Good question! Typically they get listed as fantasy because the magic isn’t manmade. Most definitions of science fiction require a human to have created the unrealistic element - or an extraterrestrial lifeform who is roughly analogous to a person. It’s not just that magic is present, but that it was derived from supernatural sources and not by human actions.
If the authors believed magic and the gods to be real, would ancient works like The Epic of Gilgamesh or The Iliad count as science fiction?
Good question! Typically they get listed as fantasy because the magic isn’t manmade. Most definitions of science fiction require a human to have created the unrealistic element - or an extraterrestrial lifeform who is roughly analogous to a person. It’s not just that magic is present, but that it was derived from supernatural sources and not by human actions.