纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 044辛顿圣玛丽肖像(3)（在线收听）

The floor was mostly made of local Dorset materials-black, red and yellowish stones, all of them set in that greatest of Roman building inventions, cement. As you went into the room, the first thing you'd have seen on the floor was a roundel, with the mythical hero Bellerophon riding the flying horse Pegasus and overcoming the Chimaera, a monster combining a lion, a goat and a serpent.It was a popular image in the Roman world, the hero zapping the forces of evil. But at the far end of the room, facing in the other direction, was another roundel. In earlier times in this sort of position you'd have expected to find either Orpheus, charming the world with his music, or the universally popular wine god Bacchus. But here we find Christ.

地板几乎全用多塞特本地材料制成。黑色、红色、黄色的小石块靠罗马的伟大发明一水泥黏合在了一起。进入房间后，首先映入你眼帘的是地板上的一个圆形装饰图案。神话中的英雄柏勒洛丰骑着会飞的天马珀伽索斯，战胜了长着狮头羊身龙尾的怪兽喀迈拉。英雄战胜邪恶是罗马世界中常见的图像，比如我们在沙普尔二世银盘中看到的。但在房间的另一端，还有一个冲着相反方向的圆形图案。在早年，这里通常会是靠音乐征服世界的俄耳甫斯，或是广受欢迎的酒神巴克科斯。但这里出现的却是基督。

The pairing of Christ with Bellerophon is not as incongruous as it might initially seem to us.Here's historian Eamon Duffy:

在三世纪至四世纪的英国，基督只是人们信仰的众多神祇之一。基督与巴克科斯的组合在当时并不像今天这么突兀。历史学家伊艾门达夫教授向我们解释基督如何被纳入诸神：

"I think, as a historian, what impresses me about it is the juxtaposition of powerful imagery from pagan mythology-the whole story of Bellerophon, Pegasus, the Chimaera-and the way in which Christianity adapts that material for its own purposes to convey the message of resurrection, of the triumph of life over death. And the implicit comparison of Christ's work on the cross to a hero slaying a monster;that paradox that the defeat of the founder of Christianity is actually a heroic victory.

我觉得这幅基督像不算太好看，瞧那肥下巴！令我感兴趣的是将基督与异教神话中的柏勒洛丰、珀伽索斯和喀迈拉并列摆放的做法。基督徒用这些材料表现耶稣复活的信息，表现生命战胜死亡， 并把基督被钉在十字架上与英雄杀死怪兽进行比较。这很有意思，认为这位基督教创始人的失败实际上是一种英雄式的胜利…