作品简介

　　追寻西方男性集体想象之前的海伦

　　跟随这个被万人崇拜的丰产女神、统领广袤土地的王后和令男人无法抗拒的荡妇

　　重返西方文明诞生之初那早已消失的城堡、宫殿和动荡岁月

　　几千年来，她一直被视为绝对的美与毁灭的化身。在那个女人通常被剔出历史的年代，她却被写进了史册。她就是特洛伊的海伦。

　　海伦在西方文化中有无数形象：少女、王后、祭司、暗娼、鬼魅、精灵，甚至无处不在的生命力量。她在史前因美丽和力量而受到崇拜，在伊丽莎白时代被咒骂为妓女和灾祸，到现代又被指认为复活节彩蛋、圣诞树精灵的源头甚至雅利安人至上论的帮凶。这些形象几乎全是男性欲望的投射，那么真实的海伦究竟在哪里？

　　历史学家贝塔妮·休斯花费数年跨越希腊、北非和小亚细亚各地，试图还原海伦的一生：一位来自西方史前时代的公主，生活在迈锡尼、赫梯、埃及等伟大文明争霸的世界，掌握与神沟通的渠道。她吸引全希腊的英雄参加比武招亲，婚后拥有无比的财富和权力，却又与特洛伊王子私奔。残酷的十年战争不久后便爆发。后来，有人说她回到了希腊，有人说她被杀死在一座海岛上，也有人说她变成了天上的星星。

　　当海伦的故事开始变得清晰，她所生活的史前世界的瑰丽画卷也徐徐展开。为了唤回那些消失的宫殿、神庙、盛宴和婚礼，贝塔妮用史诗般的叙事和独到的文学性描写，带领我们一同亲临克里特岛、迈锡尼城堡和特洛伊古城等遗迹，审视画作、雕像、铭文、玩具和香水瓶等文物中点滴的历史细节，以翔实的资料展现西方史前的物质和精神文明，探索史前生活的真实样貌。




　　贝塔妮·休斯（Bettany Hughes)，历史学家、作家，英国广播公司主持人，专长于古代及中世纪历史与文化，长年在牛津大学和剑桥大学任教，亦为伦敦古物家协会会员、伦敦国王学院研究员、伦敦新人文学院客座教授等，曾任奥兰治小说奖主席、布克国际小说奖主席，获评BBC100位全球女性之一，获颁希腊金十字皇家勋章、国际新闻奖、大英帝国勋章、英国历史学会的诺顿梅德利科历史奖，也是有史以来第一位获颁海伦娜·瓦兹·德席尔瓦欧洲文化遗产奖的女性。

　　曾小楚，广东汕头人，毕业于上海外国语大学，目前为自由译者，翻译方向为人文社科、历史、文学。已翻译的作品有《娜塔莎之舞》《明治天皇》《坂本龙马与明治维新》《压裂的底层》等。

Introduction of works

Helen before the quest for the Western male collective imagination

Follow the goddess of fertility worshiped by all, the queen of the vast land and the irresistible slut of men

Return to the long-gone castles, palaces and upheavals of the early days of Western civilization

For thousands of years, she has been regarded as the embodiment of absolute beauty and destruction. At a time when women were usually written out of history, she was written into the history books. She was Helen of Troy.

Helen has numerous images in Western culture: maiden, queen, priest, prostitute, ghost, elf, and even the ubiquitous life force. She was worshipped for her beauty and strength in prehistoric times, reviled as a prostitute and scourge in Elizabethan times, and accused in modern times of being the source of Easter eggs, Christmas tree elves, and even an accomplice of Aryan supremacy. These images are almost entirely projections of male desire, so where exactly is the real Helen?

Historian Bethany Hughes has spent years traveling across Greece, North Africa and Asia Minor in an attempt to reconstruct the life of Helen: a princess from prehistoric times in the West, living in a world where great civilizations such as Mycenae, the Hittites and Egypt were competing, and master the channels of communication with God. She attracted all the heroes of Greece to participate in the contest to marry, married with unparalleled wealth and power, but elope with the prince of Troy. The brutal ten-year war broke out soon after. Later, some say that she returned to Greece, some say that she was killed on an island, others say that she became a star in the sky.

As Helen's story begins to unravel, the magnificent picture of the prehistoric world she lived in unfolds. In an effort to bring back lost palaces, temples, feasts and weddings, Bethany uses epic narratives and unique literary descriptions to take us with her to the ruins of Crete, Mycenaean castles and Troy, to examine the historical details of paintings, statues, inscriptions, toys and perfume bottles, and to reveal the material and spiritual civilization of Western prehistory in great detail. Discover what life was really like in prehistoric times.

Bettany Hughes is a historian, writer and BBC presenter specialising in ancient and medieval history and culture. She has taught for many years at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquarians of London, a Fellow of King's College London, and a Visiting Professor at the New College of the Arts, London. She has served as Chair of the Orange Prize for Fiction, Chair of the Man Booker International Prize for Fiction, was named one of the BBC100 Women in the World, received the Royal Gold Cross of Greece, the International Press Award, the British Empire Medal, the NORTON Medico History Prize of the British Historical Society, and was the first woman ever to be awarded the Helena Vaz de Silva European Cultural Heritage Award.

Zeng Xiaochu, a native of Shantou, Guangdong Province, graduated from Shanghai International Studies University and currently works as a freelance translator, specializing in humanities and social sciences, history and literature. His translated works include "Natasha's Dance", "Meiji Emperor", "Ryoma Sakamoto and Meiji Restoration", "The Bottom of the Fracturing" and so on.