I'm writing an essay for my masters degree exploring horror and nostalgia. I'm currently looking into the routes of horror stories/myths/legends. Whilst I know some of the 'first' recorded stories/plays we have found are from Ancient Greece I was just wondering if the same could be said of stories of monsters and if so who would be considered to be the first?
I know there are many tales of the gods/goddesses themselves but who would be seen as the first monster? Would it be Typhon or Echidna, both, or am I missing another? Many thanks in advance.
The Epic of Gilgamesh has the monster Humbaba the Terrible, who could fit your definition of monster since he is not a god, is malevolent, and is meant to be frightening. Gilgamesh is considered the oldest surviving piece of literature (that isn't a religious text), so that would make Humbaba a good contender for the "oldest monster" that we know of, over a thousand years older than Homer's Odyssey.
"Gilgamesh spoke then: We go to kill the Evil One, Humbaba. We must prove ourselves more powerful than he.
Enkidu was afraid of the forest of Humbaba and urged him not to go, but he was not as strong as Gilgamesh in argument, and they were friends: They had embraced and made their vow to stay together always, no matter what the obstacle. Enkidu tried to hold his fear...
...Humbaba never sleeps. He is the guardian whom Enlil has commanded to protect the sacred trees by terror. I have learned his sound is like a flood's sound slowly forming in the distance, then enveloping all other sounds. Even the cries of animals cannot be heard. Trees are hushed, the wind still moves them back and forth but noiselessly. As when one senses violence gathering its force, soon there is no sound apart from it, not even one's own thoughts in terror. I have learned that from his mouth springs fire that scorches the earth and in a moment there is nothing left alive, no tree no insect, as in a dream that makes one wake and cry out of the pain one cannot find the source of, out of nothing; one wakes and everything has vanished. I have learned Humbaba is the face of death. He hears each insect crawling toward the edge of the forest; he twitches and it dies. Do you think he could not hear two men?"
From Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative by Herbert Mason, pages 27-29.
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