第2章 Homer荷马

荷马堪称文学家族的始祖，而《伊利亚特》与《奥德赛》则是人类诗歌的圣经，它已被作为最古老的战利品陈列在高傲的殿堂，供后人膜拜。哪怕许多人也只是膜拜其超凡脱俗的地位，并不见得真能理解其深奥的内核。

About Homer

关于荷马

In the Western classical tradition Homer, is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics are at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.

When he lived is controversial. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before Herodotus' own time, which would place him at around 850 BC; while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th Century BC.

For modern scholars “the date of Homer” refers not to an individual, but to period when the epics were created. The consensus is that “the Iliad and the Odyssey date from around the 8th century BC, the Iliad being composed before the Odyssey, perhaps by some decades,” i.e. earlier than Hesiod, the Iliad being the oldest work of Western literature. Over the past few decades, some scholars have argued for a 7th-century date. Some of those who argue that the Homeric poems developed gradually over a long period of time give an even later date for composition of the poems; according to Gregory Nagy for example, they only became fixed texts in the 6th century. The question of the historicity of Homer the individual is known as the “Homeric question”; there is no reliable biographical information handed down from classical antiquity. The poems are generally seen as the culmination of many generations of oral story-telling, in a tradition with a well-developed formulaic system of poetic composition. Some scholars, such as Martin West, claim that “Homer” is “not the name of a historical poet, but a fictitious or constructed name.”

The formative influence played by the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was described as the teacher of Greece.

公元前11世纪到公元前9世纪的希腊史称作“荷马时代”，因《荷马史诗》而得名。《荷马史诗》是这一时期唯一的文字史料。

《荷马史诗》相传是由盲诗人荷马写成，实际上它是许多民间行吟歌手的集体口头创作。史诗包括了迈锡尼文明以来多少世纪的口头传说，到公元前6世纪才写成文字。它作为史料，不仅反映了公元前11世纪到公元前9世纪的社会情况，而且反映了迈锡尼文明。《荷马史诗》包括《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》两部分。由这两部史诗组成的《荷马史诗》，语言简练，情节生动，形象鲜明，结构严密，是古代世界一部著名的杰作。将荷马其人是否真实存在的争议先搁置一边，单从《荷马史诗》开创了西方文学的先河来说，荷马堪称西方文学的始祖，他以诗歌般的记叙手法所展现的战争，生活场景至今仍为人所津津乐道。同时，《荷马诗史》也是研究古希腊风土人情的宝贵的资料。

Key words & Sentences

关键词句全知道

Homer Epic is very hard to understand.

《荷马史诗》很难理解。

The book is not written by Homer.

这本书不是荷马写的。

Homer Epic is a wonderful book, from which I have learned a lot.

《荷马史诗》是一本很出色的书，我从中学到了很多。

Kefalonia is thought to be Homer's Same, because a local town is called Sami.

凯法利尼亚被认为是荷马笔下的塞姆，因为当地一个镇子叫做塞米。

Had Homer's Trojan War really happened?

荷马的特洛伊之战真的发生过吗？

Homer is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

荷马是《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》的作者。

If it appealed to you, you could be reading Homer in the original Greek.

如果你感兴趣的话，你可以读希腊原文的《荷马史诗》。

What do modern day scholars think about Homer?

当代学者对荷马是怎么看的？

The writings of Homer are the origins of kinds of literature traditions in the west.

荷马的作品是西方多种文学传统的源头。

The summer blockbuster season heats up as the story of Troy leaps from the pages of Homer's The Iliad to movie theaters across the United States.

《荷马史诗》之《伊利亚特》中特洛伊战争的故事将在银幕上生动再现，今夏美国影院全线热力上映。

He quoted Homer's Odyssey.

他引用了荷马的《奥德赛》。

This is a book that luxuriates in description and the use of extended metaphor, as Homer did himself.

这本书中，就像荷马写作的《荷马史诗》那样，叙述丰润、厚重，使用了大量隐喻。

Formerly they were ascribed to a particular blind bard, Homer, who was supposed to have sat down and composed them as Milton composed Paradise Lost.

以前史诗被认定为某一独特的盲吟游诗人荷马所作，人们猜想他坐下来创作时，弥尔顿正在创作《失乐园》。

“The Odyssey”, by Homer, tells the tale of Odysseus's ten-year journey back from the Trojan War to his wife, Penelope.

荷马笔下的“奥德赛”，讲述了奥德修斯从特洛伊战争历经十年返回到妻子帕涅洛普身边的故事。

Milton wants to write an epic that in some ways comes before, or prevents, the great epics of Homer and Virgil.

弥尔顿想写一首在某种程度上先于荷马和维吉尔伟大史诗的史诗。

But we quickly see that the people referred to as Basileus in Homer are not like the great King of Persia.

但回溯一下那些在《荷马史诗》中被称为巴赛勒斯的人，却并不像波斯王那样强大。

There are no arguments in Homer's Iliad or Odyssey.

没有辩论存在于荷马的《伊利亚特》或《奥德赛》书中。

When I was a young boy, I would've studied just reading and writing Homer.

我小时候要学习阅读书写《荷马史诗》。

Hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, Homer described the fate of the companions of Odysseus who were transformed by a witch into pigs.

在公元前几百年，荷马这样描述奥德赛的几个同伴的命运，一个女巫将他们变成了猪。

What theme had Homer but original sin?

除了原罪外，《荷马史诗》还能有什么主题？

The kings when we see them in Homer do not have a bureaucracy, do not have scribes.

从《荷马史诗》中所看到的那些国王，他们没有官僚作风，没有随身抄写员。

Well, let me turn to another aspect of the story of Homer and how the poems play into Greek society.

接着让我们转向《荷马史诗》的另一方面，看看诗歌是如何融入希腊社会的。

In the story that Homer tells in the Odyssey, Odysseus himself is such a newcomer.

在荷马写的《奥德赛》这一节中，奥德修斯也是外乡人。

Ironically, the more Homer exaggerates, the more authentic he is as a representative of the Bronze Age.

讽刺的是，荷马越是夸大其辞，他就越真实的代表了青铜时代的史实。

The Greeks, in Homer's world, seem to regard one just about as well as they do the other.

荷马时期的希腊人，似乎和看重其他品质一样，看重这个品质。

This is how Homer prepared himself to be the greatest and the first of all epic poets.

荷马就是这样来让自己成为最伟大的，并且是第一个史诗诗人。

Homer and Virgil and, well after them, Dante and innumerable others have all applied the simile of the leaves or some version of it to describe the numberless-ness of the dead.

荷马，维吉尔，在他们之后还有但丁，以及无法计数的曾经用过这个落叶比喻，或者变种版本来形容死者的数量极多的其他诗人们。

Let's Talk！

开始交流吧！

Mike: Have you seen Troy?

麦克：你看过《特洛伊》吗？

Daisy: I have seen the movie.

黛西：我看过电影。

Mike: Have you read the story?

麦克：你读过这个故事吗？

Daisy: Where does the story come from?

黛西：这个故事是从哪来的？

Mike: It's from Homer's Iliat.

麦克：它来自荷马的《伊利亚特》。

Daisy: Homer's work is too hard to read.

黛西：荷马的作品太难读了。

Mike: Yes, that's old English.

麦克：是的，那是古英文。

Daisy: I see all his work is written as a poem, how does he do that.

黛西：我看他的文章都是诗体，他是怎么写出来的。

Mike: I really admire that too.

麦克：我也非常钦佩。

Daisy: The modern writers could not write as good as that.

黛西：当代的作家都写不到那么好。

Mike: There are so many bad novels nowadays.

麦克：现在有很多很烂的小说。

Daisy: Yes, anyone can write a book.

黛西：是的，任何人都能写书。

Mike: I was about to borrow some book from the library.

麦克：我正要去图书馆借点书。

Daisy: Could you borrow some for me, I do not have time to go there.

黛西：能帮我借几本吗，我没时间去。

Mike: No problem, you write a list for me.

麦克：好的，你给我写个单子吧。

Daisy: Ok, I'll get the pen.

黛西：好的，我去拿笔。