2015-06-20

【Aiden in English】

        Mount Olympus is the place of the Greek gods. There are twelve, to be exact. They are the Twelve Olympians, rulers in each aspect. Everything revolved around these gods, the Earth and beyond.

        Zeus, the king of basically everything, rules with his specialty as the god of the skies. In Athens, Zeus is a celebrated god since he’s the king. Zeus was the son of Kronos, a Titan. The story goes that Kronos killed his father Uranus, god of the sky, and the Golden Age of the Titans began. Kronos was superb, and he had a suspicion that history would repeat itself, his children, would someday overthrow him like he did. So when he fell in love with a Titaness named Rhea, he swallowed his children. In total, Kronos swallowed six gods. Rhea was horrified of these incidents and decided to hide away her newest child, Zeus. She faked Kronos into eating a rock instead. Don’t ask me how, but if Kronos was that stupid, no wonder that Zeus killed him later on. So Zeus was hidden away on Crete Island until he grew old enough. He overthrew Kronos and freed the six other swallowed gods. 

        Athens also celebrated, hence the name, Athena. She is the goddess of wisdom and war tactics usually in defensive strategies. She is known as the goddess of wisdom from the way she was born. Zeus one day awoke with a terrible headache. He went to Hephaestus, the blacksmith god. Using a double-headed ax, Zeus asked for his head cracked open. If you can’t get rid of a headache, just bang it open, and don’t come back saying it didn’t get any better. So out from Zeus’s open skull (please do not try at home), popped out Athena. It was logical to make her the goddess of wisdom. She is the patron goddess of Athens. However, there was a contest between Poseidon, the sea god and Zeus’s elder brother, and Athena to see who would be Athens’s patron. The contest meant to determine whoever could provide the best gift to the city. Poseidon slammed the butt of his trident into a stone and a spray of water shot out. Athena introduced the olive tree to the Greek empire, symbolizing peace and victory. Now, this would’ve been a tough contest. Only thing was, Poseidon gave the people of Athens not just water, but a side of salt as well. So what are you going to do with salt water? Well, that’s why Athena won. And so in Athena’s honor, the Parthenon was built in Acropolis in 432 B.C., not to be confused with the Pantheon in Rome. The Parthenon was a temple at the time probably the largest architectural feat in the world. The structure itself was unique. A weird illusion that tends to happen to large buildings is that Doric columns sometimes seem to bend outward. To counter that, the pillars holding up a triangular roof were tilted centimeters inward than a vertical line. It was also the first to really use 3D sculpting. Next to the Parthenon stood Poseidon’s temple or the Erechtheion in 406 B.C., considering he was still important to Athens although he lost. The temple had a section of pillars that were replaced with six marble sculptures of ladies with the roof being carried on their heads in the famous Porch of the Caryatids. The world of art had finally broken through the barrier of 2D to 3D. The art of man had long awaited the moment, and it was glorious. 

        Of course, nowadays the British has taken everything and aren’t going then back. But hey! Although they may have the artifacts, Greece has the history. The glorious moments of the Greeks can never be stolen.

【紅霞譯文】

        奧林匹斯山是希臘眾神的發源地，準確地說總共有十二位，這些神主宰宇宙萬物，天地人間所有一切都是它們創造的。

        宙斯為眾神之王，是奧林匹斯十二神至高無上的天父,因其統治地位，他在雅典極受推崇。宙斯系泰坦即神權貴族克洛諾斯的兒子，故事追溯到早前克洛諾斯曾弒殺親生父親烏拉諾斯天王並開創了泰坦盛世新紀元。克洛諾斯能力超強且疑心重重，害怕歷史重演，擔心自己的孩子會步其後塵，總有一天也把他趕下台來。於是當與時光女神瑞亞相愛之後，克洛諾斯乾脆吃掉所有新出生的孩子，前後一共有六位神靈夭折。瑞亞見狀驚恐萬分，決定要把即將問世的宙斯藏起來。她騙丈夫吃下石頭，結果救了宙斯一命。千萬別問我怎麼回事，莫非克洛諾斯蠢得發愚，否則後來豈能讓宙斯殺死。宙斯一直躲在希臘克里特島生活，推翻父王的同時還解救出其他六位被吞下的神靈。

        雅典全城歡騰，由此取名雅典娜。雅典娜實為掌管智慧與戰爭（側重防禦戰略）的主神，一向聰穎睿達，其出生方式與眾不同。話說有一天宙斯醒來感覺頭疼得厲害，便去找鐵匠神赫菲斯托斯，要他用雙頭斧將自個的腦袋劈開。假如你無法消除頭痛，照例行事準保有效，千萬別怨這招不靈。宙斯頭顱大開（切忌在家效仿），雅典娜趁機鑽了出來，所以說封她為智慧女神合情合理。雅典娜還是雅典的守護神，然而那是經過與海神波塞冬即宙斯的哥哥較量之後才獲此殊榮，比賽宗旨無非在於挑選誰最適合雅典。波塞冬將其三叉戟尾戳入岩石，一泉清水旋即噴射出來；而雅典娜則把象徵和平勝利的橄欖樹引入古希臘帝國，即使現在看來，要想在這場鬥智比賽中取勝決非輕而易舉。當時波塞冬給雅典人不僅送上水，而且還帶來鹽，但鹹水能幹什麼？沒錯，這正是雅典娜巧勝之處。為了紀念雅典娜，雅典人於公元前432年在雅典衛城修建了巴特農神廟，這裡指的不是古羅馬萬神廟。巴特農神廟堪稱那個時代世界上最壯觀的祭祀殿堂，其結構獨一無二，不過高大建築常常令人產生錯覺，好像多立克石柱時不時朝外彎曲，為了矯正視差，建築師讓撐起三角形房頂的支柱向內傾斜若干厘米。此外，巴特農神廟還成為天下第一個擁有三維立體浮雕的建築。儘管波塞冬輸給了雅典娜，但雅典人依然尊重他，並在距離巴特農神廟不遠的地方建起波塞冬神廟，也叫伊瑞克提翁神廟。神廟本身專設石柱門面，著名的“少女門廊”由六根大理石雕像柱組成，她們個個亭亭玉立，人人頭頂石頂，世界藝術終於衝破束縛，在平面視覺的基礎上增添了立體效果，藝術家們得以如願以償，並給人帶來美的享受。

        當然，英國人曾不失時機地將這裡的文物化為己有，至今尚無計劃退還任何收藏。嘿！即使希臘國寶被盜，絲毫改變不了先輩所創下的豐功偉績，希臘人輝煌的過去將永垂青史。