2014年9月7日 星期日

Odyssey 9.193-271 擋門巨石與馬力

主題: 巨石擋住洞口
《奧德賽》第九卷第193-271行描述Odysseus和他的同伴登上獨眼巨人島,這倒每樣東西都是巨大的,真像大人國遊記。他們燃起火堆,準備祭祀,這是古代旅人求安全的方式,乞求眾神保佑。巨人回來了,放下乾木材,發生巨大的聲響,大家嚇成一團,躲到一角。巨人把母羊趕進山洞擠奶,其餘留在外面的畜欄,然後隨手抓一塊巨石堵住洞口。詩人對這塊石頭的描述十分精采,就是用22精心打造的四輪馬車也難以搬動。這就是「馬力」的概念。
馬力(英語:horsepowerhp),俗稱匹,是一個古老的功率單位。目前使用標準的國際功率單位瓦特。換算方式:1 hp = 745.69987158227022 W
  此外我更有興趣的是古希臘的四輪馬車,這可是史詩年代的高檔車喔! Honda也以Odyssey命名一款車。
  這塊巨石太特別了,王煥生的翻譯讓我不解: 「巨人就是用這樣一塊生滿烏荊子的巨石當洞門」,烏荊子是甚麼? 烏荊子李(學名:Prunus insititia)嗎? 原文完全沒提到巨石上長滿烏荊子。另依照《烏克蘭的林型分類 (January 1958)37頁,烏荊子可能是 Prum spinosa L .

字彙:
ἄντρον: cave
ὀρυμαγδός: loud noise, din
δείδω: to fear
ἀμέλγω: milk
θυρεός: stone put against a door
ὄβριμος: strong, mighty
εἴκοσι: twenty
ἄμαξα: wagon
τετράκυκλος: four-wheeled
ὀχλίζω: move by a lever, heave up
ἠλίβατος: high, steep
θύρα: door
οὖδας: surface of the earth, ground
ἄγγος vessel

ἔνθα δὲ πῦρ κήαντες ἐθύσαμεν ἠδὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ
τυρῶν αἰνύμενοι φάγομεν, μένομέν τέ μιν ἔνδον
ἥμενοι, ἧος ἐπῆλθε νέμων. φέρε δ᾽ ὄβριμον ἄχθος
ὕλης ἀζαλέης, ἵνα οἱ ποτιδόρπιον εἴη,
ἔντοσθεν δ᾽ ἄντροιο βαλὼν ὀρυμαγδὸν ἔθηκεν:
ἡμεῖς δὲ δείσαντες ἀπεσσύμεθ᾽ ἐς μυχὸν ἄντρου.
αὐτὰρ ὅ γ᾽ εἰς εὐρὺ σπέος ἤλασε πίονα μῆλα
πάντα μάλ᾽ ὅσσ᾽ ἤμελγε, τὰ δ᾽ ἄρσενα λεῖπε θύρηφιν,
ἀρνειούς τε τράγους τε, βαθείης ἔκτοθεν αὐλῆς.
αὐτὰρ ἔπειτ᾽ ἐπέθηκε θυρεὸν μέγαν ὑψόσ᾽ ἀείρας,
ὄβριμον: οὐκ ἂν τόν γε δύω καὶ εἴκοσ᾽ ἄμαξαι
ἐσθλαὶ τετράκυκλοι ἀπ᾽ οὔδεος ὀχλίσσειαν:
τόσσην ἠλίβατον πέτρην ἐπέθηκε θύρῃσιν.
ἑζόμενος δ᾽ ἤμελγεν ὄις καὶ μηκάδας αἶγας,
πάντα κατὰ μοῖραν, καὶ ὑπ᾽ ἔμβρυον ἧκεν ἑκάστῃ.
αὐτίκα δ᾽ ἥμισυ μὲν θρέψας λευκοῖο γάλακτος
πλεκτοῖς ἐν ταλάροισιν ἀμησάμενος κατέθηκεν,
ἥμισυ δ᾽ αὖτ᾽ ἔστησεν ἐν ἄγγεσιν, ὄφρα οἱ εἴη
πίνειν αἰνυμένῳ καί οἱ ποτιδόρπιον εἴη.  (Odyssey 9. 231-249)

We lit a fire and offered sacrifice.
Then we helped ourselves to cheese and ate it.
We stayed inside the cave and waited there,
until he led his flocks back home. He came,
bearing an enormous pile of dried-out wood
to cook his dinner. He hurled his load
inside the cave with a huge crash. In our fear,
we moved back to the far end of the cave,
into the deepest corner. He then drove
his fat flock right inside the spacious cavern,
just the ones he milked. Rams and billy goats
he left outside, in the open courtyard.
Then he raised up high a massive boulder 
and fixed it in position as a door.  
It was huge—twenty-two four-wheeled wagons,
good ones, too, could not have shifted it
along the ground—that’s how immense it was,
the rock he planted right in his doorway.
He sat down with his bleating goats and ewes
and milked them all, each in turn, setting
beside each one its young. Next, he curdled
half the white milk and set aside the whey
in wicker baskets, then put the other half
in bowls for him to drink up with his dinner.


下面圖片與資料來源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariot

A golden chariot made during Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC).


下面圖片與資料來源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariot
Procession of chariots on a Late Geometric amphora from Athens (ca. 720–700 BC)





下面圖片與資料來源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel

A depiction of an onager-drawn cart on the Sumerian "battle standard of Ur" (c. 2500 BC)


 下面圖片與資料來源: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/chariots.htm#ixzz3Cdj96v7T
This expensive weapon spread throughout the Middle East and is thought to have reached Egypt with the conquering Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. It spread into Asia Minor, Greece and was known in Northern Europe by 1500 BC.

下面圖片與資料來源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariot

Hittite chariot (drawing of an Egyptian relief)

下面圖片與資料來源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariot
Relief of early war wagons on the Standard of Ur, c. 2500 BC



下面圖片與資料來源: http://automobiles.honda.com/odyssey/price.aspx?Model=RL5H9FKXW
 2015 Honda Odyssey


下面圖片與資料來源: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damson
The damson or damson plum (Prunus domestica subsp. insititia, or sometimes Prunus insititia)


下面圖片與資料來源: https://archive.org/details/wukelandelinxing00lafu

《烏克蘭的林型分類 (January 1958)37