Probably the oldest story recorded is the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Written in cuneiform script on clay tablets around 2700 B.C., the stories revolve around the hero king Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu. The two friends undertake a series of difficult quests involving slaying monsters and travelling to places such as the underworld.
This was the first adventure/travel story.
The Egyptians were the next ones to explore literature. Around 1700 B.C. on scrolls, clay tablets, limestone carvings and even wooden boards, stories such as the legend of Isis and Osiris were recounted.
Osiris, the inventor of bread, beer and wine, and his sister Isis were children of the goddess Nut. In ancient Egyptian fashion they wed, and had a child, Horus.
Unfortunately their brother Seth was jealous and killed Osiris, by cutting him into pieces and sending him down the Nile in a coffin.
Isis went looking for her husband/brother and found all the body parts but one. She fashioned the missing part from gold and made him whole again.
Was this the first murder mystery perhaps? And there’s certainly a little bit of a romance at work here.
The fantastic myths of Ancient Greece, with their libidinous gods and goddesses, continue to fascinate us to this day. Written from 900 B.C. on, we know as much about these stories from actual written works as from decorations on pottery and carved friezes for buildings.
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey interest us as much today as they ever did. As recently as 2004 the movie Troy, loosely based on the Iliad and starring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom did very well at the box office.
Could this have been the first action and adventure tale or war story? Stories such as Oedipus Rex, written in 440 B.C. delved into the deepest recesses of the human psyche.
Was this the first tragic family drama? The Middle Eastern collection of stories called 1001 Nights continued the fascination with the fantastic, the magic and the unknowable.
The stories, told by Scheherazade to her king, include crime fiction, fantasy and travel stories. The collection, made up of pieces from a variety of cultures, Indian, Arabic, Egyptian and Mesopotamian among them date from the ninth century.
It includes such stories as Aladdin’s Magic Lamp and The 7 Voyages of Sinbad. Many of the better known pieces have been made recently into films or cartoons.
The word genre, which comes from the Latin genus meaning kind or sort, refers to a popular form of story familiar to readers. There may be similarities of theme, plot or character for which a reader, author or publisher has a preference.
What we’re seeing more and more of today is the odd marriage of two genres such as romance/vampire, or crime/werewolf, gay/cowboy or horror/history, even Alzheimer’s biography.
Good grief or good luck, it’s a cultural jungle out there!
