starting from delphic oracle apollo and artemis wu shiyu
TRANSCRIPT
Starting from Delphic Oracle
Apollo and Artemis
Wu Shiyu
常用词的英语读法
The quiz
Twelve Olympians
“太阳神阿波罗 (Apollo) 的理性与酒神狄俄尼索斯( Dionysus )非理性的张力是整个希腊文化原动力之一。”
----Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy
Olympians: Apollo and Artemis
Zeus (king of the god) Leto (minor goddess)
Twin sisters
Apollo and Artemis
Jealousy of Hera
place to give birth
Island of Delos
Ilithya, necklace
Clasping a palm tree
The twins
Apollo and Artemis
Apollo and Artemis
The Deity of Apollo
Lyre
God of:
Arts: music, poetry,…
Leader of Muses
Creative ability
Representing Culture
God Apollo
God of:
Sun
Youth
Medicine
Healing
(Phoibos) Apollo
Arrow; quiver
Still god of
Sudden death for men
Inflict Plague and death
Strike from afar
“ 他(阿波罗)随即坐在远离船舶的地方射箭, 银弓发出令人心惊胆战的弦声。
他首先射向骡子和那些健跑的狗群,然后把利箭对准人群不断放射。焚化尸首的柴薪烧了一层又一层。”
----- 荷马史诗《伊利亚特》
Apollo: God of Prophecy
The most important aspect:
God of prophecy
Delphic oracle (Delphi)
Sacred to Apollo
Apollo’s role as a god of who provides prophecy for humans is central to our understanding of him
Delphi: the omphalos and tripod
The Oracle of Delphi
Pythia, priestess, trance-like state
Ecstasy
Virgin of Delphian birth
Dressed like a girl
Translated verse-form
by Priest
Video
Delphic Oracle
Attracted Greeks and non-Greeks
Consult the oracle
about things, big or small,
public or private
Oedipus the king
Croesus
Socrates
Later stories
An order in the world
Apollo knows and foreknows this order
Tell you what will happen in the future
Apollo: God of reason and moderation
Carved on the temple:
“Know thyself”
“Nothing in Excess”
Association with reason and with moderation.
Crucial to understanding of Greek culture
Know Thyself
Remember:
what kind of a creature you are;
your limitations;
above all else that you are not a god.
The Universe
The Story of Niobe
The Story of Niobe
Niobe: queen of Thebes, mother of 14 children
Greater than Leto (goddess)
worshiped instead of Leto
Apollo and Artemis shoot
Cliff face, water running down
Eternal tears
Lessons to learn
Humans by definition vulnerable to death
14 children today, not tomorrow
Human, die at any moment
Leto’s two children, god
Do not transgress
Human good fortune unstable
Changeable, unstable,
disappear in the blink of an eye
Follow reason, nothing in excess, know yourself
Two maxims connected.
Excess---- not know yourself
Address by Jobs
Immortal and Mortal
"If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right."
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don‘t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life…”
-----Steve Jobs
Immortal and Mortal
Eos, the dawn goddess
Affair with the human Tithonos
Enjoyed him so much
Make him immortal
Failed ageless
Continue to age
Nothing left but a voice
Complaining voice
A back chamber
Immortal and Mortal
Attempt to gain immortality
Result in total disaster
Sybil, a female lover of Apollo
Asked for as many years of life as there were grains of sand on the shore of sea
This was granted
But eternal youth was left out
Grows older and older
Withered away into a little thing sits in cage
几个问题
1. 古希腊神话里对“人”的思考,比如本课所讲的人与神的区别,还有斯芬克斯之谜里的问题;
2. 古希腊文明所体现的理性,自省与其悲剧意识和这一文明的创造性的思考。
Hubris or hybris
Humans must avoid hubris
A word come into English from Greek.
What is hubris? Implications for our life.
Refer to presentations
Pay your price for your hubris.
The story of Croesus
Persian king, Xerxes
The story of Actaeon
The story of Actaeon
The story of Actaeon
The story of Actaeon
A great hunter (Thebes)
Hunting with his friends
Wandering through woods
Surrounded a lake
Artemis, nymphs bathing
Unintentionally, by mistake
Stag, animal body, human mind
Own hounds tear to shreds
Most dreadful story
Artemis: her twins’ opposite
God of moon
Huntress
Wild beasts
Protector of young species
Sudden death of
women
Mistress of wild beasts
Protector of young babies including of humans
Protector of childbirth
Protector of childbirth
Forever virgins: Artemis, Athena and Hestia
Is it contradictory?
Identify women with nature, men with culture.
In Greek culture
Women were submissive
Male dominant
Rejecting domination by a male because of her essential wildness
Her rejection of sexuality illustrates the danger of crossing a god or transgressing the boundaries between humans and gods.
The story of Actaeon
Know Thyself
Nothing in Excess
Hubris
Know your own limitations as fallible mortal and then exercise moderation because you are mortal.
阿波罗神谕的两句话和 Hybris 这一概念都反应了古希腊文明深刻中的一贯主题,并且还在这一文明的各种艺术形式里,被反复演绎和发展,比如,在神话、哲学、史诗和悲剧以及它们的历史学等。
“ 做一个能自制的人,。。。才能成为最高尚、最幸福和最有推理能力的人。”
史学之父希罗多德则在《历史》里反复提及,“我们头上的神是非常嫉妒的,并且很喜欢干扰人间”,由此来使人认识“自知”和“适度”的重要。这些理念,深刻地体现出古希腊文明理性、厚重和深刻的特点。