3rd Millennium BCE
| Hymns, codes, instructions and laments (Sumerian)
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3rd Millennium BCE
| Pyramid and coffin texts (Egyptian)
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20th Century BCE
| Original version of “The Epic of Gilgamesh” (Sumerian)
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20th Century BCE
| “The Story of Sinuhe” (Egyptian)
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18th Century BCE
| “Enuma Elis”, “Atra-Hasis” and “Eridu Genesis” (Babylonian/Akkadian)
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16th Century BCE
| “Egyptian Book of the Dead” (Egypt)
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16th – 11th Century BCE
| “Rigveda” (Indian/Sanskrit)
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11th Century BCE
| “The Tale of Two Brothers” and “The Story of Wenamun” (Egypt)
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11th – 9th Century BCE
| “Yajurveda”, “Samaveda” and “Atharvaveda” (Sanskrit/Indian)
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11th – 6th Century BCE
| “Avesta” of Zoroastrianism (Avestan/Persian)
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9th Century BCE
| “I Ching” manual of divination (China)
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9th – 7th Century BCE
| “Brahmanas” and the early “Upanishads” (Sanskrit/Indian)
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9th – 6th Century BCE
| Older parts of the “Old Testament” of the “Bible”, including the “Torah”(Hebrew)
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8th Century BCE
| Epic poems “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” of Homer and other Trojan War epic poems (Greek)
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8th Century BCE
| Didactic poetry of Hesiod, including “Theogony” (Greek)
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8th Century BCE
| “Mahabharata” of Vyasa (Sanskrit/Indian)
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7th – 6th Century BCE
| Lyric poems of Sappho (Greek)
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6th Century BCE
| “Fables” of Aesop (Greek)
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6th – 5th Century BCE
| “Four Books” of Confucius (Chinese)
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5th Century BCE
| Lyric poems and odes of Pindar (Greek)
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5th Century BCE
| Tragic plays of Aeschylus, including “The Oresteia” and “The Persians”(Greek)
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5th Century BCE
| Tragic plays of Sophocles, including “Antigone” and “Oedipus the King”(Greek)
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5th Century BCE
| Tragic plays of Euripides, including “Medea”, “The Trojan Women” and “The Bacchae” (Greek)
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5th – 4th Century BCE
| Comic plays of Aristophanes including “The Wasps”, “Lysistrata” and “The Frogs” (Greek)
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4th Century BCE
| “Ramayana” of Valmiki (Sanskrit/Indian)
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4th – 3rd Century BCE
| Comic plays of Menander (Greek)
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3rd Century BCE
| Epic poetry of Apollonius of Rhodes including The Argonautica (Greek)
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2nd Century BCE
| Comic plays of Plautus and Terence(Latin/Roman)
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1st Century BCE
| Lyric and elegiac poetry of Catullus (Latin/Roman)
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1st Century BCE
| Epic and didactic poetry of Vergil, including “The Aeneid” (Latin/Roman)
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1st Century BCE
| Lyric poetry and satires of Horace (Latin/Roman)
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1st Century BCE – 1st Century CE
| Didactic, elegiac and epic poetry of Ovid, including “Metamorphoses”(Latin/Roman)
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1st Century CE
| Tragic plays and satires of Seneca the Younger (Latin/Roman)
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1st Century CE
| Epic poetry of Lucan (Latin/Roman)
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1st – 2nd Century CE
| Satires of Juvenal (Latin/Roman)
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1st – 2nd Century CE
| Letters of Pliny the Younger (Latin/Roman)
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1st – 2nd Century CE
| New Testament of the Christian “Bible” (Greek)
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7th Century CE
| “Caedmon’s Hymn” (Old English/Anglo-Saxon)
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7th Century CE
| Traditional date for Islamic “Qur’an” (Arabic)
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8th Century CE
| Epic poem “Beowulf” (Anglo-Saxon) |