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希腊和罗马神话 Greek and Roman Mythology

背景介绍

希腊神话包括一切有关古希腊人的神、英雄、自然和宇宙历史的神话。大约产生于公元前8世纪以前的原始氏族社会，是欧洲最早的文学形式，后来在荷马史诗和赫西俄德的《神谱》及古希腊的诗歌、戏剧、历史、哲学等著作中被记录下来。希腊神话中的主神有：众神之主宙斯、天后赫拉、海王波塞冬、冥王哈迪斯、智慧女神雅典娜、太阳神阿波罗、月神阿耳忒弥斯、爱神阿佛洛狄忒、商业神赫耳墨斯、战神阿瑞斯、火神赫菲斯托斯、酒神狄俄尼索斯等。古罗马神话大抵与希腊神话相对应，名称和气质有所变化，太阳系行星就是以之命名的。

情景对话

Terrence: You know what we're studying now in my world literature class? We're reading the Iliad and the Odyssey .

Lacy: Homer's epic poems? Do you like them? You know, they are the oldest known Greek literary sources…

Terrence: Yeah, I know… That's what my professor told us. All of Greek mythology are primarily known from Greek literature like Homer's writings, even though they were initially disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition. Learning the stories about all the Greek gods and goddesses is pretty interesting.

Lacy: You mean the pantheon of gods and goddesses living on Mount Olympus? With Zeus at the head of them all?

Terrence: The Olympians, yeah. And also, apart from the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus, the ancient Greeks worshipped various other gods of the countryside. Things like Nymphs, who were the spirits of rivers; Naiads, who lived in springs; Dryads, who were the spirits of the trees; the satyr-god Pan; the Furies who were the dark powers of the underworld …

Lacy: Wow, that's a lot of supernatural gods to believe in…

Terrence: For the Greeks, it was just part of their normal life. Most of the gods were associated with specific parts of their lives. For example, Athena was the goddess of wisdom and courage. Apollo was the God of the Sun. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty. Ares was the god of war. They had complex personalities and were personifi cations of the issues Greek people had to deal with daily.

Lacy: What about the Romans? Didn't they have similar gods and goddesses?

Terrence: The Romans were heavily influenced by the Greeks, but one of the differences is that Roman mythology focuses more on ritual, prophesy and predicting the future, and institutional ideas while the Greeks were more concerned with theology or cosmogony. The stories were usually related to politics or morality and emphasized how an individual's personal morality is connected to their responsibility to the Roman state. Many Roman stories focus on the theme of Heroism.

Lacy: Hero stories aren't so bad…

Terrence: That's what you think because Greek and Roman mythology have had an immense influence on Western civilization… Our culture, art, literature, language… Even today there is relevance in the themes.

特伦斯： 你知道我们现在的世界文学课上学的是什么吗？我们在读《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》。

莱西： 是荷马史诗吗？你喜欢吗？你知道吗，那是已知的最古老的希腊文学史料之源 ……

特伦斯： 是的，我知道 …… 我的教授也是这么说的。所有的希腊神话主要都源于荷马史诗等希腊文学作品，而这些诗作最初都是口口相传的。读一读希腊众神的故事是一件很有趣的事。

莱西： 你是指居住在奥林匹斯山的诸神及万神殿？宙斯是希腊诸神的主神，对吧？

特伦斯： 对呀，奥林匹斯山的诸神。除此之外，古希腊人还崇拜其他各种神。比如，掌管山林水泽的宁芙女神，掌管河川泉水的那伊阿得，森林女神德律阿得斯，半人半兽的山林和畜牧之神潘，冥间黑暗世界的复仇女神 ……

莱西： 哇，他们信仰好多超自然的神明呀 ……

特伦斯： 对于古希腊人而言，那是他们日常生活的一部分。大多数神都和他们生活的具体部分相关。比如，雅典娜是智慧和勇气之神，阿波罗是太阳神，阿佛洛狄忒是爱与美之女神，阿瑞斯是战神。这些神都有着复杂的性格，象征着古希腊人日常生活中需要处理的种种问题。

莱西： 那么罗马人呢？他们没有类似的诸神吗？

特伦斯： 罗马人深受希腊人的影响，不过他们之间的一个不同之处是：罗马神话更多地聚焦于宗教仪式、预言、预测未来及一些制度理念，而希腊神话更关注神学和宇宙进化论。罗马神话通常都是与政治和道德相关，强调个人道德与个人对于国家的责任之间的关系。许多罗马故事都以英雄主义为主题。

莱西： 英雄故事也不错 ……

特伦斯： 你会这么想，那是因为希腊神话和罗马神话对西方文明产生了巨大的影响 …… 我们的文化、艺术、文学、语言 …… 直到今天，这些主题仍具有影响力。

词汇注解

pantheon	万神殿
personification	化身，象征，拟人化
prophesy	预言
theology	神学
cosmogony	宇宙进化论
Heroism	英雄主义 hoGOhGyPFqp1f818grKAueI1smwNIG0ukzsh/fg3JFVYsdJUkEImBRNmQRR4t+zV