纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 036耶路撒冷沃伦杯(3)（在线收听）

The early Roman Empire had idealised Greece and adopted much of her culture, and the cup shows what is clearly a Greek scene. Is this a Roman sexual fantasy of a Classical Greek male coupling? Perhaps by placing it in a Greek past, any moral discomfort is put at a safe distance, while adding to the titillation of the forbidden and exotic. And perhaps everybody everywhere believes that the best sex happens somewhere else. Professor James Davidson, author of 'The Greeks and Greek Love' explains:

早期的罗马帝国十分推崇古希腊，他们接受了大部分的古希腊文化，而我们这只酒杯上所表现的很明显就是希腊的场景。这是罗马人对古希腊同性性爱的幻想吗？也许，将它放在遥远的古希腊背景里会减少一些人们的道德不适感，同时增加一些禁忌与异域风情所带来的兴奋感。也许人人都相信，最好的性爱发生在别处。《希腊人与希腊爱情》作者詹姆斯维森教授解释道：

"What's interesting is that although this vase looks back to the Classical period, the Greek vase painters-who were by no means prudish or modest when it came to depicting sex-nevertheless carefully avoided scenes of homosexual intercourse, at least penetrative intercourse. So, in a way, the Romans are showing what couldn't be shown five hundred years earlier. So you can say if you like that the Greek world, as it did for Warren and as it did since the eighteenth century or even in the Middle Ages, provided an alibi for societies to think about homosexuality, to talk about homosexuality, to represent homosexuality. It made it into a piece of art more than pornography, so it's a kind of cover, if you like, for something which is not necessarily very easy to depict. It needs some kind of excuse, if you like, and the excuse is provided by Classical imagery."

银杯描述的是古希腊的场景，但其实古希腊的画家在描画性爱时，虽然绝不会遮遮掩掩，但也会小心避免同性性爱，尤其是各种场景。因此罗马人所描画的内容在五百年前绝不会出现。希腊为人们提供了一个能让社会思考、讨论并表现同性恋的托词, 自十八世纪以来，甚至在中世纪，都一直有人这么做。这让这个酒杯成为一件艺术品，而不是色情画。