John Dryden

"For two thousand years, the epic tale of Aeneas' dramatic flight from Troy, his doomed love affair with Dido, his descent into the underworld, and the bloody story behind the establishment of Rome has electrified audiences around the world. In Vergil's telling, Aeneas' heroic journey not only gave Romans and Italians a thrilling origin story, it established many of the fundamental themes of Western life and literature--the role of duty and self-sacrifice,...

Plutarch defined for all ages the character of Greek and Roman moral identity. He studied what constitutes the best in a human being, and which, in turn, determines a person's role in the world. Blending history and biography, Plutarch evokes the characters of great leaders in history. He systematically pairs a Greek with a Roman, comparing characters and lives with similar careers so as to serve his particular goal of moral instruction. In vivid...

Ovid's masterpiece, spanning from the creation of the world to the apotheosis of Julius Caesar, tells numerous legends sharing the theme of change in shape, often tales of humans who are transformed into animals, plants, or heavenly bodies in various encounters with the gods.