阅读赫西俄德 Hesiod在诗海的作品!!! | |||
赫西俄德创作及评价
在荷马之后，古希腊思想史上还有一位伟大的现实主义与浪漫主义诗人赫西俄德。据认为，流传下来的《工作与时日》和《神谱》都是他的作品。近代学者认为，赫西俄德的作品反映的是公元前8世纪的希腊社会生活。这应当看做是对他的《工作与时日》的评价。《神谱》则继承了荷马的风格与伦理价值观。因此，这是两个从思想内容到风格都极不相同的作品，所反映的道德观念也是两种形态。《工作与时日》是现实主义的并以对人们进行道德劝教为中心，《神谱》则是浪漫主义的并不进行人间道德风化的考虑。
赫西俄德继承了荷马的风格，以浪漫主义手法谱写的《神谱》，写了一个希腊诸神的世代谱系。在作者的笔下，奥林匹斯圣山上的众神们享有着无限荣光，赫西俄德把人间价值的光环都赋予了众神，他们是永远快乐而且是永生不死的。而最值得我们注意的是， 不朽的众神们并非受到人间的道德规范的制约。从我们今天的性关系的道德观点来看，赫西俄德的希腊诸神的谱系学，就是一个乱伦的谱系学（实际上它在某种意义上反映了人类早期的两性关系）。大地之神该亚首先生了天神乌兰诺斯。然而，大地该亚（地母）与其子天神乌兰诺斯交合，生下众神，其中一个最小但最可怕的就是狡猾多计的克洛诺斯。其次，这个谱系也是一个由于性关系的紊乱而发生代际冲突的谱系。在大地之神该亚眼里，天神是一个到处与异性发生关系的强大的神，并因此引起了地母的强烈嫉妒，所以她让他们的儿子克洛诺斯去惩罚无耻的父亲。这就是当他父亲渴求爱情，拥抱大地该亚时，他割下父亲的生殖器并将它扔在他的后面。这个故事对于弗洛依德有着直接的启迪。在他看来，人类的早期有着一种父辈与子辈之间为了异性而进行的战争，即父亲对异性的占有。它导致的就是弑父情结。同时，《神谱》告诉我们，这是一个力的统治的世界。在宙斯出生之前，天神的世界由克洛诺斯统治着。然而，他从父亲天神和母亲地母那里得知，尽管他很强大，但注定要为自己的一个儿子所推翻。于是，每当妻子生下一个孩子，克洛诺斯都把他吞到自己的肚子里。宙斯出生时，其母隐瞒其父才得以死里逃生。不久这个儿子就凭强力打败了他的父亲，剥夺了他的一切尊荣，取而代之成为众神之王。
在赫西俄德的众神谱系里，不仅在神那里找不到对人类性道德的遵守，而且人类的恶也变成了神的本性，或者说，人类的恶化身成了神。这类神有：欺骗女神、不饶人的或恶意的不和女神、争斗女神、谋杀女神、谎言女神、违法女神等等。 她们也是不死的而且也是光辉的奥林匹斯众神之一！在赫西俄德看来，神本身就是罪恶之源。赫西俄德也把人类的罪恶看成是来自于众神（如潘多拉的盒子），正如他把人类的光明如人间得到的火种看成是来自于神一样。不过，人类得到火种全在于一位神（普罗米修斯）欺瞒宙斯而偷给人类的！由此宙斯还给人类带来了更多的不幸。重要的是，我们要看到，在赫西俄德的笔下描写的众神们的生活，找不到人间道德的影子。尼采曾深刻指出：“谁要是心怀另一种宗教走向奥林匹斯山，竟想在它那里寻找道德的高尚，圣洁，无肉体的空灵，悲天悯人的目光，他就必定怅然失望，立刻掉首而去。这里没有任何东西使人想起苦行、修身和义务；这里只有一种丰满的乃至凯旋的生存向我们说话，在这个生存之中，一切存在物不论善恶都被尊崇为神。”在爱利亚学派的克塞诺芬尼（约公元前5世纪人）流传下来的《著作残篇》中，他写道：“荷马和赫西俄德把人间认为是无耻丑行的一切都加在神灵身上：偷盗、奸淫、彼此欺诈。” 不过，这并不是荷马和赫西俄德凭自我意愿要这样做，他们的描述反映的是那个时期的希腊人心目中的神。神的世界并非是一个道德法则所统治的世界，而是一个力量所统治的世界。我们所看到的，是众神或作者对于力的崇拜。宙斯之所以能够超过其父而成为众神之王，就在于他的神力，不在于他的道德或公正。而且我们读到，宙斯总在和别的女神同床交欢。力量与原始本性的快乐同样得到了诗人们的歌颂。实际上，这样一个神谱，反映的是希腊祖先原始野蛮的风俗，反映的是它的征服与掠夺的历史。
在赫西俄德的《工作与时日》里，与《神谱》相反，充满了道德的说教或训诫。在他看来，道德规则或道德秩序是人类生活的法则，虽然它们不是众神生活的法则。并且，虽然众神自己的生活不守法则，但是，他们却在上天管理着人类法则的执行。宙斯在这里成了公道、正义和最高法律的化身。他正直、无私、全智，对一切违反法律的恶人都给予应有的惩罚。“无论谁强暴行凶，克洛诺斯之子、千里眼宙斯都将予以惩罚。”在《神谱》中，神的世界里力量是决定统治的决定性因素，而在人类社会如果把力量看成是正义的依据，如果认为力量就是正义，虔诚不是美德，那么，人类将陷入深重的悲哀，面对罪恶而无处求助。《工作与时日》说：“你要倾听正义，不要希求暴力，因为暴力无益于贫穷者，甚至家财万贯的富人也不容易承受暴力，一旦碰上厄运，就永远翻不了身。反之，追求正义是明智之举，因为正义最终要战胜强暴。” 赫西俄德认为，正义是城市繁荣、人民富庶以及社会和平的根本保障。但何为正义？在《工作与时日》里，没有可以解释的词语。不过，《工作与时日》将正义与暴力、欺骗、作伪证或谎言对立起来，实际上就是把正义看成是公正或正直。值得注意的是，把正义与强暴对立起来，实际上强调了正义就是一种理性，它不是一种自然力量，是一种理性力量。在《工作与时日》看来，人们应当依据正义的法则来解决人们之间的争端，而不是依据暴力。在赫西俄德看来，人与其他动物区别的根本所在就是人类知道什么是正义，并依据正义来行事，而其他动物如鱼、兽以及鸟类，在它们之间没有正义，所以互相吞食。是宙斯把正义这个最好的礼物给了人类。“任何人只要知道正义并且讲正义，无所不见的宙斯就会给他幸福。”我们看到，在荷马史诗那里，也强调正义，但同时强调力量，尤其是人类的或神的自然力量或有机体的力量。在荷马那里， 正义与力量是一对潜在的矛盾。在赫西俄德这里，则把神的世界完全归于力量的统治，而人类社会则归于正义的统治。正义作为一种法则，它不诉求人的力量，而所诉求的是人的理性。
其次，赫西俄德的《工作与时日》的一个显著特征就是对世俗生活道德的极端重视。在赫西俄德看来，劳动是人的幸福之本。人类只有通过劳动才能增加羊群和财富，善德和声誉与财富为伍。“如果你把不正的心灵从别人的财富上移到你的工作上，留心从事如我所嘱咐你的生计， 不论你的运气如何，劳动对你都是上策。”凭自己的劳动致富，不拿不义之财，尤其不以暴力掠夺他人财富，是《工作与时日》中的一项基本道德劝教。这里把掠夺财富看成是与伤害恳求者、冷待客人、乱伦、虐待孤儿、斥骂年老少欢的父亲等恶行一样的罪恶。在这个意义上，《工作与时日》所注重的就是日常和平生活的伦理。这与荷马史诗中的英雄以掠夺、征战为荣的伦理观完全不同。从这种伦理观的变化我们可以看到，希腊已经从一种征战掠夺的游牧民族过渡到一种以农业为主的过乡村生活的民族。
不义之财遭受到道德的谴责，那么幸福就在于自己的勤奋劳动。在赫西俄德这里，生活所必需的不是战车和马匹，而是住所、女人和耕牛。在《工作与时日》中，生产劳动与人们的正义、诚实等德性具有对人们的生活幸福而言的同等重要性。在赫西俄德看来，一个人要过上体面的幸福生活，一定的生活资料是不可或缺的，而生活资料取得的唯一正当途径就在于勤劳。与荷马史诗的英雄伦理观不同，赫西俄德的《工作与时日》提出了一种世俗生活的幸福伦理观。换言之，他提出了在一种田园牧歌的和平环境下，什么样的生活才是真正幸福生活的问题。因此，在西方伦理思想史上，是赫西俄德第一个思考了人类的和平生活秩序以及和平生活中的幸福问题。我认为，赫西俄德提出的最基本的生活伦理以及诚实劳动的幸福观念，回答了一般性人类社会生活秩序的伦理建构问题，从而具有普遍意义。不得以暴力掠夺他人财富，是《工作与时日》中的一项基本道德劝教。赫西俄德以劝告的形式提出不得掠夺他人财富、不得伤害恳求者、冷待客人、乱伦、虐待孤儿、斥骂年老少欢的父亲等，实际上提出了最低限度的生活秩序得以建构的伦理要素。能做到这些，也就是公正，也就有了人类生活的和平与秩序。当然，赫西俄德不仅从消极的意义上提出了人们不应当做什么，也从积极的意义上向人们提出了应当做什么。他提出人们应当勤勉、公正、善待友人，待人以诚，以及“邻居对你有多好，你也应该对他也有多好”。既有最低限度的道德要求，又有应当切实努力的方向。他所提出的这样两个方面的具体内容，都是个人生活以及社会生活的幸福与安宁所必需的。
赫西俄德的两部著作体现了这样的两重伦理观，一个是崇尚力的神的世界，另一个则是应当遵守正义、公正的道德规则的世界。将神的世界看成是超脱于人类的道德法则而由力所统治的世界，而只将道德法则的遵守限定在人类社会。他认为，在人间社会， 如果像神的世界那样崇尚强力并由力量来统治而不讲公正，必将陷入灾难而难于自拔。这个真理至今没有过时，而且永远不会过时。我们这个人类社会，自从上个世纪的二次世界大战后，才有了一种共识：暴力征服、殖民侵略与扩张的时代应当结束了。但这并不意味着我们这个世界就处在公正而有序的世界秩序之中，强暴的力量时时都在侵犯公正。
Hesiod's writings serve as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping.
Life
J. A. Symonds writes that "'Hesiod is also the immediate parent of gnomic verse, and the ancestor of those deep thinkers who speculated in the Attic Age upon the mysteries of human life".
Some scholars have doubted whether Hesiod alone conceived and wrote the poems attributed to him. For example, Symonds writes that "the first ten verses of the Works and Days are spurious - borrowed probably from some Orphic hymn to Zeus and recognised as not the work of Hesiod by critics as ancient as Pausanias".
As with Homer, legendary traditions have accumulated around Hesiod. Unlike Homer's case, however, some biographical details have survived: a few details of Hesiod's life come from three references in Works and Days; some further inferences derive from his Theogony. His father came from Cyme in Aeolis, which lay between Ionia and the Troad in Northwestern Anatolia, but crossed the sea to settle at a hamlet near Thespiae in Boeotia named Ascra, "a cursed place, cruel in winter, hard in summer, never pleasant" (Works, l. 640). Hesiod's patrimony there, a small piece of ground at the foot of Mount Helicon, occasioned a pair of lawsuits with his brother Perses, who won both under the same judges.
Some scholars have seen Perses as a literary creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod directed to him in Works and Days, but in the introduction to his translation of Hesiod's works, Hugh G. Evelyn-White provides several arguments against this theory. Gregory Nagy, on the other hand, sees both Persēs ("the destroyer": πέρθω / perthō) and Hēsiodos ("he who emits the voice": ἵημι / hiēmi + αὐδή / audē) as fictitious names for poetical personae.
The Muses traditionally lived on Helicon, and, according to the account in Theogony (ll. 22-35), gave Hesiod the gift of poetic inspiration one day while he tended sheep (compare the legend of Cædmon). Hesiod later mentions a poetry contest at Chalcis in Euboea where the sons of one Amiphidamas awarded him a tripod (ll.654-662). Plutarch first cited this passage as an interpolation into Hesiod's original work, based on his identification of Amiphidamas with the hero of the Lelantine War between Chalcis and Eretria, which occurred around 705 BC. Plutarch assumed this date much too late for a contemporary of Homer, but most Homeric scholars would now accept it. The account of this contest, followed by an allusion to the Trojan War, inspired the later tales of a competition between Hesiod and Homer.
Two different -- yet early -- traditions record the site of Hesiod's grave. One, as early as Thucydides, reported in Plutarch, the Suda and John Tzetzes, states that the Delphic oracle warned Hesiod that he would die in Nemea, and so he fled to Locris, where he was killed at the local temple to Nemean Zeus, and buried there. This tradition follows a familiar ironic convention: the oracle that predicts accurately after all.
The other tradition, first mentioned in an epigram of Chersios of Orchomenus written in the 7th century BC (within a century or so of Hesiod's death) claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. According to Aristotle's Constitution of Orchomenus, when the Thespians ravaged Ascra, the villagers sought refuge at Orchomenus, where, following the advice of an oracle, they collected the ashes of Hesiod and placed them in a place of honour in their agora, beside the tomb of Minyas, their eponymous founder, and in the end came to regard Hesiod too as their "hearth-founder" (οἰκιστής / oikistēs).
Later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts.
The legends that accumulated about Hesiod are recorded in several sources: the story "The poetic contest (Ἀγών / Agōn) of Homer and Hesiod"; a vita of Hesiod by the Byzantine grammarian John Tzetzes; the entry for Hesiod in the Suda; two passages and some scattered remarks in Pausanias (IX, 31.3–6 and 38.3–4); a passage in Plutarch Moralia (162b).
Works
Of the many works attributed to Hesiod, three survive complete and many more in fragmentary state. Our witnesses include Alexandrian papyri, some dating from as early as the 1st century BC, and manuscripts written from the eleventh century forward. Demetrius Chalcondyles issued the first printed edition (editio princeps) of Works and Days, possibly at Milan, probably in 1493. In 1495 Aldus Manutius published the complete works at Venice.
Hesiod's works, especially Works and Days, are from the view of the small independent farmer, while Homer's view is from nobility or the rich. Even with these differences, they share some of the same beliefs as far as work ethic, justice, and consideration of material items.
Works and Days
Main article: Works and Days
Hesiod wrote a poem of some 800 verses, the Works and Days, which revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by. Scholars have interpreted this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece, which inspired a wave of documented colonisations in search of new land.
This work lays out the five Ages of Man, as well as containing advice and wisdom, prescribing a life of honest labour and attacking idleness and unjust judges (like those who decided in favour of Perses) as well as the practice of usury. It describes immortals who roam the earth watching over justice and injustice. The poem regards labor as the source of all good, in that both gods and men hate the idle, who resemble drones in a hive.
Theogony
Main article: Theogony
Tradition also attributes the Theogony, a poem which uses the same epic verse-form as the Works and Days, to Hesiod. Despite the different subject-matter most scholars, with some notable exceptions like Evelyn-White, believe both works were written by the same man. As M.L. West writes, "Both bear the marks of a distinct personality: a surly, conservative countryman, given to reflection, no lover of women or life, who felt the gods' presence heavy about him."
The Theogony concerns the origins of the world (cosmogony) and of the gods (theogony), beginning with Gaia, Nyx and Eros, and shows a special interest in genealogy. Embedded in Greek myth there remain fragments of quite variant tales, hinting at the rich variety of myth that once existed, city by city; but Hesiod's retelling of the old stories became, according to the fifth century historian Herodotus, the accepted version that linked all Hellenes.
Other writings
A short poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod is The Shield of Heracles (Ἀσπὶς Ἡρακλέους / Aspis Hêrakleous). This survives complete; the other works discussed in this section survive only in quotations or papyri copies which are often damaged.
Classical authors also attributed to Hesiod a lengthy genealogical poem known as Catalogue of Women or Eoiae (because sections began with the Greek words e oie 'Or like the one who...'). It was a mythological catalogue of the mortal women who had mated with gods, and of the offspring and descendants of these unions.
Several additional poems were sometimes ascribed to Hesiod:
Aegimius
Astrice
Chironis Hypothecae
Idaei Dactyli
Wedding of Ceyx
Great Works (presumably an expanded Works and Days)
Great Eoiae (presumably an expanded Catalogue of Women)
Melampodia
Ornithomantia
Scholars generally classify all these as later examples of the poetic tradition to which Hesiod belonged, not as the work of Hesiod himself. The Shield, in particular, appears to be an expansion of one of the genealogical poems, taking its cue from Homer's description of the Shield of Achilles.
The "portrait" bust
The Roman bronze bust of the late first century BC found at Herculaneum, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca was first reidentified as a fictitious portrait meant for Hesiod by Gisela Richter, though it had been recognized that the bust was not in fact Seneca since 1813, when an inscribed herm portrait with quite different features was discovered. Most scholars now follow her identification.
Notes
^ Erika Simon (1975). Pergamon und Hesiod (in German). Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern. OCLC 2326703.
^ M.L. West, "Hesiod", in Oxford Classical Dictionary, second edition (Oxford: University Press, 1970), p.510.
^ J. A. Symonds, Sbreasın strabnssk lkjsdaflj nsdurps sdflfsj toı urnststlhg aa şgg fgafn asdeut sgsgmg fmgfmgfmgktş.çföböbatudies of the Greek Poets, p. 166
^ J. A. Symonds, p. 167
^ Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica (Cambridge: Harvard Press, 1964) Volume 57 of the Loeb Classical Library, pp. xivf.
^ Gregry Nagy, Greek Mythology and Poetics (Cornell 1990), pp. 36-82.
^ Translated in Evelyn-White, Hesiod, pp. 565-597.
^ Hesiod, Works and Days, line 250: "Verily upon the earth are thrice ten thousand immortals of the host of Zeus, guardians of mortal man. They watch both justice and injustice, robed in mist, roaming abroad upon the earth". (Compare J. A. Symonds, p. 179)
^ Works and Days, line 300: "Both gods and men are angry with a man who lives idle, for in nature he is like the stingless drones who waste the labor of the bees, eating without working."
^ West, "Hesiod", p. 521.
References
Philip Wentworth Buckham, Theatre of the Greeks, 1827.
Robert Lamberton, Hesiod, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0300040687
Pietro Pucci, Hesiod and the Language of Poetry, Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977. ISBN 0801817870
Erwin Rohde, Psyche, 1925.
J. A. Symonds, Studies of the Greek Poets, 1873.
Thomas Taylor, A Dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries, 1791.