1st joke ever told!
Darren Maule uncovers a whole bunch of firsts, as well as the 1st joke ever told
1st play
“The Persians” is an ancient Greek tragedy written during the Classical period of Ancient Greece by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. It is the second and only surviving part of a now otherwise lost trilogy from the city of Athens’ Dionysian festival in 472 BCE.
This is a line from the oldest Play on record:
“For insolence, once blossoming bears its fruit, a bushel of doom, from which it reaps a tear-filled harvest.”
1st book
There has been verifiable writing since about the 3rd mil. BCE. These writings included the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, the books of the Pentateuch, and Sumerian poetry. It is very hard to date these definitively, so knowing which is "first" is difficult.
If we look at works still read today, many would say the Bible but No, the earliest surviving versions of the Bible and related scriptures date only to about 200 BCE. Known as the Septuagint and written in Greek. Other surviving versions are written in a combination of both Hebrew and Aramaic.
One of the earliest novel-like stories which survives (and is still read) today is the Epic of Gilgamesh, a Sumerian epic poem. The surviving version we have was written on clay tablets in the 7th century BCE, although the oral version certainly goes back much further. The epic is written in a form of writing called cuneiform, which is the earliest known (surviving) form of writing.
Here is one of the surviving tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh.
One of my favourite quotes from the oldest surviving books (Gilgamesh), could have been written today:
“How long does a building stand before it falls?
How long does a contract last? How long will brothers
share the inheritance before they quarrel?
How long does hatred, for that matter, last?
Time after time the river has risen and flooded.
The insect leaves the cocoon to live but a minute.
How long is the eye able to look at the sun?
From the very beginning nothing at all has lasted.”
1st piece of written music?
The earliest form of musical notation can be found in a cuneiform tablet that was created at Nippur, Sumer (today's Iraq) in about 2000 BC but controversy surrounds its interpretation.
But when it comes to music that you can hear today, (that has a written and easily interpreted text) surprisingly, it is
Carmina Burana; Latin for "Songs from Beuern" the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century.
Twenty-four poems in Carmina Burana were set to music by Carl Orff in 1936
Most will know it as the “Old Spice” Music
Here you can hear it and read the translation:
1st joke
Many sources report the first joke ever recorded must have been a Sumerian proverb (now South Iraq). It is said to be more than 3900 years old. The big question is, was it a fart joke?
Actually, yes it was! It goes like this:
‘‘Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap,”
Now if you have an issue with this 3900 year old lavatorial humour, please don’t complain to the BCCSA, rather take it up with the writer himself.
DSM