荷馬史詩奧德賽可能記載古老的日食事件

Homer's "Odyssey" May Chronicle Ancient Eclipse
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/06/24/homers-odyssey-may-chronicle-ancient-eclipse/
Written by Nicholos Wethington
Translated by Hsiang-Fu Huang

翻譯：黃相輔

It's likely that sometime in your education career, an English teacher had you enjoy (or suffer through, depending on your tastes) at least part of that classic of classics, Homer's Odyssey. It tells the story of Odysseus, a Greek general, who embarks on a 10-year journey back home after battling in the fall of Troy. The tale is filled with imagery that is referenced often in contemporary films and books. As old as it is, one would think that we've learned pretty much all we can from the book, but a new analysis of celestial events referenced in the Odyssey reveals that Homer may have documented a total solar eclipse.

當你還是學生時，英文老師總會教你欣賞 (或是折磨你，端視你的想法) 這部經典的全文或至少一部份：荷馬的史詩奧德賽。它描述希臘將領奧德賽在特洛伊戰爭後，歷經十年的漫長旅途返鄉的故事。故事充滿了想像力，是現代電影及書籍常見的題材。原作品如此古老，你可能以為我們無法從中發掘出什麼新東西了；但一項對史詩裡提過的天文現象的分析卻顯示，荷馬可能真的紀錄了一次日全食。

Here's a little background on the epic: Odysseus fights in the battle of Troy, which is believed to have occurred in approximately 1200 B.C. After the battle, he must find his way back to Ithaca in Greece, and the journey home is a harrowing one in which he is captured by the nymph Calypso, drifts on a raft at sea, battles a cyclops, resists the temptation of the Sirens and in general has hard luck. While he is away, his wife Penelope is living at his house with 108 suitors who are trying to convince her that she should accept her husband as dead and marry one of them.

這部史詩的大意如下：奧德賽參與特洛伊戰爭，這場戰爭被認為發生於約西元前1200年。在戰爭過後，他要返回位於希臘的家鄉依莎卡 (Ithaca)，踏上備受煎熬的迢迢返鄉路。他被山林女神卡莉普索捉住、在海上飄流、與獨眼巨人戰鬥、抗拒塞倫女妖的誘惑，幾乎可說一路惡運連連。當他離家時，他的老婆潘妮洛普還被一百零八位追求者糾纏。這些追求者試圖說服潘妮洛普，她的老公早已戰死異鄉，而她最好快快改嫁。

Near the end of the story, a seer named Theoclymenus foretells the death of all the suitors, saying:

在故事尾聲，一個名叫西奧克利莫諾斯 (Theoclymenus) 的先知預言了這些追求者的下場。他說：

Poor men, what terror is this that overwhelms you so? Night shrouds your
heads, your faces, down to your knees — cries of mourning are bursting into
fire — cheeks rivering tears — the walls and the handsome crossbeams
dripping dank with blood! Ghosts, look, thronging the entrance, thronging
the court, go trooping down to the realm of death and darkness! The sun is
blotted out of the sky — look there — a lethal mist spreads all across the
Earth.

可憐的人們，什麼樣的恐怖籠罩你們？黑夜遮蔽了你們的頭、你們的臉孔，直下你們雙膝 ─ 哀泣突入火燄 ─ 臉頰滿是淚流 ─ 牆壁與堂皇的橫梁皆被鮮血濡濕！看，鬼魂蜂擁出大門，蜂擁出庭院，向死亡與黑暗的國度進發！太陽在天空亦被遮蔽 ─ 看哪 ─ 致命的迷霧籠罩大地。

The reference to the Sun being blotted out of the sky on the day Odysseus returns home to retake his house and slaughter the suitors has been thought for a long time to be a reference to an actual eclipse, and was debated by astronomers, historians and classicists until it was finally decided that there was not enough evidence in the book to pinpoint a specific date for the event.

當奧德賽返抵故鄉，奪回其宮殿並屠殺追求者時被遮蔽的太陽，長久以來被視為是一場真實日全食的記載，在天文學家、歷史學者、古典學家間引起爭論。他們最後達成共識，原作中並無足夠的證據去指出該事件確實的日期。

An analysis of overlooked passages in the book by Marcelo O. Magnasco, who heads the Laboratory of Mathematical Physics at Rockefeller, and Constantino Baikouzis of the Proyecto Observatorio at the Observatorio Astronómico in La Plata, Argentina reveals that there is enough evidence – if their interpretation of the events is correct – to place the eclipse on April 16th of 1178 B.C. Magnasco and Baikouzis reported their findings in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

洛克菲勒大學數學物理實驗室 (Laboratory of Mathematical Physics at Rockefeller) 的馬歇羅‧馬格納斯可 (Marcelo O. Magnasco) 及阿根廷普羅托天文台 (Proyecto Observatorio at the Observatorio Astronómico) 的康斯坦提諾‧拜柯奇 (Constantino Baikouzis) 對原作內容鉅細糜遺的分析卻顯示，若他們的解讀正確，已經有足夠的證據指出這場日食發生在西元前1178年四月十六日。馬格納斯可及拜柯奇將他們的發現發表於美國國家科學研究院學報 (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)。

There are four celestial clues in the Odyssey that individually happen rather often, but rarely coincide within a short period of time. As Odysseus is making his way home on a raft, he navigates by the use of the constellations Bootes and the Pleiades, which only appear together in the sky in March and September. The Moon is new when Odyesseus returns home, and on that day Venus rises before dawn, which only happens during one-third of new moons. The most important clue, though, is that Homer refers to the god Hermes flying west to the island of Ogygia about a month earlier. This reference is likely to the planet Mercury, which is low in the sky and experiences retrograde motion – seems to go backward in the sky relative to the stars - every 116 days.

在奧德賽中有四個天文線索，它們個別常常發生，卻很少在短期內巧合地一致出現。當奧德賽一路飄流回家時，他利用牧夫座及昴宿星團來指引方向，它們只有在三月及九月會一齊出現。奧德賽抵達家鄉時是新月，而那一天金星在黎明前便昇起，這只會在三分之一新月時發生。然而最重要的線索是，荷馬指出在奧德賽抵達故鄉前一個月，信使神赫密斯向西飛越奧奇佳島 (Ogygia)。這可能代表水星每116年週期性的逆行運動 ─ 即在天空中移動的方向與其他恆星相反。

Magnasco said, "Not only is this corroborative evidence that this date might be something important but if we take it as a given that the death of the suitors happened on this particular eclipse date, then everything else described in The Odyssey happens exactly as is described."

馬格納斯可說：「這些共同的證據不僅指出這個重要日期，而且我們若確定大屠殺發生於特定的日全食日期，在奧德賽中描述的其他事件也確實存在。」

Baikouzis and Magnasco analyzed all 1,684 new moons between 1250 and 1125 B.C. with commercial astronomy software for any dates that would match this confluence of events and came up with April 16th, 1178 B.C. Given that Homer matched the story to events in reality, this could help historians date the fall of Troy and shows that this great poet may also have had a penchant for astronomy.

拜柯奇與馬格納斯可使用商業天文軟體分析了在西元前1250及1125年間的1684次新月，期望找出能吻合上述幾點條件的時間點。所得到的結果便是西元前1178年四月十六日。若荷馬的故事能與真實事件相對照，也許可幫歷史學家定出特洛伊城陷落的日期。這位偉大的詩人說不定對天文學頗有研究呢。