mythology 2

Justice became Zeus’s companion.

古代人如何談正義? 《舊約‧約伯記》探索的主要大問題之一就是公平正義，攸關個人、群體、世間的大正義，永遠無法用人類的思維下斷論。古希臘人如何思考這問題? 擁有強權的首領，不談正義，他們要的是眾神站在他們那邊，讓他們盡情奪取想要的一切；Hesiod則看出需若要替弱勢發聲，唯有借助天神之力：

 The buccaneering chieftains in the Iliad did not want justice. They wanted to be able to take whatever they chose because they were strong and they wanted a god who was on the side of the strong. But Hesiod, who was a peasant living in a poor man’s world, knew that the poor must have a just god. . . . These passages show that the great and bitter needs of the helpless were reaching up to heaven and changing the god of the strong into the protector of the weak. (Edith Hamilton, Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, p.20)

荷馬史詩的創舉之一是讓無法決斷的難題交給宙斯的天平。希臘神話不僅神祉眾多，每個神的塑造也是多元，宙斯是多情、好色、懦弱、荒謬，但卻也是保護人類、幫助人類、救人類的正義化身，如此複雜的性格，不正是「人性」的寫照?