Cultures have been obsessed with this question for millennia. In the Abrahamic traditions, the honor—or curse—goes to Abel, the shepherd son of Adam and Eve. According to Genesis, he was killed by his brother Cain in what’s essentially humanity’s first sibling feud.
But Abel wasn’t the first human to live; he was just the first to die. It’s a bizarre loophole: Adam and Eve presumably lived for centuries, but their son was the one who checked out first. That’s some existential irony right there.
In Norse mythology, the first death was the giant Ymir, whose body was literally used to create the entire world. Talk about a dramatic exit—his skull became the sky, his blood the oceans.
Meanwhile, in Hindu scripture, the first mortal to die was Yama, who later became the god of death. He essentially pioneered the gig and then became its HR manager. A neat career pivot.
