古希腊人眼中的宗教与战争的关系

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标签: Greek Religion Warfare

Jon D. Mikalson,Ancient Greek Religion,Oxford:Blackwell Publishing Ltd,2005. 

Religion of the Greek City-State:Safety in Seafaring and Warfare


在希波战争中有多个神打击了波斯的军队,其中几个神如Demeter,Artemis,Ajax等主要是为了保护他们的圣域或者报复波斯军队对圣域的破坏,而Athena,Poseidon则由于他们本身的战神属性而表现出了对战争的关心。因此可以归结为两方面:

"on the one, supportive deities, prayer, sacrifice, granting of the prayer, and expressions of gratitude for that;on the other, the anger of the gods when their property and sanctuaries are impiously violated." (p.170)

希腊人承认诸神的帮助,但

"in war, as in the areas of agriculture, economic prosperity, and health, they did not give credit solely to the gods for their accomplishments....They took considerable pride in their own contributions to their successes. In the Pessian Wars they prayed to the gods not to give them 'victory', but to make it a 'fair fight'."(p.170)

在希腊人的圣域里有许多感激神的献词,但

"they are equally monuments of human achievement, and usually the human achievement is given considerably more emphasis than the deity's contribution."(p.170)

希腊人的献词十分之一在叙述个人或城邦的成功,十分之九在描述献者和他的成就。希腊人向神寻求帮助但并不指望诸神会替他们完成所有的事情。

"THe Greeks looked to their deities for assistance and protection in war, agriculture, economic activities, and health, but in no sense passively expected their deities to do it all for them. The Greek attitude is nicely captured in a line from Aeschylus' Persae:'Whenever someone himself shows eagerness, the god also lends a hand.'"(p.171)

这种神助观念是希腊文化富有创造力的重要因素。  

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