雙語+MP3|美國學生世界地理46 眾神之國

     THE first book I ever read was ?sop's Fables. ?sop was a slave who lived in a little country called Greece. ?sop the slave wrote such famous fables that his master set him free. The book I read was in English, but the Fables were first written in Greek.
     Greece is so small that if I pointed to it on the map down at the corner of Europe it would be entirely covered by the tip of my finger. But small as it is, it was at one time the greatest country, its people were the greatest people, and its language the greatest language in the World. When the rest of the people in Europe were ignorant savages the people in Greece were writing the greatest books, building the most beautiful buildings, making the most beautiful statues, and teaching the most famous schools that have ever been. There is one Book that was first written in Greek but is now printed in over eight hundred languages, and more people have read it than any other book in the World. It's the Bible-the New Testament part.
     But the people of Greece didn't at first believe in the Bible or Christ. They didn't believe in only one god but in many gods, who they said lived above the clouds on the top of a mountain called Olympus. The mountain is still there, but if you should climb to the top you wouldn't find any gods. When the sun shone the Greeks said that the god Apollo was driving his golden chariot across the sky. When the rain fell they said another god, Jupiter, was watering the earth, and when the lightning flashed they said he was angry and throwing thunderbolts. They believed that there was a god of love and that there was a god of war and that there was a god of almost everything in the World.
     Greece is in two chief parts, like a tiny North and South America, which were once joined by a thin stem of land called the Isthmus of Corinth, only four miles across. In the northern part was, is, and probably always will be a great city called Athens. The people in Athens thought that one goddess in particular looked after their city. She was the goddess of wisdom called Athene Parthenos, so they named their city Athens, after her first name; and on the top of a high hill they built the most beautiful temple in the World to her and called it the Parthenon, after her last name. Inside of this temple they placed a huge statue of her, made of gold and ivory. The statue has now disappeared, nobody knows where, and the building itself was blown up in a war and is now in ruins. The beautiful sculptures on this temple were taken down and carried away to London and are now in the British Museum. So if you want to see what beautiful statues the Greeks once made, don't go to Athens-go to London. On the side of the hill on which is the Parthenon and all through the city of Athens are other temples to their many gods. These temples had no domes nor spires like Christian churches, but columns around the outside.


     The marble for these buildings and statues they got from a hill near Athens called Mount Pentelicus. Some one has said the reason the Greeks long ago made such beautiful statues and buildings was because they had such beautiful marble to work with; but there is still beautiful marble on Mount Pentelicus, and yet no one seems able to make such beautiful things of it any more.
     People long ago used to go to a place called an oracle to have their fortunes told. At Delphi not far from Athens was one of the most famous oracles. There was a crack in the ground from which gas was always escaping. Over this crack in the ground sat a goddess called a Sibyl and over the goddess a little temple was built. The escaping gas put the goddess to sleep, just as the gas a doctor or dentist uses puts people to sleep so they won't feel any pain; then the goddess began to talk in her sleep and would mumble answers to the questions asked her. People came from all over the World to hear what the oracle had to tell them. The Delphic Oracle, like the statue of Athene, has now gone-no one knows when, nor how, nor where.
     Did you know that you could speak Greek? Well, when you say "music," "museum," or "amusements" you are speaking Greek, for all three words are named from nine beautiful goddesses called "Muses," who used to live near a spring at Delphi. This spring was named Castalia, and it was supposed that those who drank from the spring would be able to write music and poetry. The Castalian spring is still there, and sheep and goats as well as men drink its cool waters, but now it does no more than quench the thirst of men and beasts.

     Long before the time of Christ, athletic meets used to be held in Greece once every four years. These were called Olympic Games, and champions in running and jumping and other sports from all over Greece used to compete for a prize, which was a simple crown made of laurel leaves. There is a huge stadium in Athens where such games and races were held, but it had fallen to ruins. Not so many years ago a Greek who had made a fortune and wanted to do something splendid for his home city repaired and recovered the old stadium with marble, and again the Olympic Games were held there.
     Near Athens there is another hill called Mount Hymettus, where was found a very delicious kind of honey. It is said to taste like flowers and it was supposed to be the food the gods lived upon-they called it "ambrosia." You can still get the same honey in the restaurants in Athens, but there are no more gods to feed on it.
     Greece of to-day is famous for-what do you suppose? For poetry? No. For music? No. For sculpture? No. For beautiful buildings? No. My geography says it is famous for "currants." Currants are little dried grapes that are used in cakes and puddings. Currants are named from Corinth, the stem that joins north and south Greece, or rather, I should say, the stem that used to join them, for the Greeks have cut a canal four miles long straight through the isthmus so that boats can now sail across Corinth without going all the way around Greece.
     There is a lunch-room downtown kept by a young Greek who has come to America to make his fortune. He calls it the Delphi Restaurant. Last week I went in for luncheon, and just for fun I asked him if he had any ambrosia. "No," said he, "we have corned beef and cabbage to-day."