神是个“魔术家”——论《荷马史诗》中诸神的变形

Gods as Being Akin to Magicians——On the Metamorphosis of Gods in the Homeric Epics

《荷马史诗》中的诸神能够随意地变换自己的形貌,伪装成凡人、动植物,甚至无生命的物体。统计与考察这些变形案例,发现诸神的变形具有一个共性:他们偏爱变形伪装成凡人模样。尽管诸神在外貌和说话方面变形伪装成凡人,但他们在心智与精神上仍高于凡人。诸神的变形可谓一种对凡人暂时的、有限的、降级的模仿行为。从直接原因观之,诸神偏爱变形成凡人模样在于他们可以隐藏神性身份,获取凡人信任,从而更好地干涉人间事务;从根本原因观之,诸神的这种变形偏好源自“命运”力量的制约与束缚,“命运”使得诸神像缠绕在纺锤上的纺线一样围绕着凡人转个不停。

The gods in Homer’s Epic can change their appearance at will and disguise themselves as mortals,animals and plants,or even inanimate objects.Through statistics and investigation of these deformation cases,it is found that the transformation of the gods has a common feature:they prefer to transform and disguise themselves as mortals.Although the gods disguised themselves as mortals in appearance and speech,they were still higher than mortals in mind and spirit.The transformation of the gods can be described as a temporary,a limited and degraded imitation of mortals.From the perspective of the direct cause,the gods prefer to transform themselves into mortals because they can hide their divine identity and gain the trust of mortals,so as to better interfere in human affairs;From the perspective of the fundamental cause,this kind of deformation preference of the gods originates from the restriction and bondage of the force of“fate”,which makes the gods revolve around mortals like a spinning thread wound on a spindle.