When was the first description of PTSD recorded? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

The earliest mention (direct or otherwise) I can think of is Sophocles’ Ajax, written in the 5th century BCE. Here are a couple of block quotes from the Trevelyan translation, which is openly available on the MIT Classics database.

ATHENA

'Twas I restrained him, casting on his eyes 
O'ermastering notions of that baneful ecstasy, 
That turned his rage on flocks and mingled droves 
Of booty yet unshared, guarded by herdsmen. 
Then plunging amid the thronging horns he slew, 
Smiting on all sides; and one while he fancied 
The Atreidae were the captives he was slaughtering, 
Now 'twas some other chief on whom he fell. 
And I, while thus he raved in maniac throes, 
Urged him on, drove him into the baleful toils. 
Thereafter, when he had wearied of such labours, 
He bound with thongs such oxen as yet lived, 
With all the sheep, and drove them to his tents, 
As though his spoil were men, not horned cattle. 
Now lashed together in the hut he tortures them. 
But to thee too will I expose this madness, 
That seeing thou mayst proclaim it to all the Greeks. 
Boldly await him here, nor apprehend 
Mischance; for I will turn aside his eyes, 
Foiling his vision lest he see thy face.

And also, first describing what Ajax canonically did as far as ridiculous carnage goes, and then what kind of hell it wrought on his psyche, we have Tecmessa:

TECMESSA

 How to utter a tale of unspeakable things! 
For disastrous as death is the hap you will hear. 
In the darkness of night madness has seized 
Our glorious Ajax: he is ruined and lost. 
Hereof in the tent may proof be seen; 
Sword-slain victims in their own blood bathed, 
By his hand sacrificially slaughtered.

...

Yet hope we: for ceased is the lightning's flash:
His rage dies down like a fierce south-wind. 
But now, grown sane, new misery is his; 
For on woes self-wrought he gazes aghast, 
Wherein no hand but his own had share; 
And with anguish his soul is afflicted

TL;DR of Ajax’s role in the Iliad:

Telamonian Ajax (or “Great Ajax,” because of course there were two of them) duels Hector, and he’s winning when Zeus basically calls it off. About seven books later, Ajax meets Hector and throws a giant rock at him, almost killing him. Then when Apollo restores Hector to his original strength, a la Pokemon, Hector returns to attack the Greek ships, and Ajax, wielding a giant spear, jumps around like a monkey on a particularly potent stimulant, keeping the Trojans at bay basically all on his lonesome. Next book, Hector and Ajax duel (yes, again). Hector disarms Ajax, Ajax retreats. Hector burns one Greek ship. Ajax kills a bunch of Trojan lords. When (spoiler alert) Achilles dies, Ajax and Odysseus fight the Trojans to get his body; Ajax drives off the Trojans and Odysseus pinches the goods. Odysseus and Ajax both want Achilles’ armor; Odysseus gets it because Odysseus is…Odysseus. Ajax, in a fit of pique, falls upon his own sword. Here endeth Homer.

Then we enter Sophocles territory, which I’ve touched on above; to sum up, Ajax is very much not pleased with Achilles’ armor being given to Odysseus (who, by all accounts, is a bit of a…yeah). Ajax decides the best idea here is to kill Agamemnon and Menelaus. Athena clouds his mind and vision to stop him murdering people; Ajax goes and slaughters a flock of sheep as catharsis, imagining that they’re a bunch of the Achaean leaders (among them Odysseus and Agamemnon). When he comes down from the high, he’s covered in blood and feels like he’s dishonored himself. So he kills himself rather than live in shame.

Ajax exhibits a lot of PTSD symptoms before (spoiler alert if you ignored Homer) falling on his sword at the end of the tragedy. There have been several academic papers on the subject of Sophocles’ portrayal of PTSD and of Ajax in general (Knox, “The Ajax of Sophocles”; Golder, "Sophocles’ Ajax: Beyond the Shadow of Time”; Gasti, “Sophocles’ ‘Ajax’: The Military Hybris” numbering among them).

I’m sure there are earlier portrayals, but Ajax is both the person and the work that springs to mind most readily.

Edit: Made the grammar slightly less horrid.