The Library
1780 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
1000–901 BC
2 works
c. 1200–900 BC; date heavily disputed
Avestan
Zarathustra
Seventeen hymns in the prophet's own voice, addressed to a single wise lord who created light and darkness and set two primal spirits at the beginning, one choosing truth and one the lie — and every person after them choosing too. At the end comes a judgement by fire and molten metal, and a world made fresh.
c. 1000 BC
Akkadian
Saggil-kinam-ubbib
An acrostic dialogue in twenty-seven stanzas between a sufferer and his friend. The sufferer says the godless prosper and the pious starve; the friend defends the order of things; and by the end the friend concedes that the gods gave humanity crooked speech and lies from the beginning.
2 of 1780 works