Moschion

This is a 2nd century AD copy of a Greek original of the 4th century BC. Moschion was an Athenian tragic poet. Three titles and a few fragments of his plays are preserved by Joannes Stobaeus. He wrote a Telephus, and two historical plays: Themistocles, of which we have a three line fragment, and the Men of Pherae (Pheraioi), which dealt with the death of Jason, the cruel tyrant of Pherae. Also extant are 33 lines of a speech from an anonymous play which deals with the history of human progress. In this fragment, he states that humans originally lived like animals, without houses or technology, law was absent, and cannibalism was rife. In the course of time, agriculture, cooking, wine, houses, and cities were introduced, civilisation was born, and people buried their dead so that people would not be reminded of their earlier cannibalism.本件为公元2世纪抄本，其底本为公元前4世纪的希腊语原作。摩斯基昂（Moschion）是雅典悲剧诗人，约阿尼斯·斯托拜乌斯（Joannes Stobaeus）留存了其三部剧作的剧名与少量残篇。他创作了《特勒福斯》（Telephus），另有两部历史剧：《地米斯托克利》（Themistocles）——我们仅存其三行残篇，以及《佩雷阿人》（Men of Pherae / Pheraioi），该剧围绕佩雷的残酷僭主杰森（Jason）之死展开。另有一部佚名剧作的33行演讲辞留存至今，该作品探讨人类文明的演进历程。在该残篇中，他指出人类最初与兽类无异：无居所、无技术、无律法，且食人之风盛行。随着岁月流逝，农业、烹饪、酿酒、居所与城市相继出现，文明就此诞生；人们开始安葬逝者，以免自身回想起早年的食人陋习。