The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East

Volumes I-II: Babylonia, Assyria, and Egypt

Overview

In 1917, Charles Francis Horne launched a fourteen-volume project gathering sacred texts and early literature from ancient civilizations. The first two volumes present Mesopotamian and Egyptian literary heritage—texts recently deciphered from cuneiform and hieroglyphic scripts.

Volume I: Babylonia and Assyria (514 pages, compiled by Morris Jastrow Jr.) Mesopotamian literature from the land between the Tigris and Euphrates—Epic of Gilgamesh, Code of Hammurabi, Babylonian creation myths, Sumerian hymns, Assyrian royal annals, and magical incantations.

Volume II: Egypt (510 pages, compiled by James Henry Breasted) Egyptian sacred and literary texts—Pyramid Texts (humanity’s oldest religious literature), Book of the Dead, Precepts of Ptah-Hotep (wisdom literature), hymns to Aten, tales of romance and travel, biographical inscriptions.

The project paralleled Max Müller’s Sacred Books of the East (1879-1910) but with broader scope, including legal codes, epic narratives, royal inscriptions, and historical chronicles alongside religious texts.

About Charles Francis Horne (1870-1942)

Charles Francis Horne was a prolific American scholar, editor, and professor who dedicated his career to making world literature and history accessible to English-speaking audiences. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1870, Horne became a professor of English at the City College of New York, where he combined academic rigor with a gift for popular presentation.

Over his lifetime, Horne wrote or edited more than 100 books, specializing in comprehensive multi-volume compilations that synthesized scholarly knowledge for educated general readers. His editorial philosophy balanced accessibility with accuracy, bringing together teams of expert translators and scholars while presenting their work in formats that non-specialists could appreciate and understand.

His major works include:

• The Bible and Its Story (10 volumes, 1908) - A comprehensive examination of biblical texts and history
• The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East (14 volumes, 1917) - His magnum opus covering world sacred texts
• The Great Events by Famous Historians - A comprehensive world history told through primary sources
• The Works of Jules Verne (15 volumes, 1911) - Editorial work on popular literature

Horne’s approach reflected the optimism of early 20th-century American scholarship—a belief that comprehensive knowledge of world civilizations could be organized, translated, and made available to advance human understanding and mutual appreciation. He worked at a pivotal moment when archaeological discoveries from Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China were expanding Western awareness of non-European civilizations, creating both scholarly interest and public curiosity about these “rediscovered” cultures.

For the Sacred Books project, Horne assembled a distinguished international team including Morris Jastrow Jr. (for Babylonian texts), James Breasted (for Egyptian literature), and specialists in Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese, and Japanese texts. This collaborative approach ensured that each civilization was represented by scholars with deep linguistic and cultural expertise.

The Fourteen-Volume Collection

The complete series systematically covers the major civilizations of the East and ancient Near East:

1. Babylonia and Assyria - Mesopotamian literature from Sumer through the Assyrian Empire
2. Egypt - Pyramid texts, wisdom literature, and religious writings
3. Ancient Hebrew - Biblical and apocryphal texts with historical context
4. Medieval Hebrew - Later Jewish literature and philosophy
5. Ancient Arabia - Pre-Islamic Arabic literature and early traditions
6. Medieval Arabic, Moorish, and Turkish - Islamic literature and Ottoman texts
7. Ancient Persia - Zoroastrian scriptures and Achaemenid inscriptions
8. Medieval Persia - Persian poetry and Sufi literature
9. Ancient India - Vedic hymns and Brahmanic texts
10. Medieval India - Buddhist sutras and later Hindu literature
11. Ancient China - Confucian classics and early Chinese philosophy
12. Medieval China - Taoist texts and later Chinese literature
13. Japan - Shinto texts, Buddhist writings, and Japanese classics
14. Biblical Apocrypha and Related Texts

This organization reflects both chronological progression and geographical expansion, moving from the ancient Near East through India to East Asia, concluding with supplementary biblical materials.

Contents of Volume I: Babylonia and Assyria

Compiled by Morris Jastrow Jr., a leading Assyriologist at the University of Pennsylvania, this volume presents the rediscovered literature of the world’s earliest civilizations. The contents include:

Creation Myths and Cosmology:

• The Babylonian Creation Epic (Enuma Elish) - The seven-tablet account of how Marduk created the world from Tiamat’s corpse
• Sumerian creation narratives - Earlier accounts predating Babylonian versions
• Cosmological texts explaining the structure of heaven and earth

Epic Literature:

• The Epic of Gilgamesh - Humanity’s oldest epic poem, recounting the adventures of the king of Uruk and his quest for immortality
• Tales of ancient heroes and legendary kings
• Mythological narratives about gods and their interactions with humanity

Legal and Administrative Texts:

• The Code of Hammurabi - One of the earliest and most complete law codes, inscribed on stone around 1750 BCE
• Earlier Sumerian legal collections
• Royal decrees and administrative documents

Religious Literature:

• Prayers to various deities (Shamash, Ishtar, Marduk, and others)
• Hymns and liturgical texts
• Penitential psalms and incantations
• Temple rituals and religious ceremonies

Historical Inscriptions:

• Annals of Assyrian kings documenting military campaigns
• Building inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar and other monarchs
• Chronicles of dynastic succession
• The Tel-El-Amarna letters - Diplomatic correspondence between Egyptian pharaohs and Near Eastern rulers

Magical and Wisdom Literature:

• Incantations against demons and diseases
• Omen texts and divination manuals
• Proverbs and wisdom sayings
• Medical texts combining practical treatment with magical formulas

Each text is presented with scholarly introduction providing historical context, explanatory notes clarifying references and customs, and commentary on the text’s significance. The translations aim for clarity and readability while respecting the original character of the works.

Historical and Archaeological Context

When this volume appeared in 1917, the decipherment and interpretation of Mesopotamian cuneiform texts was still relatively recent. The Rosetta Stone for cuneiform—the Behistun Inscription—had been deciphered by Henry Rawlinson in the 1840s, but systematic excavation and publication of literary texts accelerated only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The discovery of the Epic of Gilgamesh’s flood narrative by George Smith in 1872 had caused a sensation by revealing striking parallels to the biblical flood story, challenging assumptions about the uniqueness of biblical narratives. The unearthing of Hammurabi’s law code in 1901 provided the most complete ancient legal text known, predating biblical law and showing sophisticated legal reasoning in the ancient world.

By 1917, excavations at Ur, Nippur, Babylon, Nineveh, and other sites had recovered thousands of cuneiform tablets containing literature, correspondence, legal documents, and religious texts. Scholars were piecing together not just the political history but the intellectual and spiritual life of these ancient civilizations. Horne’s volume made these discoveries accessible to educated Americans and Europeans who followed archaeological news but couldn’t read specialist publications.

The timing was also significant for comparative religion and mythology. Scholars were actively comparing biblical narratives with their Mesopotamian predecessors, debating the relationship between monotheism and earlier polytheistic systems, and seeking to understand the development of religious consciousness. The texts in this volume provided crucial evidence for these discussions.

The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Centerpiece

The Epic of Gilgamesh occupies a central place in this volume and in world literature. Composed in Akkadian cuneiform, with origins stretching back to Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh dating to around 2100 BCE, the epic tells of a king who journeys to find immortality after the death of his friend Enkidu.

The epic explores timeless themes: the meaning of friendship, the inevitability of death, the limits of human power, and the search for enduring fame. Gilgamesh’s encounter with Utnapishtim, the Mesopotamian Noah who survived a great flood, provided one of the most startling discoveries in biblical archaeology—a flood narrative predating Genesis.

For early 20th-century readers, the epic revealed that profound literature—wrestling with life’s fundamental questions—existed millennia before classical Greece. The sophisticated narrative structure, psychological depth, and philosophical reflection demonstrated that “primitive” ancient peoples possessed literary artistry and philosophical insight comparable to later civilizations.

The Code of Hammurabi: Ancient Justice

The inclusion of Hammurabi’s law code allows readers to encounter one of civilization’s foundational legal documents. Carved on a black stone stele around 1750 BCE and rediscovered in 1901, the code contains 282 laws covering everything from property disputes to family relations, commercial transactions to bodily injury.

The famous principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (lex talionis) appears here, but the code also shows nuanced distinctions based on social status, sophisticated property law, and concern for protecting vulnerable parties like widows and orphans. The prologue presents Hammurabi as a righteous king establishing justice to protect the weak from the strong—an early articulation of the ruler’s duty to ensure fairness.

For contemporary readers, the code demonstrated that complex legal reasoning and systematic jurisprudence emerged thousands of years before Roman law. It also provided comparative context for understanding biblical law, showing both similarities and differences in how ancient societies conceived justice.

Creation and Flood Narratives: Comparative Mythology

The Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish and the flood narrative from Gilgamesh raised fundamental questions about the relationship between biblical and Mesopotamian traditions. The creation story features gods battling chaos (Tiamat), with Marduk creating the world from a defeated monster’s body—vastly different from Genesis, yet sharing the theme of ordered creation from primordial chaos.

The flood narrative shows even closer parallels: a god warns a righteous man of impending deluge, he builds a boat, brings animals aboard, sends out birds to test for dry land, and offers sacrifice after landing. These similarities couldn’t be coincidental, leading scholars to debate whether biblical authors knew Mesopotamian stories or whether both drew from common Near Eastern tradition.

Rather than undermining biblical authority (as some feared) or proving biblical plagiarism (as others claimed), these texts revealed the ancient Near East as a world of cultural exchange where stories, motifs, and religious ideas circulated and evolved. Understanding the Bible required understanding its cultural context—something this volume helped provide.

Religious and Magical Texts: Ancient Spirituality

The prayers, hymns, and incantations reveal the religious consciousness of ancient Mesopotamia. Prayers to gods like Shamash (sun and justice), Ishtar (love and war), and Marduk (supreme deity of Babylon) show sophisticated theology—gods as moral arbiters, sources of wisdom, and protectors of justice, not merely capricious supernatural powers.

Penitential prayers demonstrate a developed sense of sin, guilt, and the possibility of divine forgiveness. The magical incantations, while seeming primitive, reflect efforts to control a dangerous world through ritual language—a universal human impulse also seen in modern culture’s superstitions and rituals.

These texts challenged simple narratives of religious “progress” from magic to religion to science. Ancient Mesopotamians simultaneously developed sophisticated theology, rational administration, mathematical astronomy, and magical practices—showing that human thought doesn’t evolve in straight lines but encompasses multiple approaches to understanding reality.

Scholarly Approach and Methodology

Morris Jastrow Jr., the volume’s compiler, was a distinguished Assyriologist who combined rigorous scholarship with accessible presentation. His introductions to each text provide:

• Historical context: When and where the text was produced, its archaeological provenance
• Cultural background: The religious, social, and political world in which the text functioned
• Literary analysis: The text’s structure, genre, and artistic features
• Comparative notes: Connections to other ancient Near Eastern or biblical texts
• Translation philosophy: Choices made in rendering ancient languages into modern English

The translations aim for a middle path between literal accuracy and literary quality. Where the original uses repetitive formulas or archaic grammar, the English tries to convey something of this flavor without becoming unreadable. Technical terms are explained, obscure references clarified, and gaps in damaged tablets indicated.

This approach reflected early 20th-century scholarly standards—more accessible than specialist academic publications but more rigorous than popular retellings. The goal was to let educated readers encounter these texts as literature and thought, not just as archaeological artifacts.

Significance and Impact

The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East represented a landmark in making world literature accessible to Western audiences. At a time when travel was difficult and access to foreign texts limited, these volumes brought the literary treasures of distant civilizations into American and European homes.

For comparative religion, the series provided primary sources for understanding different spiritual traditions, enabling scholars and interested readers to move beyond secondhand descriptions to direct engagement with texts. This fostered more sophisticated and respectful understanding of non-Western religions.

For literary studies, the collection demonstrated that great literature existed across all civilizations and time periods—epic poetry, philosophical reflection, legal reasoning, and spiritual searching weren’t unique to the European tradition but represented universal human capacities.

The volumes also served educational purposes. Teachers could assign selections to illustrate points about ancient history, world religions, or comparative mythology. Students could access primary sources that previously required specialized library collections or knowledge of ancient languages.

Critical Perspective and Limitations

From a contemporary viewpoint, the series reflects both the achievements and limitations of early 20th-century scholarship:

Strengths:

• Made important texts accessible when few translations existed
• Assembled leading scholars for each civilization
• Provided historical and cultural context alongside texts
• Demonstrated respect for non-Western intellectual traditions
• Pioneered comparative study of world literature and religion

Limitations:

• The very concept of “the East” lumps together diverse civilizations with little in common beyond not being European
• Some translations are dated, superseded by better understanding of languages and contexts
• The selection of texts sometimes reflects Western interests more than the priorities of the cultures themselves
• Limited attention to social history, women’s voices, or non-elite perspectives
• The framing sometimes implies an evolutionary view of religion from “primitive” to “advanced”

Modern scholars have produced more accurate translations, uncovered more texts, and developed more sophisticated interpretive frameworks. Yet Horne’s collection remains valuable as a historical document showing how early 20th-century Western scholars encountered and presented Eastern civilizations.

Legacy and Continued Relevance

The series went through multiple reprintings and remained in use for decades. Its influence extended beyond scholarship to popular culture—writers, artists, and educators drew inspiration from the texts it made accessible. The Epic of Gilgamesh, relatively unknown in 1917, became recognized as a foundational work of world literature partly through collections like this.

For contemporary readers, the volumes offer:

• Primary source access: Translations of important texts, even if sometimes superseded by more recent versions
• Historical perspective: Insight into how early 20th-century scholars understood ancient civilizations
• Comparative material: Texts for comparing across cultures and traditions
• Literary appreciation: Encounter with great works of ancient literature

The project also represents an important moment in American intellectual history—the effort to create a culturally literate public with access to world civilization’s heritage, reflecting Progressive Era confidence in education and human improvement.

This Edition and Digital Access

This digitized edition from the Internet Archive preserves the 1917 publication, making it freely available to anyone with internet access. The survival and accessibility of such works allows new generations to engage with both ancient texts and the history of their interpretation.

For students of ancient Near Eastern literature, comparative religion, or the history of scholarship, this volume provides valuable material. For general readers interested in humanity’s earliest literary achievements, it offers an entry point to Mesopotamian civilization’s intellectual legacy.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Code of Hammurabi, Babylonian creation myths, and Assyrian royal inscriptions remain relevant not as relics but as living texts that continue to speak to fundamental human concerns—justice and law, mortality and meaning, power and responsibility, chaos and order. Through Horne’s collection, these voices from humanity’s distant past remain audible in the present.