| Preface | p. xv |
| Acknowledgments | p. xxi |
| Phonetic Equivalents | p. xxiii |
| Map: The Ancient Middle East, CA. 1000 B.C. | p. 2 |
| The Invention of Writing and the Earliest Literatures | p. 3 |
| Time Line | p. 8 |
| Gilgamesh (Akkadian, ca. 2500-1500 B.C.) | p. 10 |
| Ancient Egyptian Poetry (ca. 1500-ca. 1200 B.C.) | p. 41 |
| Akhenaten's "Hymn to the Sun" | p. 42 |
| The Leiden Hymns | p. 46 |
| [How splendid you ferry the skyways] | p. 46 |
| [God is a master craftsman] | p. 47 |
| [When Being began back in the days of the genesis] | p. 48 |
| [The mind of God is perfect knowing] | p. 48 |
| Love Songs | p. 49 |
| [My love is one and only, without peer] | p. 49 |
| [I wish I were her Nubian girl] | p. 49 |
| [Love, how I'd love to slip down to the pond] | p. 50 |
| [Why, just now, must you question your heart?] | p. 50 |
| [I was simply off to see Nefrus my friend] | p. 51 |
| [I think I'll go home and lie very still] | p. 51 |
| [Love of you is mixed deep in my vitals] | p. 52 |
| The Bible: The Old Testament (Hebrew, ca. 1000-300 B.C.) | p. 52 |
| Genesis 1-3 [The Creation--The Fall] | p. 56 |
| Genesis 4 [The First Murder] | p. 59 |
| Genesis 6-9 [The Flood] | p. 60 |
| Genesis 11 [The Origin of Languages] | p. 63 |
| Genesis 22 [Abraham and Isaac] | p. 63 |
| Genesis 25, 27 [Jacob and Esau] | p. 64 |
| Genesis 37, 39-46 [The Story of Joseph] | p. 66 |
| From Job | p. 77 |
| Psalm 8 | p. 93 |
| Psalm 19 | p. 93 |
| Psalm 23 | p. 94 |
| Psalm 104 | p. 94 |
| Psalm 137 | p. 96 |
| The Song of Songs | p. 96 |
| Jonah | p. 101 |
| Map: Greece and Western Asia Minor, Ca. Fifth Century B.C. | p. 104 |
| Ancient Greece and the Formation of the Western Mind | p. 105 |
| Time Line | p. 112 |
| Homer (eighth century B.C.) | p. 114 |
| The Iliad (Greek) | p. 120 |
| Book I [The Rage of Achilles] | p. 120 |
| From Book VI [Hector Returns to Troy] | p. 136 |
| From Book VIII [The Tide of Battle Turns] | p. 147 |
| Book IX [The Embassy to Achilles] | p. 147 |
| From Book XVI [Patroclus Fights and Dies] | p. 166 |
| Book XVIII [The Shield of Achilles] | p. 177 |
| Book XXII [The Death of Hector] | p. 192 |
| Book XXIV [Achilles and Priam] | p. 205 |
| The Odyssey (Greek) | p. 225 |
| [A Goddess Intervenes] | p. 225 |
| [A Hero's Son Awakens] | p. 236 |
| [The Lord of the Western Approaches] | p. 246 |
| [The Red-Haired King and His Lady] | p. 258 |
| [Sweet Nymph and Open Sea] | p. 278 |
| [The Princess at the River] | p. 289 |
| [Gardens and Firelight] | p. 297 |
| [The Songs of the Harper] | p. 305 |
| [New Coasts and Poseidon's Son] | p. 319 |
| [The Grace of the Witch] | p. 332 |
| [A Gathering of Shades] | p. 347 |
| [Sea Perils and Defeat] | p. 363 |
| [One More Strange Land] | p. 376 |
| [Hospitality in the Forest] | p. 388 |
| [How They Came to Ithaka] | p. 401 |
| [Father and Son] | p. 416 |
| [The Beggar at the Manor] | p. 429 |
| [Blows and a Queen's Beauty] | p. 447 |
| [Recognitions and a Dream] | p. 458 |
| [Signs and a Vision] | p. 474 |
| [The Test of the Bow] | p. 483 |
| [Death in the Great Hall] | p. 494 |
| [The Trunk of the Olive Tree] | p. 507 |
| [Warriors, Farewell] | p. 516 |
| Sappho of Lesbos (born ca. 630 B.C.) | p. 530 |
| [Lyrics] (Greek) | p. 531 |
| [Throned in splendor, deathless, O Aphrodite] | p. 531 |
| [Like the very gods in my sight is he] | p. 532 |
| [Some there are who say that the fairest thing seen] | p. 532 |
| Aeschylus (524?-456 B.C.) | p. 533 |
| The Oresteia (Greek) | p. 537 |
| Agamemnon | p. 537 |
| The Libation Bearers | p. 582 |
| The Eumenides | p. 583 |
| Sophocles (ca. 496-406 B.C.) | p. 612 |
| Oedipus the King (Greek) | p. 617 |
| Antigone (Greek) | p. 658 |
| Euripides (480-406 B.C.) | p. 693 |
| Medea (Greek) | p. 695 |
| Aristophanes (450?-385? B.C.) | p. 725 |
| Lysistrata (Greek) | p. 727 |
| Plato (429-347 B.C.) | p. 779 |
| The Apology of Socrates (Greek) | p. 780 |
| Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) | p. 799 |
| From Poetics (Greek) | p. 800 |
| Map: China During the Warring States Period, CA. 250 B.C. | p. 804 |
| Poetry and Thought in Early China | p. 805 |
| Time Line | p. 810 |
| Classic of Poetry (Chinese, ca. 1000-600 B.C.) | p. 812 |
| I. Fishhawk | p. 814 |
| XX. Plums Are Falling | p. 814 |
| XXIII. Dead Roe Deer | p. 815 |
| XXVI. Boat of Cypress | p. 815 |
| XLII. Gentle Girl | p. 816 |
| LXIV. Quince | p. 816 |
| LXXVI. Chung-tzu, Please | p. 817 |
| LXXXI. I Went Along the Broad Road | p. 817 |
| LXXXII. Rooster Crows | p. 817 |
| CXL. Willows by the Eastern Gate | p. 818 |
| CCXLV. She Bore the Folk | p. 818 |
| Confucius (551-479 B.C.) | p. 820 |
| From Analects (Chinese) | p. 823 |
| Chuang Chou (ca. 369-286 B.C.) | p. 832 |
| Chuang Tzu (Chinese) | p. 834 |
| Free and Easy Wandering | p. 834 |
| Discussion on Making All Things Equal | p. 838 |
| The Secret of Caring for Life | p. 845 |
| From Chapter 4. In the World of Men | p. 846 |
| From Chapter 6. The Great and Venerable Teacher | p. 848 |
| From Chapter 7. Fit for Emperors and Kings | p. 851 |
| From Chapter 12. Heaven and Earth | p. 851 |
| From Chapter 13. The Way of Heaven | p. 852 |
| From Chapter 17. Autumn Floods | p. 853 |
| From Chapter 18. Perfect Happiness | p. 854 |
| From Chapter 19. Mastering Life | p. 854 |
| From Chapter 20. The Mountain Tree | p. 855 |
| From Chapter 21. T'ien Tzu-fang | p. 856 |
| From Chapter 22. Knowledge Wandered North | p. 857 |
| From Chapter 24. Hsu Wu-Kuei | p. 858 |
| Ssu-Ma Ch'ien (ca. 145-ca. 85 B.C.) | p. 858 |
| Letter in Reply to Jen An (Chinese) | p. 860 |
| Historical Records (Chinese) | p. 866 |
| The Biography of Po Yi and Shu Ch'i | p. 866 |
| The Prince of Wei | p. 869 |
| From The Schemes of the Warring States: Yu-jang | p. 876 |
| From Biographies of the Assassins: Nieh Cheng | p. 877 |
| Map: India, 1200 B.C.-A.D 100 | p. 880 |
| India's Heroic Age | p. 881 |
| Time Line | p. 888 |
| The Ramayana of Valmiki (Sanskrit, ca. 550 B.C.) | p. 890 |
| From Book 2. Ayodhya | p. 895 |
| From Book 3. Aranya | p. 903 |
| From Book 4. Kiskindha | p. 922 |
| From Book 5. Sundhara | p. 926 |
| From Book 6. Yuddha | p. 946 |
| The Mahabharata (Sanskrit, ca. 400 B.C.-A.D. 400) | p. 953 |
| From Book 1. Adi [Origins] | p. 959 |
| From Book 2. Sabha [The Assemby Hall] | p. 967 |
| From Book 5. Udyoga [The Preparation for War] | p. 983 |
| From Book 8. Karna [The Book of Karna] | p. 990 |
| From Book 9. Salya [The Book of Salya] | p. 994 |
| From Book 11. Stri [The Book of the Women] | p. 998 |
| From Book 12. Santi [The Book of Peace] | p. 1000 |
| The Jataka (Pali, fourth century B.C.) | p. 1002 |
| The Cheating Merchant | p. 1004 |
| The Hare's Self-Sacrifice | p. 1005 |
| The Monkey's Heroic Self-Sacrifice | p. 1008 |
| The Bhagavad-Gita (Sanskrit, first century B.C.) | p. 1010 |
| From The First Teaching [Arjuna's Dejection] | p. 1014 |
| From The Second Teaching [Philosophy and Spiritual Discipline] | p. 1016 |
| From The Third Teaching [Discipline of Action] | p. 1020 |
| From The Sixth Teaching [The Man of Discipline] | p. 1023 |
| From The Eleventh Teaching [The Vision of Krishna's Totality] | p. 1025 |
| The Tamil Anthologies (Tamil, ca. 100-250) | p. 1029 |
| What She Said | p. 1031 |
| What She Said [2] | p. 1032 |
| What She Said [3] | p. 1032 |
| What She Said [4] | p. 1032 |
| What She Said [5] | p. 1033 |
| What Her Girl-Friend Said | p. 1033 |
| What the Concubine Said | p. 1033 |
| What She Said [6] | p. 1034 |
| What He Said | p. 1034 |
| What He Said [2] | p. 1035 |
| A Chariot Wheel | p. 1035 |
| His Hill | p. 1036 |
| Mothers | p. 1037 |
| Earth's Bounty | p. 1037 |
| Map: the Roman Empire, CA. 117 | p. 1040 |
| The Roman Empire | p. 1041 |
| Time Line | p. 1044 |
| Catullus (84?-54? B.C.) | p. 1046 |
| [Lyrics] (Latin) | p. 1047 |
| 5 [Lesbia, let us live only for loving] | p. 1047 |
| 2 [Sparrow, you darling pet of my beloved] | p. 1047 |
| 51 [To me that man seems like a god in heaven] | p. 1047 |
| 86 [Many find Quintia stunning. I find her attractive] | p. 1048 |
| 87 [No other woman can truthfully say she was cherished] | p. 1048 |
| 109 [Darling, we'll both have equal shares in the sweet love you offer] | p. 1048 |
| 83 [Lesbia hurls abuse at me in front of her husband] | p. 1049 |
| 70 [My woman says there is no one whom she'd rather marry] | p. 1049 |
| 72 [You used to say that you wished to know only Catullus] | p. 1049 |
| 85 [I hate and love. And if you should ask how I can do both] | p. 1049 |
| 75 [To such a state I have been brought by your mischief, my Lesbia] | p. 1049 |
| 8 [Wretched Catullus! You have to stop this nonsense] | p. 1050 |
| 58 [Lesbia, Caelius--yes, our darling] | p. 1050 |
| 11 [Aurelius and Furius, true comrades] | p. 1050 |
| 76 [If any pleasure can come to a man through recalling] | p. 1051 |
| Virgil (70-19 B.C.) | p. 1052 |
| The Aeneid (Latin) | p. 1055 |
| From Book I | p. 1055 |
| [Prologue] | p. 1055 |
| [Aeneas Arrives in Carthage] | p. 1056 |
| Book II | p. 1063 |
| [How They Took the City] | p. 1063 |
| Book IV | p. 1085 |
| [The Passion of the Queen] | p. 1085 |
| From Book VI | p. 1106 |
| [Aeneas in the Underworld] | p. 1106 |
| From Book VIII | p. 1125 |
| [The Shield of Aeneas] | p. 1125 |
| From Book XII | p. 1129 |
| [The Death of Turnus] | p. 1129 |
| Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D. 17) | p. 1134 |
| Metamorphoses (Latin) | p. 1138 |
| From Book I | p. 1138 |
| [Prologue] | p. 1138 |
| [Apollo and Daphne] | p. 1138 |
| [Io and Jove] | p. 1141 |
| From Book II | p. 1147 |
| [Europa and Jove] | p. 1147 |
| From Book V | p. 1149 |
| [Ceres and Proserpina] | p. 1149 |
| From Book IX | p. 1161 |
| [Iphis and Ianthe] | p. 1161 |
| From Book X | p. 1166 |
| [Pygmalion] | p. 1166 |
| [Myrrha and Cinyras] | p. 1167 |
| [Venus and Adonis] | p. 1174 |
| Petronius (died A.D. 66) | p. 1182 |
| The Satyricon (Latin) | p. 1183 |
| [Dinner with Trimalchio] | p. 1183 |
| A Note on Translation | p. A1 |
| Permissions Acknowledgments | p. A13 |
| Index | p. A15 |
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