Lecture VIII. The Myths And Epics. 411
Egypt and Asia on the one hand, and the islands and shores of
the Mediterranean on the other, in which Krete took a leading
share. Light is only just dawning on what until lately was the
“prehistoric”past of the European peoples; before long a new
world will doubtless be disclosed to us, such as that which the
decipherment of the cuneiform texts has brought to light.
It is not only in the mythology of primitive Greece that we
can trace the influence of the legends embodied in the Epic of
Gilgames. The adventures of Gilgames in search of immortality
form part of the story of that mythical Alexander who grew up in
literature by the side of the Alexander of history. He too had to
make his way through a land of thick darkness, and he too finally
failed in his endeavour to secure the“waters of life.”^342 Man is
and must remain mortal; this is alike the teaching of the old poet
of Chaldæa and of the romance which the contact of Eastern and
Western thought called into existence in classical days.
[448](^342) See Meissner,Alexander und Gilgamos(1894).