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?

mythology 1

這學期我們的西洋文學概論選用一本書：

Edith Hamilton, Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes

這本書1942年出版，之後不斷再版，成為希臘羅馬神話的經典入門款。除了簡要地介紹神話故事諸神與英雄的故事，這本書的導言也十分精彩。根據Hamilton的觀察，古希臘文化最特別之處是無限奔馳的想像力與至高理性兩者的微妙結合。

到底希臘神話是不是一種宗教信仰? 很難界定，Hamilton點出一個重點：

But religion is there, too. In the background, to be sure, but nevertheless plain to see. From Homer through the tragedians and even later, there is a deepening realization of what human beings need and what they must have in their gods. (p. 19)

希臘神話潛藏一種幽微的宗教觀點，一種深入人性之觀點，人總是擁有一些眾神身上的神性。此觀點閱讀荷馬史詩中刻畫的天神宙斯，饒富趣味：

But Homer’s Zeus is not a fact of nature. He is a person living in a world where civilization has made an entry, and of course he has a standard of right and wrong. It is not very high, certainly, and seems chiefly applicable to others, not to himself; but he does publish men who lie and break their oaths; he is angered by any ill treatment of the dead; and he pities and helps old Priam when he goes as a suppliant to Achilles. In the Odyssey, he has reached a higher level. The swineherd there says that the needy and the stranger are from Zeus and he who fails to help them sins against Zeus himself.

在荷馬史詩中，宙斯不僅僅是居高臨下的天神，更是參與事件的腳色，偶爾也當在旁邊熱情觀戰的觀眾；不過，荷馬史詩賦予宙斯一個道德的天平，處罰背信說謊者，並保護死者、孤苦伶仃的人、流浪異鄉的人。用我們熟知的術語，天神宙斯等同某種希臘人認定的「天道」。