Shall I tell you a tale,
of the brave and the bold.
A tale of 300, mighty men who marched.
The Persians sent ships, many sailing aboard.
Soldiers that numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
But there were those who were worse.
An army of immortals, only the bravest allowed.
Elite of elites, ten-thousand men strong.
If one met his untimely conclusion, another would emerge.
Ten-thousand men, no matter what.
The Persian king needed Greece, to avenge his father’s defeat.
King Xerxes extended an offer of exemption.
He pushed a suggestion, an attempt at persuasion to lessen the strength of Greece’s might.
He called for the Spartans to lay down their arms, lay down their strength in exchange for calm.
He would spare the Spartans but take the lives of innocent Greeks.
King Leonidas had only one response.
Two words that would change the course of our world.
He turned to the herald who asked for their arms,
with an idealistic confidence he uttered the words,
“μολὼν λαβέ”.
War was now written, an inevitability.
King Leonidas assembled 300 men,
the fiercest soldiers in the Peloponnese.
The mighty 300 marched unto Thermopylae,
where they met and waited for four days.
Xerxes and his men charged through the narrow mountain pass.
Wave after wave the Spartans fought, Persians fell, while the Spartans did not.
Side-by-side they stood in formation, shields up for damage mitigation.
The Persians soldiers stood no match for Spartan strength.
Immortals made mortal, as the Spartans stood brazen.
For seven days the battle ran, as King Leonidas made his final stand.
300 men made a sacrifice for the ages, to save the Greek people, to save Athens.
Two and a half thousand years later, we sit and still remember,
words that changed the world forever,
“μολὼν λαβέ”.