“神圣”与“世俗”之间——试论古希腊奥林匹亚赛会的宗教性

Religiousness of the Ancient Olympic Games:Between sacredness and secularity

奥林匹亚赛会是古代希腊最重要的宗教节日之一,也是现代奥林匹克运动的源头。古希腊人所特有的这种社会活动从一开始就与宗教结下了不解之缘,是宗教仪式活动的派生物和外在表现形式之一,具有明显的"宗教性"和"神圣性"。不过,在比赛过程中,祭礼与比赛是分开的,裁判胜负具有相对的独立性,比赛与祭祀也具有逐步分离的趋势,可见,奥林匹亚赛会也带有明显的"世俗性"的另一面。这两种看似对立的特征如何能够有机地结合在一起呢?研究表明,奥林匹亚赛会的"神圣性"和"世俗性"之间其实存在着相互统一和相互依存的关系,即"神圣性"必定要通过"世俗性"得以展现,正是通过跑步、跳远、投掷这样的"世俗性"的体育比赛,希腊人实现了与神灵接近和交流的理想,赛会也就被赋予了"神圣"的意义;就宗教性而言,古希腊的奥林匹亚赛会正处于早期的体育比赛和现代奥林匹克运动之间,即处在"神圣"和"世俗"之间,或从"神圣"到"世俗"的转变过程之中。通过上述分析,既可以在一定程度上解决学术界关于奥林匹亚赛会的宗教性问题的争论,也可以加深我们对注重行动的古希腊宗教的仪式化特征的认识。

The Olympic Games is not only one of the most important religious festivals of the ancient Greece, but also the birthplace of the modern Olympic Games. From the beginning, it has very close relationship with the Greek religion. That is, as a necessary part of the festival, the sport games are the derivation and an outer display of the ancient Greek religious rituals. Its religiousness and sacredness is obvious. However, the ancient Olympic Games also has the elements of secularity and a process of secularizing. Therefore, there are different views of the nature of the ancient Olympic Games. This paper makes an analysis of the religiousness of it from angle of sacredness and secularity, and reveals the relationship of the two factors through the history and practice of this social activity.