荷馬史詩中的植物: 12 White Poplar Tree

白楊樹銀白楊

 Populus alba
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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。

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0135%3Abook%3D6%3Acard%3D288

‘ 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

http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/homer/odyssey6.htm

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.

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."