从修昔底德对雅典瘟疫的记述看古典时期希腊人对瘟疫的认识与应对

Greek’s Understanding and Response to the Plague:A Research Based on Thucydides’Account of the Great Plague at Athens

发生于公元前430—426年间的雅典瘟疫导致了至少1/3的雅典人口死亡,并影响到公元前5—4世纪间的古希腊历史、文化转折。修昔底德在《伯罗奔尼撒战争史》中对雅典瘟疫的记述是后人了解这场瘟疫的基本资料,他既详细记述了这场瘟疫的流行及其影响,也记载了几则被时人认为与瘟疫爆发有关的神谶。修昔底德不愿采用模棱两可、含混不清的神谶来解释瘟疫,而是把瘟疫看作一种自然现象。他看待瘟疫的态度和记述瘟疫的方式,与希波克拉底学派如出一辙。既认为疾病的产生出于自然的原因,也相信有神灵驱动着自然力。修昔底德详细记述了瘟疫期间雅典城内恐怖的集体性死亡和空前的违法乱纪状况,他的记述深刻反映了人类在巨大灾难面前的脆弱与盲目,提供了社会异变对群体行为规范影响的鲜明例证。

The Athens plague occurred between 430-426 BC,which caused the death of at least one third of the population of Ath⁃ens and affected the historical and cultural transition of ancient Greece between the 5th and 4th centuries BC.Thucydides’account of the plague of Athens in the“History of the Peloponnesian War”is the basic information for later generations to understand the plague.He gave a detailed account of its prevalence and influence,and also recorded some oracles of God which believed to be linked to the outbreak of the plague.Thucydides was reluctant to explain the plague with vague,ambiguous prophecies,but regard⁃ed it as a natural phenomenon,and thus detailing every aspect of its outbreak for later study.This kind of attitude was exactly the same as the Hippocratic School.From the Thucydides’account of the“Plague of Athens”,the understanding of the relationship be⁃tween man and God among the Greeks in the Classic period,and the influence of the Greek social changes on the norms of group behavior in Classical times could be indicated.