11　一场传说中的战争

各个国家的历史，通常都是以战争开始，最终也以战争结束的。古希腊历史上的第一桩重大事件，正是一场战争。这场战争被称为“特洛伊战争”。人们认为，它发生在公元前1193年左右，即铁器时代开始之后不久。不过，我们既不知道此次战争的确切日期，甚至也不确定究竟有没有爆发过这样一场战争；因为这场战争的很多情况，我们所知的不过都是神话故事罢了。故事的发生经过是这样的。

奥林匹斯山上的男女众神，曾经举行了一场盛大的婚宴；其间，一位不请自来的女神突然将一个金苹果扔到了桌子上。金苹果上写着这样一句话：

送给最美丽的人。

扔出那个金苹果的女神，就是“不和女神”；而她的这一举动，也的确恰如其名地引发了一场争执，因为每位女神都像自负的凡人那样，认为自己最美丽，因而觉得自己应当得到那个金苹果。最后，她们叫来了一个叫作帕里斯的牧童，要他来评判到底是哪位女神最美丽。

每位女神都对帕里斯说，如果选她的话，她就会送给帕里斯一份礼物。神界王后赫拉说，她会让帕里斯当上国王；智慧女神雅典娜说，她会让帕里斯变得聪颖、有智慧；而美丽女神阿弗洛狄忒则说，她会让帕里斯娶世界上最美丽的女子为妻。

wise；but Aphrodite,the goddess of beauty,offered to give him the most beautiful girl in the world for his wife.

Now,Paris was not really a shepherd boy but the son of Priam,the king of Troy,which was a city on the seashore opposite Greece. When he was a baby,Paris had been left on a mountain to die,but he had been found by a shepherd and was brought up by him as his own child.

Paris didn't care about being wise；he didn't care about being king；what he did want was to have the most beautiful woman in the world for his wife,and so he gave the apple to Aphrodite.

Now the most beautiful woman in the world was named Helen,and she was already married to Menelaus,the king of Sparta. In spite of that fact,Aphrodite told Paris to go to Sparta in Greece,where he would find Helen,and then run away with her.So Paris went to Sparta to visit King Menelaus and was royally entertained by him.And then Paris,although he had been treated so kindly and had been trusted,one night stole Helen away and carried her off across the sea to Troy.

Menelaus and the Greeks were naturally very angry and immediately prepared for war and sailed off for Troy to get Helen back. Now,in ancient times all cities had walls built around them to protect them from the enemy.As there were no cannons nor guns nor deadly weapons such as are used in war nowadays,it was very hard to get into a walled city or capture it.Troy was protected in this way by walls；and though the Greeks tried for ten years to capture it,at the end of the ten years Troy was still unconquered.

注意，帕里斯其实并不是牧童，而是特洛伊国王普里阿摩斯的儿子。帕里斯还在襁褓之中的时候，就被人丢弃到了一座山上去等死；但一个牧羊人发现了他，便把他当成自己的亲生儿子那样抚养成人了。

帕里斯并不在意自己聪不聪明，也不喜欢成为国王；他想要的，是娶世界上最美丽的女子为妻，所以便把金苹果给了阿弗洛狄忒。

当时，世界上最美丽的女子名叫海伦，已经嫁给了斯巴达的国王墨涅拉俄斯为王后。可阿弗洛狄忒却不管这个事实，让帕里斯前往斯巴达，在那里找到海伦，然后带着她私奔。于是，帕里斯便前往斯巴达谒见墨涅拉俄斯国王，并且受到了后者的盛情招待。尽管受到了这种礼遇，尽管得到了墨涅拉俄斯国王的信任，但接下来，帕里斯还是在一天晚上带走了海伦，并且带着她渡海前往特洛伊去了。

墨涅拉俄斯国王和希腊人自然十分震怒，因此马上准备开战，出海前往特洛伊去夺回海伦。注意，古时候的所有城市四周，都筑有防御敌人的城墙。由于那时没有如今战争中所用的大炮、机枪和致命性武器，因此要攻入或者攻陷一座四周都有城墙的城市是很困难的。特洛伊的四周，正是筑有这样的城墙；所以，尽管希腊人花了十年的时间想要攻破它，但十年过去之后，特洛伊城却依然没有陷落。

最后，希腊人决定耍个花招，攻入特洛伊城。他们制造了一匹巨大的木马，并让士兵们埋伏在木马的肚子里。他们将木马放到特洛伊城墙前面之后，便驾船离去，假装他们最终停战了。他们还派了一个间谍去对特洛伊人说，这匹木马是众神

At last the Greeks decided to try a trick to get into the city. They built a huge horse of wood,and inside this wooden horse they put soldiers.They placed the horse in front of the city walls and then sailed away as if at last they were giving up the war.The Trojans were told by a spy that the horse was a gift of the gods and that they ought to take it into the city.A Trojan priest named Laocoon,however,told his people not to have anything to do with the horse,for he suspected a trick.But people seldom take advice when told not to do what they want to do.

Just then some huge snakes came out of the sea and attacked Laocoon and his two sons and,twining around them,strangled them to death. The Trojans thought this was a sign from the gods,or an omen as they would have said,that they should not believe Laocoon；so they determined to take the horse into the city against his advice.The horse was so big,however,that it would not go through the gates,and in order to get it inside the walls they had to tear down part of the wall itself.When night fell,the Greek soldiers came out of the horse and opened the gates of the city.The other Greeks,who had been waiting just out of sight,returned and entered through the gates and the hole the Trojans had made in the wall.Troy was easily conquered then,and the city was burned to the ground,and Helen's husband carried her back to Greece.Because of this horse trick,we still have a saying，“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts，”which is as much as to say，“Look out for an enemy who brings you a present.”

The story of the Trojan War was told in two long poems.Some people think they are the finest poems that were ever written.One of these poems is called the Iliad,from the

送给特洛伊人的礼物，因此他们应当把木马拖进城里去。然而，特洛伊一位名叫拉奥孔的祭司却对民众说，千万不要去动那匹木马，因为他怀疑那是一种诡计。可是，人们在一心想要做什么事情，却有人来劝他们不要去做的时候，都是很少听得进劝告的。

就在那时，海里游出了几条大蛇，袭击了拉奥孔和他的两个儿子，紧紧地缠在他们身上，并将他们勒死了。特洛伊人都认为这是一种神谕，或者是他们所称的预兆，要他们不要相信拉奥孔的话；于是，他们决定不听拉奥孔的劝告，把木马拖进城去。然而，那匹木马太大，进不了城门；为了把木马拖进城去，他们还拆毁了一段城墙呢。夜幕降临后，希腊士兵们从藏身的木马中出来，打开了城门。其余那些希腊人一直都待在看不见的地方等候着，此时便返回来，通过城门和特洛伊人在城墙上拆开的口子进了城。这样一来，特洛伊城便被轻而易举地攻破了，整个城市都被烧成了一堆焦土，而海伦的丈夫也带着她回到了希腊。由于这个木马计，我们如今仍然有一句谚语，即“提防带着礼物的希腊人”呢。它相当于是说：“提防送给你礼物的敌人。”

有两首长诗，叙述了特洛伊战争的经过。有些人认为，它们是历史上写得最好的两首诗歌。其中一首叫作《伊利亚特》，诗名源自特洛伊城的名字，因为特洛伊又名“伊利昂”。《伊利亚特》描述的是特洛伊战争本身的经过。另一首诗叫作《奥德赛》，描述的是希腊人中的一位英雄在特洛伊战争结束后回家途中的冒险故

name of the city of Troy,which was also known as Ilium. The Iliad describes the Trojan War itself.The other poem is called the Odyssey and describes the adventures of one of the Greek heroes on his way home after the war was over.The Greek hero's name was Odysseus,which gives the name Odyssey to the book,but he was also called Ulysses.These poems,the Iliad and the Odyssey,were composed by a Greek poet named Homer,who is supposed to have lived at some time before 700 B.C.

Homer may have been a bard；that is,a singing poet who went about from place to place and sang his songs to the people. He probably collected old legends and made his poems from them.Usually a bard played on a lyre as he sang,and the people gave him something to eat or a place to sleep to pay him for his songs.

People enjoyed hearing Homer's songs. They learned them by heart,and mothers taught them to their children after Homer had died.The poems are written down in Greek,and you may some day read them in Greek,if you study that language,or at least in an English translation.

I have told you that Homer probably made his songs out of old legends. There were many legends,too,about Homer himself,and we don't know which are true.He was said to have been blind.Seven different cities each proudly claimed that Homer had been born in their city,so you can count six or seven legends right there！

事。这位希腊英雄叫作奥德修斯，《奥德赛》这一诗名，便是由他的名字而来；但他还有一个名字，叫作尤利西斯。《伊利亚特》和《奥德赛》这两首诗，都是由一位名叫荷马的希腊诗人所作；人们认为，荷马生活在公元前700年以前的某个时期。

荷马可能是一位吟游诗人；也就是说，他可能是一位在各地游历并对人们吟诵自己所写诗歌的吟唱诗人。他很可能是搜集到了一些古老的传说，然后以此为基础来写作诗歌的。通常来说，吟游诗人会边吟唱边弹竖琴，而作为对他吟唱诗歌的回报，人们则会给他一些吃的，或者为他提供住处。

人们都喜欢聆听荷马的诗歌。他们将这些诗歌用心记住，而在荷马去世后，就由母亲们把这些诗歌教给孩子们。这两首诗是用希腊文写成的；倘若学习希腊语的话，你们有朝一日可能会读到它们，或者起码也会看到它们的英译版的。

前面我已经说过，荷马很可能是根据古老的传说而创作出这两首诗歌的。对于荷马本身，世间也有很多的传说；因此，究竟哪一种是真的，我们无从得知。据说他还是一位盲人。曾经有七座城市都骄傲地宣称它们是荷马的出生地；由此你们可以想见，关于荷马的传说就有六七个了！