《荷马史诗》中头盔描写真实性的历史考辨:传说与考古的互证

Greek Helmets in Homer’s Epic:A Comparison of Legends and Archaeological Evidence

头盔是《荷马史诗》里英雄们的重要武器装备之一。通过词语统计的方式,从材质、装饰、作用、性能等方面对《荷马史诗》文本中的头盔进行了归纳总结,发现史诗中描写的头盔以铜制为主,皮制为辅,铜脸颊和马鬃冠是常见的装饰,其作用除了战场防护,还可用于威慑、抓阄、炫富,等等。结合考古证据,以考察史诗中所写头盔在现实世界中是否有其原型,并比较了史诗中头盔和现实中头盔的异同。经比较可知,《荷马史诗》中所写的头盔确有现实原型,对头盔的描述有诸多准确之处,这些都得到了后世考古出土材料的证实。但在材质上二者也存在重大差异,这种差异体现出希腊地区青铜器技术的发展。“‘盔’一斑而知全豹”,从古希腊头盔的历史演变可以透视其文化与文明发展的盛衰。

Helmets are important to the heroes in Homer’s epic poems.By means of word frequency statistics,this paper summarizes the helmet in Homer’s epic from the aspects of material,decoration,function and performance.The paper founds that the helmets in Homer’s epic are mostly made of bronze,and a few are made of leather.Horse-hair crests and cheek-pieces of bronze are common decoration.In addition to protection,helmets can also be used to deter,draw lots,show their owners’wealth,and so on.This paper also uses archaeological evidence to investigate whether the helmet of the epic has its original in the real world,and compares the helmet of the epic and the helmet of the real world to find their similarities and differences.The development of the helmets in early Greece is also described.By comparison,it can be seen that the helmets in Homer does have originals,and the description of the helmets is very accurate,which is confirmed by archaeological evidence.But there are also differences in material,which reflects the development of bronze technology in Greek.Moreover,the rise and fall of the helmet is a reflection of the vicissitude of Greek civilization.