Book by John Lydgate, about the Trojan war
- Heldenbuch a group of manuscripts and prints of the 15th and 16th centuries, typically including material from the Theodoric cycle and the cycle of Hugdietrich, Wolfdietrich and Ortnit
- Ibong Adarna whose real author is not known
Modern epics (from 1500)
16th century
- Lilit Phra Lo by King Ramathibodi II
- Judita by Marko Marulić
- Shahenshah Nameh and Khamsa by Hatefi, Poetic Epics One about expolits of Shah Ismail I and the other about Timur
- Ismailnameh an epic poem on shah Ismail I heroic deeds by Qsimi Qunabadi nephew of Hatifi
- Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto
- Theuerdank and Weisskunig by Maximilian I and Marx Treitzsaurwein, often considered the last medieval epics.
- Davidiad by Marko Marulić
- Christiad by Marco Girolamo Vida
- Padmavat by Malik Muhammad Jayasi
- Süleymanname by Arifi çelebi
- Sang Sinxay, the most famous epic poem of Laos, was written around mid sixteenth century.
- Franciade by Pierre de Ronsard
- Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões
- L'Amadigi by Bernardo Tasso
- La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga
- La Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso
- Ramacharitamanasa by Goswami Tulsidas
- The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
- Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece by Shakespeare
- The Dam San of the Ede people is often considered to appear in the 16th or 17th century.
17th century
- La Argentina by Martín del Barco Centenera
- La Cleopatra by Girolamo Graziani
- Biag ni Lam-ang by Pedro Bucaneg
- Il Conquisto di Granata by Girolamo Graziani
- Exact Epitome of the Four Monarchies by Anne Bradstreet
- Szigeti veszedelem, also known under the Latin title Obsidionis Szigetianae, a Hungarian epic by Miklós Zrínyi
- Gondibert by William Davenant
- Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained by John Milton
- Khun Chang Khun Phaen, a Thai epic poem by anonymous folk poets
18th century
Kumulipo by Keaulumoku, an Ancient Hawaiian cosmogonic genealogy first published in 1889Henriade by Voltaire Utendi wa Tambuka by Bwana Mwengo Der Messias by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock La Pucelle d'Orléans by Voltaire Poems of Ossian by James Macpherson The Seasons by Kristijonas Donelaitis O Uraguai by Basílio da Gama Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill O Desertor das Letras by Silva Alvarenga, a short mock-heroic epicCaramuru by Santa Rita Durão Joan of Arc by Robert Southey Hermann and Dorothea by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe19th century
- The Tale of Kiều by Nguyễn Du
- Thalaba the Destroyer by Robert Southey
- Madoc by Robert Southey
- Psyche by Mary Tighe
- The Columbiad by Joel Barlow
- Milton: A Poem by William Blake
- Marmion by Walter Scott
- Alipashiad by Haxhi Shehreti
- Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron, narrating the travels of Childe Harold
- Queen Mab by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Roderick the Last of the Goths by Robert Southey
- The Lord of the Isles by Walter Scott
- Alastor, or The Spirit of Solitude by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- The Revolt of Islam by Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Harold the Dauntless by Walter Scott
- Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and Zelená Hora, forged epic published in 1818
- Endymion by John Keats
- Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion by John Keats
- The Battle of Marathon by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Phra Aphai Mani by Sunthorn Phu
- Camões by Almeida Garrett, narrating the last years and deeds of Luís de Camões
- Dona Branca by Almeida Garrett, the fantastic tale of the forbidden love between Portuguese princess Branca and Moorish king Aben-Afan
- Tamerlane by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Free Besieged by Dionysios Solomos
- The Fall of Nineveh by Edwin Atherstone
- Creation, Man and the Messiah by Henrik Wergeland
- The Bronze Horseman by Alexander Pushkin
- Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Messiah's Kingdom by Agnes Bulmer
- Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz
- The Baptism on the Savica by France Prešeren
- Florante at Laura, an awit by Francisco Balagtas
- Haidamaky by Taras Shevchenko
- King Alfred by John Fitchett
- Horatius by Thomas Babington Macaulay
- Germany. A Winter's Tale by Heinrich Heine, a "mock" epic
- János Vitéz by Sándor Petőfi
- Smrt Smail-age Čengića by Ivan Mažuranić
- Toldi, Toldi szerelme and Toldi estéje by János Arany, forming the so-called "Toldi trilogy"
- Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- The Mountain Wreath by Petar II Petrović-Njegoš
- The Tales of Ensign Stål by Johan Ludvig Runeberg
- Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot
- I-Juca-Pirama by Gonçalves Dias
- Kalevipoeg by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald
- The Prelude by William Wordsworth
- Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
- The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- A Confederação dos Tamoios by Gonçalves de Magalhães
- The Saga of King Olaf by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Aurora Leigh by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Os Timbiras by Gonçalves Dias
- Meghnad Badh Kavya by Michael Madhusudan Dutta
- Terje Vigen by Henrik Ibsen
- La Légende des siècles by Victor Hugo
- The Earthly Paradise by William Morris
- Ibonia, oral epic of Madagascar
- Martín Fierro by José Hernández
- Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson
- Clarel by Herman Melville
- The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs by William Morris
- L'Atlàntida by Jacint Verdaguer
- The Light of Asia by Edwin Arnold
- The City of Dreadful Night by Bysshe Vanolis
- Tristram of Lyonesse by Algernon Charles Swinburne
- The Rape of Florida by Albery Allson Whitman
- Eros and Psyche by Robert Bridges
- La Fin de Satan by Victor Hugo
- Canigó by Jacint Verdaguer
- Lāčplēsis by Andrejs Pumpurs
- Tabaré by Juan Zorrilla de San Martín
- The Wanderings of Oisin by William Butler Yeats
- Kotan Utunnai, Ainu epic, recorded in the 1880s, published in 1890
- Host and Guest by Vazha-Pshavela
- The 9th of July 1821 by Vasilis Michaelides
- The Tale of Balen by Algernon Charles Swinburne
- Lục Vân Tiên by Nguyễn Đình Chiểu
- Amir Arsalan, narrated by Mohammad Ali Naqib al-Mamalek to the Qajar Shah of Persia
20th century
- The Divine Enchantment by John Neihardt
- An Idyl of the South: An Epic Poem in Two Parts by Albery Allson Whitman
- Lahuta e Malcís by Gjergj Fishta
- Ural-batyr
- The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton
- Mensagem by Fernando Pessoa
- The Cantos by Ezra Pound
- Dorvyzhy, Udmurt national epic compiled in Russian by Mikhail Khudiakov basing on folklore works
- The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J. R. R. Tolkien
- A Cycle of the West by John Neihardt
- The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis
- Dymer by C. S. Lewis
- "A" by Louis Zukofsky
- John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benét
- The Fall of Arthur by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Bridge by Hart Crane
- Ariadne by F. L. Lucas
- Kamayani by Jaishankar Prasad
- The People, Yes by Carl Sandburg
- In Parenthesis by David Jones
- Canto General by Pablo Neruda
- Khamba Thoibi Sheireng by Hijam Anganghal
- Paterson by William Carlos Williams
- Sugata Saurabha by Chittadhar Hridaya
- Victory for the Slain by Hugh John Lofting
- The Great South Land: An Epic Poem by Rex Ingamells
- Rashmirathi, Hunkar by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar
- Savitri by Aurobindo Ghose
- The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson
- The Anathemata by David Jones
- Howl by Allen Ginsberg
- Aniara by Harry Martinson
- Helen in Egypt by H.D.
- Song of Lawino by Okot p'Bitek
- Puerto Rican Obituary by Pedro Pietri
- Prussian Nights by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- The Banner of Joan by H. Warner Munn
- Kristubhagavatam by P. C. Devassia
- Keralodayam Mahakavyam by K. N. Ezhuthachan
- The Changing Light at Sandover by James Merrill
- The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You by Frank Stanford
- Emperor Shaka the Great by Mazisi Kunene
- The Lay of the Children of Húrin and The Lay of Leithian by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The New World by Frederick Turner
- Empire of Dreams by Giannina Braschi
- Omeros by Derek Walcott
- Genesis by Frederick Turner
- Arundhati by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya
- Mastorava by A. M. Sharonov
- Astronautilía Hvězdoplavba by Jan Křesadlo
- The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley
- The Alamo: An Epic by Michael Lind
- Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
- Fredy Neptune: A Novel in Verse by Les Murray
21st century
- Sribhargavaraghaviyam, Ashtavakra and Gitaramayanam by Jagadguru Rambhadracharya
- Solaris korrigert by Øyvind Rimbereid
- Lime Stone: An Epic Poem of Barbados by Anthony Kellman
- Zorgamazoo by Robert Paul Weston
- The Iovis Trilogy by Anne Waldman
- Our Lady of the Ruins by Traci Brimhall
- Brand New Ancients by Kae Tempest
- Apocalypse by Frederick Turner
- Vrata nepovrata by Boris A. Novak
- Epoch: A Poetic Psy-Phi Saga by Dave Jilk
- Epoch: 1517. The Adventures of Michel and Diana by Stanislav Chernyshevich
Other epics
- Canaäd, an epic poem reconstructing Canaanite mythology, set during the Late Bronze Age.
- Epic of Bamana Segu, oral epic of the Bambara people, composed in the 19th century and recorded in the 20th century
- Epic of Darkness, tales and legends of primeval China
- Epic of Jangar, poem of the Oirat people
- Epic of Köroğlu, Turkic oral tradition written down mostly in 18th century
- Epic of Manas
- Epic of the Forgotten, Bulgarian poetic saga
- Gesta Berengarii imperatoris
- Heavensfield, alliterative epic on the life of medieval king Oswald of Northumbria.
- Hikayat Seri Rama, Malay version of the Ramayana
- Hinilawod, Filipino epic from the island of Panay
- Hotsuma Tsutae
- Khun Chang Khun Phaen, a Thai poem
- Klei Khan Y Dam San, a Vietnamese poem
- Koti and Chennayya and Epic of Siri, Tulu poems
- Kutune Shirka, sacred yukar epic of the Ainu people of which several translations exist
- Lay of Mouse-fate (Musurdvitha), a fantasy epic inspired by animal fable and Arthurian legend.
- Mu'allaqat, Arabic poems written by seven poets in Classical Arabic, these poems are very similar to epic poems and specially the poem of Antarah ibn Shaddad
- Parsifal by Richard Wagner
- Pasyón, Filipino religious epic, of which the 1703 and 1814 versions are popular
- Popol Vuh, history of the K'iche' people
- Ramakien, Thailand's national epic derived from the Ramayana
- Der Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner
- Siribhoovalaya, a unique work of multi-lingual literature written by Kumudendu Muni, a Jain monk
- Yadegar-e Zariran
- Yama Zatdaw, Burmese version of the Ramayana