2015-06-15

【Aiden in English】

        Today I went to the Island of Rhodes, the most easterly island of the Aegean Sea in Greece. You shouldn’t be confused with Rhode Island on the east coast in USA, or a “road” as in the strip of land cars travel on. They are completely different. How much? Well, you’ll know it after reading this. This sunny Aegean gem was once the site of the Colossus of Rhodes created to honor the sun god Helios, a statue at least 110 feet/34 meters high built around the 3rd B.C. as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. 

        Heat is very dangerous, you know. Although it is good for the olives, I preferably do not wish to get heat stroke or dehydration at this moment. Heat, combined with steps which were involved with Julius Caesar’s death, is a force not even the lemons or olives can stop. These were 300ish, slippery, large, steep, vicious steps that trapped anyone standing over them. These weapons were protecting the Acropolis of Lindos. The Acropolis is a standing structure built on a rocky hill as a fortress. To get to the Acropolis, over 320 steps stood in your way. I was going to reach it too, no matter what the cost.

        I left out two factors that could make a difference in today’s outcome. First, the steps were as slippery as ice. They weren’t wet or anything. It was just the type of cobble stone that gave it a sliding motion whenever planting my feet. The second thing was that instead of getting cooler from a sea breeze since we were high up, the temperature rose and the sun seemed to grow larger. It seemed as if we were getting closer to the sun, which wasn’t possible. Please tell me that hallucinations are a symptom of heat stroke, because the sun is getting a little too big than what I call a “survival size”. And I thought we still had 5 billion years before the sun imploded. Boy, meteorologists were as wrong as ever. 

        Finally we reached the Acropolis of Lindos, and it looked beautiful. The island of Rhodes was spread below. Rolling hills turned to mountains stretching into the distance. Olive trees dotted the landscape, and white, blocky, small buildings clumped together made up the towns on the hilly side. The coastal area looked quite the different. A wave of turquoise blue reached at the horizon, colliding on a line almost inseparably. The water faded into a light blue, and it seemed to flow the sky.

        This Acropolis of Lindos was dedicated to Athena who was the goddess of wisdom and war strategies, usually on defense. Therefore, it was a logical idea to have her as the host goddess. The Temple of Athena Lindia was built for her at the top of the fortress, and below there were a semi square of a pillars and a corridor. The lowest floor was the supports which later were transformed into storage area and the walls. This Doric architecture was all ground, majestic and …… 2,300 some years ago. Now, the temple is gone and only half of the pillars remain. It is one of the remaining ancient structures symbolizing the past. 

        Strolling in the old town, the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights, took us back to the 14th century when the Knights Hospitaller controlled Rhodes. This citadel of the Early Byzantine fortress pierced with Gothic portals, imposing towers, squared courtyard, and hundreds of vaulted rooms of recovered mosaics derived from as early as the 2nd BC. Mosaics are the pictures made of tiny natural pebbles. When a masterful work is done, you’ll know, because you can’t tell the difference between a mosaic and a painting. These art images were all about Greek history and mythology, giving me my share of social studies today. One piece of work I found interesting was how Helios was the host, a god of Rhodes. One day, Zeus split the world into sections for each god. Helios wasn’t there since he was doing his daily travel from east to west across the sky as a charioteer. He didn’t get a piece because Zeus forgot, and Zeus was frustrated that he had to re-do the process. An island rose from the sea, and Helios saw a beautiful nymph on it. He asked Zeus for this island only, and so that’s why Rhodes has an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, regardless how much the sunscreen in this country consumes every year. However, a lot of works wore in the Ottoman possession until 1940s. 

        Ancient structures carry many stories with them, oral and scenic. And a thousand years later, people will think there “Wow, where did the Acropolis of Lindos go?” It will be gone, and most likely, there will be more and new historic sites in the world like Rhodes. 

【紅霞譯文】

        今天我們去了希臘愛琴海最東邊的羅得島，千萬別跟美國東海岸羅德島州混為一談，同時也不要誤以為這裡所指的是汽車道路，其實彼此之間完全不同，區別真的很大？你讀完本文介紹之後便會明白怎麼回事。這顆陽光明媚的愛琴海明珠曾因羅得斯島太陽神赫利俄斯巨像而聞名天下，該銅像建於公元前三世紀，高達110英尺／34米，被視為古代世界七大奇蹟之一。

        你知道酷暑有多恐怖，儘管對橄欖百利而無一害，但此時此刻我唯恐避之不及，生怕中暑或者脫水，高溫外加足使尤利烏斯·凱撒大帝命歸西天的台階構成一股力量，連檸檬或橄欖甚感無奈，腳下三百來蹬又滑又大又陡又險的石梯，稍踩不慎就會人仰馬翻，堪稱“林都斯衛城”獨特的防禦手段。衛城巍然矗立在山包頂頭，曾被用作軍事堡壘，欲想身在其中，必須要邁過320多層台階，但無論付出多少代價，我定要勇往直前。

        今天進展如何取決於下面兩個因素，第一：石階滑如冰塊，與潮濕毫無關係，踩上這種鵝卵石令人頓覺時光磨蝕歲月積澱；第二：隨着高度增加，撲面而來的陣陣海風絲毫沒有一點涼意，氣溫反而飆升，太陽似乎越來越大，我們之間的距離變得越來越近，簡直不可思議。莫非幻覺是中暑的標誌，因為太陽看上去的確有點超乎“生存尺寸”，可我誤以為太陽起碼還有50億年壽命，唉呀，氣象學家總是說話不算數。

        我們好不容易登上林都斯衛城，羅得島風光盡收眼底，連綿起伏的海岸丘陵縱深朝群山方向蜿蜒而去；橄欖樹婀娜多姿，恰到好處地點綴海島的秀美；白色塊式小型建築群依山而建，自然形成社區規模的山鄉城鎮。傍海一側景色完全不同，翡翠一般的波紋拍打着地平線，歡快的浪花緊緊地擁抱在一起，海水逐漸變為淡藍色，宛若天空飄動的雲朵。

        林都斯衛城專為智慧與戰爭（通常重在保護城邦）的女神雅典娜而設，顧名思義正是祭拜女神的地方，雅典娜·莉迪亞寺被造在城堡頂端，下面建有半方形石柱和走廊，底層地基部分後被改作儲藏室及防禦工事，這座2300多年的多利安式建築堅實雄偉，目前其廟宇早已不復存在，僅有半成棟梁傲然挺立,不失為一處承載滄桑鐫刻歷史的古堡遺蹟。

        漫步於羅德城老城區，另一個哥特式建築“大教長宮”把我們帶入十四世紀醫院騎士團統治年代，它為早期拜占庭的要塞堡壘，貫串哥特式的入門、高大挺拔的樓塔、方形寬敞的庭院以及數以百計的拱頂廳堂等建築特徵，室內保留不少包括公元前二世紀流傳下來的鑲嵌藝術。這裡的馬賽克均由天然細小的鵝卵石拼制而成，單憑你無法辨認馬賽克與繪畫之間的差異，足以說明其裝飾作品已達到登峰造極的水平。大教長宮內所展示的圖案全部都與希臘歷史與希臘神話相關，恰巧強化了我在社會常識課上學到的知識，有一件關於羅德島太陽神赫利俄斯的藝術珍品引起了我極大興趣。故事說的是，有一天，宙斯正在給諸神分配世界格局，身為車夫的赫利俄斯因忙於從東到西遨遊太空而缺席現場，此時此刻宙斯偏偏忘記了他，因而赫利俄斯什麼地盤也沒有得到，正在宙斯糾結之際，不料一個島嶼從海面騰騰升起，赫利俄斯看到上面有位美麗的仙女，隨即要求神王賜給自己這個寶地，這也是為什麼羅德島每年平均三百天艷陽高照，暫且不說全國為此要耗掉多少防曬霜。然而在奧斯曼占領期間，不少文化瑰寶遭到破壞，直到廿世紀四十年代才開始逐一修復。

        古代建築記載了許許多多可歌可泣的故事，再過千年之後，人們肯定在想：“哇，林都斯衛城怎麼沒了？”一切終將完結，將來世上極有可能湧現出更多其它的歷史遺蹟，像羅德島一樣值得回味。