POETRY

Poetry was used as a means of recording oral history, storytelling (epic poetry), genealogy, and law. Poetry is often closely identified with liturgy in pre-literate societies.

Many of the scriptures currently held to be sacred by contemporary religious traditions have their roots in antiquity and were composed as poetry rather than prose. Poems were used to aid memorization and help guarantee the accuracy of oral transmission in early society. As a result many of the poems surviving from the ancient world are a form of recorded cultural information about the people of the past. Poems are often prayers or stories about religious subject matter and histories about a culture's politics and wars.