Odyssey 17. 462-606 眾神的化身

日期: 2014年5月16日

Odyssey 17. 462-504

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0135%3Abook%3D17%3Acard%3D462

Ἀντίνο᾽, οὐ μὲν κάλ᾽ ἔβαλες δύστηνον ἀλήτην,

οὐλόμεν᾽, εἰ δή πού τις ἐπουράνιος θεός ἐστιν.

καί τε θεοὶ ξείνοισιν ἐοικότες ἀλλοδαποῖσι,

παντοῖοι τελέθοντες, ἐπιστρωφῶσι πόληας,

ἀνθρώπων ὕβριν τε καὶ εὐνομίην ἐφορῶντες.  (Odyssey 483-487)

http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/homer/odyssey17.htm

Antinous, it was wrong of you to hit

a wretched vagrant. And you may be doomed,

if somehow he’s a god come down from heaven. 

For, in fact, gods make themselves appear

like foreign strangers, assuming many shapes

and haunting cities, to investigate

men’s pride and their obedience to the laws. (Odyssey 483-487)

說穿了，這些追求者在Odysseus家中白吃白喝，和乞丐又有甚麼不同? 態度傲慢，又沒說故事交換主人的招待，其實比乞丐還不如。Antinous畢竟修養不好，又自知理虧，一下子就惱羞成怒，拿椅子砸打Odysseus，打他的右肩。Odysseus臨危不亂，穩穩站住，也沒有還手，然後拿起自己的破包包走到門那吃東西，還不忘祈求Antinous結婚之前就被死神接走。

   不管如何，動手打人就是錯，Antinous的行為引起公憤，除了Penelope和奶媽Eurynome都出來指責並祈禱Antinous受到懲罰，連追求這當中都有一年輕人出來指責Antinous，這段文字(Odyssey 483-487)表達古希臘人一個基本的觀念，眾神常常化裝成各種樣子，隱藏在人當中，觀察人的道德行徑，特別是揪出人是不是過度驕傲(ὕβριν)。所以神常常扮演陌生人 (ξείνοισιν ἐοικότες)，或是說，每個我們預見的陌生人，可能都是神的化身，這是為什麼古希臘各地實踐「待客之道」習俗，也建立人與人之間互相尊重的最單純、最樸實的關聯。

日期: 2014年5月17日

Odyssey 17. 505-606

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0135%3Abook%3D17%3Acard%3D505

ἔρχεό μοι, τὸν ξεῖνον ἐναντίον ὧδε κάλεσσον.

οὐχ ὁράᾳς ὅ μοι υἱὸς ἐπέπταρε πᾶσιν ἔπεσσι;

τῷ κε καὶ οὐκ ἀτελὴς θάνατος μνηστῆρσι γένοιτο

πᾶσι μάλ᾽, οὐδέ κέ τις θάνατον καὶ κῆρας ἀλύξει.

ἄλλο δέ τοι ἐρέω, σὺ δ᾽ ἐνὶ φρεσὶ βάλλεο σῇσιν:

αἴ κ᾽ αὐτὸν γνώω νημερτέα πάντ᾽ ἐνέποντα,

ἕσσω μιν χλαῖνάν τε χιτῶνά τε, εἵματα καλά. (Odyssey 544-550)

http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/homer/odyssey17.htm

Go call the stranger.

Bring him here in front of me. Did you not see

my son sneezing at everything I said?

So the complete destruction of the suitors

will not go unfulfilled—for all of them—

not one will escape his fatal destiny.

I’ll tell you something else. Lay it to heart.

If I see he tells me the entire truth,

I’ll dress him in fine clothes, cloak and tunic. (Odyssey 544-550)

Penelope聰慧過人，看到異地來的乞丐，馬上想到要詢問失蹤多年的Odysseus下落，因此請豬倌Eumaeus帶眼前的老乞丐到她跟前，如果老乞丐可以說一些他知道的訊息，Penelope也要餽贈衣物給可憐的乞丐。機警的Odysseus，請Eumaeus轉達，現在那些追求者都在，不宜多談，等晚一點再說。這裡開始布局，夫婦久別，快有機會對話。延後。


之間，Telemachus打個大噴嚏，音響震動全屋子，Penelope認為這是一個好兆頭，表示這些霸佔他們家的惡霸必亡。一個個預警，一直指向Odysseus復仇，和這群追求者的滅亡，只是，此刻時機尚未成熟，他們仍然渾然不知，盡情吃喝。

Penelope, as merely a woman, endures the suitors and their ransacking her royal stores. Is there not, however, something in her endurance that is rather an allowance, a test of the authenticity of Odysseus’s return? This test is not issued by a woman, but by a goddess, a fate—his fate. In one of their countless possible interpretations, the suitors are Odysseus’s own lesser values, aversions, assumptions, and habits of soul that would keep him from being proven as her rightful spouse.

http://frequentphantasy.com/?p=35

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Penelope_och_Odysseus_som_tiggare,_Nordisk_familjebok.png

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woodcut_illustration_of_Odysseus's_return_to_Penelope_-_Penn_Provenance_Project.jpg