777 articles
Shahnameh (شاهنامه)
Shahnameh (شاهنامه, Book of Kings), the Persian national epic by Ferdowsi (940–1020), about 50,000 couplets in three mythical, legendary, and historical sections, from creation to the 651 CE Arab conquest.
Shahnameh-khani
Shahnameh-khani (شاهنامهخوانی) is the Iranian tradition of reciting or singing verses of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh before an audience, ranging from simple reading to the professional dramatic storytelling known as naqqali.
Shakuni
Shakuni (Sanskrit: शकुनि) is a prince of Gandhara in the Mahabharata, brother of Queen Gandhari and maternal uncle of Duryodhana, who rigged the dice game against Yudhishthira.
Shakuntala
Shakuntala (Abhijnanashakuntalam) is Kalidasa's seven-act Sanskrit play about Dushyanta, Shakuntala, a curse, and a recognition ring, adapted from the Mahabharata; first translated into English by William Jones in 1789.
Shalya
Shalya is the king of Madra in the Mahabharata. He fought for the Kauravas after being tricked, serving as Karna's charioteer before being slain by Yudhishthira.
Shanta
Shanta (शान्ता), also Shanta Devi, is the wife of sage Rishyasringa in the Ramayana tradition; her parentage is disputed between recensions, as daughter of Dasharatha of Ayodhya given in adoption to Romapada of Anga, or Romapada's own daughter.
Shantanu (शांतनु)
Shantanu (शांतनु), also Śantanu, is the Kuru king of Hastinapura in the Mahabharata, father of Bhishma by Ganga and of Chitrangada and Vichitravirya by Satyavati; his second marriage triggers Bhishma's celibacy vow and the dynasty's succession crisis.
Shanti Purana
Shanti Purana (ಶಾಂತಿಪುರಾಣ, Shantipurana) is a tenth-century Kannada Jain epic by the poet Ponna that narrates the life of Shantinatha, the sixteenth Jain Tirthankara, and earned Ponna the title Kavichakravarthi.
Shatrughna (शत्रुघ्न)
Shatrughna (शत्रुघ्न, Thai Phra Satarut), 'destroyer of enemies', youngest Ramayana brother: son of Sumitra, twin of Lakshmana, companion of Bharata, slayer of Lavanasura and founder-king of Mathura in the Uttara Kanda.
Sheyda
Sheyda is a 1917 romantic drama in verse by Azerbaijani playwright Huseyn Javid, published in Baku, depicting the hard life of printing workers and the idea of freedom.
Shield of Heracles
The Shield of Heracles (Greek: Aspis Hērakleous) is an archaic Greek epic poem of 480 hexameter lines, attributed to Hesiod in antiquity, recounting Heracles' killing of Cycnus and describing his shield, forged by Hephaestus.
Shikhandi (शिखण्डी)
Shikhandi (शिखण्डी, Śikhaṇḍin) is the Mahabharata warrior, child of Drupada and rebirth of Amba, born female, transformed male by the yaksha Sthunakarna, and instrumental in Bhishma's fall at Kurukshetra.
Ship of Fools (satire)
Ship of Fools (Das Narrenschiff), Sebastian Brant's 1494 Basel satire of 112 fools sailing to Narragonia, with Dürer woodcuts, Locher's 1497 Latin Stultifera navis, and translations into French, Dutch, and English by 1509.
Shirei Tiferet
Shirei Tiferet (שירי תפארת, "Songs of Glory"), also known as the Moseide, is a Hebrew epic poem on the life of Moses by Haskalah poet Naphtali Herz Wessely, first published in Berlin in 1789.
Shishupala (शिशुपाल)
Shishupala (शिशुपाल) was the Chedi king of the Mahabharata, killed by Krishna with the Sudarshana chakra after his 100th insult at Yudhishthira's Rajasuya; the subject also of Magha's Sanskrit mahakavya Shishupalavadha.
Shishupala Vadha
Shishupala Vadha (शिशुपालवधम्, "the slaying of Shishupala") is a Sanskrit court epic by the poet Magha, retelling how Krishna killed the Chedi king Shishupala at Yudhishthira's Rajasuya sacrifice.
Shivlilamrut
Shivlilamrut (शिवलीलामृत), the nectar of Shiva's play, is a Marathi devotional poetic text composed by Shridhar Swami Nazarekar at Kashi around 1658's poet's era, retelling the Skanda Purana's Shivlila.
Shurpanakha (शूर्पणखा)
Shurpanakha (शूर्पणखा), also Surpanakha, is the rakshasi sister of Ravana in Valmiki's Ramayana, Aranya Kanda; her mutilation by Lakshmana after she propositions Rama triggers Khara and Dushana's deaths and Ravana's abduction of Sita.
Siddharama Charite
Siddharama Charite (ಸಿದ್ಧರಾಮ ಚರಿತೆ) is a Kannada hagiographic kavya associated with Raghavanka, a thirteenth-century poet of Hampi, narrating the life of the Virashaiva saint Siddharama of Sonnalige.
Sikandarnama
Sikandarnama (সিকান্দরনামা) is a Bengali narrative poem completed in 1673 by Syed Alaol, a Bengali rendering of Nizami Ganjavi's Persian work on Alexander the Great.
Silamaka and Poullori
Silamaka and Poullori is a West African epic cycle, told in Fula and Bambara, about two Fula heroes who resisted the Bambara kingdom of Ségou.
Silver Latin epic
Silver Latin epic is the Latin epic poetry written after Augustus' death in AD 14, principally by Lucan, Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus, and Statius in the first century AD.
Simavne Kadısı Oğlu Şeyh Bedreddin Destanı
Simavne Kadısı Oğlu Şeyh Bedreddin Destanı is a 1936 epic poem by Turkish poet Nâzım Hikmet about the 15th-century Ottoman jurist and Sufi Şeyh Bedreddin, who sought an egalitarian social order.
Simcheongga
Simcheongga (심청가) is one of the five surviving Korean pansori epics, telling of the filial daughter Sim Cheong, who sacrifices herself in the Indang Sea.
Simon the Musician
Simon the Musician (Сымон-музыка) is a lyrical-epic poem in six parts by Yakub Kolas, written from 1911 to 1925, about a self-taught violinist from a poor peasant family.
Sin Xay
Sin Xay, more fully Sang Sinxay (Lao: ສັງສິນໄຊ), is a Lao epic poem attributed to Pang Kham, dated about 1600, and regarded as Laos' national epic.
Sindhi folk epic
A Sindhi folk epic is a long oral narrative of heroism or romance from Sindh, Pakistan, sung by bards; its love legends include Sassui Punnhu and Umar Marvi.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: late-14th-century Middle English alliterative romance by the anonymous Gawain/Pearl Poet, unique in MS Cotton Nero A.x; beheading game, Green Chapel quest, girdle test of chivalry and Christian faith.
Sirat Antar
Sirat Antar (سيرة عنترة) is an Arabic popular epic built around ʿAntara ibn Shaddād, a 6th-century poet of the Muʿallaqāt, recounting his battles and his love for ʿAbla.
Sirat Bani Hilal
Sirat Bani Hilal (سيرة بني هلال, al-Sirah al-Hilaliyyah) is an Arabic oral epic telling of the Bani Hilal Bedouin tribe's tenth-century migration from Arabia to North Africa.