纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 044辛顿圣玛丽肖像(1)

I'm walking with the gods-I'm in the gallery that's got objects from the time when Britain was part of the Roman Empire,around 1,700 years ago.

我正穿梭于众神当中，大英博物馆中有一个展厅专门陈列约1700年前不列颠处于罗马帝国统治时期的文物，其中有一系列神像：

Here is Mars, there's Bacchus with his wine cup, Pan piping on a silver dish... and now I've arrived at what looks like another pagan god, this time in mosaic¹.

一个小型战神马尔斯，一个端着酒杯的酒神巴克科斯，一个在银盘上吹笛子的潘神，还有一个看起来也像是某个异教神的马赛克图案。

It's a shoulder-length portrait.

这是一幅齐肩人像,

He's roughly life-size, clean shaven, has fair hair swept back, and he's wearing a tunic² and a robe tightly wrapped around his shoulders.

大小相当于真人，画中人的胡子剃得很干净，金色的头发往后拢着，穿着束胸外衣，长袍紧裹肩头。

But which god is this?

但这是哪路神明？

There's a clue, because this is a man with a monogram³.

有一个线索,因为有个字母能够揭示他的身份。

Behind his head are the two Greek letters chi and rho and that tells me at once who he is, because they're the first two letters of the word Christos, and this is in fact Christ.

在他头部后方还有两个希腊字母chi和rho,这让我们立刻了解了这名男子的身份：这是希腊文“christes”的首字母，而我们所看到的正是耶稣最早的图像之一。

It's one of the earliest images we have of him anywhere, and it's an astonishing survival-made not for a church in the eastern Mediterranean⁴ or in Imperial Rome, but for the floor of a villa⁵ in Dorset, somewhere around the year 350.

它并非东地中海或罗马帝国的某座教堂的物品，而是公元350年前后多塞特某座别墅的地板装饰，能留存至今极为不易。

1 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

2 tunic   

n.束腰外衣

参考例句：

• The light loose mantle was thrown over his tunic.一件轻质宽大的斗蓬披在上衣外面。
• Your tunic and hose match ill with that jewel,young man.你的外套和裤子跟你那首饰可不相称呢，年轻人。

3 monogram   

n.字母组合

参考例句：

• There was a monogram in the corner in which were the initials"R.K.B.".原来手帕角上有个图案，其中包含着RKB三个字母。
• When we get married I don't have to change the monogram on my luggage.当我们结婚后，我连皮箱上的字母也不用改。

4 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

5 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。