Lecture VIII. The Myths And Epics. 401
Accordingly he determines to visit Xisuthros,^331 the hero of
the Deluge, who dwelt beyond the river of death, whither he had
been translated without dying, and learn from him the secret of
immortality.
The road was long and difficult; mortal man had never trodden
it before. But there was divine blood in Gilgames; and as the
Greek Hêraklês forced his way to Hades, so he too forced
his way beyond the limits of our human world. First he had
to pass the twin mountains of Mas, in the northern desert of
Arabia, which guard the daily rising and setting of the sun,
whose summit touches the “zenith of heaven,” while “their
breast reaches downwards to Hades.”Men with the bodies of
scorpions guarded the gateway of the sun, the horror of whose
aspect was“awesome,”and whose look“was death.”But“the
scorpion-man”and his“wife”recognised that the stranger was
partly divine, and he was allowed to pass in safety through the
open doors. Once beyond them he entered a region of thick
darkness. For the space of twelve double hours he groped his [437]
way through this land without light, when suddenly he emerged
from it into the bright light of day. Here grew a marvellous tree,
whose fruit was the precious turquoise^332 and lapis-lazuli, which
hung from it like clusters of grapes.
At last Gilgames reached the shore of the ocean, which, like
a serpent, encircles the earth. Hereiduri, orabitum“the lady
of Saba,”^333 sat upon“the throne of the sea.”But she locked the
(^331) As Berossos has told us what was the pronunciation of the name of the hero
of the Chaldean Deluge, the disputes of modern Assyriologists as to whether it
was Pir-napistim or the like are but labour lost. The true analysis of the name
Xisuthros is still unknown, though it is possible, but not probable, that George
Smith was right in seeing in it a metathesis of the title Adra-khasis applied to
several of the early Babylonian heroes. Adra-khasis means“the very clever,”
reminding us of“Mohammed the clever”in modern Egyptian folk-lore.
(^332) ́Samtu, Heb.shohem(Gen. ii. 12).
(^333) So Hommel, who is probably right in seeing in the word the name of Saba
in Southern Arabia.