I've been reading a lot of superhero stuff and I was thinking about their origins historically in fiction. I know that ancient heroes like Achilles and Hercules could be considered superheroes, but is there an earlier writing of a fictional superhero? If possible, do we know of the definitive 'first' fictional writing abouy a superhero?
Thanks for the interesting question. Since a lot of literature was oral, we will probably not get to know about the 'first' fictional superhero.
I am guessing every culture has a superhero tradition. For example the Indian epics 'Ramayana' and 'Mahabharata' have superheroes--Ram is worshiped as a God. There is of course the Celtic legend of King Arthur. Hang Tuah in Malaysia and Mulan in China are examples of superheroes. These superheroes are said to be historical characters.
The Persian legend of Amir Hamza, that spread to India and was told orally, as far as I can make out, is an early superhero fictional character. Since this phenomenon was clearly "branded" as "stories", it seems to be one of the early cases of a fictional superhero - however though it was fictional, it was not writing.
Here is an interesting book review: http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/hLyWRVp5NrHBLKxufjgWCO/Oral-narratives-of-trickery-and-fantasy.html