*Herodotus, History, George Rawlinson, tr., Britannica
*참조: 헤로도토스, 역사, 박광순 역, 범우사
<감상>
예상보다도 훨씬 많은 시간이 걸리긴 했지만, 고대 그리스 공부의 일환으로 역사서의 고전이라고 할 수 있는 헤로도토스의 [역사]를 다 읽어 내었다는 것이 뿌듯하다. 시간적으로 워낙 거리가 멀고, 그가 다루고 있는 나라들에 대한 지식 또한 거의 전무한 상태인데다가, 영어 실력마저도 따라주지 못해서, 끝까지 다 읽어내긴 했지만, 제대로 이해하지 못하고 지나친 부분이 많았다는 점이 커다란 아쉬움으로 남는다. 그러나, 내가 이 작품을 읽은 것은 역사 연구를 위해서가 아니라, 고대인들의 생활상과 사고를 엿보기 위해서였으므로, 일독을 통해 소기의 목적은 달성하지 않았나 한다.
이 책이 중심적으로 다루고 있는 이야기는 당시 동방의 패자인 페르시아와 또 강대국으로 발돋움하고 있던 그리스 간의 전쟁이다. 그렇긴 하지만, 헤로도토스는 자신이 실지로 보고들은 것을 토대로, 지중해 인접국의 지리와 역사를 방대하게 그리고 있다(이 작품이 그의 필생의 노작이었음은 이 책을 읽어본 사람은 누구나 느낄 수 있을 것이다). 누군가가 “인류의 역사는 전쟁사”라고 말했듯이, 이 책도 크고 작은 전쟁들의 기록이 그 핵심을 차지하고 있긴 하다. 또 이 책의 한글 번역자인 박광순이 지적하듯이, 식민지 출신인 헤로도토스는 이 책을 기술하는데 자유롭고 진취적인 탐구심을 보여주고 있지만, 즉 편견이나 오만함을 찾아볼 수 없지만, 대신에 신탁이나 예언에 집착하는 보수적인 인생관을 보여주는 언뜻 모순적인 두 경향의 기묘한 혼합을 드러내고 있다(신탁이나 예언에 집착하는 태도는 이 당시에 벌써 낡은 것으로 생각되고 있었다고 박광순은 말하고 있다).
이 밖에 이 책에는 여러 가지 재미있는 이야기들로 가득 차 있다. 첫 이야기인 리디아의 왕 기게스의 일화도 사람의 흥미를 돋구는 그런 것으로, 역사라는 측면보다는 기담의 성격이 짙다. 21세기를 살아가는 한 사람으로 그의 이야기에서 새삼 느끼게 되는 것은 옛 사람들이 “인명을 지금처럼 소중하게 여기지 않았다”는 것이고, 또 관습--아무리 터무니없는 관습일 지라도--에 따라서 살았다는 점이다. 이 당시만 해도 일부 지역에서는 식인이나, 순장, 여자를 사고 파는 것 등이 거리낌없이 행해졌다는 것을 알 수 있다.
이천 오백 년의 시간이 흐르는 동안 인간은 엄청나게 변화해 왔다. 물질 문명의 발달뿐만 아니라, 의식에 있어서도 많은 변화가 있었다. 그럼에도, 인간이 안고 있는 가장 근본적인 문제들은 그 때와 마찬가지로 아직 미해결인 채로 남아 있다는 것을 이 책은 보여준다.
[발췌]
*Candaules: 자신의 아내의 몸을 신하에게 보이게 했다가 죽게 된 왕. (2--3)
*Babylonia의 결혼 관습: (44-5)
*가장 오래된 종족에 얽힌 이야기 (49)
*Alexander(패리스)와 Helen과 연관된 이야기 (71--3)
*이집트의 Rhampsinitus 왕 시절의 머리 좋은 도둑 이야기 (73--4)
*They [Egyptians] were also the first to broach the opinion that the soul of man is immortal, and that, when the body dies, it enters into the form of an animal which is born at the moment, thence passing on from one animal into another, until it has circled through the forms of all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the air, after which it enters again into a human frame, and is born anew. The whole period of the transmigration is (they say) three thousand years. (75)
*. . . the whole number of years is eleven thousand, three hundred and forty; in which entire space, they said, no god had ever appeared in a human form; nothing of this kind had happened either under the former or under the later Egyptian kings. The sun, however, had within this period of time, on four several occasions, moved from his wonted course, twice rising where he now sets, and twice setting where he now rises. Egypt was in no degree affected by these changes; the productions of the land, and of the river, remained the same; nor was there anything unusual either in the diseases or the deaths. (79)
*The following was the general habit of his [Amasis] life--from early dawn to the time when the forum is wont to fill, he sedulously transacted all the business that was brought before him; during the remainder of the day he drank and joked with his quests, passing the time in witty and, sometimes, scarce seemly conversation. It grieved his friends that he should thus demean himself, and accordingly some of them chid him on the subject, saying to him--"Oh! king, thou dost but ill guard thy royal dignity whilst thou allowest thyself in such levities. Thou shouldest sit in state upon a stately throne, and busy thyself with affairs the whole day long. So would the Egyptians feel that a great man rules them, and thou wouldest be better spoken of. But now thou conductest thyself in no kingly fashion." Amasis answered them thus:--"Bowmen bend their bows when they wish to shoot; unbrace their bows when they wish to shoot; unbrace them when the shooting is over. Were they kept always strung they would break, and fail the archer in time of need. So it is with men. If they give themselves constantly to serious work, and never indulge awhile in pastime or sport, they lose their senses, and become mad or moody. Knowing this, I divide my life between pastime and business." Thus he answered his friends. (86)
*An untruth must be spoken, where need requires. For whether men lie, or say true, it is with one and the same object. Men lie, because they think to gain by deceiving others; and speak the truth, because they expect to get something by their true speaking, and to be trusted afterwards in more important matters. Thus, though their conduct is so opposite, the end of both is alike. If there were no gain to be got, your true-speaking man would tell untruths as much as your liar, and your liar would tell the truth as much as your true-speaking man. (105)
*Eastward of these Indians are another tribe, called Padaans, who are wanderers, and live on raw flesh. This tribe is said to have the following customs:--If one of their number be ill, man or woman, they take the sick person, and if he be a man, the men of his acquaintance proceed to put him to death, because, they say, his flesh would be spoilt for them if he pined and wasted away with sickness. The man protests he is not ill in the least; but his friends will not accept his denial--in spite of all he can say, they kill him, and feast themselves on his body. So also if a woman be sick, the women, who are her friends, take her and do with her exactly the same as the men. If one of them reaches to old age, about which there is seldom any question, as commonly before that time they have had some disease or other, and so have been put to death--but if a man, notwithstanding, comes to be old, then they offer him in sacrifice to their gods, and afterwards eat his flesh. (111)
*인도인들이 금을 모으는 방법 (102번; 111-12)
*Adjoining the Maca are the Gindanes, whose women wear on their legs anklets of leather. Each lover that a woman has gives her one; and she who can show the most is the best esteemed, as she appears to have been loved by the greatest number of men. (155)
*Matthew Arnold의 시 <The Scholar Gypsy>에 인용된 부분(196번; 158)
*The Thracians who live above the Crestonaans observe the following customs. Each man among them has several wives; and no sooner does a man die than a sharp contest ensues among the wives upon the question which of them all the husband loved most tenderly; the friends of each eagerly plead on her behalf, and she to whom the honour is adjudged, after receiving the praises both of men and women, is slain over the grave by the hand of her next of kin, and then buried with her husband. The others sorely grieved, for nothing is considered such a disgrace. (160)
*The Thracians who do not belong to these tribes have the customs which follow. They sell their children to traders. on their maidens they keep no watch, but leave them altogether free, while on the conduct of their wives they keep a most strict watch. Brides are purchased of their parents for large sums of money. Tattooing among them marks noble birth, and the want of it low birth. To be idle is accounted the most honourable thing, and to be a tiller of the ground the most dishonourable. To live by war and plunder is of all things the most glorious. These are the most remarkable of their customs. (161)
*And it is plain enough. . . .that freedom is an excellent thing; since even the Athenians, who, while they continued under the rule of tyrants, were not a whit more valiant than any of their neighbours, no sooner shook off the yoke than they became decidedly the first of all. These things shows that, while undergoing oppression, they let themselves be beaten, since then they worked for a master; but so soon as they got their freedom, each man was eager to do the best he could for himself. (민주주의에 동조하는 헤로도토스; 175)
*Whatever a man has been thinking of during the day is wont to hover round him in the visions of his dreams at night. (페르시아의 왕 Xerxes에게, 그의 숙부인 Artabanus가; 218)
*Know that man's spirit dwelleth in his ears, and when it hears good things, straightway it fills all his body with delight; but no sooner does it hear the contrary than is heaves and swells with passion. (페르시아의 왕 Xerxes; 223)
*And now, as he looked and saw the whole Hellespont covered with the vessels of his fleet, and all the shore and every plain about Abydos as full as possible of men, Xerxes congratulated himself on his goof fortune; but after a little while he wept.
Then Artabanus, the king's uncle. . . . when he heard that Xerxes was in tears, went to him, and said:--
"How different, sire, is what thou art now doing, from what thou didst a little while ago! Then thou didst congratulate thyself; and now, behold! thou weepest."
"There came upon me," replied he, "a sudden pity, when I thought of the shortness of man's life, and considered that of all this host, so numerous as it is, not one will be alive when a hundred years are gone by."
"And yet there are sadder things in life than that," returned the other. "Short as our time is, there is no man, whether it be here among this multitude or elsewhere, who is so happy, as not to have felt the wish--I will not say once, but full many a time--that he were dead rather than alive. Calamities fall upon us; sicknesses vex and harass us, and make life, short though it be, to appear long, So death, through the wretchedness of our life, is a most sweet refuge to our race: and God, who gives us the tastes that we enjoy of pleasant times, is seen, in his very gift, to be envious." (그리스 원정 도중 페르시아의 왕 Xerxes와 그의 숙부 Artabanus의 대화: 224--5)
*Verily 'tis the sorest of all human ills, to abound in knowledge and yet have no power over action. (291)