LEONIDASIt was on the morn of the 7th of August, 480B.C., that Leonidas, with three hundred kindred spirits, performed the deed that shall be transmitted from father to son, through the generations of men, while human hearts shall throb with the love of country and of the domestic hearth. Four days had the haughty invader lingered at the mountain pass to afford this desperate band time to reconsider their act and disperse. Summoned to lay down their arms, they replied, “Come and take them.” Vainly had he poured his thousands upon this devoted band till the defile was choked with Persian dead. At length the tidings came that ten thousand men guided by a traitor were threading the goat paths to attack their rear. With ample opportunity to retreat, in obedience to the laws of their country, which forbade its soldiers to retreat from the foe, the Spartans, dismissing their allies, remained to face thestorm. Never before or since has law been thus voluntarily baptized in blood, or the sun looked down upon a scene like that.On one side in solitary grandeur tower the massive cliffs of Œta, wreathed with the white foam of torrents, and shaggy with forests bathed in dew; before stretches the narrow path leading to a plain, where lie the hosts of Xerxes, two million men; and on the other, the sea.In these rude ages of brawl and battle his life and liberty alone were safe whose hand could help his head; thus also in respect to communities, the nation unable to defend itself found no allies; to be weak was to be miserable. The institutions of Lycurgus aimed to produce the greatest physical strength, contempt of pain and death, and to inspire an absorbing love of country. They decreed that all puny and imperfect children should be put to death, thus leaving to grow up only the strongest of the race. All labor was performed by slaves, that the citizens might be left at leisure for the study and practice of arms. The fatigues of their daily life were greater than those of the camp, and to the Spartan alone war afforded a relaxation. Their cities disdained the protection ofwalls, while they boasted that the women had never seen the smoke of an enemy’s camp. From the breast they were taught that glory and happiness consisted in love for their country and obedience to its laws. They were early accustomed to cold, hunger, and scourgings, in order to teach them endurance and contempt of pain. No tender parent wrought with saddened brow their battle robes, or buckled on with tears their armor; but the Spartan mother’s farewell to her son was, “Bring back thy shield or be borne upon it.” Trained in the contests of the gymnasium and the free life of the hunter and the warrior, accustomed from childhood to the weight of harness graduated to their growing strength, their armor grew to their limbs, and was worn with a grace and their weapons wielded with a skill that was instinctive.Such were the stern brotherhood, chosen from a thousand Spartans, all the fathers of living sons, that others might be left to fill their places, inherit their spirit, and follow their example. In those forms so replete with manly beauty dwelt a spirit more noble still, which, preferring the toils of liberty to the ease of servitude, caught from thosefrowning precipices and that matchless sky, ever flinging its shadow over sea and shore, a love for the soil enduring as life itself.As the sun arose they bathed their bodies in water, anointed themselves with oil, and arranged their hair as for a banquet. “Let us,” said Leonidas, “breakfast heartily, for we shall all sup with Pluto to-night.”“Comrades,” cried the heroic king, as the serried ranks gathered around him, “those whose laws do not forbid them to retreat from the foe have left us. I welcome you to death; had not treachery done its work, three hundred Spartans would have still held at bay two million slaves. Deem not because we, trained in all feats of arms, in the full strength of manhood, perish nor hold the pass, our country’s gate, we therefore die for naught. This day shall we do more for Sparta than could the longest life consumed in war or councils of the State. As trees that fall in lonely forests die but to live again, and with other trees incorporate, lift their proud tops to heaven, wave in the breeze, and fling their shadows over the murmuring streams, thus shall our blood, which ere high noon shall smoke upon these rocks and stain thesefretting waves, beget defenders for the soil it consecrates. To-day you fight the battles of a thousand years and teach this vaunting foe that bodies are not men, that freedom’s laws are mightier than the knotted scourge or chains by despots forged. The savor of this holocaust, borne by the winds and journeying on the waves, shall nerve the patriot’s arm, while Pinda rears its awful front, and from its sacred caves the streams descend. Inspired by this your act, henceforth five hundred Spartan men shall count a thousand. Our countrymen with envy shall view the gaping wounds through which the hero’s soul flees to the silent shades, and mourn they were not privileged with us to die. Our children shall tread with prouder step their native hills, while men exclaim each to the other, ’Behold the sons of sires who slumber at Thermopylæ.’ These battered arms, gathered with jealous care, shall hallow every home; our little ones with awful reverence shall point to the shivered sword, the war-scarred shield, the bloody vesture or the helmet cleft, and say, ’My father bore these arms at old Thermopylæ.’ With noble ardor shall they yearn for the day when their young arms shall bearancestral shields, the spear sustain, and, like their sires, strike home on bloody fields for liberty and law.”Their courage needed to be attempered, not aroused by the clangor of trumpets, the stormy roll of drums, and the frantic shout of multitudes. To the sound of softest music, and decked with flowers as for a bridal, they marched upon their foe.Now flute notes and the sweet music of the Spartan lyre floated upon the breath of morn as they encountered the foe. Persian arrows and javelins darkened the air, and discordant yells rose up to heaven, but before that terrible phalanx the multitudes went down like grass before the scythe of the mower. Their spears gave no second thrust, their swords no second blow; assailed at length by millions in front and rear, they were slain and not subdued. Yet does their influence live in all literature and all lands. To-day they teach the age that there are nobler employments for man than the acquisition of riches or the pursuit of pleasure. The patriot scholar goes from the contemplation of the relics of Roman and Grecian art, to pay a deeper devotion at their grass-grown sepulchre; listens to the dash ofwaves, breaking as they broke upon the ear of Leonidas and his heroes, when, on that proud morning, they marched forth to die; reads with awe that sublime epitaph and passes on a better patriot and a better man.
It was on the morn of the 7th of August, 480B.C., that Leonidas, with three hundred kindred spirits, performed the deed that shall be transmitted from father to son, through the generations of men, while human hearts shall throb with the love of country and of the domestic hearth. Four days had the haughty invader lingered at the mountain pass to afford this desperate band time to reconsider their act and disperse. Summoned to lay down their arms, they replied, “Come and take them.” Vainly had he poured his thousands upon this devoted band till the defile was choked with Persian dead. At length the tidings came that ten thousand men guided by a traitor were threading the goat paths to attack their rear. With ample opportunity to retreat, in obedience to the laws of their country, which forbade its soldiers to retreat from the foe, the Spartans, dismissing their allies, remained to face thestorm. Never before or since has law been thus voluntarily baptized in blood, or the sun looked down upon a scene like that.
On one side in solitary grandeur tower the massive cliffs of Œta, wreathed with the white foam of torrents, and shaggy with forests bathed in dew; before stretches the narrow path leading to a plain, where lie the hosts of Xerxes, two million men; and on the other, the sea.
In these rude ages of brawl and battle his life and liberty alone were safe whose hand could help his head; thus also in respect to communities, the nation unable to defend itself found no allies; to be weak was to be miserable. The institutions of Lycurgus aimed to produce the greatest physical strength, contempt of pain and death, and to inspire an absorbing love of country. They decreed that all puny and imperfect children should be put to death, thus leaving to grow up only the strongest of the race. All labor was performed by slaves, that the citizens might be left at leisure for the study and practice of arms. The fatigues of their daily life were greater than those of the camp, and to the Spartan alone war afforded a relaxation. Their cities disdained the protection ofwalls, while they boasted that the women had never seen the smoke of an enemy’s camp. From the breast they were taught that glory and happiness consisted in love for their country and obedience to its laws. They were early accustomed to cold, hunger, and scourgings, in order to teach them endurance and contempt of pain. No tender parent wrought with saddened brow their battle robes, or buckled on with tears their armor; but the Spartan mother’s farewell to her son was, “Bring back thy shield or be borne upon it.” Trained in the contests of the gymnasium and the free life of the hunter and the warrior, accustomed from childhood to the weight of harness graduated to their growing strength, their armor grew to their limbs, and was worn with a grace and their weapons wielded with a skill that was instinctive.
Such were the stern brotherhood, chosen from a thousand Spartans, all the fathers of living sons, that others might be left to fill their places, inherit their spirit, and follow their example. In those forms so replete with manly beauty dwelt a spirit more noble still, which, preferring the toils of liberty to the ease of servitude, caught from thosefrowning precipices and that matchless sky, ever flinging its shadow over sea and shore, a love for the soil enduring as life itself.
As the sun arose they bathed their bodies in water, anointed themselves with oil, and arranged their hair as for a banquet. “Let us,” said Leonidas, “breakfast heartily, for we shall all sup with Pluto to-night.”
“Comrades,” cried the heroic king, as the serried ranks gathered around him, “those whose laws do not forbid them to retreat from the foe have left us. I welcome you to death; had not treachery done its work, three hundred Spartans would have still held at bay two million slaves. Deem not because we, trained in all feats of arms, in the full strength of manhood, perish nor hold the pass, our country’s gate, we therefore die for naught. This day shall we do more for Sparta than could the longest life consumed in war or councils of the State. As trees that fall in lonely forests die but to live again, and with other trees incorporate, lift their proud tops to heaven, wave in the breeze, and fling their shadows over the murmuring streams, thus shall our blood, which ere high noon shall smoke upon these rocks and stain thesefretting waves, beget defenders for the soil it consecrates. To-day you fight the battles of a thousand years and teach this vaunting foe that bodies are not men, that freedom’s laws are mightier than the knotted scourge or chains by despots forged. The savor of this holocaust, borne by the winds and journeying on the waves, shall nerve the patriot’s arm, while Pinda rears its awful front, and from its sacred caves the streams descend. Inspired by this your act, henceforth five hundred Spartan men shall count a thousand. Our countrymen with envy shall view the gaping wounds through which the hero’s soul flees to the silent shades, and mourn they were not privileged with us to die. Our children shall tread with prouder step their native hills, while men exclaim each to the other, ’Behold the sons of sires who slumber at Thermopylæ.’ These battered arms, gathered with jealous care, shall hallow every home; our little ones with awful reverence shall point to the shivered sword, the war-scarred shield, the bloody vesture or the helmet cleft, and say, ’My father bore these arms at old Thermopylæ.’ With noble ardor shall they yearn for the day when their young arms shall bearancestral shields, the spear sustain, and, like their sires, strike home on bloody fields for liberty and law.”
Their courage needed to be attempered, not aroused by the clangor of trumpets, the stormy roll of drums, and the frantic shout of multitudes. To the sound of softest music, and decked with flowers as for a bridal, they marched upon their foe.
Now flute notes and the sweet music of the Spartan lyre floated upon the breath of morn as they encountered the foe. Persian arrows and javelins darkened the air, and discordant yells rose up to heaven, but before that terrible phalanx the multitudes went down like grass before the scythe of the mower. Their spears gave no second thrust, their swords no second blow; assailed at length by millions in front and rear, they were slain and not subdued. Yet does their influence live in all literature and all lands. To-day they teach the age that there are nobler employments for man than the acquisition of riches or the pursuit of pleasure. The patriot scholar goes from the contemplation of the relics of Roman and Grecian art, to pay a deeper devotion at their grass-grown sepulchre; listens to the dash ofwaves, breaking as they broke upon the ear of Leonidas and his heroes, when, on that proud morning, they marched forth to die; reads with awe that sublime epitaph and passes on a better patriot and a better man.