The works collected in this volume were initially presented at an international conference organized by the Department of Philology at the University of Crete. They discuss topics related to the Epic poetry of the Pagan and Christian Empire: Valerius Flaccus, the 'Thebaid' and 'Achilleid' of Statius, Trifiodorus, Nottus, Draco, and the 'Orphic Argonautica'. They include a variety of subjects: the role of Iounas as a substitute poet in the 'Argonautica' of Valerius (Meredith Monaghan), the unbearable exaggeration of knowledge in the 'Thebaid' (Ellen O'Gorman), the construction of masculinity in the 'Achilleid' in relation to Cicero's 'Institutio oratoria' (Alessandro Barchiesi), the satire of Juvenal against Imperial epic poetry (Kirk Freudenburg), the relationship of Trifiodorus's 'Capture of Troy' with the myth of Pandora from Hesiod (Michael Paschalis), transformative aspects of the conflict between Typhon and Zeus in Nonnus's 'Dionysiaca' (Philip Hardie), the biblical rewriting of Virgilian epic poetry (Francesco Stella), genetic consciousness in the 'Orphic Argonautica' (Richard Hunter), and the complex relationship of the 'Orphic Argonautica' with its Greek and Latin texts (Damien Nelis).