Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

ALEXANDER AND GILGAMISH. XLI
Gilgamish travelled was called Mashi,' and the
identical name is preserved by the Greek'' geo-
graphers, and in the Syriac and Arabic versions
of the Alexander story (p. 228), In his. journey
over the ocean on which no man had before sailed
Alexander took with him eagles which he set free,
one after the other, to see if he was near land;
the first two eagles found resting-places and, there-
fore, returned not, but the third returned to the
ship after three days, "for the earth had appeared
"unto it" (p. 282). Here it is quite clear that we
have a reminiscence of the story of the Hebrew Alexander
patriarch Noah, or of his Assyrian counterpart''"
Sit-napishtim,^ and of the three birds which were
sent forth from the ark. Alexander's journey by
sea occupied several months, even as did that of
Noah when the waters of the Flood covered the
earth. The "foetid sea", which forms such a
striking subject in Alexander's travels, is thought The sunk-
^'^^
'"^ by Meissner'' to have its equivalent in the "waters
"of death" of the Gilgamish legends; and Alexan-
der's guide, who is called both "Matun" and "El-
khidr", is most probably identical with Atrahasis
^ "^TT ^^T ^y It ^]*~ s/ia-afMa-a-s/ii; see Ra.upi, op.
df., plate 60, ]. 2.
' TO Mdffiov opoq; see Strabo xi. 5. 6.
3 The most recent and best translation of the Assyrian
account of the Deluge is by Zimmern; see in Gunkel, Sc/io-
pfung und Chaos, p. 423 ff.
P- 255-
Alexander und Gilgamos, p. 1 ; 5 Smith, Chaldean Genesis,