|新聞正文|
英文部分選自《BBC》
When I was a little girl, I would pester my grandfather with the same question every time we wandered the flagstone streets of Athens』 Philopappou Hill on a clear evening. I would wait until we had reached the 147m peak, with the Parthenon at eye level, to ask:
小時候，每次與祖父在晴朗的夜空下漫步於雅典菲力波普山的石板街巷時，我都會纏著他追問同一個問題。我會一直等到我們到達147米高的山頂上、能夠平視帕特農神廟時才問：
「Why are the stars shining so brightly from here?」
"為什麼星星從這裡看上去異常明亮呢？"
「Ancient Greeks were wise. They knew where to build their sacred venues,」 my grandfather would say, unfazed by the annoying excitement in my voice. 「These are places symbolising something greater than us.」
"古希臘人非常有智慧，他們知道將聖殿建在哪裡才最好，"我的祖父會這樣回答我，聲音中夾雜著莫名的興奮，但卻顯得鎮定自若。"這些地方有我們所無法企及的象徵意義。"
In retrospect, I can’t help but wonder if this beautiful explanation was inflated by my grandfather’s immense pride in Greek culture. But Manolo Fernandez, a Spanish language teacher and amateur astronomy enthusiast, shares my grandfather’s opinion – that the placement of Greece’s temples was not random.
回想往事，我不禁懷疑這種美麗的解釋是否由於祖父對希臘文化的強烈自豪感而有所誇大。不過，西班牙語老師兼業餘天文愛好者馬諾洛·費爾南德斯 (Manolo Fernandez) 也同意我祖父的觀點，他認為希臘神廟的位置並非隨意而定。
I first met Fernandez amid the ancient ruins of the Parthenon during a late June heat wave. Surrounded by the temple’s stately Doric columns, he unfurled a map of Greece. 「Look at the map, there,」 he said. 「The temple of Poseidon in Sounion forms an isosceles triangle with the Hephaisteion in Athens and the temple of Aphaia Athena in Aegina. Apollo in Delphi, Aphaia in Aegina and the Parthenon, the same: they all form perfect isosceles triangles!」
在6月下旬的酷暑中，我在帕特農神廟遺址首次見到費爾南德斯。在我們四周，宏偉的多立克式圓柱林立。他打開一張希臘地圖。"看看這裡的地圖，"他說，"蘇尼翁角 (Sounion) 的波塞冬 (Poseidon) 神廟與雅典的海法斯提昂 (Hephaisteion)神殿以及埃伊納島 (Aegina) 的阿菲亞 (Aphaia Athena) 神廟三者構形成一個等腰三角形。無獨有偶，特爾斐 (Delphi) 的阿波羅 (Apollo) 神廟、埃伊納島的阿菲亞神廟和帕特農神廟三者也構成一個完美的等腰三角形！"
Fernandez is sure that the triangles made by the sites reflect the movements of different celestial bodies such as the sun, moon or planets and stars in relation to the Earth’s surface. This theory frequently leads him to the National Observatory of Athens to attend stargazing events. Inside a domed marble building, the Doridis telescope provides visitors like Fernandez with marvellous views of the night sky. Having seen the moon, Saturn, Mars and various constellations through the telescope, he is adamant that 「the temples of Greeks were built to align the inhabited parts of the Earth with the planets in the sky.」
費爾南德斯確信，這些遺址所構成的三角形反映了太陽、月球或行星和星星等不同天體與地球表面的相對運動。這一理論常常促使他前往雅典國家天文臺 參加觀星活動。在天文臺的一個圓頂大理石建築內設有多利迪斯望遠鏡，它讓費爾南德斯這樣的到訪者能夠欣賞到妙不可言的夜空美景。在通過望遠鏡觀察月球、土星、火星以及很多星座後，他堅定地認為，"希臘神廟的建造是為了在天空中找到與人類在地球上的居住地一樣的行星。"
The idea of a triangulation of the Greek world is not new, but rather an example of 『sacred geography』, or how religious sites were situated according to astronomy or mythology. In the 1960s, Jean Richer, a French literature professor (with a special interest in symbolism, esoteric doctrines and Greek mythology) at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in Nice, France, described it as a 『grand design』 bonding sacred sites with each other and the sky. He imagined Greece to be divided into 12 sectors reflecting the 12 signs of the zodiac, with the oracle shrine of Delphi as the omphalos, or 『navel』, of the Greek mainland.
希臘世界有關三角形的想法並不新鮮，但它卻是"神聖地理學"的一大例證，這種學說涉及宗教遺蹟根據天文學或神話的布局方式。20世紀60年代，法國尼斯的尼斯-索菲亞·昂蒂波利斯大學 (University of Nice Sophia Antipolis) 法國文學教授讓·裡歇爾 (Jean Richer)（他對象徵意義、深奧的教義以及希臘神話饒有興趣）將聖地彼此之間以及它們與天空之間的密不可分的關係形容為一項"偉大的設計"。他設想希臘被分為12個部分，分別代表著黃道十二宮的12個星座，其中德爾斐 (Delphi) 的神諭聖地是希臘大陸的中心或"肚臍眼"。
But sacred geography theories like Richer’s never earned proper respect from orthodox science as they could never be proven.
但是，因為無法得到論證，裡歇爾等人的神聖地理學理論從未得到正統科學的應有尊重。
「Let’s start with Acropolis. Which temple was used as the Acropolis point for a start? The Classical Parthenon, the Archaic Parthenon, the temple of Athena Polias or the temple of Athena Nike?」 asked Efrosyni Boutsikas, archaeology lecturer at England’s University of Kent, who focuses on ancient Greek astronomy, mythology and religion. 「If we are talking about creating precise geometrical shapes like an isosceles triangle, we need accuracy of less than a metre. These temples are several metres apart so you can take your pick on choosing the one which gives you the most precise isosceles, but this does not mean that the shape would have had any significance for the Ancients.」
"讓我們從雅典衛城 (Acropolis) 開始吧。我們將哪座神廟作為雅典衛城的起點呢？古典帕特農神廟、上古帕特農神廟、雅典娜波麗亞絲 (Athena Polias) 神廟還是雅典娜勝利 (Athena Nike) 神廟呢？"專門從事古希臘天文學、神話和宗教研究的英國肯特大學考古學講師埃弗羅西尼·布西卡斯 (Efrosyni Boutsikas) 問道，"談到構成像等腰三角形這樣精確的幾何形狀，我們需要精度準確到不大於一米。這些神廟彼此間相隔僅數米，所以我們可以自行選擇構成最精確等腰線的神廟，但這並不意味著這樣的形狀對於古人就有意義。"
George Pantazis and Evangelia Lambrou, associate professors at the National Technical University of Athens, recently used rigorous geodetic methods to determine the astronomical orientation of Ancient Greek temples. The pair zeroed in on the temples of the Parthenon and Hephaisteion, two of the greatest temples of the classical era, both of which were dedicated to the goddess Athena (though Hephaisteion was also dedicated to Hephaestus).
最近，國立雅典理工大學副教授喬治·潘泰斯 (George Pantazis) 和伊萬吉利亞·朗布魯 (Evangelia Lambrou) 使用用嚴格的大地測量方法確定了古希臘神廟的天文方位。這一對稱方位對準古典時代兩座最偉大的神廟——帕特農神廟和海法斯提昂神殿，它們均供奉著雅典娜女神（雖然海法斯提昂神殿還供奉著火神赫菲斯託斯）。
They found an extraordinarily symmetric positioning between the temples, ensuring both had the same view towards the east. 「The astronomical orientation of temples has to do with the sunrise on the celebration day of the god to whom the sacred site is dedicated,」 Pantazis said. 「The sunrise must occur exactly on the central axis of the temple in order to illuminate the central statue of the worshipped god.」
他們發現，兩座神廟的位置極其對稱，這就讓二者有著相同的東方視野。潘泰斯表示，"神廟的天文方位與紀念其中所供奉神靈的慶典日的日出有關，日出必須準確地出現在神廟的中軸上，以便照亮其中所供奉神靈的中央雕像。"
And there are a slew of other studies indicating that classical temples were built to align with the stars, although not at the scale Richer imagined. Still, the emergence of the field of archaeoastronomy, the study of ancient cultures』 astronomical knowledge and implementation, is bound to make the connection between astronomy and religion even more fascinating.
還有大量研究表明，建造古典神廟是為了找到與地球相對應的行星，但對應程度可能並非如裡歇爾所想像。然而，考古天文學領域以及古文化天文學知識和實踐的研究方興未艾，它們必將使天文學與宗教之間的聯繫更加引人入勝。
Tourists who roam Athens』 historical centre during the day make their way to the observatory come sundown to see which stars will emerge in the night sky. As I joined the queue at the entrance, I spotted a familiar man. Fernandez, the fervent stargazer, would soon be marvelling at the Milky Way, an experience I am sure left him even more bent on uniting the celestial objects above with the sacred sites on the ground.
白天在雅典歷史中心漫步的遊客在日落時分趕赴天文臺，觀測將出現在夜空中的星星。排隊入場時，我發現一位熟人。他就是狂熱的觀星者費爾南德斯。他很快就會陶醉在銀河系的美景之中。我確信這種體驗會讓他更加堅定地將天空中的天體與地面上的聖地聯繫起來。
Unable to resist, I tagged along and waited for the exact moment to ask: 「Why are the stars shining so brightly from here?」
我無法抗拒，於是緊隨其後，靜候時機發問："為什麼星星從這裡看上去異常明亮呢？"
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