You might expect that because the Parthenon is called a temple, it would have been a place of prayer and sacrifice;
你也许会认为,帕台农名为神庙,一定是个祭祀与祈祷的所在。
in fact, it became a treasury-a war-chest to finance the defence of Greece against the Persians.
但事实上这里成了雅典的金库:希波战争的军费来源。
In time, though, this fighting fund became protection money, demanded by Athens from the other Greek cities when Athens placed itself at the head of them.
后来军费变成保护费,雅典以老大自居,要求希腊的其他城邦向它缴纳费用,
It forced them into becoming satellites of its growing maritime empire.
强迫它们成为不断壮大的雅典海上帝国的附庸。
And a great chunk of that money was siphoned off by the Athenians to fund the Acropolis building programme.
其中一大笔钱被雅典用于修建卫城。
Here's Mary Beard again, on the non-Athenian view of the Parthenon:
玛丽?彼尔德告诉我们,雅典以外的希腊人是这么看待帕台农的。
"I think the Parthenon must have been the kind of building that you spat at and kicked if you could.
帕台农神庙是那种让人想往上吐口水,如果可能的话还要踢上一脚的建筑物。
You knew, if you were one of Athens' subjects, that this was a statement of your own subordination.
如果你是雅典的附属城邦之一,它就是你屈从的标志。
There was a clear and vociferous faction in Athens when the Parthenon was built, which said the money shouldn't be spent that way.
神庙修建时,雅典城内反对的声音很大,认为不能这样挥霍钱财。
That this was, in the words of one, dressing Athens up like a harlot.
还说它把雅典城装扮得像个妓女。
Now, that's very odd, I think, for us to empathise with now, because the Parthenon sculptures seem so austerely beautiful, I think, it's hard to think of them in terms of prostitution.
这样的描述今人恐怕很难理解,因为在我们眼里,帕台农雕像深具朴素之美,很难令人联想到淫邪。
It's very discomfiting, I think, to think of our touchstone of good classical taste as having appeared vulgar.
被我们视为古典美基准的物品,曾被人视为粗俗,这实在让人难以接受。
But it clearly did, to some."
但在当时,对一些人来说的确如此。
One of the many extraordinary things about the Parthenon is that it's meant so many different things to different people at different times.
帕台农神庙的另一个奇特之处,是它在不同的历史时期,对不同的人群具有不同的意义。