世界小史 第78期:火山地区
As sometimes happens in volcanic1 regions, there was a fissure2 in the ground from which vapor3 issued.
像在火山地区常见的那样, 蒸汽使地面产生裂缝。
If anyone inhaled4 it, it literally5 clouded their mind. It was as if they were drunk or delirious6, and nothing they said made any sense.
任何人一吸入这种蒸汽，他们就神志不清。他们好像喝醉了或精神混乱, 他们说的话让人听不懂。
The very meaninglessness of these utterances7 seemed deeply mysterious to the Greeks, who said that "the god himself speaks through a mortal mouth".
这些人说的根本毫无意义的言语令希腊人感到极其神秘，人们认为“神自己通过一个凡人的嘴在说话”。
So they had a priestess – whom they called Pythia – sit over the fissure on a three-legged stool,
就这样人们让一个女祭司——人们叫她皮蒂娅——坐在架在缝隙上的一把三脚座椅上，
while other priests interpreted her babble8 as predictions of the future.
其他的祭司们解释她神神叨叨的话来预言未来。
The shrine9 was known as the Delphic Oracle10, and at difficult moments of their lives Greeks from everywhere made pilgrimages to Delphi, to consult the god Apollo.
这片有名的圣地叫德尔菲神谕，在各种艰难处境下各地的希腊人都来此地朝圣，询问阿波罗神。
The answer they received was often far from clear, and could be understood in a variety of ways.
回答自然常常不是很容易就能听懂，人们可以对它们作出不同的解释，
And in fact we still say that a vague or enigmatic answer is "oracular".
所以人们今天仍还称模糊不清的、深奥莫测的回答为“神谕性的，谜似的”。
