世界小史 第78期:火山地區(qū)
As sometimes happens in volcanic1 regions, there was a fissure2 in the ground from which vapor3 issued.
像在火山地區(qū)常見的那樣, 蒸汽使地面產(chǎn)生裂縫。
If anyone inhaled4 it, it literally5 clouded their mind. It was as if they were drunk or delirious6, and nothing they said made any sense.
任何人一吸入這種蒸汽，他們就神志不清。他們好像喝醉了或精神混亂, 他們說的話讓人聽不懂。
The very meaninglessness of these utterances7 seemed deeply mysterious to the Greeks, who said that "the god himself speaks through a mortal mouth".
這些人說的根本毫無(wú)意義的言語(yǔ)令希臘人感到極其神秘，人們認(rèn)為“神自己通過一個(gè)凡人的嘴在說話”。
So they had a priestess – whom they called Pythia – sit over the fissure on a three-legged stool,
就這樣人們讓一個(gè)女祭司——人們叫她皮蒂婭——坐在架在縫隙上的一把三腳座椅上，
while other priests interpreted her babble8 as predictions of the future.
其他的祭司們解釋她神神叨叨的話來(lái)預(yù)言未來(lái)。
The shrine9 was known as the Delphic Oracle10, and at difficult moments of their lives Greeks from everywhere made pilgrimages to Delphi, to consult the god Apollo.
這片有名的圣地叫德爾菲神諭，在各種艱難處境下各地的希臘人都來(lái)此地朝圣，詢問阿波羅神。
The answer they received was often far from clear, and could be understood in a variety of ways.
回答自然常常不是很容易就能聽懂，人們可以對(duì)它們作出不同的解釋，
And in fact we still say that a vague or enigmatic answer is "oracular".
所以人們今天仍還稱模糊不清的、深?yuàn)W莫測(cè)的回答為“神諭性的，謎似的”。
