比较神话与历史书写视域中重读《莎乐美》

A Reading of Salomé in the Context of Comparative Mythology and Historical Writing

佩特对达·芬奇的评论,为王尔德创作《莎乐美》提供了一种美学启迪,即在基督教人物身上增添异教神话人物色彩,为男性人物增添女性特征。与达·芬奇不同的是,王尔德所依凭的神话,从希腊罗马神话系拓展至兴起于19世纪的"雅利安神话系"。作为考古学、比较宗教学的拥趸,王尔德秉持的是科学史观。这种科学史观尤其体现为王尔德对约瑟夫斯《犹太古史》的接受,即希律囚禁施洗是出于防止后者会借助宗教影响发动群众起义,王尔德借《莎乐美》表达了对英帝国主义合流打压爱尔兰天主教与民族主义的不满。

Under the inspiration of Pater’s critique of Leonardo da Vinci,Oscar Wilde portrayed the characters in Salomé by adding to Christian figures the aesthetic qualities of pagan ones and by merging masculinity with femininity. Different from da Vinci,what Wilde borrowed are Aryan mythologies rather than just Greek and Roman mythologies.Meanwhile,the passionate commitment to archaeology and comparative religion developed in Wilde a scientific view of history,leading to his agreement with Josephus,who held in his Antiquities of the Jews that Herold imprisoned the Baptist for he was afraid the latter’s religious charisma might be so powerful as to incite mass uprisings against him. The metaphorical implication in Salomé hence is Wilde’s critique of the crackdown of British imperialism upon Irish Catholicism and nationalism.