If you search Google for “who invented the short story,” each site you go to has a different  opinion.  Some mention cavemen, er, persons, and some say 19th century magazine shorts were the precursors. Some focus on American short stories and give Edgar Allen Poe some credit for inventing them, and on and on and on.  This obviously needs more research, but in looking around, I did find a quote that seems apropos for short story writers of any era or nationality.

“The well-told story seems to answer something very deep in our nature as if, for the duration of its telling, something special has been created, some essence of our experience extrapolated, some temporary sense has been made of our common, turbulent journey towards the grave and oblivion.”

Ain’t it the truth?