演讲题目：The tragedy of the one guy who was right about the Trojan Horse

演讲简介：

拉奥孔是一位先知和祭司，他对希腊人留在特洛伊的巨大木马深感怀疑，并警告特洛伊人不要接受这个奇怪的祭品。但他们的命运已经注定——众神将胜利赐予希腊人，并惩罚了这位祭司，因为他威胁到了他们的成功。诺亚·查尼探讨了拉奥孔的悲惨故事如何启发了古代世界的无数艺术家。



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For ten grueling years, the Greeks laid siege to Troy, scattering ships and encampments across the city's shores.

在艰苦的十年中，希腊人围困了特洛伊，将船只和营地分散在城市的海岸上。

But as the Trojans awoke for another day of battle, they found their enemies had vanished overnight— leaving behind only an enormous wooden horse.

但当特洛伊人醒来，准备迎接新一天的战斗时，他们发现敌人在一夜之间消失了，只留下了一匹巨大的木马。

Seeing this as a symbol of the Greek's surrender, the soldiers dragged their prize into the city and began to celebrate.

士兵们将这视为希腊人投降的象征，他们将奖品拖入城市并开始庆祝。

But one Trojan wasn't happy.

然而，并非所有特洛伊人都感到高兴。

Laocoon, a seer and priest, was deeply suspicious of the Greek gift.

先见兼牧师拉奥孔对希腊的礼物深表怀疑。

He reminded his fellow Trojans of their enemy's reputation for trickery, and cautioned them not to accept this strange offering.

他提醒同胞们，他们的敌人以诡计多端而闻名，并告诫他们不要接受这个奇怪的献礼。

The crowd jeered at his warning, but Laocoon was undeterred.

人群嘲笑他的警告，但拉奥孔毫不动摇。

He forced his way to the wooden beast and thrust his sword into its belly.

他强行冲向那只木兽并将剑刺入其腹部。

Yet his blade drew no blood.

然而，剑刃并未染上鲜血。

And if there were men shifting inside, Laocoon couldn't hear them over the crowd.

即使里面有人的动静，拉奥孔在人群中听不见他们的声音。

Still grim with foreboding, Laocoon retreated home and enlisted his sons in preparing a sacrifice to the gods.

尽管心中充满不祥的预感，拉奥孔还是回到家中，并与他的儿子们一起准备向神明献祭。

But his fate— and that of his fellow Trojans— was already sealed.

但他的命运——以及特洛伊人的命运——已然注定。

The gods had decided to grant the Greeks victory by ensuring the success of their scheme to infiltrate Troy.

众神决定将胜利赐予希腊人，以确保他们渗透特洛伊的计谋成功。

And Poseidon sought to punish the priest for threatening that plan.

而波塞冬也想要惩罚这位威胁到计划的祭司。

Two great serpents emerged from the sea's rolling waves and descended on Laocoon and his sons.

两条巨大的海蛇从波涛汹涌的海中浮现出来，向拉奥孔和他的儿子们袭去。

The seer's violent death went unnoticed amidst the celebrations.

在庆祝的喧嚣中，先知的惨死无人察觉。

But, that night, when tragedy struck, the Trojans finally remembered the old priest's warning.

然而，当夜幕降临，悲剧降临时，特洛伊人终于想起这位老祭司的警告。

Laocoon's tragic tale inspired countless retellings across the ancient world.

拉奥孔的悲惨故事在古代世界中被无数次传颂。

Virgil describes the seer's demise in his epic poem "The Aeneid," and Sophocles composed an entire play about the ill-fated priest.

维吉尔在他的史诗《埃涅阿斯纪》中描写了这位先知的死亡，而索福克勒斯则为这位命运悲惨的祭司创作了一整部戏剧。

However, his most famous and influential depiction is a marble statue called "Laocoon and His Sons."

然而，他最著名且最具影响力的形象描绘是一座名为《拉奥孔与他的儿子们》的大理石雕像,

Likely carved by a trio of artists from Rhodes, the exact origins of this piece remain mysterious, with current theories dating its creation anywhere from 200 BCE to 68 CE.

这座雕塑可能出自罗德岛的三位艺术家之手，但其确切的起源仍然充满谜团，目前的理论将其创作时间定位在公元前200年至公元68年之间。

Whenever it was made, this sculpture remains the epitome of the Hellenistic Baroque style.

无论其创作时间为何，这座雕塑仍然是希腊化巴洛克风格的缩影。

But even within a tradition known for its dramatic facial expressions and contorted figures, no other piece in this style comes close to the intensity of "Laocoon and His Sons." The nearly life-sized figures are writhing in agony, straining to untangle massive snakes from their limbs.

即便在以戏剧性面部表情和扭曲姿态闻名的传统中，也没有任何一件作品能与《拉奥孔与他的儿子们》的表现力相媲美。几乎与真人等大的雕像人物在剧痛中扭动，奋力摆脱缠绕在四肢上的巨大毒蛇。

Their faces are packed with desperation and hopelessness, yet Laocoon's expression is fiercely determined to resist.

他们的面容充满了绝望和无助，但拉奥孔 的表情却顽强而坚定，誓要抗争到底。

The scene is also uniquely brutal— paused precisely as the serpent's venomous jaws are about to bite down.

这一场景也异常残酷—— 正好定格在毒蛇的利齿即将咬下的瞬间。

Displayed as the centerpiece of Emperor Nero's Domus Aurea palace complex, this gruesome sculpture was one of the most talked about artworks of its time.

这座惊悚的雕塑被展示在皇帝尼禄的金宫宫殿群中，成为当时最受关注的艺术作品之一。

Renowned Roman writer Pliny the Elder even went so far as to call it "preferable to any other production of the art of painting or of statuary."

著名的罗马作家老普林尼甚至称其为“在绘画或雕塑艺术中，无与伦比的佳作。”

Unfortunately, the statue was lost when Domus Aurea was consumed by fire in 109 CE.

不幸的是，公元109年，金宫被大火吞噬，这座雕像也随之遗失。

But Laocoon's tale was far from finished.

然而，拉奥孔的故事远未结束。

In 1506, Michelangelo Buonarotti— then the most famous sculptor in Rome— received a message that Pope Julius II had unearthed something marvelous.

1506年，当时罗马最著名的雕塑家米开朗基罗·博那罗蒂收到了一条消息：教皇尤利乌斯二世出土了一件奇妙的作品。

Even caked with dirt, "Laocoon and His Sons" astonished Michelangelo.

即使雕像上还沾满尘土，《拉奥孔与他的儿子们》依然令米开朗基罗震撼不已。

The dramatic musculature was over-the-top, but all the more powerful for being so extreme.

戏剧化的肌肉线条极为夸张，却因其极致而更显力量。

And the curving shapes of its serpent and human figures drew his eyes in constant motion.

蛇与人形的弧线形态，让他的目光随之不断流动。

Pope Julius prominently displayed the piece at the Vatican, but its influence on Michelangelo is what made the statue truly famous.

教皇朱利叶斯在梵蒂冈显著地展示了这件作品，但让这座雕像真正声名鹊起的，是它对米开朗基罗的深远影响。

The sculpture's emotive, exaggerated elements transformed his approach to representing the human body.

雕塑中情感丰富、夸张的元素彻底改变了他表现人体的方式。

His paintings and sculptures began to feature contorted poses, referred to as "figura serpentinata," meaning snake-like shapes.

他的绘画和雕塑开始展现扭曲的姿态，这被称为“蛇形姿态” （“figura serpentinata”），意为蛇一般的形态。

And his celebrated work in the Sistine Chapel centered on muscular, hyperextended figures.

他在西斯廷教堂的杰作则以充满肌肉感、极度伸展的形象为中心。

Soon, Michelangelo's new style sparked an entire artistic movement called Mannerism— influencing artists throughout the 1500s to exaggerate and twist human bodies for dramatic effect.

不久，米开朗基罗的新风格引发了一场名为风格主义的整场艺术运动，影响了整个16世纪的艺术家们通过夸张和扭曲人体的方式来营造戏剧性的效果。

Since artists of the Renaissance revered ancient Greco-Roman art above all else, perhaps it's not surprising that "Laocoon and His Sons" made such a large impact.

由于文艺复兴时期的艺术家们崇拜古希腊罗马艺术至高无上，因此，“拉奥孔与他的儿子们” 产生如此巨大的影响也不足为奇。

But not even the real Laocoon could have predicted that his likeness would become one of the most influential sculptures ever made.

即便是拉奥孔本人, 也无法预料到他的形象会成为有史以来最具影响力的雕塑之一。

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