• We are now running on a new, and hopefully much-improved, server. In addition we are also on new forum software. Any move entails a lot of technical details and I suspect we will encounter a few issues as the new server goes live. Please be patient with us. It will be worth it! :) Please help by posting all issues here.
  • The forum will be down for about an hour this weekend for maintenance. I apologize for the inconvenience.
  • If you are having trouble seeing the forum then you may need to clear your browser's DNS cache. Click here for instructions on how to do that
  • Please review the Forum Rules frequently as we are constantly trying to improve the forum for our members and visitors.

King Leonidas’ μολὼν λαβέ in context.

Doug_Nightmare

Active member
Joined
Nov 21, 2018
Messages
717
Location
Washington Island, WISCONSIN. Out in Lake Michigan
As some may have gathered, I am waay into Ancient Greek history, particularly of the Peloponnesian War conflict between the Athenians and Spartan Lacedaemonians, between the demos and the elites.

Earlier, years ago, here much was made of μολὼν λαβέ Molon Labe in its modern usage. In its original classical usage the context is significant.

As the Battle of Thermopylae was being lost, the battle between a tiny Spartan force and the Persian Xerxies’ forces of perhaps 300,000, Xerxes demanded the Spartans surrender, that they surrender their weapons. Leonidas responded μολὼν λαβέ.

The Spartans died to a man, gloriously in the Lacedaemonian way.

Significantly to US moderns, Simonides of Ceos inscribed this legacy.

Ὦ ξεῖν', ἄγγειλον Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.

Tell them in Lacedaimon, passer-by
That here, obedient to their word, we lie.

(Tr. F. L. Lucas)

We moderns must remember that the Spartans were elites and slavers and utopians and NOT a demotic mob. μολὼν λαβέ is a comittment to stand in the breach to defend Western civilization against the Persian hordes.

The Classical Greeks fought in a phalanx / phalanges, shoulder to shoulder, each hoplite shielded by the man to his right. That is lost, here OCDO anyway.
 
Top