Sacred Texts Archive
sacred-texts.com
The largest freely available collection of texts relating to religion, mythology, folklore, and the occult, spanning dozens of traditions in multiple languages.
The Internet Sacred Text Archive is a large online library of religious, mythological, folklore and esoteric texts, organised by tradition and subject. It covers many faiths and cultures, with scripture, commentary, folk tales and occult writings that are in the public domain.
Recent versions of the site also promote an offline copy of the library on a USB drive and point to an older archive at archive.sacred-texts.com, so check which pages are free to read. It is a useful reference for students of religion and mythology and for anyone tracking down older translations.
Why it is useful
Provides a single searchable location for scriptures, commentaries, and comparative religion texts that would otherwise require access to academic libraries or expensive editions. For researchers in religious studies, anthropology, or mythology, having primary texts and early translations side by side without paywalls is genuinely rare. The breadth of traditions covered — from Zoroastrianism to indigenous oral traditions — is unmatched on the free web.
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