Fantasy has its roots in pre-historic times, when the ancients started making up stories around the tribal fires. Most of these stories are now lost, but some may have been adapted by the Greeks to create their mythology, in with fantasy has its roots.
Mythology itself is in some ways very different from fantasy and in some ways surprisingly similar. Many modern fantasy writers have truly been "world creators," and their stories often feel more like mythology than fantasy. The distinguishing characteristic of mythology is that it was at some time the basis for a religion (in this case the Greek religion), and generally concerns gods, the making of the world, and the doings of great heroes, most of whom come from whichever culture created the mythos. (A very interesting exercise in opposite viewpoints is to read The Odyssey and then The Aeneid!) In most cases, the gods will often get mixed up in the doings of petty man, and this is how many of the heroes get their powers. In the case of the Greek myths, all of this is true.
The place where fantasy really began to spring up, however, was in the epics. These were the first real stories, passed down orally from generation to generation, in a poem format. There are two major Greek epics: The Iliad and The Odyssey. Both of them inspired many great fantasy writers of later centuries. They continue the same story, The Iliad being the tale of the Greek siege of Troy and The Odyssey being the story of one man’s return home from that war, Odysseus. Homer, who wrote both of these masterpieces, seems to outdo himself on The Odyssey; at any rate it is the better of the two.Mythology
Tribal Campfires and the Roots of Fantasy
The Epics
After the Greeks, mythology continued with the Romans, who adapted the Greek gods and heroes and told the stories from their own point of view. The last epic was written by a Roman poet named Virgil at the request of the Emperor Augustus, and some have theorized that the massive job led to his demise. The Aeneid tells the story of a man named Aeneas, a refugee from Troy who goes on to found the Roman people. Needless to say, in this tale the Greeks are portrayed not as glorious conquerors but as brutal oppressors!
Mythology, of course, sprung up independently in many other places. Around this same time the Mesopotamian mythology was flourishing, as were many mythologies in the Far East. The last great mythology, which took a great step towards fantasy, was the Viking mythology, one of the few to include a vision of the world’s end!
Boewulf, the great poemThe greatest achievement of this tradition, however, was to bring rise to the amazing poem Beowulf, written in Old English, which is practically a foreign language (think recognizing one word out of one thousand). Translated into modern English, this tells the story of Beowulf, a hero who slays the monster Grendel and his wicked mother. This tale has many elements in common with modern fantasy-a magic sword, a hero with apparently superhuman powers, incredible monsters, and even a dragon-and directly inspired J.R.R. Tolkien when he wrote The Lord of the Rings (much Norse mythology dealt with magic rings, as well).