I had an interesting thought yesterday. I was pondering, what if some of the archaic literature we relied upon to document past events was actually fictional accounts intended to be read for leisure?
This prompted me to ask what ancient or medieval (preferably before the 15th century) do you know of? Some may describe The Iliad as historical fiction, what do you think.
P.S. Regarding fictional accounts mistook as historical, I found this enlightening discussion on reddit, libreddit link.
Modern genres don’t really apply to ancient literature. Mythical, historical, symbolic and real are mixed and you’re expected to be reading or listening to the literature from within the tradition which would give you the context for knowing which is which.
Beowulf is myth, but also history. It has references and genealogy to real figures, but it is embedded within a myth that records the meaning of that history. It’s full of symbolic retelling of that history.