Mouseiaan open library of the ancient world

The ancient world, alive again.

Step into complete works in their own languages, and read them beside two new translations made straight from the source: one written as literature, one in plain English.

The opening of The Histories

Ἡροδότου Ἁλικαρνησσέος ἱστορίης ἀπόδεξις ἥδε, ὡς μήτε τὰ γενόμενα ἐξ ἀνθρώπων τῷ χρόνῳ ἐξίτηλα γένηται, μήτε ἔργα μεγάλα τε καὶ θωμαστά, τὰ μὲν Ἕλλησι τὰ δὲ βαρβάροισι ἀποδεχθέντα, ἀκλεᾶ γένηται, τά τε ἄλλα καὶ διʼ ἣν αἰτίην ἐπολέμησαν ἀλλήλοισι.
Read the whole work beside the Ancient Greek

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Where to begin

The HistoriesThe first great work of history: Croesus and Cyrus, the pyramids, the Scythian steppe, and the Persian invasions of Greece.Start reading AtlantisThe only ancient source for the island empire beyond the Pillars of Heracles, told to Solon by the priests of Egypt.Start reading HomerBoth epics complete, line for line beside the Greek: the wrath of Achilles and the long voyage home.Start reading The Judgment of the DeadIn the Hall of the Two Truths the dead declare, wrong by wrong, that they have lived rightly.Start reading The Magicians of PharaohA wax crocodile that comes alive, a lake folded in two, a severed head set back on its body, and the birth of the first kings of the Fifth Dynasty.Start reading The First SurgeonsA 3,600-year-old trauma manual: examine, diagnose, treat, case by case from the skull to the spine, with the honest verdict “an ailment not to be treated.”Start reading The AlchemistsChina's oldest treatise on the elixir, the furnace manual of Ge Hong, and the Song poems that turned the laboratory inward.Start reading The Vision of HermesA being of pure light appears to a seeker and tells how the cosmos and humankind came to be, and how the soul climbs back through the seven spheres.Start reading

Explore by world

133 complete works across 12 traditions

European41 worksStatecraft, philosophy, and satire from Renaissance, Enlightenment, and nineteenth-century EuropeLeviathanThe PrinceThe Social Contract (Du contrat social)Egyptian20 worksHymns, funerary spells, and tales from the Nile — our flagship corpusThe Contendings of Horus and SethThe Book of the Heavenly CowGreat Hymn to the AtenHindu17 worksVedas, Upanishads, and the great epicsBhagavad GitaYoga Sutras of PatanjaliRigvedaGreek13 worksEpic, lyric, and philosophy from HellasThe HistoriesThe IliadRepublicAlchemy11 worksThe elixir treatises of China, the Hermetic revelations, and the Emerald TabletThe Emerald TabletThe Poimandres (Corpus Hermeticum I)Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen Pian)Chinese10 worksClassics, poetry, and wisdom from the Chinese canonJourney to the WestDaodejingI Ching (Book of Changes)Roman9 worksHistory, poetry, and statecraft from RomeLaelius on FriendshipOn the Shortness of LifeMeditationsAmerican Founding7 worksDeclarations, letters, essays, and statecraft from the founding generationCommon SenseRights of ManFarewell AddressArabic2 worksRevelation, poetry, and philosophy from the Arabic worldThe Muʿallaqa of Imruʾ al-QaysAli Baba and the Forty ThievesBuddhist1 workSutras of the Buddhist canon, from India and ChinaDiamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra)Persian1 workEpic and mystic verse from IranThe Gāthās of ZarathushtraSlavic1 workChronicles, sermons, and tales of Kyivan Rus' and the Slavic worldThe Primary Chronicle (The Tale of Bygone Years)

Essential reading

See all 133
See all 133

Wisdom & philosophy

Teachings, dialogues and arguments about how to live.

See all 46
See all 46

Sacred & ritual

Scripture, funerary texts, myth and rites.

See all 24
See all 24

History & statecraft

Chronicles, campaigns, laws and the making of states.

See all 23
See all 23

Stories & epics

Tales, epics and novels: the oldest plots still worth reading.

See all 17
See all 17

Science & alchemy

Medicine, natural philosophy and the alchemical tradition.

See all 15
See all 15

Poetry & hymns

Lyric, hymns, love songs and the music of the ancient world.

See all 8
See all 8

New in the library

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See the newest

How every work is brought back

  1. The original, complete. A named scholarly edition, kept whole beside every translation so any line can be checked.
  2. A Musean edition. A new literary translation made directly from the original, faithful to its sense and its music.
  3. A Plain English edition. A second, independent translation in everyday language. Simpler, never shorter.
  4. Checked against the source. Every edition keeps the source's divisions and passes review.

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Scholars, students and AI agents can add complete translations through the site or the public API. Every submission is made from a public-domain original and attested as new work.