诱惑与英雄的“自我认知”——解读《复乐园》里的第一个诱惑

Temptation and the hero's “self-knowledge”: On the first temptation episode in Paradise Regained

关于史诗《复乐园》里的第一个诱惑,目前学术界的两种解读都有失偏颇。首先,史诗里的第一个诱惑值得探究,寓意深刻,远不只是试图劝诱处于饥饿中的耶稣施展神力摄取食物,而旨在通过撒旦试探耶稣的身份来展示耶稣坚定的"信仰"。其次,第二个诱惑虽然依然以食物为诱饵,但与第一个诱惑有着本质的区别,因为它与其后的几个诱惑情节一起构成史诗的第二重诱惑,是世间荣华的典型代表,锤炼的是耶稣的"自制"和"忍耐"等。更重要的是,第一个诱惑揭示出比"完善‘内在精神’"更深奥的哲理,因为要在不期而至的诱惑面前坚守信仰、忍耐、自制等"内在精神"之美德,前提在于,人必须首先达成"自我认知",了解自我身份;只有耶稣这样的人才能始终抵御诱惑,才能证实自己身为精神英雄之原型,才能成为弥尔顿史诗里的主人公和英雄。

As to the first temptation episode in Paradise Regained, the two major critical views among Miltonists are partial. Firstly, the episode is worth exploring, more profound than seducing starving Jesus into snatching food with his divinity, aiming to exhibit Jesus’ firm faith by displaying Satan’s attempt to try Jesus’ identity. Next, the second temptation episode, although still taking food as the bait, is essentially different from the first in that the second, together with the next episodes, belongs to the secondary pattern of temptations which represent the earthly desires and are designed to try Jesus’ patience and temperance. More importantly, the first episode differs from the second in disclosing that if one hopes to hold“the Spirit within”with faith, patience and temperance are the core, one must first attain“Self-knowledge”and acquire the full understanding of one’s self-identity;only such a person as Jesus can resist temptations all through, proving to be the prototype of the spiritual hero and growing to be the true hero in Milton’s epic.