悲劇的誕生The Birth Of Tragedy 第79期:神諭:蘇格拉底是最聰明的人

The fact that the aims of Socrates and Euripides were closely Allied did not escape the attention of their contemporaries.

蘇格拉底同歐裏庇德斯的傾向有密切關係，當時古代人也曾注意及此。

We have an eloquent illustration of this in the rumotr, current at the time in Athens, that Socrates was helping Euripides with his writing.

雅典有個流行傳說，最動人地說明了這種可喜的銳感。據說蘇格拉底常常幫助歐裏庇德斯作詩。

The two names were bracketed by the partisans of the "good old days' whenever it was a question of castigating the upstart demagogues of the present.

每逢有機會列舉當時的人民鼓動者時，“古風舊德”的擁護者們往往把這兩人雙提並論，

It was they who were blamed for the disappearance of the Marathonian soundness of body and mind in favor of a dubious enlightenment tending toward a progressive atrophy of the traditional virtues.

認爲當時一種頗有問題的教化使得體力和智力漸趨退化，昔日有益身心的馬拉松精神因此被犧牲，這都歸咎於這兩個人的影響。

In the comedy of Aristophanes both men are treated in this vein--half indignant, half contemptuous--to the dismay of the rising generation, who, while they were willing enough to sacrifice Euripides, could not forgive the picture of Socrates as the arch Sophist.

阿里斯托芬的喜劇談及這兩人時，就往往帶着半憤怒半輕蔑的調子：——這會使現代人大爲詫異的，今人寧可犧牲了歐裏庇德斯，但是看到蘇格拉底在阿里斯托芬喜劇中被說成是第一個主要的詭辯者，是一切詭辯傾向的鏡子和總結，必定爲之驚訝無已。

Their only recourse was to pillory Aristophanes in his turn as a dissolute, Lying Alcibiades of poetry.

因此，今人唯有宣佈阿里斯托芬的罪狀，稱之爲詩壇上放蕩荒唐的亞爾西巴德，聊以自慰而已。

I won't pause here to defend the pro found instincts of Aristophanes against such attacks but shall proceed to demonstrate the close affinity between Socrates and Euripides, as their contemporaries saw them.

這裏，我並不想替阿里斯托芬的深識灼見辯護，以反駁這種誹謗，我將繼續從古人的觀感方面來證明蘇格拉底和歐裏庇德斯的密切關係。

It is certainly significant in this connection that Socrates, being a sworn enemy of the tragic art, is said never to have attended the theater except when a new play of Euripides was mounted.

在這一意義上，尤須回憶一下：蘇格拉底因爲反對悲劇藝術，所以不看悲劇，只有當歐裏庇德斯的新劇上演時，他纔到場觀看。

The most famous instance of the conjunction of the two names, however, is found in the Delphic oracle which pronounced Socrates the wisest of men yet allowed that Euripides merited the second place.

然而，狄爾斐的神諭卻把這兩人雙提並論，這種密切關係是有口皆碑的：這神諭就稱蘇格拉底爲最聰明的人，但同時斷定歐裏庇德斯在鬥智的比賽中應得第二名獎。