Oedipus at Colonus is an ancient Athenian tragedy composed by Sophocles in (it is widely believed) the last year of his life, approximately 406 BC. His grandson, who was named Sophocles after him, first produced the play in 401 BC at the Festival of Dionysus, also known as the Great Dionysia. Along with Oedipus Rex and Antigone, it is one of three surviving tragedies by Sophocles, known as the Theban plays, that retell episodes from... Read Oedipus at Colonus Summary

Sophocles’s play Oedipus Rex, first performed in the early-to-mid 400s BCE, is one of the most famous and influential tragedies left to us from the ancient Greek tradition. Based on the myth of Oedipus, whose cursed fate was to marry his mother and kill his father, the play explores themes of destiny, free will, and literal and metaphoric vision and blindness. This guide uses the 1984 Penguin edition of The Three Theban Plays, translated by... Read Oedipus Rex Summary

The essay “On Fairy-stories” was originally delivered as the Andrew Lang Lecture at St. Andrews University by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1939. Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a celebrated academic folklorist and graduate of St. Andrews. The lecture was first expanded and published in Essays Presented to Charles Williams in 1947 and has been reprinted many times: in Tree and Leaf in 1964, The Tolkien Reader in 1966, Poems and Stories in 1980, The Monsters... Read On Fairy-Stories Summary

Written in 458 BC by Greek playwright Aeschylus, The Oresteia is a trilogy of plays that includes Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides, as well as the lost satyr play, Proteus. The plays of The Oresteia are classic tragedies, a dramatic genre focused on the piteous and cathartic downfall of great heroes. The plays were written to be performed at the City Dionysia festival which celebrated Dionysus, god of wine and theater. The festival was... Read Oresteia Summary

Orestes is an ancient Athenian tragedy by Euripides. It was first presented in 408 BC at Athens’s Great Dionysian Festival. The play treats a familiar piece of Trojan War mythology: Returning home after the war is over, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. Orestes is Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s son. To avenge his father, Orestes murders Clytemnestra. Orestes picks up the story after the murder, when a tormented Orestes is branded... Read Orestes Summary

Parallel Myths by J. F. Bierlein, a scholarly study of cultural mythology and its extensive cross-cultural intersectionality, was originally published in 1994. The book takes up the work popularized by Joseph Campbell in the 1980s and, in the author’s words, attempts to make the subject more “reader friendly” as well as more globally inclusive. Bierlein notes the rise in the popularity of myth in the last few decades, and his work aims to account for... Read Parallel Myths Summary

Parzival is a medieval romance poem written by Wolfram von Eschenbach, likely written during the early 1200s. In the poem, a knight named Parzival searches for the Holy Grail. Commonly associated with the stories of King Arthur, Parzival is regarded as one of the most important verse poems of the medieval German period. The story has been adapted many times, notably as an opera named Parsifal by the composer Richard Wagner. This guide uses the... Read Parzival Summary

Perceval, or the Story of the Grail is an unfinished epic poem from the late 12th century by Chrétien de Troyes, one of the most famous troubadours in medieval France. It is a significant member of the early corpus of Arthurian tales. Perceval follows the adventures of its titular character from his humble beginnings as a rustic, ignorant youth to an adventuring knight attached to King Arthur’s court. It also traces the adventures of another... Read Perceval, the Story of the Grail Summary

Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods (2014) by Rick Riordan is a short story collection in which Riordan’s fictional character Percy Jackson narrates stories about the Greek gods that inhabit his world. The collection focuses on the Greek creation myth, the Titans, and the Olympian gods, providing additional context to Riordan’s New York Times best-selling Percy Jackson series (the first book of which is The Lightning Thief), which was followed by Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes. A New... Read Percy Jackson's Greek Gods Summary

Phaedra is one of the 10 surviving Roman tragedies attributed to Lucius Annaeus Seneca. It was probably composed in the first half of the first century CE, during the time when the Julio-Claudian Dynasty was in power in Rome. Considered one of Seneca’s most influential plays, Phaedra tells the story of Phaedra’s disastrous and unrequited passion for her stepson Hippolytus, loosely drawing on Euripides’s much earlier Greek tragedy, Hippolytus. The play explores themes such as... Read Phaedra Summary

Phèdre is a tragedy by the French dramatist Jean Racine (1639-1699), first performed in 1677. The tragedy retells a story from Greek mythology about the Athenian queen Phaedra’s love for her stepson, Hippolytus, and the terrible consequences of this love. Drawing on ancient tragedies by Euripides and Seneca, Racine’s treatment of the myth explores the themes of Forbidden Love and Desire, The Relationship Between Heredity and Fate, and The Importance of Honor and Duty. Though... Read Phèdre Summary

Philoctetes is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles, which was first performed in ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War in 409 BC. It was performed at the ancient Greek festival of City Dionysia, where it was awarded first prize. Philoctetes takes place during the final year of the Trojan War and explores themes of friendship, trauma, deception versus morality, fate, and the individual versus the collective. This study guide uses the translation of Sophocles’ play... Read Philoctetes Summary

“Prometheus” (1816) is a poem by the English Romantic poet Lord Byron (George Gordon) (1788-1824). Written mostly in rhymed iambic tetrameter, the poem presents the Greek titan Prometheus as the archetypal Byronic hero—a genius figure who rebels against authority and represents ideals of the Romantic generation: individualism, sacrifice, rebellion, and suffering. The poem contrasts the heroism of Prometheus in his silent suffering with the tyranny of Zeus, the god who bound Prometheus as punishment for... Read Prometheus Summary

Prometheus Bound is a Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus. The play, whose authorship and date are disputed, dramatizes the story of the Titan Prometheus and his defiance of Zeus, the new ruler of the gods. After Prometheus steals fire from the gods and gives it to humanity, Zeus punishes Prometheus by chaining him to a remote mountain to suffer eternal torment. The play explores the themes of The Conflict Between Power and Justice, The... Read Prometheus Bound Summary

Prometheus Unbound (1820) is a four-act lyrical drama by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a celebrated English Romantic poet best known for his poems like “Ozymandias” (1818) and “Ode to the West Wind” (1819). The work is adapted from the play cycle Prometheus Bound (456 BCE), Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus the Fire-Bearer, traditionally attributed to the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus. Shelley rewrites the myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods for humans and was severely... Read Prometheus Unbound Summary

“Pyramus and Thisbe” is an episode from Book 4 of the Metamorphoses, an epic poem published by the Roman poet Ovid in 8 AD. In contrast to the epics of Ovid’s contemporaries (like Virgil’s Aeneid), the Metamorphoses does not focus on a single, cohesive narrative. Rather, Ovid takes as his theme “bodies changed to other forms” (Book 1, Line 1) and fittingly, his Metamorphoses is a work in constant state of change. Its 15 books... Read Pyramus and Thisbe Summary

“Queen Mab” is an epic, utopian poem by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley is most well-known for his epic masterpiece, “Prometheus Unbound,” and his poems “Ozymandias,” “Ode to the West Wind,” and “The Mask of Anarchy.” Written when Shelley was only 18 years old, “Queen Mab” was initially published anonymously in 1813 due to its radical political content. However, after the poem was illegally distributed and gained popularity, Shelley published it formally... Read Queen Mab Summary

Race to the Sun is a 2020 middle grade novel by Indigenous American author Rebecca Roanhorse, whose science fiction and fantasy works are notable for featuring Navajo characters reflective of Roanhorse’s Navajo heritage. Race to the Sun is an installment in the “Rick Riordian Presents” imprint of Disney Hyperion, which collaborates with Percy Jackson & the Olympians author Rick Riordan to publish novels that feature different cultural mythologies as written by authors from those cultural... Read Race to the Sun Summary

Carlos Hernandez, a first-generation Cuban American author, published Sal and Gabi Break the Universe in 2019 to critical acclaim. A sequel, Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, was published in 2020. It won the Pura Belpré award in 2020 for portraying and celebrating the Latino cultural experience in children’s literature. The story follows the adventures of Sal Vidón as he navigates a new school and the ability to manipulate the multiverse. Sal’s exploits explore the... Read Sal and Gabi Break the Universe Summary

The poem “Siren Song” appears in Canadian writer Margaret Atwood’s poetry collection You Are Happy, published in 1974 by Oxford University Press. The poem is part of the section entitled, “Songs of the Transformed,” which includes the poems “Pig’s Song” and “Song of the Worms.” Written at a time of political and social upheaval, “Siren Song” considers the constraints of gender politics, the use and misuse of language, and the notion of power through clear... Read Siren Song Summary