Louis J Sheehan 80021

According to Herodotus,[73] the Greek army included the following forces:
Units Numbers
Spartans 300
Mantineans 500
Tegeans 500
Arcadian Orchomenos 120
Other Arcadians 1,000
Corinthians 400
Phlians 200
Mycenaeans 80
Thespians 700
Thebans 400
Phocians 1,000
Opuntian Locrians 13
Total 5,213
To this number must be added 1,000 other Lacedemonians mentioned by Diodorus Siculus.[74] A possible further 900 Helots (Spartan serfs) also fought. Herodotus reports that at Xerxes' public showing of the dead, "helots were also there for them to see",[75], but he does not say how many or in what capacity they served. There is no reason to doubt that they served in their traditional role as armed retainers to individual Spartans. At one point in the text Herodotus tallies 3,100 Peloponnesians at Thermopylae before the battle[76] but at another he quotes an inscription by Simonides saying there were 4,000;[77] hence, it is possible to account for the difference (without proof) by hypothesizing that 900 helots fought, three per Spartan hoplite.[78]
The total of all the troops mentioned by Herodotus and Diodorus is about 7,000; however , Diodorus himself gives 4,300 as the total of Greek troops,[74] while Pausanias gives 11,200.[79] Many modern historians, who usually consider Herodotus more reliable, prefer the 7,000 men. The numbers changed later on in the battle as, under orders, the entire army retreated and only 2,300 Spartans, Helots, Thespians and Thebans remained.[1]
[edit]Monuments at the site

[edit]Epitaph of Simonides


Epitaph with Simonides' epigram
Simonides composed a well-known epigram, which was engraved as an epitaph on a commemorative stone placed on top of the burial mound of the Spartans at Thermopylae. It is also the hill on which the last of them died.[64] The original stone has not been preserved. Instead the epitaph was engraved on a new stone erected in 1955. The text from Herodotus is:[64]
Ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.
Ō xein', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti tēide
keimetha tois keinōn rhēmasi peithomenoi.
An ancient alternative substitutes πειθόμενοι νομίμοις for ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι; i.e., substitutes "laws" for "sayings." The sayings are not personal but refer to official and binding phrases of some sort.[80]
The form of this ancient Greek poetry is an elegiac couplet. Some English translations are given in the table below.
Translation Notes
Go tell the Spartans, thou who passest by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.[81] William Lisle Bowles
Stranger, tell the Spartans that we behaved as they would wish us to, and are buried here.[82] William Golding
Stranger! To Sparta say, her faithful band
Here lie in death, remembering her command.[83] Rev. Francis Hodgson
Stranger, report this word, we pray, to the Spartans, that lying
Here in this spot we remain, faithfully keeping their laws.[84] George Campbell Macaulay
Stranger, bear this message to the Spartans,
that we lie here obedient to their laws.[85] William Roger Paton
Tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here obedient to their laws we lie.[86] Steven Pressfield
Go, stranger, and to Lacedaemon tell
That here, obeying her behests, we fell.[87] George Rawlinson
Go, way-farer, bear news to Sparta's town
that here, their bidding done, we laid us down.[88] Cyril E. Robinson
Go tell the Spartans, you who read:
We took their orders, and lie here dead.[89] Aubrey de Sélincourt
( In modern Greek the word "rhēmasi" means verbs. In ancient Greek it means commands, and "peithomenoi" means compliant. Thus a closer English translation would be as follows: Oh stranger, announce to the Lacedaemonians that here we lie, to their commands compliant.)
John Ruskin expressed the meaning of this poem to western civilization as follows:[90]
Also obedience in its highest form is not obedience to a constant and compulsory law, but a persuaded or voluntary yielded obedience to an issued command .... His name who leads the armies of Heaven is "Faithful and True"... and all deeds which are done in alliance with these armies ... are essentially deeds of faith, which therefore ... is at once the source and the substance of all known deed, rightly so called ... as set forth in the last word of the noblest group of words ever, so far as I know, uttered by simple man concerning his practice, being the final testimony of the leaders of a great practical nation ...: [the epitaph in Greek].
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