回复: 希腊神话
 

雅典娜的神像
When Ilus had first built his new seat, the city of Troy, he prayed Zeus to show some sign of blessing for it. His prayer was heard, and a wooden image of Pallas- A-thena fell from heaven to within the walls of the city. Known as the Palladium, the statue afforded the city safety and protection. At religious meetings of the goddess it was carried through the city streets amid joys and songs of praise.
After the flames of war had spread for ten years before the walls of Troy, a prophet foretold that Troy could never be expected to fall as long as the Palladium was treasured by its people . In order to steal it out, Odysseus and Diomedes slipped into the capital one night in disguise , known to none but Hellen. The bad woman took out them to He cuba, the queen of Troy, at whose feet Odysseus immediately bowed down and asked formercy. The queen granted their request, and with the help of Helen, they successfully brought the image back to the Greek camp at dawn.
Later it was said that Aeneas got hold of it and carried itwith him to his new land, where it was Preserved together with the goddess' fire.

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埃杰克斯(巨人）
Ajax was a man of giant stature, daring but slow. When the Trojan War was about to break out he led his forces from Salamis to join the Greek army at Aulis. As one of the trustiest champions of the Greek cause, he was given thejob of guarding one end of the Greek camp near Troy. He was noted in the battlefield for his bravery and courage. After Achilles' death he became one of the two hot contestants for the dead hero's shield and armour, the other being Odysseus. When the weapons were finally judged to his rival, Ajax went mad for grief. Unable to get over the hardships, he took his own life. When, in order to seek the advice of, Odysseus came to visit the lower world, the shade of Ajax frowned uponhim. In the lower world Ajax chose to be a lion, guided clearly by the bitter recollection of his former life.

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杰森
Among the pupils of the wise and just Centaur, there wasa boy named Jason. He was by birth a prince. His father Aeson was once king of Iolcus, but was overthrown by his own half brother Pelias. So he sent his baby son Jason to the Centaur for safekeeping. As a boy Jason took part in the boarhunt. When he grew up into a strong youth he was told of the secret of his birth. So he went to avenge his father's wrongs .
On his way back to his native city he met a weak old woman waiting to be helped across a mountain stream. Kind and polite, Jason carried the old lady on his back and walked across the stream. Little had he thought that the old woman was just Hera herself . Thus he got the help and protection of a power fulfriend at the beginning of his life. As he lost one shoe in the stream he had to enter Pelias' palace in only one shoe. Pelias was quite scared to see such a stranger because he had been warned by a prophet to be careful of a man wearing only one shoe. He was not surprised when Jason told him who he was and what his business was about. The artful Pelias welcomed hisnephew with false pride and joy ; he promised to give up the kingdom to one who had proved himself worthy of it. And heurged the youth to bring the golden fleece back from Colchis. He felt quite certain that his nephew would never come back alivefrom the hopeless task. Pelias' prediction was quite right. Jasondied a poor death in the kingdom of Colchis.

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伊俄
Io was the daughter of a rivergod. She was loved, run after and won by Zeus. Hera became so greeneyed that she flew down from Olympus one day to pay her rival back . Zeus, however, had foreseen her arrival and changed Io into abeautiful white little cow. Seeing through the trick, Hera asked for the cow as a present and Zeus had to give in to her wish . Then she left the cow to the care of a hundredeyed monster, Argus. Argus' eyes were ever open and no escape was possible. Unable to bear to see her so unhappy, Zeus sent Hermes down todestroy the monster. Dressed up as a shepherd, Hermes lulled Argus to sleep with his sweet songs and long stories, then killed him and set Io free. But Hera's anger was not to be calmed downyet. She sent a gadfly to attack the cow and drive her from land to land. In her misery the cow passed over the strait which divides Europe and Asia. In this way the strip of water got itsname Bosporus , the way of the cow. She wandered over thesea, which by chance got from her its name the Ionian Sea . In the end she arrived in Egypt where she was turned back into hernatural form . She settled down and gave birth to a son, Some of her children remained in Egypt and ruled as kings for a longtime.

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海妖塞壬
Far out in the sea there was an island, on the rocky edge of which lived three Sirens, the three sisters of magic song. Half human and half bird, the Siren sisters sat in a field of flowers, singing in voices that excited the hearts of men. The attractive songs were so sweet that ships were attracted to the island and struck to pieces on the rocks. No sailor nor ship had ever been known to pass the Island of the Sirens without being attracted to disaster .
Acting on the advice of Circe, Odysseus took careful preparation against the Sirens. Before their ships came to where they could hear the song, Odysseus had himself tied to the mast , stopped the ears of his men with wax and ordered them to ignorehis orders and gestures when they were passing the fatal is land .
Soon they came in sight of the rocky is land, and the attractive song reached the ears of Odysseus. It moved him so much that he struggled in despair to free himself and shouted for his men to turn towards the rich and flowery grass land of the singing sisters. But no one paid any attention to him. The sailorskept straight on until they were completely out of hearing. Then his friends freed him and took the wax out of their ears. For once the Sirens had sung with no effects. The eldest of the sisters, Partherope, loved Odysseus so much that she threw herself into the sea after his ships had passed.

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赫克犹巴
He cuba's life was one of grief and sorrow. She saw withher own eyes her eldest born Hector killed and insulted by Achilles. She saw her son Polites slain in front of her by Pyrrhus. And she saw her husband, the aged Priam, dragged towards the household altar and ruthlessly butchered there. After the fall of Troy she was carried into slavery . Shehad the misfortune to witness her daughter Polyxena, her soleconsolation in bondage , sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles. She had the sad fate to see washed ashore the corpse of her young estson Polydorus, who had been entrusted to the Thracian king for safekeeping. With her fifty children all dead she became thequeen of sorrows from whom no other woman could obtain the crown . Yet in her distress and despair, she plucked up hercourage to avenge herself upon the Thracian king, who had murdered her son in order to get her son's gold. Later, as Dionysushad prophesied , she was transformed into a dog with bloodshoteyes and, unable to endure the new misery, she leapt into thesea and thus ended her unfortunate life.

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皮格马利翁
Pygmalion, King of Cyprus, was a famous sculptor. He made an ivory image of a woman so lovely that he fell in love with it. Every day he tried to make Galatea up in gold and purple, for that was the name he had given to this mistress of his heart. He embraced and kissed it, but it remaineda statue. In despair he went to Aphrodite's shrine for help. Offering rich sacrifice and sending up a passionate prayer, he begged the goddess to give him a wife as graceful as Galatea. Back home, he went straight up to the statue. Even as he gazedat it a change came over it. A faint colour appeared on its cheeks, a gleam shone from its eyes and its lips opened into as weet smile. Pygmalion stood speechless when Ualatea began to move towards him. She was simple and sweet and alive! Soon the room was ringing with her sliver voice. The work of his own hands became his wife.

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恩底弥翁
End ymion was a handsome young shepherd who kept his flocks of sheep on Mt Latmos, Asia Minor . Living in aquiet, lovely valley, he lived a perfectly peaceful life. Sometimes when his sheep grazed happily on some rich grass around, he would lie down on the meadow and sleep soundly, completely free from worldly griefs and cares.
One clear, bright night, as Artemis drove her carriageacross the heavens, her eyes chanced upon a beautiful youth sleeping in the peaceful valley below. Her heart beat with love and admiration. She came down from her moon carriage and gave a quick but passionate kiss on his face. Even the sleepy End ymion was fascinated at the sight of the fair maiden as heopened his eyes. But the vision disappeared so soon that he regarded the whole scene as a dream. Every night Artemis floated down to steal a kiss from the lips of the sleeping shepherd untilher occasional carelessness of duty caused the suspicion of Zeus. The father of gods and men decided to remove the earthlytemptation to the goddess forever. He called for Endymion on to him and ordered him to choose between death in any form and everlasting youth in perpetual dreamy sleep . The shepherdchose the latter, and he still slept on Mt Latmos, with the moon goddess sadly visiting and kissing him every night.

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丹芙妮
Daphne was a lovely blooming fairy maiden. As she was playing merrily in the woods one day she saw Apollo the sun-god staring at her with more than amazement and ad miration in his eyes. The beaming face of the sun put her to flight. The eager Apollo followed her closely behind, calling out to her to stop. His passion had been lighted by her beauty and grace. He was afraid that this might be the last time he saw her. The quick footed maiden made the best of her legs , but the passionate Apollo pressed hard upon her . Through rough fields and pathless woods she ran, but the sound of his pursuing feet ever grew nearer. As he ran he begged his beloved maiden to slow down, for he feared that she might fall and hurt her sparkling skin on the rocky roads. But the escaping maiden never cared so much about that. She even threw one glance back wards . At last she was quite breathless and cried to her father, a rivergod, for help. No sooner had her prayer been uttered than answered , for she had instantly found herself glued to the ground and a layer of soft bark growing over her fair skin . She had been turned into a laurel tree. Sighing, Apollo put his arms around the tree trunk. The trunk responded by turning thinner. To show his undying love for the maiden, he decided that the laurel would be his favorite tree and should be the prize of honour and fame for deathless poets and poetry . Thus the most outstanding poet always desires to be made a poet laureate .

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那西塞斯
Narcissus had a twin sister whom he loved better than anyone else in the world. This sister died when she was young and very beautiful. Narcissus missed her so very much that he wished he might die too.
One day, as he sat on the ground by a spring, looking absently into the water and thinking of his lost sister, he saw a face like hers, looking up at him. It seemed as if his sister had become a water nymph and were actually there in the spring, but she would not speak to him.
Of course the face Narcissus saw was really the reflection of his own face in the water, but he did not know that. In those days there were no clear mirrors like ours; and the idea of one's appearance that could be got from a polished brass shield, for instance, was a very dim one. So Narcissus leaned over the water and looked at the beautiful face so like his sister's, and wondered what it was and whether he should ever see his sister again.
After this, he came back to the spring day after day and looked at the face he saw there, and mourned for his sister until, at last, the gods felt sorry for him and changed him into a flower.
This flower was the first narcissus . All the flowers of thisfamily, when they grow by the side of a pond or a stream, still bend their beautiful heads and look at the reflection of their owfaces in the water.