ory, the authority of Wilamowitz-Moellendorf[1006] is
against an oriental origin of the Greek tale, and yet such parallels as
Hercules' fight with a lion, his conquest of death, his journey and
search for immortality (which in contrast to Gilgamesh he secures),
certainly point to an influence exercised by the oriental tale upon the
Greek story. It is not surprising that the elements contributed through
this influence have been so modified in the process of adaptation to the
purely Greek elements of the Hercules story, and, above all, to the
Greek spirit, as to obscure their eastern origin.[1007] Most curious as
illustrating the continued popularity of the Gilgamesh story in the
Orient is the incorporation of portions of the epic in the career of
Alexander the Great.[1008] In Greek, Syriac, and Rabbinical writings,
Alexander is depicted as wandering through a region[1009] of darkness
and terror in search of the 'water of life.' He encounters strange
beings, reaches the sea, but, like Gilgamesh, fails to secure
immortality. Such were the profound changes wrought by Alexander's
conquests that popular fancy, guided by a correct instinct of
appreciation of his career, converted the historical Alexander into a
legendary hero of vast dimensions.[1010] The process that produced the
Gilgamesh epic is repeated, only on a larger scale, in the case of
Alexander. Not one country, but the entire ancient culture
world,--Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, Arabia, Judea, and Syria,--combine to
form the legendary Alexander. Each country contributes its share of
popular legends, myths, and traditions. Babylonia offers as her tribute
the exploits of Gilgamesh, which it transfers in part to Alexander. The
national hero becomes the type of the 'great man,' and as with new
conditions, a new favorite, representative of the new era, arises to
take the place of an older one, the old is made to survive in the new.
Gilgamesh lives again in Alexander, just as traits of the legendary
Alexander pass down to subsequent heroes.

FOOTNOTES:

[844] See above, pp. 245-247.

[845] Or Gishdubar or Gishtubar.

[846] _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, iv. 264. For previous readings
of the name, see Jeremias' article on 'Izdubar' in Roscher's
_Ausfuehrliches Lexicon der Griechischen und Roemischen Mythologie_, ii.
col. 773, 774.

[847] _Historia Animalum_, xii. 21.

[848] See p. 524.

[849] In the Oriental legends of Alexander the Great, this confusion is
furt