ANCIENT PERIOD (jan 1, 400 – dec 25, 800)
Description:
In Egypt, the oldest extant literature are the literary remains of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, which are written in ink on papyrus. There still exist fragments of stories such as the marvelous adventures of a shipwrecked sailor or the tale of the eloquent peasant. There are collections of wise sayings, shrewd observations, and good counsel.
Babylonia and Assyria has religious literature consisted mainly of the ritual of worship; magical incantations to repel evil spirits in this life; predictions of the future, and epics dealing with such topics as creation and the flood. These themes appear also in the Hebrew Book of Genesis.
In Greece, Homeric poems represented an age of epic poetry with the Odyssey as a shining example. The earliest complete specimens of tragedy and comedy are those composed in Attic Greece for Athenian festivals of Dionysus, the wine-god. Thus, they were closely connected with religion and public life, drawing their subjects and characters from the myths.
In China, Confucius edited the Book of History and composed the Spring and Autumn Annals. The oldest extant Chinese literature are the Five Classics, which became the component stones in China’s true Great Wall against Barbarism.
Rome – Ennius, an epic poet commonly called as the Father of Literature, was admitted to Roman citizenship. To a great extent, Rome derived not only its art and literature, but also its religious mythology and its historical legends, from the Greeks.
India – religion and literature were prominent features in their civilization following the Rig-Veda. The two (2) great epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana date back to the Sutras of the first centuries of our era. The golden age of Sanskrit literature was about 400-800 A.D. of works of Arabic learning. The commentaries on the Koran, collection of Muslim tradition , biographies of Mohammed, religious and historical literature, science and medicine are noteworthy.
Added to timeline:
21st Century Timeline
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