Molon labe
Encyclopedia
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
phrase (molṑn labé; reconstructed Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
pronunciation molɔːn labé; Modern Greek
Modern Greek
Modern Greek refers to the varieties of the Greek language spoken in the modern era. The beginning of the "modern" period of the language is often symbolically assigned to the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, even though that date marks no clear linguistic boundary and many characteristic...
pronunciation moˈlon laˈve) means "Come and take them". It is a classical expression of defiance reportedly spoken by King Leonidas I
Leonidas I
Leonidas I was a hero-king of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line, one of the sons of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who was believed in mythology to be a descendant of Heracles, possessing much of the latter's strength and bravery...
in response to the Persian army's demand that the Spartans surrender their weapons at the Battle of Thermopylae
Battle of Thermopylae
The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August...
. It is an exemplary use of a laconic phrase
Laconic phrase
A laconic phrase is a very concise or terse statement, named after Laconia , a polis of ancient Greece surrounding the city of Sparta proper. In common usage, Sparta referred both to Lacedaemon and Sparta...
.
Grammar
The first word, , is the aoristAorist
Aorist is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning...
active participle (masculine, nominative, singular) of the Greek verb "to come", meaning "having come".
The form is the aorist active imperative (second person singular) of the verb , translated "take [them]".
The two words function together in a grammatical structure not present in English called the circumstantial participle. Where English would put two main verbs in two independent clauses joined by a conjunction: "come and take", a strategy sometimes called paratactic, ancient Greek, which is far richer in participles, subordinates one to the other, a strategy called hypotactic
Hypotaxis
Hypotaxis is the grammatical arrangement of functionally similar but "unequal" constructs , i.e., constructs playing an unequal role in a sentence....
: "having come, take". The first action is turned into an adjective. In this structure, the participle gives some circumstance (the coming) attendant on the main verb (the taking).
In regard to aspect, the aorist participle is used to signify completed action, called the perfective aspect. Moreover, the action must be completed before the time of the main verb. The difference in meaning is subtle but significant: the English speaker is inviting his enemy to begin a process with two distinct acts or parts – coming and taking; the Greek speaker is telling his enemy that only after the act of coming is completed will he be able to take. In addition there is a subtle implication: in English "come and take it" implies that the enemy might not win the struggle – the outcome is uncertain; in Greek, the implication is that the outcome is certain: "after you have come here and defeated me, then it will be yours to take." For comparison, these elements happen to be present in the previously-noted English phrase, "over my dead body", or the similar phrase "I'll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands."
History
The phrase was reportedly the defiant response of King Leonidas ILeonidas I
Leonidas I was a hero-king of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line, one of the sons of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who was believed in mythology to be a descendant of Heracles, possessing much of the latter's strength and bravery...
of Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
to Xerxes I of Persia
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
when asked to lay down their arms and surrender, at the onset of the Battle of Thermopylae
Battle of Thermopylae
The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes I over the course of three days, during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Artemisium, in August...
(480 BC).
Instead, the Spartans held Thermopylae for three days and, although they were ultimately annihilated, they inflicted serious damage upon the Persian army, and most importantly delayed its progress to Athens, providing sufficient time for the city's evacuation to the island of Salamis
Salamis Island
Salamis , is the largest Greek island in the Saronic Gulf, about 1 nautical mile off-coast from Piraeus and about 16 km west of Athens. The chief city, Salamina , lies in the west-facing core of the crescent on Salamis Bay, which opens into the Saronic Gulf...
. Though a clear defeat, Thermopylae served as a moral victory
Moral victory
A moral victory occurs when a person, team, army or other group loses a confrontation, and yet achieves some other moral gain. This gain might be unrelated to the confrontation in question, and the gain is often considerably less than what would have been accomplished if an actual victory had been...
and inspired the troops at the Battle of Salamis
Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis was fought between an Alliance of Greek city-states and the Persian Empire in September 480 BCE, in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens...
and the Battle of Plataea
Battle of Plataea
The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Greek city-states, including Sparta, Athens, Corinth and Megara, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes...
.
The source for this quotation is Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, Apophthegmata Laconica, 51.11. This work by Plutarch is included among the Moralia
Moralia
The Moralia of the 1st-century Greek scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea is an eclectic collection of 78 essays and transcribed speeches. They give an insight into Roman and Greek life, but often are also fascinating timeless observations in their own right...
, a collection of works attributed to him but outside the collection of his most famous works, the Parallel Lives
Parallel Lives
Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives, is a series of biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, written in the late 1st century...
.
Modern usage
Molon labe has been repeated by many later generals and politicians in order to express an army's or nation's determination not to surrender. The motto ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ is on the emblem of the Greek First Army Corps, and is also the motto of United States Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT). The expression "Come and take itCome and take it
"Come and take it" is a American patriotic slogan most notably used in the American Revolution in 1778 at Fort Morris in Georgia, and in the Texas Revolution in 1835....
" was a slogan in the Texas Revolution
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was an armed conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836...
.
Molon labe has been used once again in Greek history, on 3 March 1957 during a battle in Cyprus between members of the EOKA
EOKA
EOKA was an anticolonial, antiimperialist nationalist organisation with the ultimate goal of "The liberation of Cyprus from the British yoke". Although not stated in its initial declaration of existence which was printed and distributed on the 1st of April 1955, EOKA also had a target of achieving...
organization, and the British Army. After someone had betrayed his location, the British forces surrounded the secret hideout of the second-in-command of EOKA Grigoris Afxentiou
Grigoris Afxentiou
Grigoris Pieris Afxentiou was a guerrilla fighter who fought against the British rule of Cyprus and is considered a national hero. In the hierarchy of EOKA he was second in command to general Georgios Grivas...
near the Machairas Monastery
Machairas Monastery
Machairas is a historic monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary located about 40 km from the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia. It lies at an altitude of about 900 m and was founded at the end of the 12th century close to the current village of Lazanias.- History :Legend has it that an unknown hermit...
. Inside the hideout was Afxentiou and four of his followers. Realizing he was outnumbered, Afxentiou ordered them to surrender themselves whilst he barricaded himself for a fight to the death. The British asked Afxentiou to come out and surrender. He replied with the phrase Molon labe, imitating the ancient Spartans. Unable to get him out, and after sustaining casualties, the British set fire to the hideout, and he was burnt alive. The British buried his body in the yard of the Central Jail at Lefkosia, where it lies today.
In America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, both the original Greek phrase and its English translation are often heard from pro-gun activists as a defense of the right to keep and bear arms. It began to appear on web sites in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And when the government of New Orleans defied Federal court orders to return weapons that had been seized during Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
, the phrase again gained popularity among supporters of the Second Amendment, as the phrase has connotation of a strong belief in the ideals of personal freedom and in the individual right to self-protection. In the Second Amendment or firearms freedom context, the phrase expresses the notion that the person uttering the phrase is a strong believer in these ideals and will not surrender their firearms to anyone, including governmental authority, without strong resistance.
Molon labe has been recently used in the 2007 feature film 300
300 (film)
300 is a 2007 American fantasy action film based on the 1998 comic series of the same name by Frank Miller. It is a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae. The film was directed by Zack Snyder, while Miller served as executive producer and consultant...
in which Leonidas speaks this famous line in English in response to "Spartans! Lay down your weapons!" as "Persians! Come and get them!" In the 1999 comic book of the same name, upon which the film is based, the phrase becomes "Come and get it", with no exchange concerning the laying down of arms. In the earlier 1962 film The 300 Spartans
The 300 Spartans
The 300 Spartans is a 1962 Cinemascope film depicting the Battle of Thermopylae. Made with the cooperation of the Greek government, it was shot in the village of Perachora in the Peloponnese...
Leonidas says the phrase both in Greek and English to the Persian general Hydarnes
Hydarnes
Hydarnes was an eminent Persian, the commander of the "Ten Thousand Immortals" during the time of king Xerxes invasion of Greece.Perhaps the most famous episode involving Satrap Hydarnes and his Immortals came at the Thermopylae in 480 BC, when they came into contact with Leonidas of...
.
Michigan State Spartans
On September 13, 2011 the Michigan State SpartansMichigan State Spartans football
The Michigan State Spartans football program represents Michigan State University in college football as members of the Big Ten Conference at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level...
unveiled the special Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
Pro Combat uniforms for their Oct. 15, 2011 home game against rival Michigan, where the Spartans extended their winning streak to four games over their archrivals. Stitched inside the jersey collar and on the front of the helmet is the phrase "ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ."
Castleton Spartans
The Castleton State SpartansCastleton State College
Castleton State College is a public liberal arts college located in Castleton in the U.S. state of Vermont. Castleton has an enrollment of 2000 students and offers more than 30 undergraduate programs as well as master’s degrees in education...
adopted the phrase "ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ" as a slogan for their athletics teams, and even have the phrase inscribed onto a Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
monument
Monument
A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...
dedicated to the wife of college president Dr. David S. Wolk at the players' entrance to Spartan Stadium.
See also
- They shall not passThey shall not pass"They shall not pass" is a slogan used to express determination to defend a position against an enemy.It was most famously used during the Battle of Verdun in World War I by French General Robert Nivelle...
- Not a step back
- Come and take itCome and take it"Come and take it" is a American patriotic slogan most notably used in the American Revolution in 1778 at Fort Morris in Georgia, and in the Texas Revolution in 1835....
- Anthony McAuliffeAnthony McAuliffeGeneral Anthony Clement "Nuts" McAuliffe was the United States Army general who commanded the 101st Airborne Division troops defending Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II...
- I'll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead handsI'll give you my gun when you take it from my cold, dead hands"I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!" is a slogan popularized by the National Rifle Association on a series of bumper stickers...