东方智慧文学和创世神话——兼谈对古希腊宇宙开创论的影响

我们对柏拉图之前的希腊情况知之甚少,然而公元前6世纪出现的一种特殊文学样式留下了宝贵的历史资料。在这个时期曾经有一些视野较为宽阔的关于宇宙及其起源的书籍问世,它们在特殊的环境中获得繁荣。这些书籍主要由两条支流——思想和文学汇集而成,它们超越了狭小的地域边界,广为流传的是：智慧的宣言和宇宙开创的神话。到目前为止,我们没有理由将希腊人——荷马,赫西俄德或俄耳甫斯神话的宇宙发生论从其东方副本（极相似的人或物）中分离出来。很明显,它们出自同一个家庭,而且有不少证据显示出前苏格拉底的哲学家们依然在步东方宇宙发生论的后尘。

Literature of Oriental Wisdom and Cosmogony

We are much less well informed about the situation of Ancient Greece before Plato. A very special form of literature made its appearance in Greece in the sixth century,which left the valuable Greek texts of this period. If books with a wider scope on the universe and its origin came to be written just in this epoch,they did not thrive in a vacuum. They drew from older contexts beyond provincial borders,mainly two currents of thought and literature which were widespread.pronouncements of wisdom and cosmogonic mythology. So far there is no reason to separate the mythical cosmogonies of the Greeks--Homer, Hesiod, or Orpheus from their Eastern counterparts. They evidently belong to the same family,and it is no less evident that the Presocratics still follow in their steps.