古代希臘處子的祭祀犧牲

The Sacrifice of Virgins in Ancient Greece

祭祀犧牲將人界同時與神界和動物界連結並相隔開來，組構執行這行為的社區，維持社會秩序以及階層架構，對古代希臘社會文化構圖的形成極為重要。但希臘人極力避免活人犧牲，但這主題卻在悲劇中被廣泛探索。本文探討優律皮底斯（Euripides）五個悲劇中有關處子犧牲的主題：《伊斐姬妮雅在奧利斯》（Iphigenia at Aulis）、《海苦芭》（Hecuba）、《腓尼基女人》（Phoenissae）、《海克力士子女》（Heracleidae）及殘篇《艾瑞克丟斯》（Erechtheus）。處子在劇中皆被形容自願犧牲，成為祭品，以克服那導致道德及價值體系瀕臨崩潰的危機。處子先會拒絕要被祭把犧牲的要求，但詩人會安排處子改變心意，賦予她們言說能力（logos），發表演說（rhesis），來辯護新的決定。如此賦予言說能力被認為是詩人給予處子建構主體性的機會，為自己命運做出除婚姻之外的其它有意義選擇，贏得等同於男人在戰場上的榮耀。處子自我犧牲因此成為她的另一種婚姻：「希臘」是她的新郎，「美名」則成為後代。但這詮釋沒考慮到處子自願犧牲的脈絡。首先，處子接受犧牲只是劇本情節的一部分，之後隨之出現危險的復仇女性，而這些女性通常以殺害男人，恢復她們認為那被破壞的倫理價值，而結束劇本的故事。另外，劇中的宗教儀式需要被更加嚴肅看待，因為血祭是希臘宗教的核心，所以這些犧牲處子的演出會呼喚出觀聽眾特殊的宗教感受及意義，因此本文也探索處子自願犧牲與雅典「殺牛」（Bouphonia）的神話，強調牲品在祭典儀式進行時的「自願」，以及社區對「待罪者」（pharmakos）的集體施暴，將原先殘酷的謀殺在眾人默許之下，轉化為牲品的自願犧牲，而造就出宗教祭祀裡發生所謂「無辜的喜劇」。最後，本文指出處子自願犧牲其實是希臘禮物交換系統中被交換的珍貴禮品，而男人藉由交換行為來再次鞏固社區。這所具有的性別意識型態是將處子「貨物化」（fetishized）為「理想女性」，供希臘男人交換消費。

Sacrifice related the human order of existence to the divine and to the animal one, and demarcated it respectively from them. It constituted the community that practiced it and maintained the social order and hierarchy in question. Sacrifice in this way contributes to the cultural configuration in ancient Greece. Yet, human sacrifice, like cannibalism, was carefully avoided as barbaric and yet remained fascinating to the Greeks and was explored in the institutionalized tragedy as a kind of culturally significant practice. This paper will explore the topic of voluntary sacrifice of virgins in five plays of Euripides: ＂Iphigenia at Aulis＂, ＂Hecuba＂, ＂Phoenissae＂, ＂Heracleidae＂ and the fragmentary ＂Erechtheus＂. Virgins were described as consenting to a voluntary sacrifice in order to overcome the crises created by men that were pushing the Greek moral and value system to the brink of collapse. Such a request of sacrifice would often be resisted by the virgin victims in the first place; yet poet would have them change their mind and give them ＂logos＂ to justify their new position. Such a bestowal of ＂logos＂ on women is often seen as an attempt by poet to help them constitute their subjectivity that would earn them glory equal to what men could have achieved in the battlefields. Virgins therefore made a meaningful life decision other than pre-arranged marriage. However, such an interpretation must be resisted because it fails to take into account the context in which such a voluntary sacrifice took place. First of all, one could observe that such a voluntary sacrifice of virgins is only part of a larger plot that ends with the emergence of a dangerous vengeful woman who would kill men to rehabilitate the value system they saw abused and corrupted by men. Secondly, blood sacrifice was the very core of Greek religious experience and the sacrifice of virgin could be related to the mythos of Bouphonia (＂the killing of ox＂) and ritual of ＂pharmakos＂. An investigation along this mythico-ritual line will lay with a particular stress on the ＂ voluntary＂ nature of the sacrificial animals and on the communal outburst of violence against a ＂phamarkos＂, both of which are summarized in the concept that Greek sacrifice is after all a ＂comedy of innocence.＂ Last but not least, this voluntary sacrifice is a transaction of virgins as precious gifts in the gift-exchange system for the consolidation of the community that practiced it. The implied gender ideology would turn these allegedly free agents into ＂fetishized objects,＂ idealized virgins for consumption by the Greek male elites in their social intercourse.