777 articles
Dharmamangal
Dharmamangal (ধর্মমঙ্গল) is a Bengali mangal-kavya cycle of praise poems for the folk deity Dharma Thakur, written by over twenty poets in western Bengal from the mid-1600s into the 1800s and telling of the hero Lausen.
Dhola Maru
Dhola Maru (ढोला मारू रा दूहा) is a Rajasthani love ballad about the prince Dhola and his bride Maru, composed in western Rajasthan in the 11th century.
Dhrishtadyumna (धृष्टद्युम्न)
Dhrishtadyumna (धृष्टद्युम्न, Dhṛṣṭadyumna), also called Droṇahantā, is the Mahabharata prince of Panchala, twin brother of Draupadi, born from a sacrificial fire to kill Drona, whom he beheaded as Pandava commander-in-chief before being killed by Ashvatthama.
Dhritarashtra
Dhritarashtra (धृतराष्ट्र, Dhṛtarāṣṭra) is the blind king of Hastinapura in the Mahabharata, father of the hundred Kauravas by Gandhari, denied the throne for blindness, and the addressee of Sanjaya's narration of the Bhagavad Gita.
Dido
Dido (Elissa), legendary Phoenician queen of Tyre who founded Carthage c. 813 BCE; Virgil's Aeneid invented her love affair with Aeneas, her curse, and her suicide, inspiring Ovid, Marlowe, and Dido's problem in mathematics.
Dionysiaca
The Dionysiaca (Διονυσιακά) is a fifth-century Greek epic in 48 books by Nonnus of Panopolis recounting the life, Indian war, and deification of Dionysus; at over 21,000 lines it is the longest extant ancient epic.
Diu Crône
Diu Crône ("The Crown") is a Middle High German Arthurian romance of about 30,000 lines by Heinrich von dem Türlin, in which Gawain wins the Grail.
Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia; Dante's Comedìa) is Dante Alighieri's 14,233-line terza rima poem in three cantiche of a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, begun around 1307, preserved in about 800 manuscripts, first printed in 1472, and translated into more than 50 languages.
Dodo Chanesar
Dodo Chanesar (دودو چنيسر) is a Sindhi heroic epic about a succession dispute between two Soomra brothers, in which Dodo falls defending Sindh against Sultan Alauddin Khilji.
Don Juan (poem)
Don Juan is Lord Byron's unfinished mock-epic poem in ottava rima, written 1818–1823 and published 1819–1824 in 16 cantos. It reverses the Don Juan legend, making Juan the seduced, and scandalized Regency readers with its satire and bawdy humor.
Draupadi
Draupadi (द्रौपदी), also Krishnaa and Yajnaseni, is the chief heroine of the Mahabharata: Drupada's daughter, wife of the five Pandavas, disrobed in the dice hall, and a south Indian folk goddess.
Drona
Drona (द्रोण, Droṇa), also Dronacharya, is the Brahmin martial guru of the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata: vessel-born son of Bharadvaja, second Kaurava commander after Bhishma, slain in meditation after Yudhishthira's half-truth about Ashwatthama.
Drupada
Drupada (द्रुपद), also Yajnasena, is the king of Panchala in the Mahabharata, father of Draupadi, Dhrishtadyumna, and Sikhandi, Drona's estranged friend and enemy, killed by Drona in the war.
Duravastha
Duravastha ("Misery") is a Malayalam khanda kavya by N. Kumaranasan, published in September 1922, set during the 1921 Malabar Rebellion, whose union of a Brahmin woman and a Pulaya man attacks the caste system.
Durendal
Durendal (Durandal, Durlindana), the legendary sword of Count Roland in the Song of Roland, first attested ca. 1100; famed as unbreakable, given Muslim-owner pre-histories in Aspremont and Mainet, with debated etymology.
Duryodhana (दुर्योधन)
Duryodhana (दुर्योधन), also called Suyodhana, eldest of the hundred Kaurava sons of Dhritarashtra in the Mahabharata; his jealousy, the dice game, and refusal of land cause the Kurukshetra War, ending in his mace duel with Bhima.
Dushyanta
Dushyanta (Duṣmanta, दुष्मन्त), Puru-dynasty king of the Mahabharata, husband of Shakuntala (शकुन्तला), father of Bharata; epic gandharva marriage retold with curse and ring in Kalidasa's play.
Edige
Edige (also Yedige or Edigu) is a Turkic heroic epic, or dastan, about Edigu, the emir who led the Golden Horde from 1395 to 1419 and founded the Nogai Horde.
Ekalavya (एकलव्य)
Ekalavya (एकलव्य), the Nishada prince of the Mahabharata, son of Hiranyadhanus, taught himself archery before a clay image of Drona and gave his right thumb as guru dakshina; later killed by Krishna, he is now a symbol in caste debates.
Eknathi Bhagavata
Eknathi Bhagavat (एकनाथी भागवत) is a Marathi verse commentary by the 16th-century saint-poet Eknath of Paithan on the eleventh book of the Bhagavata Purana, one of the principal texts of the Varkari tradition.
El Bernardo
El Bernardo is a heroic epic poem by Bernardo de Balbuena, published in Madrid in 1624, narrating the deeds of Bernardo del Carpio at Roncesvalles.
El estudiante de Salamanca
El estudiante de Salamanca is an 1840 narrative poem by José de Espronceda retelling the Don Juan legend through the libertine student don Félix de Montemar.
El peregrino indiano
El peregrino indiano is an epic poem by Antonio de Saavedra Guzmán, printed in Madrid in 1599, narrating Cortés's conquest of Mexico from Cuba to the fall of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.
Emperor Shaka the Great
Emperor Shaka the Great (UNodumehlezi KaMenzi) is a 1979 Zulu epic poem by the South African poet Mazisi Kunene, recounting the life of Shaka, founder of the Zulu empire.
Endymion (poem)
Endymion: A Poetic Romance, John Keats's 4,050-line narrative poem on the Endymion myth, drafted 1817, published by Taylor & Hessey in April 1818, attacked by Blackwood's and the Quarterly Review.
Eneida
Eneida (Енеїда) is a burlesque-travesty poem by the Ukrainian writer Ivan Kotliarevsky that reworks Virgil's Aeneid into the Ukrainian vernacular, published from 1798 and treated as the starting point of modern Ukrainian literature.
Enkidu
Enkidu, also known as Eabani, is the wild man of the Epic of Gilgamesh, created by the goddess Aruru as a counterpart to Gilgamesh, king of Uruk.
Epic of Alp Er Tunga
The Epic of Alp Er Tunga (Alp Er Tunga Destanı) is a Turkish heroic epic about a legendary 7th-century BC Saka ruler and his wars against the Iranians.
Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh, known to Babylonians as ša nagba imuru, is an ancient Akkadian poem about Uruk's king, his friend Enkidu, and his failed quest for immortality.
Epic of King Gesar (གེ་སར)
Epic of King Gesar (Gesar of Ling, Mongolian Geser Khan): living Central Asian oral epic of a heaven-sent hero vanquishing monsters and unifying tribes, performed by Tibetan, Mongolian, and Tu bards and inscribed by UNESCO in 2009.