FROM FAMOUS LITERATURE IN ACIENT UNTIL MEDIEVAL

TIMELINE

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