Poetry in Credo: Ancient Poetry

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Hail and farewell! The words of Catullus at his brother's tomb.
Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
Advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,
Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
Et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.

An anonymous Old English epic poem in alliterative verse, believed to have been composed in the 8th century AD. Generally agreed to be the finest example of OLD ENGLISH literature, Beowulf, a poem of 3,182 lines, survives in a single manuscript, BL Cotton Vitellius A.xv, copied approximately 1000.

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Literature
Metamorphoses (‘Changes’) was a collection of myths and folk-tales made by the Roman poet Ovid some time between 2 BCE and 8 CE. Finished after the emperor Augustus Caesar had exiled Ovid from Rome to the city of Tomi on the Black Sea, the poet's Metamorphoses compose a work universally acknowledged to be his masterpiece.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Title applied to two distinct works in Old Icelandic. The Poetic Edda, or Elder Edda, is a collection (late 13th cent.) of 34 mythological and heroic lays, most of which were composed c.800–c.1200, probably in Iceland or W Norway.

From Chamber's Dictionary of the Unexplained
An ancient Chinese text, the authorship of which is traditionally attributed to the sage and philosopher Lao Tzu in the 6th century bc.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Latin narrative poem or epic by Virgil in 12 books, composed in the traditional Homeric metre of hexameters. Written during the last ten years of the poet's life (29–19 BC), it celebrates Roman imperial values in the role of its Trojan hero Aeneas, who is destined to found a new city in Italy.

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
The epic poem of 24 books attributed to Homer (8th century BC) recounting the siege of Troy.

A Greek epic poem, ascribed to Homer, describing the ten-year wanderings of Odysseus (Ulysses) on his way home from the Trojan war to Ithaca. In time, the tale of Troy became the center of a great cycle of songs, depicting and glorifying the regular heroic theme of an attack on a town.

From The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature
Cædmon is widely regarded as the first English poet, and “Cædmon’s Hymn” or the “Hymn of Creation” is the earliest surviving example of Anglo-Saxon vernacular verse. Most of what is known of Cædmon comes from the religious historian BEDE, in his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum.

Roman poet, b. Verona. Of a well-to-do family, he went c.62 B.C. to Rome. He fell deeply in love, probably with Clodia, sister of Cicero's opponent Publius Clodius.

From Chamber's Biographical Dictionary
He was born on the farm of Borg in Iceland. His father had emigrated to Iceland from Norway, and Egil became a Viking warrior and court poet.

Greek poet. He is thought to have lived later than Homer, but there is no absolute certainty about the dates of his life. Hesiod portrays himself as a Boeotian farmer.

Principal figure of ancient Greek literature; the first European poet. Two epic poems are attributed to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Indian dramatist and poet. He is regarded as the greatest figure in classical Sanskrit literature. Except that he was retained by the Gupta court, no facts concerning his life are known. His three surviving plays are Sakuntala (or Shakuntala), Vikramorvasi, and Malavikagnimitra.

Chinese poet of the T'ang dynasty. He was born in what is now Sichuan prov. Most authorities believe that he was a Taoist; Li Po's unconcern for worldly preferment and his love for retirement was expressive of both Taoism and the delicate romanticism found in his poetry.

Latin name Publius Ovidius Naso; poet, b. Sulmo (present-day Sulmona), in the Apennines. Although trained for the law, he preferred the company of the literary coterie at Rome. His verse includes poems on love, Ars Amatoria, on myths, Metamorphoses, and on his sufferings in exile, Tristia. He enjoyed early and widespread fame as a poet and was known to the emperor Augustus.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Greatest of the early Greek lyric poets (Plato calls her "the tenth Muse" ), b. Mytilene on Lesbos. Facts about her life are scant. She was an aristocrat, who wrote poetry for her circle of friends, mostly but not exclusively women.

From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
The greatest poet of ancient Rome, Publius Virgilius Maro (70–19 bc), born near Mantua (hence called the Mantuan Swan), a master of epic, didactic and idyllic poetry.

Chinese poet, painter, and musician during the Tang dynasty and close associate of masters in the early Chan school.