# Earliest Horror Story **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [January 18, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285 "2024-01-18T18:37:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/21 "2024-01-19T02:11:56Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > > [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > > > I think that many biblical stories could qualify as horror stories. > > My understanding is that biblical stories were presented as truth. A good argument could be made that _some_ of the narratives found in the Bible were understood as fiction by their original audience. But it’s probably outside the scope of this thread to discuss which ones and why. I do _not_ think that any of the stories in the Bible count as horror stories in the narrow sense of being primarily intended to horrify—to produce fear or terror in their audience. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/22 "2024-01-19T02:14:13Z")
> [@Moonrise](#): > > Pretty much all the major Gothic novels precede Poe by over 50 years, and I’m sure they were written mainly to scare the reader. The “Gothic sensation tale” was well enough established by Poe’s time that he wrote parodies of them. > **[A Predicament](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Predicament)** > > "A Predicament" is a humorous short story by Edgar Allan Poe, usually combined with its companion piece "How to Write a Blackwood Article". It was originally titled "The Scythe of Time". The paired stories parody the Gothic sensation tale, popular in England and America since the early 19th century. > The bizarre story follows a female narrator, Signora Psyche Zenobia. While walking through "the goodly city of Edina" with her 5-inch-tall (130 mm) poodle and her 3-foot-tall (0.91 m) black servant,... ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/23 "2024-01-19T02:49:54Z")
Jane Austen wrote _Northanger Abbey_, which pokes fun at the gothic horror novel, 35 years before Poe published _A Predicament_. Gothic horror was a sufficiently established genre to be considered clichéd before Poe was even born, never mind before he started writing. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/24 "2024-01-19T04:26:37Z")
Damn, he was busy! ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/25 "2024-01-19T04:36:56Z")
The Epic of Gilgamesh had its horror aspects, and it’s the earliest known piece of fiction, isn’t it? So I’m going to guess that the earliest horror story came not long after the earliest story. Why wouldn’t people back then like scary stories? They seem to be pretty universal. Many tribal societies have monsters in their culture and scary stories to tell. I think they probably serve a purpose in social development, cultural cohesion, or something. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/26 "2024-01-19T04:41:57Z")
FWIW Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” was published in 1818. Poe didn’t get published till the late 1820’s (ten or so years later). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/27 "2024-01-19T04:42:18Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > My understanding is that biblical stories were presented as truth. Not at all. At least the Song of Solomon akak Song of Songs, was clearly not to be taken literally, It is a list of love songs. 4 _Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead._ _2 Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them._ _3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks._ _4 Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men._ _5 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies._ Breasts really arent literally like small deer. And having doves eyes? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/28 "2024-01-19T07:42:10Z")
Aesop had himself some fables. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/29 "2024-01-19T14:48:56Z")
Today is Edgar Allen Poe’s birthday. Not important…by coincidence my computer just told me. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/30 "2024-01-19T15:12:55Z")
If I had to pick a genre of story (other than creation stories) that almost certainly existed before the invention of writing, it would be Horror. Horror stories have great utility beyond mere entertainment. A storyteller can use the genre to greatly influence the behavior of his listeners (for good or ill) by scaring the shit out of them. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/31 "2024-01-19T16:07:47Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Today is Edgar Allen Poe’s birthday. Not important…by coincidence my computer just told me. Which means the annual [Poe Toaster](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe_Toaster) will need to dress warmly this year. (Not me: I’m no Poe Toaster, just a poetaster.) ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/32 "2024-01-19T16:48:30Z")
> [@UDS1](#): > > These are modern preoccupations. I was simply responding to digs who claimed that early Jews and Christians knew the Noah story wasn’t true. I disagree (I know people today who believe it) but was wondering aloud where he though the belief cutoff might be. > [@UDS1](#): > > there was no great angst about the fact that the scriptures present the world as flat (and, indeed, as having corners) when it was well-known, among educated people at any rate, that this is not so. Do we have written accounts that this is so? Because the only accounts I am aware of present the stories as truth and I assume believers believed. > [@UDS1](#): > > simplistic literal truth was never the point in the first place. And this is my pet peeve. If the Bible isn’t true then what good is it? If you are giving me stories to help me live my life, give me true ones and don’t just make stuff up. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/33 "2024-01-19T16:49:48Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Which means the annual [Poe Toaster](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe_Toaster) will need to dress warmly this year. Interesting! Thanks for the link, I wasn’t aware of the Toaster. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/34 "2024-01-19T17:59:12Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > If you are giving me stories to help me live my life, give me true ones and don’t just make stuff up. Why? Have you never read a novel, a poem or heard a song that helped you in your life while being fictitious? Because I have often, and the thought that only non-fiction works for giving guidance how to live a good life is very strange to me. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/35 "2024-01-19T18:10:01Z")
Scary stories have been around forever. I would suggest that a scary story, things that involve peril or suspense elements, are different from horror story that focuses on themes and atmosphere that are specifically designed to create extreme fear. I first thought of _Beowulf_ but then rejected it, because while a good storyteller could no doubt weave in some fear and suspense, it seems to me more of a heroism/good-and-evil tale. I would suggest that horror as a genre, with horror itself being the goal, as we currently understand it, is probably a modern invention with the first example being _Frankenstein_. Certainly that’s not the first scary story ever told, but safe to say it’s the first one in the age of the novel. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/36 "2024-01-19T20:47:54Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > (Not me: I’m no Poe Toaster, just a poetaster.) How does he taste? ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/37 "2024-01-19T20:58:29Z")
Ok. Ms. Aster. Write that poem. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/38 "2024-01-19T21:26:33Z")
Animula vagula blandula Like Hell has life gone to plandula Should I die before I wake I bet the Board will call me fake Un-foist your cares and have no fear Next you’ll be wanting egg in your beer ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/39 "2024-01-19T21:27:16Z")
Nice!! ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/earliest-horror-story/996285/40 "2024-01-19T21:31:32Z")
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