Buzz
For centuries, human expression has been recorded on surfaces like walls, scrolls, and tablets, often through etching or painting. While numerous significant creations have endured, countless others have vanished over time. As historians reconstruct our past, the scale of what has been lost becomes increasingly evident.
10. The Vanished Dramas of Ancient Athens
Euripides, a renowned tragedian from Athens, is celebrated for his dramatic works. Although time has erased many of Athens' literary treasures, 19 of Euripides' plays have endured. It is estimated that he composed between 92 and 95 plays, leaving the majority lost to history.
Sophocles, another prominent Athenian playwright, is best known for works like Oedipus The King. Out of the 120 plays he is believed to have written, only seven have survived intact, with mere fragments remaining of the others. Despite being Athens' most acclaimed dramatist, the loss of so much of his work means we can only speculate on the full scope of his and Euripides' genius.
9. Homer’s Margites
Most of us are acquainted with Homer’s Iliad and The Odyssey, but fewer know of an earlier work titled Margites, which has been lost to time. References in other ancient texts describe it as a humorous mock-epic centered on a foolish man named Margites, whose ignorance was so profound that he couldn’t determine whether his mother or father had birthed him. Margites also avoided intimacy with his wife, fearing she might complain about him to his mother.
Aristotle once described Homer’s Margites as ” . . . an analogy: as the Iliad and Odyssey relate to tragedies, so does the Margites to comedies.” Only five fragments mentioning the original text have been discovered, including references by Plato and Aristotle, but none of the actual work has survived.
875. Percent Of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita
Titus Livius, widely known as Livy, stands as one of Rome’s most esteemed historians. His magnum opus, Ab Urbe Condita, chronicles the history of Rome in Latin, penned between 27 and 9 BC. This work is invaluable to historians, particularly for its surviving sections that document the reign of Emperor Augustus, a period Livy personally witnessed and recorded.
Out of the original 142 volumes, 107 have been lost over time. Among the missing books were accounts of the Eastern wars and conflicts with Macedonia spanning 201–167 BC. This era, which comprised the majority of the lost material, is now entirely absent. Today, only books 1–10 and 21–45 remain in any form, leaving the rest to history’s mysteries.
7. Shakespeare’s Cardenio
Shakespeare enthusiasts are well aware of the missing play Love’s Labour’s Won, a follow-up to Love’s Labour’s Lost. However, this isn’t the only work by Shakespeare that has vanished. Another, titled Cardenio, performed in 1613, has never been recovered. Evidence of its existence comes from a 1653 entry in the Royal Stationers’ Register, which records a payment to the King’s Men, a London theater troupe, for a play attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Despite this, no surviving copy of the play has ever been found.
Scholars speculate that Cardenio was inspired by a segment in Cervantes’s Don Quixote, featuring a character with the same name. In the absence of the original play, researchers have scrutinized Shakespeare’s notes and manuscripts. Two existing plays are thought to have connections to Cardenio, but the actual text remains elusive.
7. Cicero’s Hortensius
Cicero’s Hortensius is a philosophical dialogue named in honor of his friend and statesman, Quintus Hortensius Hortalus. Although the text endured until the sixth century, it has since been lost, leaving behind only fragments and mentions. The dialogue features a conversation among Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, Quintus Lutatius Catulus, and Lucius Licinius Lucullus, set in Lucullus’s villa.
The text emphasizes that true happiness is achieved through the pursuit of philosophy and was widely celebrated in its era. While fragments of the work have been conserved and are accessible online, the complete dialogue remains lost to history.
5. Confucius’s Classic Of Music
The Classic of Music, a Confucian text, was lost during either the Han or Qin Dynasty in China. Its disappearance may be linked to the infamous burning of books and burying of scholars in 213 BC, when the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty ordered the destruction of Confucian texts and the execution of 460 Confucian scholars by burying them alive.
Although Classic of Music was likely lost during this period, references to it persist in other ancient works. The text is thought to have been a significant commentary on the Book of Songs, another compilation by Confucius, potentially making it the sixth entry in his renowned “Five Classics.”
4. Sozomen’s History Of The Christian Church
Sozomen, a notable historian of the Christian Church, is celebrated for two major works. His first, a 12-volume history covering the period from Jesus' ascension to Licinius's defeat in 323, has been entirely lost. His second work, the only one surviving, spans nine books, with the final volume incomplete. This surviving text chronicles the era from Constantine I's conversion in 213 to the rise of Valentinian III in 425 AD.
The disappearance of Sozomen’s initial 12 books, which detailed the growth of Christianity after Jesus' persecution and death, creates a major void in understanding the early Church's evolution. No copies or fragments of these lost volumes are known to exist today.
3. Edward Gibbon’s History Of The Liberty Of The Swiss
Edward Gibbon, a renowned 18th-century British historian, is best known for his magnum opus, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which remains a cornerstone for Roman scholars. However, another significant work of his was tragically destroyed by his own hand.
While working on his Roman history, Gibbon shifted focus to the Swiss, composing several chapters in French. After presenting these at a London literary society and facing harsh criticism, he returned home and burned his nearly finished manuscript for the History of the Liberty of the Swiss. He then resumed and completed his Roman studies, but his work on the Swiss was lost forever. Given the brilliance of his Roman history, the world was deprived of what might have been another monumental historical work.
2. John Milton’s Adam Unparadiz’d
John Milton’s Paradise Lost, a masterpiece of English literature, may have been inspired by his earlier, unfinished work, Adam Unparadiz’d. Milton began drafting Adam Unparadiz’d in the early 1640s as a theatrical play but likely abandoned it when the Puritans shut down London’s theaters. Only two acts were written, both of which are now lost, though his notes and outlines have survived.
Based on the surviving materials, the story seems to closely resemble Paradise Lost. After setting aside Adam Unparadiz’d, Milton likely channeled his efforts into the epic 10,000-line poem, creating one of the greatest literary works of all time. Interestingly, Paradise Lost was later adapted into an opera in 1674, fulfilling Milton’s original vision of bringing the story to the stage.
1. Jean Racine’s Amasie
Jean Racine, one of the most celebrated French playwrights of the 17th century, drew inspiration from ancient Greek tragedians. He is renowned for works like Alexandre le Grand, Esther, and Athalie, among others. However, his debut play, Amasie, has been lost to history.
Amasie was written and sold to the Bourgogne company, gaining support from actors, but it was rejected by the Theatre du Marais and never staged. Racine found success with his second play, Thebaide, which was produced by his friend Moliere in 1664. This production not only rescued him from debt but also launched his career. While all his subsequent works have survived, no trace of his first play remains.
+The Lost Doctor Who Episodes
In 1967, the BBC committed a grave error by purging 97 out of 253 episodes from the first six seasons of Doctor Who. Over the years, only a handful of these lost episodes have been recovered from various television studios worldwide, leaving 26 serials incomplete and numerous episodes from seasons three to five still missing. Thankfully, fan-made audio recordings of all the lost episodes exist, enabling their reconstruction through photographs or animations. However, the original broadcasts were all destroyed.
