从贤哲会饮到饕餮盛宴——古希腊历史叙述中波斯宫廷宴饮场景的变迁

From Symposium of Sophists to Banquet of Gluttons: Transformation of the Persian Court Banquet Scene in the Ancient Greek Historical Narrative

在主要通过公元2世纪作家雅典尼乌斯保留下来的主体史料中,波斯帝国宫廷宴饮往往被丑化为奢侈无度、淫荡粗俗、阴森可怖的饕餮之徒狂欢场面。近年来的亚述学、考古学相关前沿成果令人信服地揭示了这幅场景的非历史性。笔者认为,在公元前4世纪中叶之前的古希腊知识精英历史记忆中,波斯宫廷宴饮场景的原型是一种以希腊哲学家会饮为模板进行的正面理想化建构。在兴起于亚历山大东征前夕的东方主义世界观影响之下,后世希腊史家对波斯宫廷会饮的形象不断进行着丑化与道德批判,最终将之转化为塑造近现代西方殖民主义世界观的历史记忆元素。

According to the majority of evidence preserved mainly by Athenaeus living in the 2nd century A.D., the court banquet of the Persian Empire is often described as a carnival of gluttons featured by its luxury, debauchery and terror. Recent findings in Assyriology and archaeology have convincingly revealed the distortion of historical truth in this scene. This paper argues that the prototype of Persian court banquet is a positive and ideal construction of Greek philosophical symposium. Guided by the orientalism born on the eve of Alexander's conquest, Greek historians later continually defamed and criticized the Persian court banquet, and in the end transformed it into element of the historical memory which later shaped the outlook of modern western colonialism.