While PIE language and culture may seem a problem for linguists and anthropologists, the subject has important ramifications for the student of early literature. All of the literature of the Classical world, both Greek and Latin, is composed in Indo-European languages and is the product of Indo-European cultures, as is the literature of the medieval West. Early Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Hebraic literature is not Indo-European per se, but all three cultures had extensive contact with Indo-European peoples. The only early literature without likely Indo-European influence is that of Eastern Asia - although a few Indo-Europeanists argue for IE penetration as far as Japan! When these literatures show similarities in worldview, we must not be too hasty to attribute them to universalities of human experience; Indo-European cultures tend to share perceptions of divinity and social structure, among other things. (The structure of Western medieval society, with its kings and priests, its warriors, and its peasants, is a reiteration of an Indo-European social concept that is also found in the Indic caste system.) Increasingly, research is demonstrating that these several literatures share certain specific themes thanks to their Indo-European provenance. It is not coincidence that the exploits of the Germanic Beowulf , the Greek Perseus, the Persian Faridun , and the Indic Indra have elements in common. Further, the epic is a major genre of early literatures, and the epics of individual Indo-European cultures share a common heritage not only of theme, but also of poetics.