(Part 2) Best ancient & medieval poetry books according to redditors

It depends on when, where, and who you were.

• At any time and any place, extramarital sex among the upper classes, at least for women, was strictly forbidden, for the obvious reason of protecting the family bloodline. For this reason, women were closely watched. (Many of the stories in Boccaccio’s Decameron are premised on this watchfulness and frustrated lovers.) One could argue that the cult of “courtly love” (fin d’amor as it was called), which basically taught young noblemen to “look but not touch,” encouraged the secret and chaste adoration of a noble woman. Andreas Capellanus, who wrote out the [rules of the game] (http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/special/authors/andreas/de_amore.html) in the 12th century, advises noblemen that secret, chaste love was the best; their sexual urges could be satisfied with peasant women, who are there, literally, for the raping.
  
  
• Depending on where you were, large towns tolerated prostitution and even legally regulated it by the 13th century. The great moral theologian Thomas Aquinas taught that prostitution should be tolerated as a lesser evil. It was like a sewer in a palace: it was nasty but without it, the whole palace would stink. The greater evils it prevented were offenses to public decency by keeping prostitutes in one house, the corruption of decent women by being in their presence, and sex between men, who might be reduced to sodomy if they couldn’t release their sexual urges since they often married late. Towns like Venice had prostitutes in the hundreds. They even organized themselves into ad hoc guilds in some places. However, all but the most educated and elegant courtesans were socially marginalized.
  
  
• Even outside of large cities, ordinary village women, living at subsistence levels, might turn to periodic prostitution; they were not really “professional ladies” but women trying to keep their head above water. Single women who had sex with men would be stigmatized if it was habitual and flagrant—for instance, you would not set up house with a man. But an occasional role in the hay, even if it resulted in pregnancy, might be tolerated, especially since it was a sign of fertility, a much valued characteristic. The evolving theology of marriage (12th century onward) also affected sexuality, where the consent theory (marriage was formed by the mutual consent of a couple, with or without witnesses) began replacing the “concubitus” theory (where sexual consummation created the marriage). Church courts regularly dealt with cases where a man consented secretly to a marriage, consummated it in private, and then denied publicly that he had consented.
  
  
• Clerical marriage was supposedly outlawed in the late 11th century, but it flourished all over Europe. I just read an article in the latest issue of the medieval journal Speculum (“Priestly Wives: The Role and Acceptance of Clerical Concubines in the Parishes of Late Medieval Catalunya” by Michelle Armstrong-Partida) which cites astounding percentages of priests with concubines. Thus in Girona from 1314-1346, “495 (75 percent) [of priests] kept concubines and 166 (25 percent) were engaged in casual sex.” These numbers would be lower in places like northern France where the law against clerical shacking up was better enforced, and somewhat similar (though not as high) in places like the diocese of Norwich in Enlgand where custom tolerated priests with “hearth mates.”
  
  
• Like today, the idea of sex was constantly around. I’m reading a new collection of 13th-century French stories called fabliaux (in a [wonderful translation by Nathaniel Dubin] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Fabliaux-Nathaniel-E-Dubin/dp/0871403579/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373037076&sr=8-1&keywords=dubin+fabliaux)), which is pretty much filled with folks obsessing about sex and how to get it, which they do with regular and hilarious success. (Did I mention these stories are dirty and very, very funny?) One can see in stories for noble audiences (like Tristan and Yseut or Lancelot and Guinevere from the Arthurian cycle) that stories of adultery had a sort of titillating appeal for couples stuck in arranged marriages.
  
  To sum up, chastity was the ideal (and was supposedly a virtue that set the clergy apart from the laity), but it was breached in all sorts of ways, especially at the mid- to lower levels of society, where the stakes were smaller. To put it another way, the average medieval person probably got more sex than the average Redditor.
  
  Source: A good go-to book about medieval sexuality is Vern Bullough and James Brundage (eds.), Handbook of Medieval Sexuality (2000).
  
  EDIT: Worth adding that pretty much everything I described above was considered sinful, sometimes gravely so (like adultery and sodomy), but this didn't not seem to overly deter people.

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>$5,250 copy of “Complete and Truly Outstanding Works by Homer.”

Protip Mizzou: You can buy a copy of the complete works of Homer on Amazon for about $16. If you shop around at thrift stores, you could probably get them for less than $1 (thought you might have to have them as separate volumes).

I hear that there indeed is a book you want. Might wanna check if this is it: https://www.amazon.com/Kalevala-Epic-Finnish-People-English/dp/9511101374

Blake used a title "Ancient of Days" but it seems like he meant it to portray deity. He had a very non-conventional view of God, religion, etc.

In the Complete works of William Blake published by Delphi Books (https://www.amazon.com/Delphi-Complete-Works-William-Illustrated-ebook/dp/B009BEED6I), this painting is described as "a depiction of God separating light and darkness". and also references Proverbs chapter 8 (verse 27 says "When he prepared the heavens, I was there" and talks about "when he set a compass upon the face of the depth"). The Delphi Book introduction also says "the Ancient of Days is an an orb of light and He is stooping down and measuring the deep with His compasses".

By the way, most Christian denominations interpret the title Ancient of Days as one of God's names -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_of_Days.

Sky Above, Great Wind is a good introduction. There are fun anecdotes about his life in the back of the book.

Without knowing you both very well, I doubt there's anything much that we can advise you here. For example I and many folk like Rumi but you & she could dislike that, who knows! Go with what your heart & instinct tell you.

This might be of help: http://www.amazon.com/Probability-Statistics-Computer-Scientists-Michael/dp/1584886412/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265386852&sr=1-1

It's all ryokan all the time. It's 140 of his poems as well as some of his art and some stories and history about him.

I recommend you explore mysticism. That word used to terrify me, but I've found comfort in it.

Finding God in the Waves is a fantastic book written by a nontheistic mystic. Contrary to "I found God through science!" in the summary, this book doesn't proselytize. It's a very raw, honest account of one man's struggle to find himself after losing faith in God.

Richard Rohr is technically a Catholic friar. He believes in something like a pantheistic deity that is neither male nor female, and he interprets the crucifixion and resurrection as an archetypal story about moving from "false self" to "true self."

Mevlânâ Rumi was a Sufi Muslim mystic. He's currently one of the most popular poets in America. This translation has been criticized by some liberals for erasing Islam,, but frankly, speaking as a liberal myself, and as someone who struggles with chronic depression, the humanism and gorgeous spiritual content of this book saved my life.

Carl Sagan was an astronomer and a cosmologist. He's one of my heroes. Cosmos describes a gorgeous naturalistic world, grounded thoroughly in science. If you're looking for something to believe, this is a must-read. Said he: "Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality." (It would be a disservice to not note that this is said after he'd renounced the idea that the spiritual necessarily belonged to anything other than a natural world.)

I would start with Ovid, he writes about Roman myth which is practically the same. Also read some Homer. I can recommend more books when I get home.

Edit: I would start off with Mythology by Edith Hamilton. This will give you a good run down of who is who and she gives you the Greek and the Roman names. I would then move on to read the three classic epics by Homer and Virgil. Finally I would move to Ovid and read Metamorphoses. From there I would read what ever you can get your hands on.

Also if not interested in long comentaries but just a good English translation [George Thompson's] (https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-New-Translation/dp/0865477442) might do the job.

And on vikings - primary sources though not all of battles - here’s a quick overview of sources https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/education/viking-knowledge/archaeology-and-history/written-sources-for-the-viking-age/

They may be found around the web but here are links to a few to buy

I can recommend the
Icelandic sagas, personally I find them great fun lots of skull bashings - you may have to buy them.

at least some are here https://sagadb.org Or here https://archive.org/details/sagalibrarydonei01snoriala


Icelandic sagas
https://www.amazon.com/Sagas-Icelanders-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe/dp/0141000031/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=icelandic+saga&qid=1559118780&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Saxo gramattucus or Saco’s saga (13th century danish ‘history’ of kings
https://www.amazon.com/Saxo-Grammaticus-History-English-Commentary/dp/0859915026


Snorris saga
https://www.amazon.com/Sagas-Norse-Kings-Snorri-Sturluson/dp/8209101730 - not sure if there is a newer more comprehensive translation as I read in original language

and the Eddas

Younger Edda
https://www.amazon.com/Edda-Illustrated-Snorri-Sturluson-ebook/dp/B00NCCEJ6O/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?keywords=edda+saga&qid=1559118593&s=gateway&sr=8-6

Elder Edda
https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Edda-Viking-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140435859/ref=mp_s_a_1_11?keywords=edda+saga&qid=1559118649&s=gateway&sr=8-11


And on vikings - primary sources though not all of battles

I can recommend the
Icelandic sagas, personally I find them great fun lots of skull bashings - you may have to buy them.

at least some are here https://sagadb.org Or here https://archive.org/details/sagalibrarydonei01snoriala


Icelandic sagas
https://www.amazon.com/Sagas-Icelanders-Penguin-Classics-Deluxe/dp/0141000031/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=icelandic+saga&qid=1559118780&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Saxo gramattucus or Saco’s saga (13th century danish ‘history’ of kings
https://www.amazon.com/Saxo-Grammaticus-History-English-Commentary/dp/0859915026


Snorris saga
https://www.amazon.com/Sagas-Norse-Kings-Snorri-Sturluson/dp/8209101730 - not sure if there is a newer more comprehensive translation as I read in original language

and the Eddas

Younger Edda
https://www.amazon.com/Edda-Illustrated-Snorri-Sturluson-ebook/dp/B00NCCEJ6O/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?keywords=edda+saga&qid=1559118593&s=gateway&sr=8-6

Elder Edda
https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Edda-Viking-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140435859/ref=mp_s_a_1_11?keywords=edda+saga&qid=1559118649&s=gateway&sr=8-11

Thanks, John. A good suggestion is never late!
I have recently acquired this book with all of Alexander Pope's works and so far I am loving it. I'll read the rape of the lock immediately, thought, since you were so kind as to link it here and since I don't know when I'll get to it an the book I have mentioned.

Just one question. It seems you mentioned two more books (40 sonnets and Shakespeare's sonnets), but both link to the same page. Was that intentional?

Whoops, I was looking at the wrong one. I could have sworn there was one with a similar cover that was the Poetic Edda. Perhaps it was this one. Unfortunately it's been long enough I don't entirely remember. Although I might still have the syllabus somewhere, If I find the exact book I'll update this comment.

I'm no expert on Sumerian mythology, but I would highly recommend the Epic of Gilgamesh. It's a touching tale about the quest for immortality and it's pretty easy to understand.
Here is a link to buy the E-book:
https://www.amazon.com/Epic-Gilgamesh-Classics-Penguin-ebook/dp/B002RI9VZS

Mi-am propus sa citesc lista lui Neil deGrasse Tyson. Chiar mi-am downloadat versiunea epub a bibliei. Din pacate, e nevoie de mai multa liniste si rabdare decat am anticipat.

Ca propunere recomand "The Gift" by Hafez. Sunt cam 1/3 in carte si este superba.

The works are poetry so it's hard to translate them. Partial English translations of Hāfez exist in verse. I don't know about their quality. You can check the Wikipedia article.

Of Ferdowsi's Shāhnāmeh there are no full English translations in verse but there is an okay translation in combined prose and verse by Dick Davis. It was reviewed by NPR.

I think Asian poetry should be your go to for this.
Chinese:
[Hanshan] (https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Mountain-Mandarin-Chinese-English/dp/1556591403/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519439&sr=8-1&keywords=hanshan)
[Libai and Dufu] (https://www.amazon.com/Li-Po-Tu-Translated-Introduction/dp/0140442723/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519506&sr=8-3&keywords=li+po)
[Tao Yuanming] (https://www.amazon.com/Selected-Poems-Tao-Chien/dp/1556590563/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519544&sr=8-1&keywords=Tao+qian)
and Japanese:
[Saigyo] (https://www.amazon.com/Saigyo/dp/023107493X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519595&sr=8-1&keywords=Saigyo)
[Basho] (https://www.amazon.com/Narrow-Road-Interior-Writings-Shambhala/dp/1570627169/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519621&sr=8-3&keywords=Basho)
[Ryokan] (https://www.amazon.com/Dewdrops-Lotus-Leaf-Poems-Ryokan/dp/1590301080/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1481519642&sr=8-4&keywords=Ryokan)

How about this one?

Only $5897 for the paperback! :D