著者

岡 道男

出版者

日本西洋古典学会

雑誌

西洋古典学研究 (ISSN:04479114)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.7, pp.48-64, 1959-03-30 (Released:2017-05-23)

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The recent archaeological excavations have established beyond doubt that in the latter half of the second millenium B. C. an active trade was being carried on between Greece and the Near East. Hence it is possible to surmise that the Greek myths in their earlier stages of development came more or less under the influence of Near Eastern poetry current at that time. In this connection the writer tries to show that the myth of Heracles' αθλοι goes back into the Mycenaean age and that its many features can be better understood in the light of Ancient Near Eastern literature, especially the epic of Gilgamesh. It is worth noticing that on many cylinder impressions found in the Near East the tree of life was depicted side by side with sheep. As there seems to be a close connection between the two, it cannot have been a mere coincidence that in other versions of the story the apples of the Hesperides were replaced by sheep. A parallel may be found in the adventure of the Argonauts, where it is said that a sheep's skin was hanging from a tree, guarded by a monster. It follows, then, that the original home of the Greek tree of life is more likely to be found in the Near East than in Creta. On the other hand it is generally accepted that the natural and logical end of the. aOAoc was the conquest of death and the attainment of immortality, which is said to have been mentioned in the last two or three adventures of the αθλοι. The writer has, however, shown that such a belief is incompatible with the oldest references to the hero's death in Homer and that his last three adventures cannot originally have ended with the attainment of immortality. Strong support for this view will be found in the adventure of Theseus, where it is told that the hero descended into the nether world to fetch Persephone, but failed. As the story is said to have been modeled on the αθλοι, it follows that the latter ended likewise in failure. Furthermore, in the existing version, the cattle were lost on the way back and the apples and the Cerberus were returned later to their places (cf. Apollod., II 5). This shows only too clearly that in an earlier version of the αθλοι the hero's quest of immortality failed like that of Gilgamesh. Again if one understands the a82oc as heroic saga, there arises another difficulty. As 'Heracles' is a typical name for a hero (Ηρα+κλεοζ), it is natural that he should try to win honour, fighting with wild beasts and monsters. In the last three adventures, however, he forgets about honour and tries, instead, to win immortality for himself. This seems not to conform to the general concept of a hero, who lives only for honour and risks even his own life to win it. The difficulty, however,. will be better understood, when compared with the epic of Gilgamesh. Here at the death of his friend Enkidu the hero forgets about his own honour and wanders in search of the secret of eternal life. From this it would be possible to infer that the sudden change in Heracles resulted from the death of his own children. These and other observations have led the writer to the conclusion that many parallels between the αθλοι and the epic of Gilgamesh can hardly have been accidental, and that the significance of the whole myth lies in its telling of a hero, who having won a name, sought immortality for the same reason as of Gilgamesh and who found, after many hardships, nothing but failures. And his tragic death upon mount Oeta, which later became associated with his immortality, seems to have originally symbolized the 'nemesis' of the gods, inflicted on a mortal who tried to be like one of them.