雅思阅读材料：古希腊主神介绍（二）

　　阿瑞斯Ares

　　阿瑞斯，古希腊神话中的战神，奥林匹斯十二神之一，被视为尚武精神的化身。其形象源于色雷斯人，据奥林波斯神话，阿瑞斯是宙斯和赫拉的儿子。在奥林匹亚诸神中，战神阿瑞斯是最招人憎恨的，他被形容为“嗜血成性的杀人魔王以及有防卫的城堡的征服者”。他是宙斯与赫拉唯一一个毫无争议的儿子，尽管奥维德宣称，赫拉只是在奥勒诺斯草原上和一朵花碰触了一下，结果就生下了阿瑞斯。

　　Ares (Ancient Greek: ?ρη? [ár??s], Μodern Greek: ?ρη? [?aris]) was the Greek god of war. He is one of theTwelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligenceinclude military strategy and generalship.

　　The Greeks were ambivalent toward Ares: although he embodied the physical valor necessary for success in war, he was a dangerous force, "overwhelming, insatiable in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering Fear(Phobos) and Terror (Deimos) were yoked to his battle chariot. In the Iliad his father Zeus tells him that he is the god most hateful to him. An association with Ares endows places and objects with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality. His value as a war god is even placed in doubt: during the Trojan War, Ares was on the losing side, while Athena, often depicted in Greek art as holding Nike (Victory) in her hand, favored the triumphant Greeks.

　　Ares plays a relatively limited role in Greek mythology as represented in literary narratives, though his numerous love affairs and abundant offspring are often alluded to. When Ares does appear in myths, he typically faces humiliation. He is well known as the lover of Aphrodite, the goddess of love who was married to Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship, but the most famous story involving the couple shows them exposed to ridicule through the wronged husband's clever device.

　　The counterpart of Ares among the Roman gods is Mars, who as a father of the Roman people held a more important and dignified place in ancient Roman religion for his agricultural and tutelary functions. During the Hellenization of Latin literature, the myths of Ares were reinterpreted by Roman writers under the name of Mars. Greek writers under Roman rule also recorded cult practices and beliefs pertaining to Mars under the name of Ares. Thus in the classical tradition of later Western art and literature, the mythology of the two figures becomes virtually indistinguishable.

　　阿尔忒弥斯Artemis

　　阿尔忒弥斯 (希腊文 Αρτεμιδ;拉丁文 Artemis)，罗马神话中的狄安娜。掌管狩猎，照顾妇女分娩，保护反抗和蔑视爱神的青年男女。曾与孪生兄弟阿波罗一起，杀死迫害其母的巨蟒皮同和羞辱其母的尼俄柏及其子女。在土耳其以弗所，有专为她修筑的亚底米神庙。

　　Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals". TheArcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter.

　　In the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis (Greek: (nominative) ?ρτεμι?, (genitive)?ρτ?μιδο?) was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and protector of young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women; she often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her. In later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding childbirth.

　　Birth

　　Various conflicting accounts are given in Classical Greek mythology of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts agree, however, that she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and that she was the twin sister of Apollo.

　　An account by Callimachus has it that Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma (the mainland) or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband, because he had impregnated Leto. But the island of Delos (or Ortygia in the Homeric Hymn to Artemis) disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there.In ancient Cretan history Leto was worshipped at Phaistos and in Cretan mythology Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis at the islands known today as the Paximadia.

　　A scholium of Servius on Aeneid iii. 72 accounts for the island's archaic name Ortygia by asserting that Zeus transformed Leto into a quail (ortux) in order to prevent Hera from finding out his infidelity, and Kenneth McLeish suggested further that in quail form Leto would have given birth with as few birth-pains as a mother quail suffers when it lays an egg.

　　The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, or Apollo. Most stories depict Artemis as born first, becoming her mother's mid-wife upon the birth of her brother Apollo.

　　赫尔墨斯Hermes

　　是希腊奥林匹斯十二主神之一，八大行星中的水星。宙斯与玛亚的儿子。出生在阿耳卡狄亚的一个山洞里，最早是阿耳卡狄亚的神，是强大的自然界的化身。奥林匹斯统一后，他成为畜牧之神，是宙斯的传旨者和信使。他也被视为行路者的保护神，是商人的庇护神，雄辩之神。传说他发明了尺、数和字母。他聪明狡猾，又被视为欺骗之术的创造者，他把诈骗术传给了自己的儿子。他还是七弦琴的发明者，是希腊各种竞技比赛的庇护神。后来他又与古埃及的智慧神托特混为一体，被认为是魔法的庇护者，他的魔杖可使神与人入睡，也可使他们从梦中醒来。

　　Hermes ( /?h?rmi?z/; Greek : ?ρμ??) was an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, son of Zeus and the Pleiade Maia. He was second youngest of the Olympian gods.

　　Hermes was a god of transitions and boundaries. He was quick and cunning, and moved freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine, as emissary and messenger of the gods, intercessor between mortals and the divine, and conductor of souls into the afterlife. He was protector and patron of travelers, herdsmen, thieves, orators and wit, literature and poets, athletics and sports, invention and trade. In some myths he is a trickster, and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or the sake of humankind. His attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster and the tortoise, purse or pouch, winged sandals,winged cap, and his main symbol was the herald's staff, the Greek kerykeion or Latin caduceus which consisted of two snakes wrapped around a winged staff.

　　In the Roman adaptation of the Greek pantheon (see interpretatio romana), Hermes was identified with the Roman god Mercury, who, though inherited from the Etruscans, developed many similar characteristics, such as being the patron of commerce.[citation needed]

　　赫菲斯托斯Hephaestus

　　赫菲斯托斯(英文：Hephaistos/希腊文：?φαιστο?/拉丁文：Hephaestus)希腊神话中的火神与匠神。另一译为赫淮斯托斯、赫斐斯塔司。奥林匹斯十二主神之一。罗马神话中为伏尔甘(Vulcan)。西方语言中的“火山”一词来源于他的罗马名字。宙斯和赫拉所生(一说他只有母亲)。有火山活动的利姆诺斯、西西里等岛屿最初尊他为地火之神。能建筑神殿，制作各种武器和金属用品，技艺高超，被认为工匠的始祖。在手工业中心，他被奉为锻造的庇护神。

　　Hephaestus ( /h??fi?st?s/, /h??f?st?s/ or /h??f?st?s/; 8 spellings; Ancient Greek ?φαιστο? Hēphaistos) was the Greek god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire andvolcanoes. Hephaestus' Roman equivalent was Vulcan. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus andHera, the King and Queen of the Gods.

　　As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus. He served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centres of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos. Hephaestus's symbols are a smith's hammer, anvil, and a pair of tongs.

　　The craft of Hephaestus

　　Hephaestus had his own palace on Olympus, containing his workshop with anvil and twenty bellows that worked at his bidding. Hephaestus crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, and almost any finely-wrought metalwork imbued with powers that appears in Greek myth is said to have been forged by Hephaestus. He designed Hermes' winged helmet and sandals, the Aegis breastplate, Aphrodite's famed girdle, Agamemnon's staff of office, Achilles' armor, Heracles' bronze clappers, Helios' chariot, the shoulder of Pelops, andEros' bow and arrows. In later accounts, Hephaestus worked with the help of the chthonic Cyclopes—among them his assistants in the forge, Brontes, Steropes and Pyracmon.

　　Hephaestus also built automatons of metal to work for him. This included tripods that walked to and fromMount Olympus. He gave to the blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide. Prometheus stole the fire that he gave to man from Hephaestus's forge. Hephaestus also created the gift that the gods gave to man, the woman Pandora and her pithos. Being a skilled blacksmith, Hephaestus created all the thrones in the Palace of Olympus.