Women and Women's Writings from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages: Representative Works
WOMEN AND WOMEN'S WRITINGS FROM ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES: REPRESENTATIVE WORKS
Abutsu-ni
Izayoi nikki (travel diary) mid 13th century
Aeschylus
Oresteia (dramas) c. 458 b.c.
Aristophanes
Lysistrata (drama) c. 411 b.c.
Ecclesiazusae (drama) c. 393 b.c.
The Bible
Book of Esther (prose) c. 2nd century B.C.
Birgitta of Sweden
Liber celestis revelaciones [Revelations] (prose) c. 1377
Catherine of Siena
Libro della divina dottrina [The Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin Catherine of Siena] (prose) c. 1377-80
Troilus and Criseyde (poetry) c. 1385
Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale (poetry) c. 1387
Christine de Pizan
Letter of the God of Love (prose) c. 1399
The Book of the City of Ladies (dialogues) c. 1405
Cynewulf
Elene (poetry) c. 8th-9th century
Elizabeth of Hungary
The Revelations of Saint Elizabeth (prose) c. 1231
Euripides
Medea (drama) c. 431 b.c.
Hadewijch of Antwerp
Visioenen [Visions] (prose) mid 13th century
Heloise
Letters of Abelard and Heloise [with Pierre Abelard] (letters) c. 1119-41
Herrad of Landsberg
Hortus Deliciarum [Garden of Delights] (prose) c. 1170
Hesiod
Works and Days (poetry) mid 8th century b.c.
Hildegard von Bingen
Liber Scivias (prose) c. 1152
Homer
Iliad (poetry) c. 9th century b.c.
Odyssey (poetry) c. 9th century b.c.
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim
The Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins Fides, Spes, and Karitas (drama) late 10th century
Hypatia
Astronomical Canon (nonfiction) c. 415
On the Conics of Apollonius (nonfiction) c. 415
Izumi Shikibu
The Diary of Izumi Shikibu (diary) c. 1003
Shewings [Revelations] (prose) c. 1373-93
Book of Margery Kempe (autobiography) c. 1438
Lais (poetry) c. 1170
Genji monogatori [The Tale of Genji] (novel) early 11th century
Ovid
Metamorphoses (poetry) c. 1
Pan Chao (Ban Zhao)
Nujie [Lessons for Women] (nonfiction) 1st century
Han Shu [with others] (history) 1st-2nd centuries
Perpetua
Passio Sanctarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis [The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity] (diary) c. 203
Marguerite Porete
Le Mirouer des simples ames [The Mirror of Simple Souls] (prose) c.1296-1306
Sappho
Sapphic Fragments (poetry) 6th century b.c.
Sei Shonagon
Makura no soshi [Pillow Book] (prose) c. late 10th century
Sophocles
Antigone (drama) 442? b.c.
Trachinian Women (drama) 440-30 b.c.
Electra (drama) 425-10 b.c.
Yu Xuanji
* The Clouds Float North: The Complete Poems of Yu Xuanji (poetry) 1998
* This title is an edition of Yu Xuanji's collected Chinese poetry translated by David Young and Jiann I. Lin; the poems were composed c. 860-71.