白楊樹 銀白楊
Populus
alba
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ἀλωή threshing-floor
αἴγειρος black poplar, Populus nigra
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Odyssey 6.247-331
主題: 引進皇宮，楊樹下等候
公主Nausicaa浩浩蕩蕩一群騾子拉的車，載著衣服，載著女伴們，以及Odysseus回程。Nausicaa的車隊幫Odysseus引路，但是公主要Odysseus在一座祭祀雅典娜的楊樹林等候，不要一起進宮殿。而且，公主還教Odysseus到時候，要趁國王飲酒時，抱住皇后雙膝請求協助，讓Odysseus可以早日返家園。
這一片楊樹林，及神聖，因為這是雅典娜為Odysseus鋪路的印證，也是保衛Phaecians家園的門口，只是，是白楊樹，也可能是黑楊樹。
‘ ξεῖνε,
σὺ δ᾽ ὦκ᾽ ἐμέθεν ξυνίει ἔπος, ὄφρα τάχιστα
πομπῆς
καὶ νόστοιο τύχῃς παρὰ πατρὸς ἐμοῖο.
δήεις
ἀγλαὸν ἄλσος Ἀθήνης ἄγχι κελεύθου
αἰγείρων:
ἐν δὲ κρήνη νάει, ἀμφὶ δὲ λειμών:
ἔνθα
δὲ πατρὸς ἐμοῦ τέμενος τεθαλυῖά τ᾽ ἀλωή,
τόσσον
ἀπὸ πτόλιος, ὅσσον τε γέγωνε βοήσας.
ἔνθα
καθεζόμενος μεῖναι χρόνον, εἰς ὅ κεν ἡμεῖς
ἄστυδε
ἔλθωμεν καὶ ἱκώμεθα δώματα πατρός.
αὐτὰρ
ἐπὴν ἡμέας ἔλπῃ ποτὶ δώματ᾽ ἀφῖχθαι,
καὶ
τότε Φαιήκων ἴμεν ἐς πόλιν ἠδ᾽ ἐρέεσθαι
δώματα
πατρὸς ἐμοῦ μεγαλήτορος Ἀλκινόοιο.
(Odyssey 6.289-299)
ἀλωή threshing-floor
αἴγειρος black poplar, Populus nigra
So,
stranger, pay attention to what I say,
and
with all speed you can get my father
to
arrange an escort for your journey home.
You’ll
come across a fine grove to Athena—
it’s
near the road, a clump of poplar trees.
There’s
a fountain, with meadows all around.
My
father has a fertile vineyard there,
some
land, as well, within shouting distance
of
the town. Sit down there, and wait a while,
until
we move into the city and reach
my
father’s house. When you think we’ve had time
to
reach my home, then go in the city
of
the Phaeacians and inquire about
my
father’s house, great-hearted Alcinous.
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l Iliad 4. 482-487提到黑楊樹。但也有可能是白楊樹。
l 依據希臘神話，白楊樹的葉子兩面深淺顏色對比，代表Chthonian deities，暗的一面表示地府，亮的一面是活人世界。當Heracles 征服陰間的三頭狗(Cerberus)，Heracles戴著白楊樹冠冕。
In Greco-Roman mythology, Leuce or Leuka
("White" or specifically "White Poplar") was the most
beautiful of the nymphs and a daughter of Oceanus. Pluto fell in love with
her and abducted her to the underworld. She lived out the span of her life in
his realm, and when she died, the god sought consolation by creating a
suitable memorial of their love: in the Elysian Fields where the pious spend
their afterlife, he brought a white tree into existence. It was this tree
with which Herakles crowned himself to celebrate his return from the
underworld.
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Pausanias 的描述如下:
Pausanias, Description of
Greece 5. 14. 1 - 2 :
"The [great] altar [of Zeus] at Olympia
shows another strange peculiarity, which is this. The kite, the bird of prey
with the most rapacious nature, never harms those who are sacrificing at
Olympia. Should ever a kite seize the entrails or some of the flesh, it is
regarded as an unfavorable sign for the sacrificer. There is a story that
when Herakles the son of Alkmena was sacrificing at Olympia he was much
worried by the flies. So either on his own initiative or at somebody's
suggestion he sacrificed to Zeus Averter of Flies, and thus the flies were
diverted to the other side of the Alpheios. It is said that in the same way
the Eleans too sacrifice to Zeus Averter of Flies, to drive1 the flies out of
Olympia.
The Eleans are wont to use for the sacrifices to Zeus the wood of the
white poplar and of no other tree, preferring the white poplar, I think,
simply and solely because Herakles brought it into Greece from Thesprotia.
And it is my opinion that when Herakles sacrificed to Zeus at Olympia he
himself burned the thigh bones of the victims upon wood of the white poplar.
Herakles found the white poplar growing on the banks of the Akheron, the
river in Thesprotia."
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l 羅馬神話是大力士 Heracles的聖樹，因為他在Aventine Hill附近一旅店擊敗Cacus，那兒長滿白楊樹，戰勝之時，Heracles在眉間綁上白楊樹樹枝，作為勝利的象徵。
Poplars in the Sun, 1887
.jpg)
White Poplar leaves; underside left, upper side right
l 
河北楊（學名：Populus hopeiensis）是楊柳科楊屬的植物，是中國的特有植物。分布在中國的華北、西北等地，生長於海拔750米至2,400米的地區，目前尚未由人工引種栽培。http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B2%B3%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%A8
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