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- 弗琳: 木马屠城记 / FLYNN: Tale of Troy (The)
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专辑号：NA209812 发行时间：03/06/1996 所属厂牌：Naxos Audiobook 所属分类： 青少年文学 -
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- Benedict Flynn The Tale of Troy There really was once a time when the tall towers of a citycalled Troy reached gleaming into the sky; when its proud king fought againstan invading army in a desperate siege. It was nearly four thousand years ago,in an age when the kings of golden Mycenae held sway over the mainland ofGreece and Troy commanded the entrance to the Hellespont. Bronze Age peoplesfrom Europe and Asia came to trade there, and the city overlooked awell-watered and fertile plain. It was a rich city, a prize to be won. The Tale of Troy comes to us through a poet named Homer. Hetold the story as a poem, which he called The Iliad, because Troy was alsoknown as Ilium. Homer wandered from town to town in ancient Greece repeatinghis poem; people would pay to listen to him. He sang another too, called TheOdyssey, about how the Greek warriors made their way home when the siege ended.The Iliad is where myth and history meet. It is a blurredmemory, already five centuries old when Homer composed his poem, of therivalries that led to the real Trojan War, and the siege. It is also the memoryof an imagined golden age, a distant time of heroes, when great brave menperformed deeds, and mortals were the pawns in the gods’ quarrels with eachother. Homer’s characters, the gods and heroes of the stories, werevery real for the people to whom he sang. The gods were the way the ancientGreeks explained their world. If something unusual happened, there was probablya god behind it. And for every blessing, they said, the gods gave two sorrows.Ancient Greeks thought men resembled their gods, apart from being mortal. Sobecause they felt emotions like desire, anger, or love, the Greeks assumed thegods also did. They weren’t expected to be good all the time — and theyweren’t. Often they would disobey Zeus, and be punished by him. Different gods looked after different aspects of theirlives. Zeus was the father of the gods, and the most powerful. He ruled overthe stormy sky with thunderbolts and lightning, enthroned on Mount Olympus.Poseidon was lord of the sea. Hades ruled the underworld, where the souls ofthe dead lived. Zeus’ sister Aphrodite ruled the realm of love. Zeus had manychildren by different wives — goddesses, nymphs and mortal women. One son, Apollo, was the god of music and poetry and famousas a deadly accurate archer. A daughter, Athene, was the goddess of wisdom andcourage. Another son was Ares, the god of war. Hephaestus, the god of theforge, who made the armor for Achilles, was the son of Hera, queen of the gods.Zeus’ infidelities annoyed her so much she produced him all on her own.Heroes were the sons or daughters of a mortal and a god,like Achilles, the son of Peleus, Prince of Thessaly, and Thetis the sea nymph.Ordinary people admired them for their wonderful deeds, but heroes did notperform their feats for others. They sought after excellence and glory forthemselves. When Achilles and Agamemnon quarrel in the story it is becauseAgamemnon refuses to show him enough respect for the deeds he has done, and notonly because Agamemnon takes away the lovely Briseis. The ancient Greeks used Homer’s poems like the Bible. Theyenjoyed the stories but they also learned from them how to behave in the rightway. When Paris stole Helen away he broke the laws of hospitality. Everyonecould learn from The Tale of Troy how furious that made the gods, and how Pariswas punished. Or how Achilles’ uncontrolled anger and slaughter of Trojansafter the death of his friend Patroclus hastened his end by angering the gods.Arguments were settled by referring to Homer, and children used the poems intheir lessons. Homer’s poem was sung everywhere — to halls of noblemen, atfairs to merchants, and farmers in their villages. The Tale of Troy was soimportant to the ancient Greeks that Homer became a kind of hero himself. Longafter his death artists, thinkers and ordinary people still look to his talefor inspiration. Notes by Heather Godwin
