异域文化与地理发现——希腊神话起源中的二元融合

Alien Cultures and Geographical Discoveries——The Dual Origins of Greek Myths

希腊神话是希腊遗产中的核心成分,是西方文学艺术的开端和土壤。随着现代研究和地中海地区的考古发现,希腊神话的起源过程变得越来越清晰。神话并非希腊人闭门造车的无稽幻想,而是在他们与其他文化发生接触时受其影响,并在寻找海外拓居地的过程中受地理发现的激发而孕育产生的。早期神话的出现与埃维厄人的航海和开拓经历密不可分。埃维厄人将他们在近东等异域文化中听到的故事与其在海外各地见到的地理特征通过神话的形式联系起来,试图给那些奇特的地形地貌和自然力量作出解释,从而形成了希腊神话中关于创世和诸神的核心故事。

At the heart of Greek legacy lie the Greek myths, which serve as both the beginning of and the soil for early art and literature in western world. The origin of Greek myths becomes increasingly explicit thanks to strenuous research efforts and new findings from archeological excavations in Mediterranean region. All evidences point to the fact that myths are not some spontaneous fantasy spinning into the Greek minds in isolation. Instead, they were inseminated when ancient Greeks made contact with other cultures, and inspired when Greek settlers were awed by extraordinary landscapes in their newly found geographical sites. The origination of early Greek myths is, in particular, inseparable from Euboeans＇ navigations and their founding of overseas settlements. Eu- boeans used myths to connect what they heard in exotic cultures such as the near east with their geographical discoveries in an effort to provide explanations for remarkable landscapes and forces of nature. That is how the great tales about Genesis and Greek gods began.