那不勒斯的美為人期待，為人贊嘆，為人仰慕，除了綺麗的風(fēng)光，瑰麗的文化，還有就是那些以“很久很久以前”作開(kāi)頭，讓人興奮的傳說(shuō)。傳說(shuō)中在那不勒斯出沒(méi)，以天籟般的歌聲送人上黃泉路的女妖塞壬為這個(gè)美麗的地方抹上了一絲迷幻又殘忍的色彩。然而，也就是這些“殺人如麻”的女妖也會(huì)為愛(ài)喪命——帕耳忒諾珀愛(ài)上了尤利西斯，為追尋愛(ài)情，這一次投入海里的不是別人，而是她自己。有人說(shuō)“不看那不勒斯，就沒(méi)有資格談愛(ài)情、人生、藝術(shù)、甚至死亡”，而在我看來(lái)，那不勒斯的美不應(yīng)是“口口相傳”而形成的一種“印象”，而應(yīng)是用心去感受的，就如感受塞壬在殘暴外表下隱藏著的一顆“等愛(ài)”的心……

——Mac

As you round Punta Campanella at the southern tip of the 2)Gulf of Naples—with the isle of Capri 3)looming large in the water to your right just across the strait—you enter the 4)Gulf of Salerno and a 5)stretch of coast and sea known to the ancient Greeks as the “Land of the Sirens.” The area is rich in folklore surrounding a myriad of mysterious creatures.

Modern descriptions of these6)fabled creatures contribute to the general confusion. Most depictions， including various images in Naples showing Parthenope (the siren for whom the ancient city—before Naples—in this area was named)， show them to be 7)mermaids. Actually， ancient descriptions describe them as having bodies of a bird and beautiful human heads.

Their images are frequently found on ancient Greek tombs， suggesting that they might have been funerary 8)divinities (perhaps similar to the human-headed hawk in Egyptian mythology， who 9)incarnated the souls of the dead). Little of any of that remains， however; today， they have come down to us as 10)voluptuous mermaids who made beautiful music to lure passing sailors to their doom. Even the numbers and names of the sirens are not consistent in accounts from classical mythology. There may have two， three， or even as many as nine. By most accounts， local waters harbored three: Parthenope (“virgin”)， Leucosia (“white goddess”)， and Ligeia (“bright-voiced”); one of them played the lyre， another sang， and another played the flute. The most famous siren story is the one in the 11)Odyssey， where 12)Ulysses has himself 13)lashed to the 14)mast in order to resist their “siren song.”

There is， however， a more relevant episode， one that “explains” the existence of the three islands along the coast， today called Li Galli islands， but originally called Sirenuse—land of the sirens. 15)Jason and the 16)Argonauts， too， sailed along this coast and were tempted by the sirens. The Argonauts， however， were accompanied by Orpheus， the greatest musician in Greek mythology. Orpheus outplayed and outsang the sirens and dispelled their powers， at which point they either were transformed into the three small islands on the coast， or threw themselves into the sea， washing up on nearby shores: Parthenope at the isle of Megaride in Naples， where the Egg Castle now stands， thus giving her name to the original city; Leucosia， farther south (Punta Licosa is the tip of the southern end of the Gulf of Salerno); and the siren Ligeia still farther south along the 17)Calabrian coast near what is， today， 18)Lamezia Terme.

An account of the episode， with 19)scholarly notes and references， may be found in The Greek Myths， which also notes that the sirens had been 20)banished to those rocks in the first place for having lost an earlier battle of the bands to the21)Muses! No one can explain how Ulysses could have been tempted by sirens who apparently went out of existence when Jason sailed by many years earlier! They may have resorted to replacement sirens—second 22)stringers， if you will. There must be a message in there somewhere.

Less mythologically， the 23)archipelago consists of three small islands， 1.5 miles off the coast， 3.5 miles southwest of the town of24)Positano. Today， all three of the islands—Gallo Lungo， La Castelluccia， and La Rotonda—are part of a protected marine national preserve. There is also a fourth small island， Isca， much closer to the shore， as well as another prominent， smaller rock sticking up out of the water between Li Galli and Isca， called Vetara.

Both Gallo Lungo and Isca have structures on them and this has caused some modern confusion， as well， as to who owned what， when. There are some Roman fragments on Gallo Lungo， but the first modern construction on the island consists of a large villa and secondary building， built in the 1930s by the Russian 25)choreographer and dancer 26)Leonid Massine (1896-1979). That property later passed to another Russian dancer 27)Rudolf Nuryev (1938-1993)， who apparently wanted to set up a dance academy on the premises， an idea that did not come to28)fruition. Isca has a lovely villa and garden on the side facing the cliff (and， thus， not visible if you sail behind the island， as most do). It was the property at one time of the great Neapolitan playwright， 29)Eduardo De Filippo (1900-1984) and is described in a delightful volume entitled， In mezzo al mare un’isola c’è... (There is an island in the sea…) by the playwright’s wife， Isabella.

In any event， the coast from Punta della Campanella all the way past siren country and on to the modern city of Salerno is of great beauty. Places such as Positano and 30)Amalfi dot the shore below high cliffs along which， alas， far too many post-siren seekers after paradise have decided to build too many houses.

當(dāng)你繞過(guò)那不勒斯灣南端的康盤尼拉角(音譯)，隨著在你的右邊海峽對(duì)岸的海面上，一個(gè)龐然大物——卡普里島——赫然出現(xiàn)在你眼前時(shí)，你就進(jìn)入了薩萊諾水域，這里同時(shí)也是古希臘人所熟知的“海妖塞壬之域”。大量形形色色關(guān)于神秘妖怪的民間傳說(shuō)就在該區(qū)域流傳。

關(guān)于這方面的傳說(shuō)紛紜多樣，而現(xiàn)代的各色描繪為人們一直以來(lái)存在的困惑更添一分。許多繪畫，包括在那不勒斯有關(guān)“帕耳忒諾珀”的各種圖像里——這名字是這個(gè)古老的城池被命名為“那不勒斯”之前的名稱——這些妖怪被畫成了美人魚(yú)。但事實(shí)上，根據(jù)古代的描述，她們應(yīng)該是一些人首鳥(niǎo)身的怪物。

她們的形象也經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)在古希臘的墳?zāi)股?，這似乎暗示她們可能曾經(jīng)是死神(也許與埃及神話中的“人首鷹”相似，那是死者靈魂的化身。)然而到了今天，這些傳說(shuō)已幾乎渺無(wú)蹤影?，F(xiàn)在，出現(xiàn)在我們眼前的她們是嬌媚的美人魚(yú)，以天籟般的歌聲吸引過(guò)往的水手，將他們送上黃泉路。就連這些海妖塞壬的數(shù)量與名字也與古代神話不一致。其數(shù)量可能是兩個(gè)、三個(gè)，甚至多達(dá)九個(gè)。根據(jù)大部分的傳說(shuō)，當(dāng)?shù)氐暮Ｓ蛴腥蝗?帕耳忒諾珀(“處女”)、路科西亞(“白女神”)和利蓋婭(“金嗓子”)。她們一個(gè)演奏七弦琴，一個(gè)唱歌，另一個(gè)吹笛子。最享有盛名的塞壬故事則在《奧德塞》里有記載:尤利西斯為了抵擋“塞壬之歌”的誘惑，不得不把自己綁在船的桅桿上。

不過(guò)，倒是有一個(gè)聽(tīng)起來(lái)更靠譜的故事，它“解釋”了沿岸三個(gè)島嶼存在的原因。今天，這三個(gè)島統(tǒng)稱里戈利(音譯)，但最初它們叫塞壬那斯(音譯)，那是“塞壬之地”的意思。伊阿宋和一眾亞爾古英雄也曾航行到此，同樣受到眾塞壬的引誘。但陪伴眾亞爾古英雄的是古希臘神話中最杰出的音樂(lè)家俄耳甫斯。無(wú)論是音樂(lè)演奏還是歌唱方面，俄耳甫斯都勝于塞壬，于是他解除了她們的魔力。于是，她們搖身變成了海岸邊的三個(gè)小島;或者說(shuō)她們縱身跳入大海，被沖到了附近的岸邊:帕耳忒諾珀到了那不勒斯的馬家里德，也就是現(xiàn)在“蛋城堡”聳立的地方，那不勒斯城的原名就源自她的名字;而路科西亞到了更南的地方(利科薩角正是在薩萊諾灣的最南角);塞壬利蓋婭則到了比利科薩角還要遠(yuǎn)的南 邊——卡拉布里亞海岸，靠近今天的拉默齊亞。

這段故事在古希臘神話里也能找到，還有學(xué)者的注解和引證;同時(shí)它還提到這幾位塞壬最開(kāi)始是因?yàn)樵谂c繆斯的樂(lè)隊(duì)比賽中失利而被放逐到這里的。但沒(méi)人可以解釋尤利西斯怎么會(huì)受到她們的誘惑，因?yàn)轱@然在許多年前伊阿宋來(lái)此地時(shí)她們?cè)缫严Я?也許她們是新一任的塞壬——或者你可以把她們看成是第二梯隊(duì)?？隙ㄓ行┚€索留在了什么地方。

而與神話沒(méi)有太大關(guān)系的是，這個(gè)群島由三個(gè)小島組成，離海岸一英里半，距離波西塔諾鎮(zhèn)西南方三英里半。今天，這三個(gè)小島——蓋洛·倫戈(音譯)、拉·卡斯特盧西亞(音譯)和 拉·羅通達(dá)(音譯)——是意大利國(guó)家海洋保護(hù)區(qū)的一部分。另外，還有第四個(gè)小島，叫艾斯卡，它離岸邊近多了。除了這四個(gè)小島，還有一塊小一些，但很顯眼的大石屹立在里戈利與艾斯卡之間的水域，它叫維塔拉(音譯)。

加洛·倫戈和艾斯卡這兩個(gè)島上都有建筑物，這也使今人有點(diǎn)摸不著頭腦;究竟誰(shuí)在什么時(shí)候擁有這些建筑物。在加洛·倫戈島上，有一些古羅馬人留下的遺跡，但這個(gè)島上的第一座現(xiàn)代建筑是一座大的別墅和一幢小一點(diǎn)的建筑，都是上世紀(jì)30年代由俄羅斯舞蹈家、舞蹈指導(dǎo)列昂尼德·馬西涅(1896—1979)建造的。該物業(yè)后來(lái)轉(zhuǎn)手到另一位俄羅斯舞蹈家魯?shù)婪颉ぜ~瑞耶夫(1938—1993)手里。他似乎想在此辦一所舞蹈學(xué)校，但這個(gè)想法沒(méi)有變成現(xiàn)實(shí)。艾斯卡島上有一座漂亮的別墅，一側(cè)的花園面對(duì)著懸崖(所以如果你像大部分人那樣在島的背面航行是不會(huì)看到它的)。這座別墅曾一度屬于那不勒斯優(yōu)秀的劇作家愛(ài)德華·多·菲立波(1900—1984)，而且它曾出現(xiàn)在該劇作家的妻子伊莎貝拉寫的一本有趣的書冊(cè)中，書名為《海上有一個(gè)島……》。

不管此地的歷史淵源是什么，從康盤尼拉角一直到塞壬之地，再到現(xiàn)代城市薩萊諾，這一段海岸，風(fēng)光綺麗。而波西塔諾和阿馬爾這些地方則點(diǎn)綴著高高懸崖下面的海岸線，唉，可惜的是，同樣散布在沿岸的是太多太多的房子，而這些房子是由那些懷著“尋找塞壬”不成而轉(zhuǎn)向“尋找天堂”夢(mèng)的探求者在此地建起的。