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Many of you will recognise the resounding opening music of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey-Richard Strauss's symphonic poem,Thus Spake Zarathustra'-but these days most of us are pretty unsure about what Zarathustra actually did speak, or even who he was. Which is perhaps surprising, because Zarathustra, or, as he is more widely known, Zoroaster, was the founder of one of the great religions of the world. For centuries, along with Judaism, Christianity and Islam, it was one of the four dominant faiths of the Middle East. It was the oldest of the four, the first of all the text-based religions, and it profoundly influenced the other three.
你們很多人都對(duì)電影《2001太空漫游》中被使用的這段開場(chǎng)音樂非常熟悉,這是出自理查德施特勞斯的交響詩(shī)《查拉圖斯特拉如是說》，但極少有人知道查拉圖斯特拉究竟說過什么，甚至不知道他到底是誰。這恐怕有點(diǎn)讓人吃驚，因?yàn)樗鴦?chuàng)立了世界上最偉大的宗教之一，并有一個(gè)更為人熟知的名字—瑣羅亞斯特。數(shù)百年來，瑣羅亞斯特教與天主教、基督教、伊斯蘭教并列中東四大宗教，而且是其中最古老的，是第一個(gè)將教義用文字記錄下來的宗教，對(duì)其余三大宗教有著極為深遠(yuǎn)的影響。
There are still significant Zoroastrian communities all over the world, especially in the religion's homeland, Iran. Indeed, the Islamic Republic today guarantees reserved seats in its parliament for Jews, Christians-and Zoroastrians. In the Iran of two thousand years ago, Zoroastrianism was the state religion of what was then the Middle Eastern superpower.
如今全世界仍有許多瑣羅亞斯特教徒的社群，尤其是在它的發(fā)源地伊朗。事實(shí)上，今天的伊朗伊斯蘭共和國(guó)仍保證在國(guó)會(huì)中為猶太教徒、基督徒與瑣羅亞斯特教徒保留特別席位。而在2000年前，伊朗是中東地區(qū)的強(qiáng)國(guó)，祆教是其國(guó)教。
My object today is a dramatic visualisation of power and faith in that Iranian empire. It's a silver dish from the fourth century, and it shows the king apparently out hunting-but in fact, he's keeping the world safe from chaos.
本文將要介紹的是一個(gè)來自公元4世紀(jì)的銀盤，它略顯夸張地表現(xiàn)出伊朗帝國(guó)的勢(shì)力與信仰，盤上的國(guó)王狩獵圖蘊(yùn)含著國(guó)王維護(hù)世界穩(wěn)定之意。
