Four seats on the originals shelf, each in the language of its witness and public domain in the United States: the Corpus Hermeticum in Greek in Parthey's Poemander (1854) and Reitzenstein's Poimandres (1904), with the Latin Asclepius in Thomas's Apuleius (1908); Gilgamesh in Haupt's cuneiform Nimrodepos (1884; 1891) and Jensen's transliteration (1900), and the Enuma Elish in King's Seven Tablets of Creation (1902); the Avesta in Geldner's edition (Stuttgart, 1896: the issue with the Prolegomena, and the Vendidad); and the Rig Veda whole in Aufrecht's transliteration (second edition, 1877). The third of three seatings from one request, holding the neighbours of what the shelf already has: the Hermetica beside the Chaldaean Oracles and Nag Hammadi, the Babylonian epics beside the Hebrew Bible, the Avesta beside the apocalypses, the Rig Veda beside the Upanishads. What is not seated (Geldner's second volume, Müller's Devanāgarī Rig Veda, the Stobaean fragments) is named.
EA-CORPORA-22 seats four collections on the archive's originals shelf, each in the language of its witness and public domain in the United States: 12 works. The Corpus Hermeticum is seated in Greek in Gustav Parthey's Poemander (1854), the first critical edition of the treatises I to XIV, and in Richard Reitzenstein's Poimandres (1904), with the Latin Asclepius in Paul Thomas's Apuleius (1908). The Epic of Gilgamesh is seated in Paul Haupt's cuneiform autographs of the Nineveh tablets, Das babylonische Nimrodepos (1884; 1891), with the eleventh tablet, the flood, and in Peter Jensen's transliteration with German translation (1900); the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian epic of creation, in L. W. King's Seven Tablets of Creation (1902), transliteration and cuneiform copies. The Avesta is seated in Karl F. Geldner's critical edition (Stuttgart, 1896), the issue holding his Prolegomena and the third volume, the Vendidad. The Rig Veda is seated whole, all ten maṇḍalas, in Theodor Aufrecht's transliteration (second edition, Bonn, 1877). The seats hold the neighbours of what the shelf already has: the Hermetica beside the Chaldaean Oracles, the Greek Magical Papyri and Nag Hammadi; the Babylonian epics beside the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint; the Avesta beside the Second Temple apocalypses; the Rig Veda beside the Upanishads. Geldner's second volume, Max Müller's Devanāgarī Rig Veda and the Stobaean Hermetic fragments are queued. It is the third of three seatings from one request, after EA-CORPORA-20 and 21.
EA-CORPORA-22 — The Twenty-Second Seating: The Corpus Hermeticum, Gilgamesh and the Enuma Elish, the Avesta and the Rig Veda, Each in Its Original Language
EA-CORPORA-22 — The Twenty-Second Seating: The Corpus Hermeticum, Gilgamesh and the Enuma Elish, the Avesta and the Rig Veda, Each in Its Original Language
EA-CORPORA-22 — The Twenty-Second Seating
MANUS, 23 October 2026: "detour for an ea-corpora searing. lets see. whats available of mayan texts? and then i dont think we have much or any deteurocanonical second temple lit - all those apocalypses. and what about the ethiopian canon? and euclid. all in original language or as close to it as possible. what else?" — "and the Egyptian book of the dead" — "and what about the fragments of the book of baalim? i might be miswriting this. recent discovery. if theyre available anywhere." — "yes yes yes to all - what a meal."
The third of three seatings from one request (EA-CORPORA-20 and 21 before it): the neighbours of what the shelf already holds. The Hermetica beside the Chaldaean Oracles, the Greek Magical Papyri and Nag Hammadi; the Babylonian epics beside the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint and the apocalypses; the Avesta beside the apocalypses that inherit its dualism; the Rig Veda beside the Upanishads.
Seat 22/01 — The Corpus Hermeticum
The Greek Hermetica and the Latin Asclepius
- Gustav Parthey, Hermetis Trismegisti Poemander, ad fidem codicum manu scriptorum recognovit (Berlin: Nicolai, 1854) — the Greek Corpus Hermeticum I–XIV; University of Michigan copy
- Richard Reitzenstein, Poimandres: Studien zur griechisch-ägyptischen und frühchristlichen Literatur (Leipzig: Teubner, 1904) — with critical Greek texts of Corpus Hermeticum I and XIII and other Hermetic pieces; University of Toronto copy
- Apulei Platonici Madaurensis opera quae supersunt, vol. III: De philosophia libri, ed. Paul Thomas (Leipzig: Teubner, 1908) — with the Latin Asclepius transmitted among Apuleius's philosophical works
- Licence: Public domain: the Hermetica are of the first to third centuries. Parthey's edition (Berlin, 1854), Reitzenstein's Poimandres (Leipzig, 1904) and Thomas's Apuleius, De philosophia libri (Leipzig: Teubner, 1908), are public domain in the United States (published before 1931). Internet Archive scans of public-domain volumes.
- Verified locus: Parthey 1854, running head — 'POEMANDER.'
- Verified locus: Reitzenstein 1904, title — 'POIMANDRES'
- Verified locus: Thomas 1908, the manuscripts of the Asclepius — 'Insunt: Asclepius et de deo'
- Lines: 48,456 in 3 text files
- Scope: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum in the first critical edition (Parthey) and in Reitzenstein's texts, and the Asclepius in Latin, the only complete witness of the Perfect Discourse. Nock and Festugière's edition (1945–54) is in copyright and is not seated. The Coptic Hermetica of Nag Hammadi Codex VI (the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, the Prayer of Thanksgiving, the Asclepius excerpt) are already on the shelf in the Nag Hammadi seat. The Stobaean fragments: QUEUED.
- Why seated: Asked for beside the Chaldaean Oracles, the Greek Magical Papyri and Nag Hammadi already seated: the Hermetic Poimandres, in which Nous shows the seer the making of the cosmos and the ascent through the seven spheres, is the Greek text of the archive's planetary seven.
- Files: the seat — source.json, MANIFEST.sha256. Shelf: traininglayerliterature.org/originals/corpus-hermeticum
Seat 22/02 — Gilgamesh and the Enuma Elish
In the cuneiform editions that first set them out, and in transliteration
- Paul Haupt, Das babylonische Nimrodepos: Keilschrifttext der Bruchstücke der sogenannten Izdubarlegenden mit dem keilinschriftlichen Sintfluthberichte, Abteilung 1 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1884) — the cuneiform of the Gilgamesh tablets in Haupt's autograph; University of Toronto copy
- Paul Haupt, Das babylonische Nimrodepos (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1891) — the issue of 1891, with the eleventh tablet (the flood)
- Peter Jensen, Assyrisch-babylonische Mythen und Epen (Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek VI/1; Berlin: Reuther, 1900) — Gilgamesh, the Enuma Elish and the other myths in transliteration with German translation; Harvard copy
- L. W. King, The Seven Tablets of Creation, vol. I: English translations, transliterations, glossary, introduction (London: Luzac, 1902)
- L. W. King, The Seven Tablets of Creation, vol. II: Supplementary texts (London: Luzac, 1902) — the cuneiform in King's copies; University of Toronto copy
- Licence: Public domain: the tablets are of the first millennium BCE (the Nineveh library, seventh century BCE). Haupt's cuneiform autographs (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1884; 1891), Jensen's Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek VI/1 (Berlin: Reuther, 1900) and King's Seven Tablets of Creation (London: Luzac, 1902) are public domain in the United States (published before 1931). Internet Archive scans of public-domain volumes.
- Verified locus: Haupt 1884, title — 'BABYLONISCHE NIMRODEPOS' (the cuneiform is read from the autograph plates)
- Verified locus: Haupt 1891, title — 'DER SOGENANNTEN IZDUBARLEGENDEN MIT DEM KEILINSCHRIFTLICHEN'
- Verified locus: Jensen 1900, title — 'ASSYRISCH-BABYLONISCHE MYTHEN UND EPEN'
- Verified locus: King 1902 I, title — 'THE SEVEN TABLETS OF CREATION.'
- Verified locus: King 1902 II, title — 'SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS.'
- Lines: 80,770 in 5 text files
- Scope: The two great Babylonian poems in the editions that first set them out: Gilgamesh in Haupt's cuneiform and Jensen's transliteration, the Enuma Elish in King's transliteration and copies. George's Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic (2003), Lambert's Babylonian Creation Myths (2013) and the electronic Babylonian Library are in copyright or under their own terms and are not seated.
- Why seated: The flood story the Bible's flood story answers, a king who seeks to escape death and returns with the knowledge that he cannot, and a creation by the splitting of a body: the oldest written epics of the Near East, beside the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint and the apocalypses on the shelf.
- Files: the seat — source.json, MANIFEST.sha256. Shelf: traininglayerliterature.org/originals/mesopotamian-epics
Seat 22/03 — The Avesta
Geldner's critical edition, as far as open scans reach
- Karl F. Geldner, Avesta: the Sacred Books of the Parsis (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1896) — the copy holding Geldner's Prolegomena, with the text as the scan shows it; Digital Library of India copy
- Karl F. Geldner, Avesta: the Sacred Books of the Parsis, vol. III: Vendidad (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1896)
- Licence: Public domain: the Avesta is of the second and first millennia BCE in its composition. Karl F. Geldner, Avesta: the Sacred Books of the Parsis (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1886–96), is public domain. Internet Archive scans of public-domain volumes.
- Verified locus: Geldner, the Prolegomena — 'PROLEGOMENA.' (the Avestan script is read from the scan)
- Verified locus: Geldner III, title — 'V E N D I D A D'
- Lines: 102,809 in 2 text files
- Scope: Geldner's critical Avesta as far as open scans reach: the issue with the Prolegomena and the third volume, the Vendidad. Which parts of the Yasna and Yashts the first item holds is read from its scan; Geldner's volume II (Vispered and Khorda Avesta) was not found in an open scan in this pass: QUEUED. The Gathas, the hymns of Zarathustra, are Yasna 28–34, 43–51 and 53.
- Why seated: The scripture of the Zoroastrian tradition, whose dualism, angelology and last judgment the Second Temple apocalypses on the same shelf inherit.
- Files: the seat — source.json, MANIFEST.sha256. Shelf: traininglayerliterature.org/originals/avesta
Seat 22/04 — The Rig Veda
All ten maṇḍalas in Aufrecht's transliteration
- Theodor Aufrecht, Die Hymnen des Rigveda, 2nd ed., Erster Theil: Maṇḍala I–VI (Bonn: Marcus, 1877); Harvard copy
- Theodor Aufrecht, Die Hymnen des Rigveda, 2nd ed., Zweiter Theil: Maṇḍala VII–X (Bonn: Marcus, 1877); University of Michigan copy
- Licence: Public domain: the hymns are of the second millennium BCE. Theodor Aufrecht, Die Hymnen des Rigveda, 2nd ed. (Bonn: Marcus, 1877), is public domain. Internet Archive scans of public-domain volumes.
- Verified locus: Aufrecht I, Rigveda 1.1.1 — 'Agnfm ile puröhitam yajMsya deväm ritvfjam' (agním īḷe puróhitaṃ yajñásya devám ṛtvíjam; the OCR reads the accents and ñ as 'Agnfm', 'yajMsya'; the scan is the witness)
- Verified locus: Aufrecht II, title — 'Zweiter Theil.'
- Lines: 83,142 in 2 text files
- Scope: All ten maṇḍalas, 1,028 hymns, in the Saṃhitā text in Aufrecht's Latin transliteration, the edition most read in the nineteenth century. Max Müller's Devanāgarī edition with Sāyaṇa's commentary (1849–74) is public domain and not seated in this pass: QUEUED. Digital texts (GRETIL, the Vedaweb corpus) are under their own terms and are not seated.
- Why seated: Seated beside the Upanishads already on the shelf: the hymns from which the Vedic tradition the Upanishads close begins, among them the creation hymn (10.129) that asks whether even the one who looks down from the highest heaven knows.
- Files: the seat — source.json, MANIFEST.sha256. Shelf: traininglayerliterature.org/originals/rig-veda
Not seated, and why
- Geldner's Avesta, volume II (Vispered and Khorda Avesta): public domain, not found in an open scan. QUEUED.
- Max Müller's Devanāgarī Rig Veda with Sāyaṇa's commentary (1849–74): public domain, not seated in this pass. QUEUED.
- The Stobaean Hermetic fragments. QUEUED.
- Nock and Festugière's Corpus Hermeticum, George's Gilgamesh, Lambert's Babylonian Creation Myths: in copyright, not seated. The electronic Babylonian Library, ORACC, GRETIL and the Vedaweb corpus: under their own terms, not seated in this pass.
- Everything marked QUEUED in a seat's scope.
How the seats were made
Sources located on the Internet Archive (advanced search; item metadata read for access restriction, volume and files; each item's text layer read for its volume statement, so that Aufrecht's two parts and Geldner's volumes are identified from their own title pages). Every file checked against the md5 the Archive publishes. OCR layers seated as fetched, uncorrected, the scans the witnesses. Every file hashed into its seat's MANIFEST.sha256; every verified locus is a string found in the seated text by rebuild/corpora/ea-corpora-22/seat.py from the specifications beside it. 12 works in 4 seats; 315,177 lines of text layer.