Blogaversary!!

This humble blog is one year old today. Readers who have recently begun imbibing the ideas presented here may not have taken the trouble to investigate the esoteric nature of the title or the upper case Greek script used in the signature. The image at the right is a statue of what the Persian (Iranian) "Immortals" were to face on the morning of 11 August 480 BC upon approaching the Greek hoplites defending the narrow pass at Thermopylae.

The original posting on this blog of one year ago today is reposted below:

Fighting in the shade

In the year 480 BC the Persian King Xerxes invaded Greece with his army of more than 100,000 men. The Greeks determined to resist the invasion and sent a detachment of hoplites (heavy armed infantry) to resist at the pass of Thermopylae. The Greek force was led by the Spartan King ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ (Leonidas) and consisted of his 300 hoplite bodyguard and 1200 other infantryman from several Greek city states. Upon encountering the blocking force, the Persian king sent a herald to Leonidas stating "Deliver up your arms." Leonidas replied: "ΜΟΛΩΜ ΛΑΩΕ which romanized reads MOLON LABE" and translates: "Come and take them". After loosing several thousand of his best soldiers in the resulting next two days of fighting, the Persian king sent a further demand to the Greeks to surrender or he would have "the sun blocked out by the clouds of arrows" from his Persian archers. The Spartan reply: "Then we will fight in the shade"
Herodotus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

The final outcome of the battle, however was never in doubt and the Greeks were slain to a man.

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ