Apollo as a Chalcedonian: A New Fragment of a Controversial Work from Early Sixth-Century Constantinople
Apollo as a Chalcedonian: A New Fragment of a Controversial Work from Early Sixth-Century Constantinople
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作为迦克墩人的阿波罗：六世纪早期君士坦丁堡有争议的作品的新片段
作者：
B. Daley
在世纪之交，嘲笑古代异教徒的神谕无法预测自己的灭亡似乎是基督教的一种司空见惯的做法。“赫卡忒可怕的幽灵在哪里？”纳齐安祖斯的格雷戈里在380年或381年的主显节布道中问道，“特罗福尼乌斯的地下诡计和预言，多多纳橡树的喃喃自语，德尔斐三脚架的诡辩，或者卡斯特利亚的预言饮料？他们唯一不能预言的是：他们自己陷入沉默。大约30年后，杰罗姆在评论以赛亚书41：22中对异教诸神预言能力的尖锐挑战时说，“基督降临后，所有的偶像都安静了。德尔斐的阿波罗和洛希亚、提洛安和克拉安[阿波罗]，以及其他承诺未来知识并欺骗强大国王的偶像在哪里？为什么他们不能预言任何关于基督的事，任何关于他的使徒的事，任何关于他们圣殿的毁灭和废弃的事？如果他们不能预知自己的灭亡，又怎么能预知别人的好运气或坏运气呢？”
It seems to have been something of a Christian commonplace, at the turn of the fifth century, to taunt the ancient pagan oracles for being unable to predict their own demise. “Where are the frightening and shadowy spectres of Hecate,” asked Gregory of Nazianzus in his Epiphany sermon of 380 or 381, “and the subterranean tricks and prophecies of Trophonius, or the mutterings of the oak of Dodona, or the sophistries of the Delphic tripod, or the prophetic drink of Castalia? The only thing they could not prophesy was this: their own falling into silence.” Commenting, some thirty years later, on the stinging challenge to the prophetic powers of the pagan gods in Isaiah 41:22, Jerome observed “that after the coming of Christ all the idols have fallen silent. Where is Delphic Apollo and Loxias, Delian and Clarian [Apollo], and the other idols that promised knowledge of the future and deceived mighty kings? Why were they able to foretell nothing about Christ, nothing about his apostles, nothing about the ruin and abandonment of their temples? If, then, they were not able to foretell their own downfall, how could they foretell the good or bad fortunes of others?”