主題: 勢均力敵
Iliad 12. 413-471
《伊利亞特》第十二卷進入尾聲，進攻城牆，終究雙方勢均力敵，史詩中用的比喻很漂亮：如兩個人爭地，各自拿著尺丈量，誰也不讓誰。尺，在希臘文就是μέτρον，今天公尺meter一字的字源。一組比喻還不夠，史詩用第二組比喻形容希臘與特洛伊的拉鋸戰，這組比喻很妙，端出勤奮誠實的織布女(χερνῆτις, a woman that spins for daily hire)比喻，她們辛辛苦苦拉住線軸，必須保持線的重量平衡，唯有如此，才保有工作，賺取微薄薪資，這樣的織布女，可能是寡婦，織布謀生。
第一組比喻是男人的工作，第二組是女人的織布工作，點出古代地中海的生計，從一個層次看是用日常戰戰兢兢的生活比喻戰場上僵局。但翻轉過來思考，不論男女，生活中也都有各自要奮鬥的戰場，不是嗎?第三，這兩組比喻都點出平衡與測量的觀念，一個是土地面積地丈量，另一則和重量相關。
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0133%3Abook%3D12%3Acard%3D400
ἀλλ᾽ ὥς τ᾽ ἀμφ᾽ οὔροισι δύ᾽ ἀνέρε δηριάασθον
μέτρ᾽ ἐν χερσὶν ἔχοντες ἐπιξύνῳ ἐν ἀρούρῃ,
ὥ τ᾽ ὀλίγῳ ἐνὶ χώρῳ ἐρίζητον περὶ ἴσης,
ὣς ἄρα τοὺς διέεργον ἐπάλξιες: οἳ δ᾽ ὑπὲρ αὐτέων
δῄουν ἀλλήλων ἀμφὶ στήθεσσι βοείας
ἀσπίδας εὐκύκλους λαισήϊά τε πτερόεντα.
πολλοὶ δ᾽ οὐτάζοντο κατὰ χρόα νηλέϊ χαλκῷ,
ἠμὲν ὅτεῳ στρεφθέντι μετάφρενα γυμνωθείη
μαρναμένων, πολλοὶ δὲ διαμπερὲς ἀσπίδος αὐτῆς.
πάντῃ δὴ πύργοι καὶ ἐπάλξιες αἵματι φωτῶν
ἐρράδατ᾽ ἀμφοτέρωθεν ἀπὸ Τρώων καὶ Ἀχαιῶν.
ἀλλ᾽ οὐδ᾽ ὧς ἐδύναντο φόβον ποιῆσαι Ἀχαιῶν,
ἀλλ᾽ ἔχον ὥς τε τάλαντα γυνὴ χερνῆτις ἀληθής,
ἥ τε σταθμὸν ἔχουσα καὶ εἴριον ἀμφὶς ἀνέλκει
ἰσάζουσ᾽, ἵνα παισὶν ἀεικέα μισθὸν ἄρηται:
ὣς μὲν τῶν ἐπὶ ἶσα μάχη τέτατο πτόλεμός τε,
πρίν γ᾽ ὅτε δὴ Ζεὺς κῦδος ὑπέρτερον Ἕκτορι δῶκε
Πριαμίδῃ, ὃς πρῶτος ἐσήλατο τεῖχος Ἀχαιῶν.
ἤϋσεν δὲ διαπρύσιον Τρώεσσι γεγωνώς:
ὄρνυσθ᾽ ἱππόδαμοι Τρῶες, ῥήγνυσθε δὲ τεῖχος
Ἀργείων καὶ νηυσὶν ἐνίετε θεσπιδαὲς πῦρ. (Iliad
12.421-441)
As two men with measuring rods
quarrel
over survey markers in a common field,
striving
for a fair division in some narrow place,
that’s how
the parapet kept these troops apart.
High on the
wall they hacked each other’s armour—
leather bucklers and large round shields across
their chests,
quivering
targets. Many men were wounded,
flesh
slashed with pitiless bronze, those who turned aside
and left
their backs exposed while fighting and those
hit right
through their shields. Everywhere along the wall,
along the
parapet, men’s blood was spattered
from
Trojans and Achaeans. But even so,
Trojans
could not dislodge Achaeans from the wall.
Just as an
industrious and honest woman
holds her
scales, a weight on one side, wool on the other,
until they
balance, so she can
glean a pittance
for her
children, that’s how evenly the battle raged,
until Zeus
gave glory above all other men
to Hector,
son of Priam, who was the first man
to jump
inside that wall of the Achaeans.
He raised a
resounding yell, crying to his Trojans:
“Drive forward, you horse-taming Trojans.
Breach that Argive wall. Then burn the ships with
a huge fire.”
這一次進攻，終究會把焦距放在Hector，在雙方僵持不下良久，Hector跳出，殺氣重重的他，面如黑夜一般駭人 (Iliad 12.
462-463)。讀到這兒，突然有一種聯想，莫非Hector爆肝，全臉發黑?
