假如目光能够杀人 If looks could kill...
你早就死了 you would be dead.
只需要一眼你就能变成石头 Turned to stone with just one glance.
这是则关于美杜莎的神话 This is the myth of Medusa.
一个令所有人都闻之色变的丑恶女人 A monstrous female feared by all men.
无论是战场还是更远的地方 On the battlefield and beyond.
但是她将遇到一个出其不意的敌人 But she will be challenged by a surprising enemy.
故事的背后藏着一个惊人的事实 Behind the story lurks a stunning reality.
这只古希腊最著名的怪物的灵感 Is Greece's most famous monster inspired
是出自人类尸体吗 by a human corpse?
她的故事是以实际科学为依据的吗 And is her story based on actual science
就好像我们夜空中看到的科学定论 as seen on our night sky?
让我们一起探索隐藏在 Discover the hidden meaning behind
这则曾经最奇妙故事背后的真谛 one of the greatest stories ever told.
狩猎美杜莎之头 The hunt for the head of Medusa.
诸 神
之 战
这里曾是一座花园 This was once a garden,
如今是一座散落着死尸的墓地 now it is a graveyard littered with dead bodies.
所有人都在面带恐惧的那一刹那被凝固 Each face frozen in a moment of terror.
凝视便是那致命的一刹那 The fatal moment when it gazed upon...
美杜莎 Medusa.
她的目光能渗透你的内心 Her gaze penetrates right into your inner being
■
康 奈 尔 大 学
迈克尔·方丹
△
使你由里至外彻底石化 and petrifies you from the inside out.
美杜莎的神话使我们着迷了近3000年 The myth of Medusa has captivated us for almost 3,000 years.
如今她的形象仍然在人们心中挥之即出 Today her image still commands instant recognition around the world.
我们经常看到画在花瓶上的美杜莎 The Medusa that we often see depicted on vases
描绘出一个有着野猪獠牙的女人 features a woman with boar's tusks,
■
斯科特·A·利昂纳
△
神话与先知 作者
头上不是头发，而是盘绕着的蛇 snakes curling around her head instead of hair,
有时候她还长着胡子，经常扮怪相 sometimes she is bearded, very often she's grimacing,
舌伸出口外，正脸面对着我们 facing us directly with her tongue lolling out of her mouth,
眼睛凝视着你 her eyes staring straight at you.
古希腊人用神话来解释复杂的世界 In ancient Greece, myths made sense of a confusing world.
他们的神话故事用于记录历史 Their stories recorded history,
解释自然 explained nature,
以及叙述人民怎样生活 and dictated how people should live.
美杜莎的神话也同样如此 The Medusa myth was no exception.
神话教育社会，帮助人们组织生活 They teach lessons to the society and help them organise things.
我想美杜莎的故事给了我们一扇窗户 And I think the Medusa story gives us a window
■
彼得·施特鲁克
△
宾夕法尼亚大学
望见在古希腊社会盛行的某些价值观 into certain kinds of values in ancient Greek society.
这必然使人们从丰富的人生旅途中获得灵感 It surely gives a sense of a rich portrait of men's experience
也就是人们在生活中某一时刻感受到的 insofar as they may well have felt, at some point in their lives,
受制于某个令人着迷的女人的魔咒 completely under the spell of some bewitching type of woman.
美杜莎只要通过一次眼神的贯穿 Medusa can crush a man with a single,
就能摧毁一个男人 penetrating look.
这是一种使她几乎所向披靡的力量 It is a power that makes her nearly invincible.
美杜莎的神话 The Medusa myth
在人们心中唤起各种恐惧 awakens a number of fears in people,
尤其是男人 especially men.
面对这样一个全能的女性形象 This image of the all-powerful woman
你无法避开她的目光 whose gaze can't be averted,
她能一眼看透你 whose gaze can see right through you,
暴露你内心的一切 to expose everything inside of you,
同时冻结你的人生轨迹 that can freeze you in your tracks,
并设法将你毁灭殆尽 and somehow devour you and consume you,
我认为男人尤其害怕这类女强人 I think men in particular are very afraid of this sort of strong woman.
对于古希腊人来说 To the ancient Greeks,
美杜莎的致命形象充斥着恐惧 Medusa's deadly image was one of the most terrifying
是所有神话中最恐怖的形象之一 in all of mythology.
但她并非天生是个怪物 But she was not always a monster.
根据神话所说 According to the myth,
她原本是个令人如痴如醉的女人 Medusa was once a ravishing woman.
希腊的男人都渴望占有她 Every man in Greece wanted to possess her.
她被描述成 She's described as
一个有着绺绺柔顺长发的美丽女人 a beautiful woman with long flowing locks of hair,
■
丽贝卡·肯尼迪
△
联合学院
每个追求者都希望与她结婚 every suitor wants to marry her,
她引起了所有人的嫉妒 she causes envy among everyone.
但美杜莎不可能结婚 But Medusa can't get married.
她是战神雅典娜的一个女祭司， She is a priestess of Athena, the goddess of war,
发誓永生贞洁 and bound by an eternal vow of chastity.
雅典娜是伟大城邦古雅典的守护神 Athena is the patron goddess of the great city of ancient Athens.
也是一位贞洁之神，她的世界里没有性 She's also a virgin goddess, sex is not a part of her world,
男性的欲望对她可遥不可及 she's actually beyond the reach of any male desire.
她神庙里的侍女都必须要守贞洁 Servants in her temple would have been expected to be virginal
因此她们不能将精力付与家庭或子女抚养 so they could devote their energies not to domestic issues and child rearing
而必须全身心服侍女神 but to the goddess' service.
代表罪恶与丑陋的美杜莎 Medusa, the hideous image of evil
起初却是贞洁的象征 starts out as a symbol of purity.
这就是故事的内容 This is the story,
但这有可能是基于事实的吗 but could it be based on reality?
雅典娜的神庙不是虚构的神话 Athena's temple is no myth.
如今它仍然矗立在雅典卫城上 It still stands today high atop the Acropolis in Athens.
帕特农神庙 The Parthenon.
在希腊语中它是“圣洁之地”的意思 In Greek it means "place of the virgin".
当它于公元前430年建成时 When it was completed in 430 BC
比整个雅典城还高 it towered over the city of Athens.
任何一个希腊城邦都需要一个宏伟的神庙 Any Greek city should have a great temple.
就像美国任何一个城市 It would be like any city in America
都要有某个宏伟的体育场一样 having some kind of great sports stadium.
因此，作为古希腊最著名城邦的雅典 So Athens being the most prominent city in ancient Greece,
也想要一座神庙来配得上它的名声 wanted to have also a temple that befitted its magnificence,
因此他们建造了帕特农 and so they created the Parthenon.
神庙中心矗立着雅典娜的高大雕塑 At the centre of the temple stood a colossal statue of Athena.
几乎有40英尺高，由象牙和黄金雕成 Nearly 40 feet high, carved out of ivory and gold.
在古代世界是几大最骄人风景之一 It was one of the most impressive sights in the ancient world.
在神话中，美杜莎的悲剧命运由此展开 In the myth, this is where Medusa's tragic fate unfolds.
美杜莎的美是可望而不可及 Medusa's beauty is off-limits,
为了服侍雅典娜她须与世隔绝 locked away in the service to Athena.
但是有一位追求者 But one suitor
却不允许她的贞洁誓言挡道 will not let her vow of chastity stand in his way -
他就是海神波塞冬 Poseidon, god of the sea.
波塞冬是那种威猛阳刚的神 Poseidon is this sort of very prominent, masculine power.
他是海神，风暴和地震之神 He is the god of the sea and the god of storms and the god of earthquakes.
地震并不是悄然发生的 Earthquakes don't creep up on you,
而是猛烈地袭击你 they hit you very hard.
假如他被激怒 If he was angered,
即使是一点小事 even just a little bit,
他都会剧烈爆发 he could explode violently
并且对你采取真正的伤害性报复 and really do harm to you.
被一阵原始冲动驱使 In a fit of raw lust
波塞冬采取行动了 Poseidon makes his move.
他蹂躏了这名贞洁女祭司 And ravages the virgin priestess.
他在雅典娜神庙强迫与她发生性关系 He raped her inside of Athena's Temple,
这是亵渎神明的行为 a sacrilegious act.
波塞冬偷取了她的贞操 He stole from her her virginity.
毫无疑问，这在历史中的任何年代都是犯罪 Certainly this would be a crime in any time of the world.
■
史蒂芬·威尔克
美杜莎:详解蛇发女怪
△
美杜莎彻底被毁了 Medusa is devastated.
她的清白被偷取 Her innocence has been stolen.
她的人生从此改变 Her life changed forever.
她被奸污了，因此不再 She was a rape victim and so she was no longer
有资格像普通人那样结婚 eligible for ordinary marriage according
这是希腊时代的观念 to the mores of Greek times.
她也不再是一个处女 And she's no longer a virgin either
因此不能够继续服侍女神 so she wasn't able to be devoted to service to a goddess.
为了进行一些宗教仪式，你得保持贞洁 For certain religious rites you had to purify yourself from intercourse
因此在神庙内进行性行为是亵渎了神庙 so actually having intercourse in the Temple is desecrating that space.
■
艾米丽·A·艾伦
罗格斯大学
△
因此雅典娜生气了 Hence Athena's anger.
她暴怒了 Athena is furious.
并不是生波塞冬的气 But not with Poseidon.
作为一个强大的男性神灵 As a powerful male god,
做出这事是在预料之中 this is expected of him.
在雅典娜看来，应该受罚的是美杜莎 In the eyes of Athena, it is Medusa who deserves to be punished.
受害者将成为被指控者 The victim is about to become the accused.
雅典娜就是那种人 Athena's one of the guys.
她将自己和男性群体置于一处 She has this role that places her in the kind of male camp.
她是站在男人那一边的 She's going to side with the men.
在某种程度上，这反映出了一个社会 In a way, it reflects a society where
他们觉得女人更像是财物 they considered women more as property value.
他们承认在某种程度上 They recognised at some point that rape
强奸确实是对女人有伤害的 is necessarily harmful to the woman,
但在大多数神话中，似乎 but it doesn't seem in most of these myths
没有表现出同情 that there's any sympathy at all.
并且，被强奸的女性 And frequently, the female figure who is raped
往往是受到惩罚的那一个 is the one who's punished.
雅典娜将对她那心碎不堪的女祭司 Athena will impose a devastating sentence
进行严厉的惩罚 on her shattered priestess.
她将把美杜莎从一个美人变成 She will transform Medusa from a beauty...
一头怪兽 into a beast.
她的新外貌将会无比吓人 Her new look will bear a terrifying
就像古希腊一个常见的真实形象 resemblance to a frequent and real sight in ancient Greece.
人的尸体 Human corpses.
美杜莎 Medusa,
神话中面目可憎的蛇发怪兽 mythology's heinous snake-haired beast
能用一眼就将她的敌人变成石头 can turn her enemies to stone with a single glance.
曾经，她是希腊最美的人 Once, she was Greece's greatest beauty.
无论男人还是神灵都对她垂涎三尺 Desired by both men and gods.
但在波塞冬奸污她之后 But after Poseidon raped her
她的世界永远改变 Medusa's world changed forever.
美杜莎的故事是一个悲剧 The Medusa story is a tragedy
因为她甚至不是事件的作恶者 because she wasn't even the perpetrator of the deed,
是波塞冬在雅典娜的神庙里强奸了她 it was Poseidon who raped her in Athena's Temple,
但她却被变成了一个可憎的怪物 but she's then turned into a hideous monster.
在神话中 In the myth,
雅典娜女神毫无预兆地诅咒了美杜莎 the goddess Athena curses Medusa without warning.
她进行着痛苦的转变 She begins an agonizing transformation.
美杜莎绝望地抓刮自己的脸 Clawing desperately at her face.
她的皮肤开裂，萎缩 Her skin cracks and withers.
她的如丝长发变成了一团缠绕的毒蛇 And her long, silken hair becomes a writhing mass of poisonous snakes.
美杜莎的可怕变形差不多完成了 Medusa's horrific transformation is almost complete.
但还有一个煎熬 But there's one more twist.
现在她得承受 She's now gonna have to undergo
最强大而痛苦的一个诅咒 the most powerful and gut-wrenching of all the aspects of her curse.
她得变成一个这样的人 She'll have to be now a person
她的目光将注视她的人变成石头 whose very sight turns the looker into stone.
这将使她与人类社会隔离 It's now gonna isolate her from all of human society.
美杜莎如今不再能与任何人往来 Medusa is now no longer have any interactions with anyone else.
因此雅典娜成功做到了将这个可怜的女孩 So what Athena has effectively done is consign this poor girl
后半生彻底陷入独居监禁 to a kind of solitary confinement for the rest of her life.
由于被强奸这一悲剧罪名 For the tragic crime of being raped,
美杜莎失去了地位 Medusa has lost her status,
美貌 her beauty
以及随心所欲看着对方的能力 and her ability to look at anyone without killing them.
现在，该承受最后一击了 Now, the final blow,
她被放逐到一个偏远荒芜的岛屿 she is banished to a remote and desolate island...
永生驱逐 for life.
美杜莎如今得永远背负着这样的诅咒 Medusa is now gonna live out this curse for eternity.
永世都没有什么改变 And for all eternity, things don't really change.
只是石花园里会多出一块石头 All that matters is that stone garden grows by one
每当有人试图接近她时就会如此 every time someone tries to come close to her.
在神话中 In the myth,
美杜莎成了一种叫做蛇发女怪的怪物 Medusa has become a type of monster called a Gorgon.
这个名字在古希腊意思是“可怕的” A name that comes from the ancient Greek word for terrible.
蛇发女怪就是这个吓人的怪物 The gorgon is this horrible monster.
皮肤上有鳞片，巨大的眼睛直视着你 It's got scaly skin, huge staring eyes
能用目光将你变成石头 that can turn you to stone by looking at you.
关于蛇发女怪的早期传统说法中 The earliest traditions that we have of gorgons
就提到了美杜莎 mention Medusa.
美杜莎首先是一个人类 Medusa becomes first a human being
后来被变成了一个丑恶的野兽 who's then transformed into one of these nasty beasts.
希腊神话中 In Greek myth,
蛇发女怪代表死亡的实体体现 gorgons represent the physical embodiment of death.
实际上，死亡提供了创造她们的灵感 In fact, death is what inspired them.
瞪大着的宽眼，脸上的斑点 The broad, wide-open eyes, the marks on the face,
浮肿的面庞 the bloated face itself,
裂开的皮肤暴露出牙齿和伸出的舌头 the pulled-back skin showing the teeth and the tongue protruding
这些都是由尸体的样子启发的 was inspired by the sight of a dead body.
死后的一段时间，人体皮肤 In the days after dying, the skin of a human corpse
在身体各部分开始收缩 begins to shrink around the various parts of the body.
脸变得丑陋浮肿 The face becomes grotesquely bloated.
眼睛扩大到眼眶外 The eyes expand out of their sockets.
舌头挤出口外 And the tongue swells pushing itself out of the mouth.
逐渐地，尸体就从人变形成了怪物 Gradually, the corpse morphs from man to monster.
在尸体的照片上你能看出这些变化 On photographs of dead bodies, you can see all these changes
这都是蛇发女怪的特征 that are characteristic of the gorgon taking place.
这是今天的人们不太熟悉的一个事情 This is one of the things that people today aren't so familiar with,
我们在死亡一开始就和尸体隔开了 we get separated from death very early.
我们有专家处理尸体 We have specialists to take care of dead bodies.
但事实上，古代的人们不会和死亡隔绝 But the truth is that in ancient times you wouldn't be insulated from this.
人们都会看到这样的事物 People would see this sort of thing.
在古代世界，死亡随处可见 Death was everywhere in the ancient world.
事实上，历史上许多其他的怪物 In fact, many other historical monsters
也是以尸体为原型的 are modelled on corpses.
在阿兹特克人的时历上 In the middle of the Aztec calendar
你能找到完全相同的特征 you find exactly the same features,
一样巨大的双眼 you've got exactly the same oversized eyes,
一样的宽鼻子，一样的嘴裂狞笑 you've got the broad nose, you've got the rictus grin,
你能找到一样外伸的舌头 you've got the protruding tongue.
你能在埃及神话中的喜神贝斯身上看到 You find it in Bes, in Egypt.
你能在印度的阿修罗神罗睺身上看到 In India, you find many of the same features on Rahu,
罗睺是负责月食的恶魔 the demon responsible for the eclipse.
在亚洲东南土地上的让特 In southeast Asia, Rangda,
是绑架孩子的恶魔 the demon that kidnaps children
让特也有巨大的突出的双眼 also has huge pop-eyes
和一条卷出口外的长舌 and a very, very long tongue scrolling out of her mouth.
这种蛇发女怪标志的显著性 The prominence of this gorgon symbol
在古代社会的许多不同地区出现 in many different spots in the ancient world
这让我们看到这些神话传播的广泛性 gives us a real sense of just how widespread these myths were.
在这个故事里 In the story,
现在美杜莎成了一个蛇发女怪 Medusa is now a gorgon,
是死亡的神话形象 the mythical face of death.
但身体上的转变还只是她所受惩罚的开始 But her physical transformation is only the beginning of her punishment.
她的丑陋外表将使她无家可归 Her hideous looks will make her an outcast.
但她的可怖力量将让她成为众矢之的 But her petrifying power will make her a target.
因为勇士前来斩杀美杜莎 Because the warrior who beheads Medusa
拥有她的头，就有了无敌的战场优势 will possess the ultimate battlefield advantage.
她被砍下的头仍然可以将人变成石头 Her severed head will still turn men to stone.
地中海地区所有男人动身前来斩杀美杜莎 Men from all over the Mediterranean set out to slay Medusa
并求将她的力量据为己有 and claim that power for themselves.
其中一个人很有夺得荣光的机会 One of them has more than glory at stake.
他叫做珀尔修斯 His name is Perseus.
他狩猎美杜莎的头的故事 And his hunt for Medusa's head
是神话中最伟大的冒险之一 is one of mythology's greatest adventures.
珀尔修斯的故事开始于阿尔戈斯 The story of Perseus begins in Argos,
希腊南部的一个真实地区 a real region of southern Greece.
古代很多神话发生在特定的地点 In antiquity a lot of myths were situated in specific locations.
现在这对当地居民意义重大 Now, this was important for the people who lived in those places.
他们能和这些神族英雄挂上联系 They could actually claim connection to one of these divine heroes.
在神话中 In the myth,
阿尔戈斯由一个名叫阿克瑞斯的僭主统治 Argos is ruled by a tyrant named Acrisius.
这个君主遇到了一个问题 The king has a problem.
他没有男性继承者 He has no male heir.
希腊世界希望用家族来保留传递所有财产 The Greek world tried to retain property in families.
■
大卫·乔治
△
圣安瑟伦学院
用家族保留财产的方式就是将其留给长子 And the way you retain it families is you leave it to the first born son
或是最年长的男性继承者 or the eldest male heir.
阿克瑞斯的唯一一个孩子是女儿，达纳 Acrisius' only child is a daughter, Dana?
她也没有自己的孩子 She has no children of her own.
因此君王请教了一个女先知 So the King consults a prophetess
问他女儿是否将来会给他生一个孙子 to ask if she will ever bear him a grandson.
阿克瑞斯被先知告知如果他女儿生下孩子 Acrisius is told in prophecy that if his daughter ever had a child,
那个孩子将会反叛并杀死他 that child would rise up and kill him.
当他获知他女儿的儿子实际上将会杀死他 He finds out that the son of his daughter is in fact going to kill him,
这让他几乎崩溃 and he sort of freaks out
他决定必须阻止她生下任何一个孩子 and decides that he needs to prevent her from ever having a child to begin with.
他害怕朝代更迭 This fear of generational shift,
害怕自己失权于后代，这种害怕相当真切 this fear of losing your power to the next generation, was real.
如果你有一个孩子 If you had a kid
并且你身上有可以夺取的东西 and you had something worth taking,
那么某种情况下你得盯好你的孩子 at some point you needed to keep an eye on the kid.
因为害怕 Overcome by terror,
阿克瑞斯酝酿出了一个计划来保全自己 the King hatches a plan to save his own skin.
阿克瑞斯将女儿达纳关进一座塔里 Acrisius had his daughter Dana? walled up inside of a tower
没人能看见她，境况悲惨 where no on could see her. It was a pretty miserable existence.
达纳被监禁在没有新鲜空气的地方 Dana?is trapped with no fresh air
而且没有什么食物 and barely any food.
这是君王杀死她的方式 It is the King's way of killing her
兵不血刃的方式 without getting blood on his hands.
他一直等着她的死讯 The King kept waiting for news that his daughter had died,
却很惊讶地发现 and was very surprised that
一直没有她饿死或渴死的消息传来 he never received news that she had died of starvation or thirst.
一段时间之后，他们开始看见灯光 After a while, they begin to see lights on
听见噪音和声响 and hear noise and sound
从塔里传来 coming from the tower.
因此阿克瑞斯前去看看他女儿在做什么 So Acrisius went to see what his daughter was up to.
他走进女儿的房间 The King enters his daughter's chamber
很惊恐地发现达纳不仅活着 and discovers to his horror that Dana?is not only still alive,
还生了个儿子 she's a mother to a son,
叫做珀尔修斯 Perseus.
阿克瑞斯很震惊 Acrisius is stunned
有人能进入这密不透风的塔 that someone accessed the secure tower
还使他女儿怀孕 and impregnated his daughter.
但是这孩子的父亲不是凡人 But the baby's father isn't a mortal man.
他是希腊神明之主 He is king of the Greek gods.
希腊神话中最能播种的花花公子 Mythology's most prolific womaniser.
宙斯 Zeus.
在那么多神话中 Zeus, who seduced so many women
宙斯引诱了那么多女人 in so many myths,
宙斯透过栅栏望见了达纳 sees Dana?through the grating
并且爱上了她 and falls in love with her.
他下界来找她， He comes down to her in
以唯一能够穿透栏杆的形体 about the only shape that could come through the bars,
也就是洒下流金 which is a shower of gold.
他变成了了一大堆金子的形态 He took the form of a cascade of gold
将自己洒进了房间 and poured himself into the room
之后就能用这种方式与她欢好 and then was able to make love to her that way.
宙斯的金子雨的形态 Zeus' shower of gold
可能是由一个真实的自然现象启发的 may have been inspired by a real natural phenomenon,
这个现象是根据珀尔修斯[英仙座]命名的 one named after Perseus.
天空中或许是最令人震撼且可见的流星雨 Probably the most impressive and visible meteorite shower in the sky
就是英仙座流星雨 is the Persean meteorite shower.
当然，这就看起来像是流金雨 Certainly, it looks like a shower of gold coming down
只要你在八月停下脚步抬头观看就能发现 if you've ever stopped and watched it in August.
你能看见带着黄色的条条光痕 You can see the individual streaks with the yellowish colour to them.
世界各地的神话中 In mythologies around the world
女人可能因各种自然力量怀孕 women can be impregnated by various natural forces.
不仅仅是珀尔修斯神话中的流金雨 It's not just the shower of gold that we have in the legend of Perseus,
有时候女人和动物甚至因为风而怀孕 we have women and animals sometimes being impregnated by the wind.
或者在各种神话中女人因为太阳而怀孕 Or in various mythologies women become pregnant by the sun.
珀尔修斯既是神又是凡人 Perseus is born both divine and mortal.
这种英雄被称作半人神 A type of hero known as a demi-god.
因此这个半人神的概念意味着 So this demi-god idea means that
这个人拥有一些相当具备神力的特征 this person has some features that are very godly, some divine powers,
■
乔治·扎卡达克斯
△
神秘灵魂 作者
但同时，他也是个凡人，可能死去 but at the same time he is mortal, he can die.
我怀疑希腊人创造半人神概念的原因 I suspect that the Greeks invented this idea of the demi-gods
是他们想要尽可能接近神灵 because they wanted to reach the gods as much as possible.
因此创造出了越来越靠近神灵的自我形象 To create images of themselves that are closer and closer to the gods.
为了完成其半人神的命运 To fulfil his destiny as a demi-god
珀尔修斯首先必须逃过他祖父的怒火 Perseus must first survive his grandfather's wrath.
阿克瑞斯害怕这个孩子会应验他担心的预言 King Acrisius fears the boy will fulfil the prophecy he dreads
也就是长大并杀死他 and grow up to kill him.
他的第一反应是把母亲和孩子都杀了 His first impulse is to murder both mother and child.
但他害怕宙斯会报复 But he fears Zeus' revenge.
因此他设计了一个计划 So he devises a plan
用自然之力帮他杀了她们 to let nature do the killing for him.
阿克瑞斯决定将母亲和孩子 Acrisius decided to put both the mother and the child
都放入一个船型的承载物 into a boat-like construction
并送入大海 and throw them into the sea.
达纳和珀尔修斯被送上了死亡之路 Dana?and Perseus have been left for dead
没有食物 with no food,
没有方向 no direction
也没有任何抵御海上危险的措施 and no protection from the dangers of the sea.
同时，在波涛远处的一个阴沉岛屿上 Meanwhile, on a dismal island beyond the waves,
美杜莎还在往她的死亡花园中添加雕塑 Medusa is adding statues to her garden of death.
前去取她头颅的勇士不断被变成石头 Warriors turned to stone trying to capture her head.
她拥有所有征服者渴望的力量 She possesses a power every conqueror desires.
甚至包括真正的征服者 Even real conquerors
比如亚历山大大帝 like Alexander the Great.
美杜莎将人变成石头的力量 Medusa's power to turn men to stone
可能启发了一著名短语“杀人的目光” may have spawned the famous phrase "looks that kill".
但古希腊人相信她的力量也能够被用于行善 But the ancient Greeks believed her power could be used for good
虽然也能作恶 as well as evil.
在他们的语言中 In their language,
“美杜莎”这个名字有一个积极的含义 the name "medusa" actually had a positive connotation,
意思是“守卫者” it meant "guardian".
她的形象常常被用于抵御危险 Her image was often used to ward off danger.
她甚至出现在盔甲上 She even appeared on the armour
一些世界上最令人闻风丧胆的勇士的盔甲上 of some of the world's most feared warriors.
证据能够在古代时间密藏胶囊之一内找到 Evidence of this can be found in one of the time capsules of the ancient world,
那就是庞贝古城 Pompei.
当人们在19世纪30年代挖掘这座城市时 When they were excavating the city in the 1830s,
考古学家发现了一个巨大的镶嵌画 archaeologists found a very large mosaic
描绘了一场战争 which depicts a battle
战争双方是亚历山大大帝 between Alexander the Great
和波斯王大流士 and the Persian King Darius.
在亚历山大大帝的胸甲上 And on Alexander's breast plate
刻有美杜莎的形象 is an image of Medusa.
战场不是美杜莎力量被渴求的唯一地点 The battlefield wasn't the only place where Medusa's powers were sought.
她还被用来吓唬小孩 She was also used to scare children.
这个想法是这样 The idea was that
你把美杜莎的标志放在火炉外边 you would put the symbol on the outside of your stove
这就可以防止小孩子打开炉门 and this would prevent children from opening up the oven door.
那时候，美杜莎被希腊父母们用来 Now, the Medusa was something that Greek parents used to use
吓唬孩子们让他们吃饭 in order to scare the kids in order to eat their food.
“吃饭，否则我让美杜莎来抓你” "Eat your food or I'll ask the Medusa to get you."
因此那是一件很可怕的事情 So it was something very horrendous,
很吓人 很有迷惑力，很令人恐惧 very horrible, mesmerizing, frightening.
在神话中，美杜莎的头是被悬赏的 In the myth, Medusa has a price on her head.
从各处赶来的希腊世界的勇士 Warriors from across the Greek world
来到她的荒岛 travel to her remote island
想将她的头偷走 seeking to steal it
利用那令人恐惧的力量 and use its petrifying power
来对付他们的敌人 as a weapon against their enemies.
至今 So far,
所有尝试这么做的人都犯了同样的致命错误 all who have tried made the same fatal mistake.
他们一开始就看向了她 They looked at her, first.
古籍上很少记载美杜莎的心理活动 The ancient sources are relatively silent on what Medusa must have thought
只说她就坐在那儿 and she is just sitting there
在众多石头尸体中度日 living out her life amid a huge panoply of stone corpses.
你能想象出来那是很奇怪的场景 You can imagine that it would have been a very strange situation.
来自各地的人们都变成了石笋 You've got little stalagmites of people all over the place,
她就在其中，独自一人 and there she is, all alone.
但却永远无法满足渴望和人来往的需求 But never had the satisfaction of actually being engaged with anybody.
因此你可以想象出美杜莎的生活 So you can imagine Medusa living out her life,
不停地等待下一个人映入眼帘 kind of waiting for the next person to waft into her purview
然后把他变成石头 and get turned into stone.
但是一个英雄下定了决心要打破她的魔咒 But one hero is determined to break her spell.
正当美杜莎在她的一堆石像中逐渐枯萎时 As Medusa languishes among her statues
珀尔修斯正在大海上逐渐长大成人 Perseus is coming of age across the sea.
当他还是个婴儿时 When he was a baby,
他和母亲达纳 he and his mother Dana?
被他祖父阿克瑞斯国王扔到了海上 were cast out to sea by his grandfather, King Acrisius.
母子本该死去 Mother and son were expected to die.
但珀尔修斯的天神父亲宙斯保护了他们 But Perseus' divine father, Zeus, protected them.
他们被冲上一座叫做塞里福斯的岛 They washed up on an island called Serifos
在那里住了下来 and settled there.
他长成了一个可算是英俊魁梧的年轻小伙 He grows up into a nice and strapping young lad, as it were,
强壮，意志坚定 ，护母心切 very strong, and also very strong-willed and very protective of his mother.
珀尔修斯保护母亲的心理很好理解 Perseus has a very good reason to feel protective.
塞里福斯的统治者对她母亲心怀不轨 The ruler of Serifos has plans for his mother.
该岛的国王对珀尔修斯不怎么感兴趣 The king of Serifos was not enthusiastic about having Perseus around,
部分原因是他的注意力都集中 partly because he had his eye
在年轻的达纳身上 on Dana?who was still a young woman
她想要娶这个美丽的女人 and beautiful and he wanted to marry her.
国王有个计划，想将珀尔修斯除去 The king hatches a plan to take Perseus out of the picture.
他下令他的子民都要上交昂贵的供奉 He demands an expensive gift from all of his subjects
并发誓将违背者放逐 and vows to banish any who don't comply.
他知道珀尔修斯很穷，交不起 He knows that Perseus is poor and won't be able to deliver.
珀尔修斯是一个没有父亲没有家庭的年轻男人 Perseus, being a young man without a father and without a family,
如果在古希腊你没有父亲 if you didn't have a father in ancient Greece,
这就意味着你是被社会驱逐的人 it meant that you were very much a kind of social outcast,
没有任何礼品能上交国王 didn't have any gifts to bring to the king.
珀尔修斯很担心 Perseus is cornered.
如果他被放逐，母亲将被逼婚 If he is exiled, his mother will be forced into an unwanted marriage
并且再也见不到他 and be separated from him forever.
他做了一个冲动的决定 He makes an impulsive decision...
带来了可怕的后果 with deadly ramifications.
珀尔修斯说，好吧 Perseus says, well,
或许我很穷买不起礼品 I may not be able to buy a great gift because I am poor,
但我要去做一件别人做不成的事 but I'm gonna do something that no one else has been able to do,
我要去把美杜莎的头带回来 I will bring you the head of Medusa.
这是一个自杀式任务 It's a suicide mission.
没人能从美杜莎的岛上活着回来 No one has ever returned from Medusa's island alive.
但对于珀尔修斯来说 But for Perseus
他无路可选不能回头 there is no turning back.
这事关荣誉 It's a matter of honour.
他别无选择，只能取美杜莎的头 He can't get out of it. He has to bring the head of the Gorgon.
如果珀尔修斯成功回来 If Perseus succeeds,
他将成为一个英雄 he will return home a hero
因挑战国王和保护母亲而声名显赫 with the stature to challenge the King and protect his mother.
但如果他失败，就会变成石头 But if he fails, he'll be turned to stone.
在希腊神话中 In Greek mythology,
珀尔修斯和美杜莎这两个名字 the names Perseus and Medusa
永远是联系在一起的 are forever linked.
完美的英雄和终极的怪物 The consummate hero and the ultimate monster.
这是个从这里，废墟中开始的故事 It is a story that began here, among these ruins.
这就是古代迈锡尼城 This is ancient Mycenae.
根据神话，这个曾经的伟大文明 According to legend, this once great civilisation
是由珀尔修斯自己建立的 was founded by Perseus himself.
迈锡尼是古代城邦中最伟大的一个 Mycenae was the greatest of the ancient city-states
在青铜时代便是如此 back in the Bronze Age.
并且它统治了古希腊许多地区 And it ruled sway over a large swath of ancient Greece.
几千年来，人们认为迈锡尼 For millennia, it was thought that Mycenae,
就像珀尔修斯和美杜莎一样 just like Perseus and Medusa,
是神话 was a myth.
如今唯一存在的古籍参考是荷马史诗 The only surviving reference to it was in Homer's epic story,
伊利亚特 The Illiad.
但在19世纪晚期 But in the late 19th century,
一个失落的文明被再次发现 a lost civilisation was rediscovered.
将荷马的史诗作为指导 Using Homer's epic poems as a guide,
考古学家们在19世纪 archaeologists in the 19th century
成功定位了这些希腊城堡 were able to locate these great ancient citadels.
这想必是令人惊异的冒险 And what an amazing adventure it must have been
能够发现不仅仅荷马所说的东西真实存在 to find out that not only was Homer talking about something that existed
而且考古学家如今确实能接触到它 but now they themselves were in contact with it as well.
迈锡尼靠近阿尔戈斯 Mycenae lies near Argos,
阿尔戈斯是神话中珀尔修斯出生之地 the city where Perseus was born in the myth.
其废墟就像一扇窗户 Its ruins are a window
透过它能看到那些创造了 into the people who invented
珀尔修斯和美杜莎故事的人们 the story of Perseus and Medusa.
古希腊人利用神话解释生活中的神秘现象 Ancient Greeks who used mythology to explain life's mysteries.
城市结构非常庞大 The city structures were so massive
后来的希腊人相信 later generations of Greeks believed
城市是由天神所建 they were built by gods.
■
布莱恩·罗斯
△
宾夕法尼亚大学
他们看着这些宫殿的废墟 They would look at the ruins of those palaces
仿佛看到不朽的石造建筑 and see monumental masonry.
这样的壮举他们想象不出是自己所为 This was a kind of feat that they couldn't imagine themselves doing,
这看起来只能是英雄们创造的 it seemed like something that only heroes could do.
珀尔修斯的故事正是在这些废墟中产生 It was from these ruins that the story of Perseus sprang.
他是建造这座城市并杀死美杜莎的英雄 The hero remembered for building the city
被人铭记 and taking on Medusa.
这是终极挑战 It is the ultimate challenge.
珀尔修斯以少年的勇敢前去面对 Perseus confronts it with the bravado of a boy
他急于证明自己是一个男人 who is eager to prove himself a man.
但他对于手头的任务毫无准备，令人心焦 But he is woefully unprepared for the task at hand.
他没有武器，没有经验 Perseus has no weapons, no experience,
不知道怎样杀掉目标 and no idea how to kill his target.
使美杜莎令人恐惧的另一个原因 Another piece that makes Medusa so terrifying
是他们根本不会知道她长什么样子 is that they wouldn't have had a real sense of exactly what she looked like.
在珀尔修斯之前见过她的人都活不到讲述见闻的时候 Anyone who had seen her before Perseus would not have lived to tell the tale.
因此他所知的一切就是有这么一个丑恶的怪物存在 So all he knew about was that there was this monster that was so hideous
如果你看见她，你就会被凝固成石头 that if you ever caught eyes on her you would be frozen and turned to stone.
他大步向前，开始了冒险之旅 He stalked off and began his adventure,
不久他就意识到他已迷失方向 and it wasn't long before he realised that he had no idea where he was going.
但是，正如英雄们经常遇到的那样 But, as heroes often do, and especially
尤其父亲是神的英雄们 heroes whose fathers are gods,
他很快就得到了超自然的帮助 he soon gets supernatural aid.
在荒野中迷失了的珀尔修斯， Lost in the wilderness,
就如许多古希腊人那样 Perseus does what many ancient Greeks
做了他们在那种情况下会做的事情 would have done under the same circumstances.
祈祷 He prays...
于是神就听见了他 and the gods hear him.
他的父亲宙斯派来了一位神使，赫尔墨斯 His father Zeus sends down a divine messenger, Hermes,
给了珀尔修斯一件他急需的飞跃道具 who gives Perseus the jumpstart he needs,
那就是一双带翅膀的凉鞋 a pair of winged sandals.
珀尔修斯需要做的一件事情 One of the things that Perseus has to do
就是快速越过一段很长的距离 is travel long distances very fast.
赫尔墨斯弥的到来弥补了那个时代没有飞机的窘境 And being an era without airplanes here comes Hermes
他给了个解决方案，那双带翅膀的凉鞋 to offer a solution - those sandals with wings that he himself,
他自己作为神的信使也在穿 as a messenger of the gods uses.
因此他将凉鞋给了珀尔修斯 So he gives them to Perseus,
他穿上后就能飞越大陆 he wears them and he can fly through continents at the speed of...
速度比喷气式飞机还快 Well, faster than a jet.
如今既然他获得了一对翅膀 Now that Perseus has a set of wings,
那他现在差的就只有武器了 what he really needs is a set of weapons.
珀尔修斯拥有了一切 Perseus has everything going for him,
我是说，他有神的血统，拥有强大的力量 I mean, he has divine blood, he's got great powers,
他被塑造成了处在人类尖端的人 he's been brought up to just on the cusp of manhood,
他做好了杀死那些丑恶野兽的准备 he's ready to take on these nasty beasts.
但他还需要一些东西，那就是技术 But he needs more, he's got to have technology.
赫尔墨斯给了他一个暗示 Hermes offers Perseus an inside tip.
他建议他去寻找冥河宁芙仙女 He advises him to locate the Stygian Nymphs,
这些美丽仙女拥有法术武器 beautiful women who possess the magical weapons he needs
他需要这样的武器来杀死美杜莎 to kill Medusa.
宁芙仙女是一群女神 The Nymphs are these female divinities
她们和自然元素相结合 who are associated with natural elements,
栖息于自然中 and they inhabit them,
她们居住在泉水中，山川中 so they are in springs, in mountains,
树林中 they're in trees.
她们是性欲旺盛之人典型的渴望对象 They're typically the objects of deep and powerful sexual desire
从中我们有了“色情狂”这个概念 and from this we get the idea of a "nymphomaniac".
这些女神的处所神秘无踪 The whereabouts of these nymphs are a mystery.
只有三个丑女人知道哪里能找到她们 Only three hideous women know how to find them.
格里伊三姐妹 The Graeae sisters.
她们一出生就是丑陋干瘪的老太婆 They had been old, withered hags since the day they were born,
而且她们不喜欢访客 and they don't like visitors.
珀尔修斯必须让她们开口 Perseus must get them to talk
才能拯救母亲，活着杀死美杜莎 so he can save his mother and survive his face-off with Medusa.
这场战役我们仍然能在夜空中看到 It's a battle we can still see in today's night skies...
我们需要仔细看 if we look closely.
美杜莎，一个可怕的蛇发女怪 Medusa, a deadly gorgon,
已将无数勇士变成石头 has turned countless warriors into stone.
但仍然有人在寻找她 But someone is still stalking her,
泊尔修斯想要她的头 Perseus, and he wants her head.
要想成功，光有孩子般的虚张声势是不够的的 His success will require more than boyish bravado.
珀尔修斯将需要一副强大的武器来杀死美杜莎 Perseus will need a powerful set of weapons so slay Medusa.
要获得武器，他得找到冥河女神 To get them he must find the Stygian Nymphs.
但只有三个丑老太婆知道她们住在哪儿 But only three wretched old women know where they live,
格里伊三姐妹 the Graeae sisters.
她们非常奇怪 They are very strange.
她们没有眼睛，只有一只在她们中间轮流使用 None of them have eyes except this one that they pass between each other
当她们有一人想要看点什么的时候就这样做 whenever one wants to have a look at something,
因此她们得共享眼睛 so they need to share it.
她们的眼睛对她们来说非常珍贵 Their eye is very precious to them.
格里伊三姐妹的岛屿十分阴暗 The island of the Graeae sisters is a dark realm
连月光都没有 where even the Moon does not shine.
珀尔修斯穿着他可靠的带翼凉鞋到了那里 Perseus uses his trustee winged sandals to get there.
他不只是一个一头热的壮小伙子 Perseus is not just a hot-headed brawny
而且还拥有着相当的智慧 but he's also pretty clever.
当他到了岛上 When he gets to the island
他意识到事前得做些勘查 he realises he should do some reconnaissance
找出她们的弱点，然后再继续行进 and find out what their weaknesses might be before he proceeds.
当泊尔修斯发现她们只有一只眼睛 When he realises they only have the one eye
且她们没有这只眼睛就是瞎的时 and they're blind while they don't have it,
他把这眼睛在被她们传递的过程中偷了过来 he steals the eye from them as they're passing it around.
三姐妹陷入了失明的恐慌 The sisters fly into a blind panic.
此时她们的境况十分凄惨 They're in a very abject position.
就好像一个乞丐的最后一个铜币被偷了 It's like a beggar having his last farthing stolen from him.
她们跌跌撞撞地试图将眼睛从他那儿夺回 They're falling all over each other trying to get that eye back from him.
珀尔修斯完全处在上风 Perseus has the upper hand.
他要求她们说出宁芙仙女的所在 He demands the location of the nymphs.
格里伊三姐妹透露说她们住在冥河 The Graeae sisters reveal that they live on the river Styx,
那是一条分开活人 the waterway that separates the land of the living
与死人之地的河流 from the land of the dead.
珀尔修斯得到了他想要的信息 Perseus has what he came for.
他将眼睛扔到沙里，飞上了天空 He tosses the eye onto the sand and takes to the skies.
这是神话 This is the myth,
但它和现实有怎样的联系呢 but how does it connect to reality?
这个故事，如同许多其余的希腊神话一样 This story, like many others in Greek mythology,
可能就是从天上掉下来的 may literally have fallen from the sky.
从人类文明伊始 Since the dawn of civilisation,
人类就通过仰望天空来解释所发生的事物 mankind has looked at the heavens to explain the past,
以及正在发生的和未来发生的事物 present and future.
许多的故事 An awful lot of storytelling
都围绕着你在天空中看到的东西展开 revolves around the things that you saw in the sky,
也就是你看到的星座 the constellations that you see.
我们当然知道非常多的神话和这些星座有关 Certainly we know that an awful lot of myths were tied to the constellations.
公元5世纪希腊人给星座起的名 We have, in the 5th century, Greeks naming the constellations by the names
是依据当时神话人物的名字 of mythical beings. And at that time,
人们不仅将空中看到的神秘生物当作象征 people not only saw the mythical creatures up in the sky as symbols,
或仅仅是描绘，人们还相信 as mere representations, but they actually believed
这些星座具有神圣意义 that the constellations were divine.
天空中有一个特别奇怪的图案 One especially curious pattern exists in the heavens.
一个英雄正举着一把弧形剑 A hero holding a curved sword
和一个蛇发女怪的头 and the head of a gorgon.
这就是名为珀尔修斯的星座 This is the constellation known as Perseus.
这个神话的空中蓝图 A celestial blueprint for the myth.
但这群星星的含义不止于此 But there may be more to this cluster of stars.
它们还可能揭示出格里伊三姐妹故事的来源 It may also reveal how the story of the Graeae sisters originated.
这些星座本身激发了神话的某些部分 The constellations themselves did things that inspired portions of the myth.
珀尔修斯星座中第二亮的星星 The second brightest star in the constellation of Perseus
是大陵五，它是一颗非常特别的星星 is Algol, which is a very peculiar star.
在珀尔修斯星座中 In the Perseus constellation,
大陵五构成了美杜莎头部的一点 Algol forms a point on Medusa's head.
它被称作食双星 It is known as an eclipsing binary star.
其外表是空中单独的一点光亮 It appears as a single point of light in the sky,
但实际上是两颗星星相互环绕旋转 but is actually two stars that orbit around one another.
在旋转过程中它们交替挡住对方的光 As they go they eclipse each other's light
使得大陵五看起来时明时暗 making Algol appear to dim and then get bright again.
这是一个三天的循环，这个循环可能启发了 It is a three-day cycle that may have inspired the story
格里伊三姐妹的故事 of the three Graeae sisters.
大陵五会在一小段时间内非常明亮 Algol is very bright for a while
之后就迅速变暗 and then it goes out further rapidly
周期是三天 every third day.
这代表着珀尔修斯偷窃格里伊的眼睛 This represents the stealing of the eye of the Graeae by Perseus.
当她们试图将眼睛传给第三个格里伊巫婆时 As it tries to pass to the third Graeae,
珀尔修斯出现在她们中间 Perseus is in there among them
他偷走了眼睛，当他这么做时 and he steals the eye. And when he takes it,
你看见光线消失了 you can see it go out.
假如你是个好的说书人 Well, if you're a good storyteller,
假如你能跟踪这个事件 and if you kept track of this,
你就会知道星星什么时候即将消失 you know when the star is going to disappear,
那么你就能够在星星亮着的时候 so you can start telling your story
开始讲故事 when the star is still bright.
当你讲到珀尔修斯偷走眼睛的那个部分时 And when you get to the part of the story where Perseus has stolen the eye
你就能指着天空说“看，它消失了” you can point up at the sky and say, "Look, it's gone."
大陵五对于神话的影响不仅限于格里伊三姐妹 Algol's impact on the myth may not end with the Graeae sisters.
一些专家认为大陵五和这个故事的高潮部分也有关系 Some experts believed it also inspired the climax of the story.
那就是美杜莎可怕的死亡 Medusa's gruesome demise.
神话故事继续 The myth continues.
珀尔修斯正踏上与美杜莎交锋的旅途 Perseus is in a collision course with Medusa.
情势对他不利 The odds are stacked against him.
要想打败这个怪物，他需要合适的战斗工具 To take on the monster he needs the right battle gear.
他在冥河岸找到了这样的武器 He finds it along the River Styx.
冥河是通往冥府的大门 The gateway to Hades
在那里，他遇到了冥河宁芙仙女 where he encounters the Stygian Nymphs.
她们给珀尔修斯提供了三件 They present Perseus with three weapons
对他的生死存亡至关重要的武器 essential to his survival.
宙斯之剑 The sword of Zeus.
雅典娜之盾 The shield of Athena.
冥王哈迪斯的头盔 And the helmet of Hades, god of the dead.
这不禁让我们想起詹姆斯邦德 It reminds us irresistibly of James Bond
他从Q那里获得了一大堆绝佳装备 getting all the fabulous devices from Q.
不仅因为他获得了所有执行任务所需的东西 Not only because he gets all these things to carry out his mission
还因它们都具有魔法特质 but because they have magical properties to them.
如今珀尔修斯做好了实现他命运的准备了 Now Perseus is ready to fulfil his destiny.
时机来临得刚刚好 And not a moment too soon.
话说塞利弗斯岛上 Back home in the island of Serifos
一场王室婚礼正在进行中 a royal wedding is in the works,
珀尔修斯的母亲就是那个不情愿的新娘 and Perseus' mother is the unwilling bride.
他的儿子能否杀死美杜莎带回她的头 Will her son slay Medusa and bring back her head
在一切都太迟之前 before it's too late?
他该如何成功 And how can he succeed
之前有那么多的人都失败了 where so many others before him have failed?
秘密在他的盾牌上 The secret lies in his shield.
珀尔修斯对美杜莎之头的危险捕杀 Perseus' dangerous quest for the head of Medusa
将他带进了几千里长的旅途 has taken him on a journey over thousands of miles.
如今他的关键时刻来临了 Now his moment of truth has arrived.
他站在了美杜莎致命巢穴的入口处 He stands at the threshold of Medusa's deadly lair.
神明们帮助他来到此处 The gods helped him get here
但剩下的就要靠他自己了 but the rest is up to him.
美杜莎周遭尽是石头，坚硬无比 All that's around Medusa is rocks, very hard things,
任何原本的活物都成了石头 anything that would have been living would have been turned to stone,
所以那应当是个萧瑟凄凉的地方 so it must have been a very bleak and desolate place.
随着珀尔修斯迈出向命运前进的第一步 Perseus is frightened as he takes the first steps
他感到非常害怕 toward his fate.
但这些步伐并不是向前 But they are not steps forward.
这个年轻的英雄正在慢慢向后退 The young hero is slowly creeping backwards.
珀尔修斯非常聪明 Perseus is very smart,
他意识到直接攻击美杜莎 and he realises that trying to attack Medusa head-on
可能会导致自己的毁灭，会变成石头 would be his own undoing. He'd be turned to stone.
因此他出其不意拿出盾牌 So what he does instead is gets his shield
转到身前，背对着逼近她 turn it round and actually approach her from behind.
他背对着她走上前 And he walks up to her backwards
通过安全盾牌看着她 looking at her in a shield so that he's safe.
你能想象出当他越靠越近时不断加剧的紧张感 You can imagine the tension building as he gets closer and closer.
在他所知，盾牌会保护他 As far as he knows, the shield will protect him.
但他并不能确信 But he must not have really known for sure.
珀尔修斯小心地穿过了美杜莎的巢穴 Perseus cautiously makes his way through the lair.
眼睛紧盯着盾牌 Eyes locked on his shield.
一点点错步都会是致命的 The slightest misstep will prove fatal.
最后，珀尔修斯锁定了他的目标 At last, Perseus locks onto his target.
闭上了眼睛 Closes his eyes.
挥舞起手中的剑 And swings his sword.
干净利落地一切，美杜莎的头就落了地 With one clean stroke the head of Medusa rolls to the floor.
她多年的折磨和孤立终于结束 Her years of torment and isolation are finally over.
古代听众们对美杜莎的故事很感兴趣 There would have been great fascination for Medusa among ancient audiences
无论他们是支持她或是反对她 and whether they were rooting for her or against her,
都会有很多人同情这个可怜人 there would have been a great sympathy for this poor person.
我是说，想想她都经历了些什么 I mean, think about what she'd been through,
失去了些什么 and all that she'd lost,
以及她注定要过的可怕生活 and the horrible life she was fated to live.
而且她的最终结局是有一个英雄前来砍下她的头 And her end point is to have a hero chop her head off.
这是一个悲剧人物的悲剧结尾 It is a tragic end for a tragic figure.
但是美杜莎的故事到这里并没有结束 But Medusa's story doesn't end here.
美杜莎的头的一个伟大之处 One of the remarkable things about Medusa's head
是即使她死后 is even after she is dead,
即使她被去了头装进麻袋 even after she has been removed and stuffed in a bag,
她的头仍然能够将任何一个看向她的人变成石头 it still has the power to transform anyone who looks on her to stone.
美杜莎是无法阻挡且吓人的 Medusa's unstoppable and terrifying,
但是这些力量同时也能被利用 but those forces can also be harnessed,
这就是珀尔修斯故事所说的 and Perseus' story talks about that.
当头颅在麻袋内 When the head is inside the bag
它就成了一个武器，能为善也能为恶 then it becomes a weapon that can be used for good as well as evil.
珀尔修斯如今拥有世界上最危险的武器 Perseus is now the owner of the most dangerous weapon on Earth.
他能将任何人变成石头 He can turn anyone to stone.
如今在他脑海中已经孕育出新的目标了 And he has a few targets in mind.
他母亲达纳已经陷入了无人保护的境地 His mother, Dana? has been left with no one to protect her
只能受塞利弗斯好色的国王支配 from the lecherous King of Serifos.
她如今将违背自己的意愿成为皇后 She's about to be made a queen against her will.
对于珀尔修斯来说，这是和时间的赛跑 For Perseus it is a race against time.
正当这位英雄飞奔回家 As the hero flies home
他越来越发现美杜莎的头有多么强大 it becomes clear just how powerful Medusa's head still is.
当他用带翅凉鞋往回飞越 As Perseus is flying with his winged sandals back across
前往希腊时，她的血滴入沙地 to get to Greece, drops from her blood drop into the sand,
血中爬出了几百条毒蛇 and from this spring up hundreds and hundreds of poisonous snakes.
一些古代的可怕怪物是如此卑劣不堪 Some nasty monsters in antiquity are so mean and awful
以至于他们的血都能产生出其他的怪物 that their blood actually produces other monsters.
美杜莎就是拥有这样强大血液的怪物之一 Medusa is one of those that have such powerful blood.
珀尔修斯飞走时美杜莎头上滴下的血 The dripping blood from her head as Perseus was flying away
在后来的故事中 was thought, in later tellings of the story,
被古罗马人认为是产生了 to have given rise to all these snakes
在北非生存的所有的蛇 that ancient Romans knew to exist in North Africa.
在神话中，王室婚礼的日子来临了 In the myth, the royal wedding day has arrived.
新娘的父亲从阿尔戈斯赶来 The father of the bride has come from Argos.
他是珀尔修斯的祖父，阿克瑞斯国王 Perseus' own grandfather, King Acrisius.
他一直害怕着那个他孙子会杀了自己的预言 He has long feared the prophecy that his grandson would kill him.
就在婚礼开始进行时，珀尔修斯到达了 Perseus arrives just as the wedding ceremony is getting under way.
当珀尔修斯回到塞利弗斯时 When Perseus returns to Serifos
他看见母亲即将要嫁给国王 and sees that his mother is about to marry the King,
他非常生气 he becomes very angry.
因此他拎起美杜莎的头说 So he lifts up the head of Medusa and says,
“国王，我把礼物带来了” "King, I have brought you your gift!"
只一眼国王就变成了石头 One glance turns the King to stone.
他的脸在一声永恒的尖叫中凝固 His face frozen in an eternal scream.
但他不只是唯一一个被盯了的国王 But he's not the only king who gets caught looking.
阿克瑞斯也被石化了 Acrisius is also petrified.
达纳被儿子救了 Dana?has been saved by her son.
珀尔修斯被赞誉为神话中最勇敢的英雄之一 And Perseus has earned his place as one of mythology's bravest heroes.
他对抗死亡的旅程 His death-defying journey
将他从一个男孩变成了一个男人 has transformed him from a boy into a man.
古代英雄中珀尔修斯的故事让人特别充满联想 Perseus is particularly relatable among the ancient heroes.
他在沿途被放到不同地点 He is cast out at different points along the way
只是因为他对母亲的深深的爱 and only because of the extra love of his mother
使他能够一路闯过艰难险阻 is he able to make his way through some very difficult times.
他给这个世界留下了印记 He makes his mark in the world
并且造就了自己的世界 and he grows into his own.
他成了一个真正的强大的英雄 He becomes a real, true powerful hero.
这是一个让古希腊人敬仰的人 Someone that the Greeks can look up to.
在救了母亲之后 After he saves his mother
珀尔修斯将美杜莎的头作为贡品献给雅典娜 Perseus presents Medusa's head as a tribute to Athena,
雅典娜就是创造了这个怪物的女神 the goddess who created the monster.
最终，美杜莎的最初惩罚者继承了她的力量 In the end, it is Medusa's original punisher who inherits her power.
故事的结尾有一点诗意 There's a poetic quality to the ending of this story
因为美杜莎的头成了雅典娜胸甲上的图标 as Medusa's head becomes the icon on the breastplate of Athena.
毕竟，这个可怜的年轻女孩开启了这一巨大灾难 After all, this poor young girl started off this great misadventure
是因为冒犯了那位女神 by running a afoul of that goddess.
雅典娜是从头笑到最后的人 Athena has the first and the last laugh.
美杜莎的故事兜了个圈回到原地 Medusa's story has come full circle.
她的神话在开始的地方结束 Her myth ends where it began:
在古希腊最伟大的神庙帕特农 In ancient Greece's greatest temple, the Parthenon.
在这座神庙之上，她和取她性命的男人 Above it, she and the man who took her life
在夜空中永远相连 are forever linked in the night sky.
http://bbs.3e-online.com 2014.01.27 ================================ 本字幕仅供学习交流,转载请注明出处 ================================ 翻译:Scrawl 校对:have_fun 时间轴/后期:剑齿虎