20/03/2024
While some elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were a part of literature from its beginning, fantasy elements occur throughout ancient religious texts such as the Epic of Gilgamesh.[13] The ancient Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Eliš, in which the god Marduk slays the goddess Tiamat,[14] contains the theme of a cosmic battle between good and evil, which is characteristic of the modern fantasy genre.[14] Genres of romantic and fantasy literature existed in ancient Egypt.[15] The Tales of the Court of King Khufu, which is preserved in the Westcar Papyrus and was probably written in the middle of the second half of the eighteenth century BC, preserves a mixture of stories with elements of historical fiction, fantasy, and satire.[16][17] Egyptian funerary texts preserve mythological tales,[15] the most significant of which are the myths of Osiris and his son Horus.
