9th October 2012

Quote with 5 notes

For you, inhabitants of wide-wayed Sparta,
Either your great and glorious city must be wasted by Persian men,
Or if not that, then the bound of Lacedaemon must mourn a dead king, from Heracles’ line.
The might of bulls or lions will not restrain him with opposing strength; for he has the might of Zeus.
I declare that he will not be restrained until he utterly tears apart one of these.
—

Herodotus 

‘Herodotus’

English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonidas_I

(Ref. http://www.globaled.org/nyworld/materials/greek2.html & also http://www.moellerhaus.com/Persian/Historie_7.html)

This is the prophecy the Oracle at Delphi is said to have made (in hexameter verse) after being consulted by Sparta, after that city-state received a request from the confederated Greek forces to aid in defending Greece against the Persian invasion. 

In August 480 BC, Leonidas went out to meet Xerxes’ army at Thermopylae with a small force of 300 men, where he was joined by forces from other Greek city-states, who put themselves under his command to form an army of 14,000 strong.

Tagged: DelphiGreeceGreekOraclePersiaSpartainvasionprophecy480 BC

  1. parergonal posted this