Hera的雙重身分

上學期西洋文學概論的課堂上，有位同學問到，為什麼Hera是Zeus的姐姐，又是他的太太?

這問題很好，一般人都只會用現代人的社會結構去討論「亂倫」的 問題，這樣會陷入無意義的爭辯或過度的心理學理論的猜想。

這兩天讀一本書，書中的 一段詮釋，倒是很有意思的觀察，作者 Margalit Finkelberg以 Hera等女神為例子，說明古希臘從母系社會轉變成父系社會的過程。在母系社會中，Hera是重要的女神，掌管萬物生育(fertility)，並保護人類；慢慢轉入父系社會與城邦制度，天神也變成男性，但是女神不可能一下子消失，所以變成妻子的角色。

以古希臘的歷史社會為例，這個轉變約莫與荷馬史詩口述傳統變成文字同時發生，所以我們仍可在荷馬史詩中看到許多傳統的延續與斷裂並存的情狀。


書目資料

Finkelberg, Margalit. Greeks and Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory and Greek Heroic Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007.

以下引用第164-165頁

1. By the end of the Dark Age, almost everywhere in Greece the institution of kingship, either by marriage or otherwise, was replaced by the political system of the city state.
2. The erosion in the status of the priestess-queen, which directly issued from the abolition of the Bronze Age system of kingship, is reflected in an analogous change in the status of the female deities with whom the priestess had initially been associated.
3. Take for example the case of Hera. As has been observed more than once, an irresolvable contradiction exists between Hera the wife and sister of Zeus as represented in Homer and Hesiod and Hera of the Greek cult, who is not only not envisaged as Zeus' wife but also displays all the characteristic features of the ancient figure of the Great Goddess.
4. According to Joan O'Brien, the transformation of Hera the fertility protection goddess into the wide and sister of Zeus was ultimately due to her emerging Pan-Hellenic role....