V. M. Hillyer

——V. M.希利爾（仲秋譯）

TERRA COTTA? means earth baked. A flower pot and a brick are terra cotta— that is， earth or clay baked till it is red， yellowish? red . You? have probably made things out of mud—oranges and apples， cups and? saucers — and? the? old Greeks made figures of people in the same way and out of the same thing， mud or clay. They made little statues of women， smaller than doll babies， out of clay， and then baked them so that they would not crumble to pieces.

That baking turned them int o? terra? cot t a . It? wast he custom to? place these? little figures? or? little? statues — figurines and statuettes， they were? called — in? t ombs? and graves and thousands of them have been dug up and are now in museums. As they were first dug? up? in a town? in? Greece named? Tanagra，? all? such statuettes are called Tanagra figurines.

陶器是由泥土經(jīng)烘烤而制成的。一般是將泥或者黏土造型后燒成紅色或者橙紅色，花瓶或者磚塊都屬于陶器。你肯定也用泥巴捏過好玩的東西吧？比如橘子、蘋果？或者杯子、碟子？其實(shí)這種方法古希臘人就會(huì)了，他們用這樣的方法制作人物雕像，用的也是和我們現(xiàn)在一樣的泥巴和黏土。他們用黏土制作小小的女性雕像，這些雕像甚至還沒有玩具娃娃大。然后，他們將雕刻好的黏土雕像用火焙燒，這樣一來雕刻好的雕像就不會(huì)碎裂了。

經(jīng)過焙燒，這些黏土小雕像變成了陶器。它們會(huì)被放在古希臘人的墓穴中，這是當(dāng)時(shí)人們的習(xí)俗。后來成千上萬個(gè)這類小雕像被考古學(xué)家挖掘出來，現(xiàn)在都被博物館收藏。最初這類雕像都是在希臘的一個(gè)叫作塔納格拉的小鎮(zhèn)上挖掘出來的，因此它們被人們稱為“塔納格拉小雕像”。

crumble /'kr?mbl/ v.破碎；碎裂? Rice flour makes the cake less likely to crumble.

parasol /'p?r?s?l/ n.遮陽傘 ornament /'??n?m?nt/ n.裝飾品

They are usually figures of ladies? carrying? a? fan? or? a parasol. Yes， the Greek ladies had fans and parasols very like the ones ladies have nowadays. W hat? is? unusual? in? G reek sculpture is that the figures are fully clothed.

Most of the statuettes are original， but some of them are copies? of large statues . As many of the large statues have disappeared， these figurine copies? show? us? what? the originals looked like . But they show us more than that. If you want to find out what the Greeks really were like， go to a museum and look at these little figures . The big， famous marble statues are of gods and goddesses， athletes and warriors . They were more nearly perfect than real people . But these terra cotta statuettes are copied from everyday Greeks. They show us what the real Greeks were like. One shows a girl milking a cow. Another shows two girls playing a game， with one riding on the back of the other. Just everyday doings.

Many of the figurines were painted in bright colors . Some had tiny necklaces of real gold or held bronze ornaments in their hands . But on many of them the only color left is the yellowish? red of the clay of which they are formed.

在這些雕像中，女子通常拿著一把扇子或者撐著遮陽傘，而且我們可以看出，這些古希臘女子用的扇子與遮陽傘和現(xiàn)在人們用的也相差無幾。不過古希臘的這些雕像與其他雕像相比，有一點(diǎn)卻非常與眾不同，那就是這些人物身上的衣服都穿得整齊嚴(yán)實(shí)。

這些小雕像幾乎全是原創(chuàng)的，雖然也有一些是仿制其他大型雕像。由于許多大型雕像都被損毀了，這些小型的仿制品就能在一定程度上幫助我們了解原作品的模樣。不過這還不是它們的全部作用，如果你去博物館看這些小雕像的話，還可以更好地了解古希臘人真正的樣子。為什么這么說呢？因?yàn)槟切┐笮偷?、著名的大理石雕像，通?？坍嫷亩际巧瘛⑦\(yùn)動(dòng)員和勇士，這些雕像都被刻畫得太過完美了。但是，那些陶器小雕像卻刻畫了日常生活中的普通人，反映了古希臘人最真實(shí)的生活。比如，有一尊小雕像就雕刻的是一個(gè)擠牛奶的小姑娘；還有一尊則刻畫了兩個(gè)小女孩正在玩耍的情景，一個(gè)女孩正跨在另一個(gè)女孩的身上。這樣的雕刻反映的都是日常生活中的普通場(chǎng)景。

許多小雕像被涂上了鮮艷的顏色。還有的佩戴著真金的小項(xiàng)鏈，另外還有手中拿著銅質(zhì)裝飾品的。但大部分小雕像里里外外就只有一種顏色，那就是用來制作它們的黏土的顏色——橙紅色。

The? figurines? are hollow? except? for? their heads， which are solid clay. I'm sure your head has more in it than solid clay， no matter how hollow the rest of you may feel just before dinner time.

Figurines were made for the dead， lamps were made for the living . Lamps， which every house had to have， were decorated with figures in? l o w? r e l i e f . L a m p s nowadays， of course， are usually electric and quite different from those in ancient Greece and other countries . These old lamps were very small， seldom larger than your hand， and were made either of terra cotta or bronze. They had a hole in which a twisted piece of string- like cloth was stuffed for a wick. They held olive oil or grease which soaked the wick and made it burn when lighted . These lamps gave no more light than a burning match， but that was? all the? light people had at night. Perhaps they went to bed earlier than we do. The lamps often had on the top or sides the usual fairy - tale figures — Greek gods or goddesses or other c h a r a c t e r s? i n? G r e e k mythology.

這類小雕像除了頭部，其他部位都是空心的。頭部是用堅(jiān)硬的黏土制成，是實(shí)心的。我敢保證的是，即使在晚餐前你的肚子也像這些小雕像般是中空的，但是至少你的腦袋是充實(shí)的，而且里面絕不是黏土，而是知識(shí)！

剛才說到的那些小雕塑作品，它們其實(shí)是為死去的人塑的，而用來照明的燈，是為活著的人塑的。每家的房子里都有燈，燈上通常裝飾有一些淺浮雕的圖案。當(dāng)然，現(xiàn)在人們用的燈都是電燈，與古希臘人以及當(dāng)時(shí)的其他國家的人使用的燈大不相同。古希臘時(shí)期的燈都是陶器或銅制成的，燈的體積很小，可能還沒有你的手掌大。這種燈都會(huì)在中間留一個(gè)孔，用來塞入一根擰在一起的用布條做的燈芯。燈里會(huì)裝入橄欖油或者油脂，浸泡在這些油里的燈芯就能被點(diǎn)亮。這類燈只能發(fā)出微弱的光，甚至不如點(diǎn)燃的火柴亮。但那個(gè)時(shí)候，人們整晚都只能靠這種昏暗的燈光照明?；蛟S古代的人普遍都比我們現(xiàn)代人睡得早。通常有一些浮雕會(huì)雕刻在這些燈的頂部或側(cè)面，這些浮雕一般都刻畫了古希臘神話里面的人物。

Lamps were made in molds and hundreds or even thousands of lamps were made from one mold. Some of the old molds have been dug up out of the ground and are used to make modern reproductions which are sold today as souvenirs to travelers or even called antiques. If the lamps are of bronze and are really old ones that have been dug up， they have a greenish coating called a patina. If they are not really old， they are sometimes dipped in acid to make them look so， but they have sharper edges than the old and the patina made by acid does not look the same as that eaten in by time. If they are of clay， the newly made lamps look cleaner cut and fresher than the old. So if you are thinking of buying an ancient lamp tomorrow （stranger things have happened）， be sure to notice the patina or the freshness of the clay.

當(dāng)時(shí)的燈也是用模具制作出來的，一個(gè)模具就可以制作出成百上千，甚至成千上萬盞一模一樣的燈。后來，人們將這些古老的燈的模子挖掘出來，并用它們復(fù)制了大量的古式燈賣給游客作為紀(jì)念品，甚至有些還被人當(dāng)成了古董。如果是真的挖掘出來的古老的燈，而且是銅做的，燈表面會(huì)覆蓋著一層青綠色的物質(zhì)，叫作銅綠。不過有些年代并不久遠(yuǎn)的燈表面也會(huì)有一層類似銅綠的東西，那是經(jīng)過酸性溶液浸泡后形成的，但這種燈的邊緣比真正古老的燈的邊緣更銳利。不只如此，用酸性溶液浸泡出來的銅綠和經(jīng)過長時(shí)間氧化侵蝕而形成的銅綠，看起來還是不同的。如果是用黏土做的燈，那么新燈比舊燈上的刻痕總是更加明顯。所以，假如有一天你突然想買一盞古老的燈（總會(huì)有奇怪的事發(fā)生的），那么一定要記得觀察銅綠的顏色或黏土的新舊。

Word Study

hollow /'h?l??/ adj. 中空的；空心的

The tree trunk was hollow inside.

stuff /st?f/ v. 塞滿；填滿

All the drawers were stuffed full of letters and papers.

soak /s??k/ v. 浸泡；浸透

I usually soak the beans overnight.

mold /m??ld/ n. 模具；模子