page_title: Battle of Thermopylae
section_title: Epitaph of Simonides
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Thermopylae / Legacy / Monuments / Epitaph of Simonides
caption_attribution_description: Ελληνικά: Ἑλληνικὴ γλῶττα· Ω ΞΕΙΝ ΑΓΓΕΛΛΕΙΝ // ΛΑΚΕΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΟΙΣ ΟΤΙ ΤΗΔΕ // ΚΕΙΜΕΘΑ ΤΟΙΣ ΚΕΙΝΩΝ // ΡΗΜΑΣΙ ΠΕΙΘΟΜΕΝΟΙ (Ω ξείν', αγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ότι τήδε κείμεθα, τοις κείνων ρήμασι πειθόμενοι) Català: Epitafi en memòria dels 300 espartans que van morir a la Batalla de les Termòpiles:"Viatger, ves i digues als espartants, que aquí jeiem en obediència a les seves lleis" Deutsch: Wanderer, kommst du nach Sparta, verkündige dorten, du habest uns hier liegen gesehn, wie das Gesetz es befahl. Español: Epitafio conmemorativo por los 300 Espartanos muertos en la Batallas de las Termópilas: "Viajero, ve y di a los espartanos, que obedientes a sus leyes, aquí yacemos." English: Memorial epitaph of 300 Spartans who died in battle of Thermopylae: Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie. Français&#160;: Mémorial des 300 Spartiates morts au champ de bataille des Thermopyles&#160;: Passant, va dire à Sparte que nous sommes morts ici pour obéir à ses ordres. Italiano: Memoriale dei 300 Spartani morti dopo la battaglia delle Termopili&#160;: Straniero, va' a dire agli Spartani che qui noi morimmo obbedienti alle loro leggi. Čeština: Památník 300 Sparťanů, kteří zemřeli v bitvě u Thermopyl: Jdi, poutníče, a zvěstuj Lakedaimonským, že my tu mrtvi ležíme, jak zákony kázaly nám. Slovenčina: Pamätník 300 Sparťanom, ktorí zahynuli v bitke pri Termopylách: Ó, cudzinec, zvestuj Sparťanom, že my tu ležíme, ako zákony kázali nám. Nederlands: Gedenkteken voor 300 Spartanen die in de Slag by Thermopylae vielen: Vertel de Spartanen, voorbijganger, dat wij door Spartaanse wet, hier liggen. Polski: Epigram na tablicy upamiętniającej 300 Spartan poległych w bitwie pod Termopilami: Cudzoziemcze, powiedz Lacedemończykom, że wierni ich prawom, tu spoczywamy (dosłownie: tu śpimy) Русский: Надпись на памятнике спартанцам, павшим при Фермопилах: Путник, пойди возвести нашим гражданам в Лакедемоне, //Что, их заветы блюдя, здесь мы костьми полегли. 中文: 温泉关战役斯巴达300死难勇士纪念碑铭文：“过往的异乡人啊，去告诉斯巴达人：我们恪守吾邦之法，长眠于此。”
context_page_description: The Battle of Thermopylae was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by King Leonidas I of Sparta, and the Achaemenid 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 or September 480 BC, at the narrow coastal pass of Thermopylae. The Persian invasion was a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece, which had been ended by the Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. By 480 BC Xerxes had amassed a massive army and navy, and set out to conquer all of Greece. The Athenian politician and general Themistocles had proposed that the allied Greeks block the advance of the Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae, and simultaneously block the Persian navy at the Straits of Artemisium.
  A Greek force of approximately 7,000 men marched north to block the pass in the middle of 480 BC. The Persian army, alleged by the ancient sources to have numbered over one million, but today considered to have been much smaller arrived at the pass in late August or early September.
context_section_description: A well-known epigram, usually attributed to Simonides, 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. The original stone has not survived, but in 1955, the epitaph was engraved on a new stone. The text from Herodotus is:
  Ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
  κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.
  Ō ksein', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti tēide
  keimetha, tois keinōn rhēmasi peithomenoi.
  Oh stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that
  we lie here, obedient to their words.
  The alternative ancient reading πειθόμενοι νομίμοις (peithomenoi nomίmois) for ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι (rhēmasi peithomenoi) substitutes "laws" or "orders" for "words." In other words, the "orders" are not personal but refer to official and binding phrases (the Ancient Greek term can also refer to a formal speech).
  The form of this ancient Greek poetry is an elegiac couplet, commonly used for epitaphs. Some English renderings are given in the table below. It is also an example of Laconian brevity, which allows for varying interpretations of the meaning of the poem. Ioannis Ziogas points out that the usual English translations are far from the only interpretation possible, and indicate much about the romantic tendencies of the translators.
  It was well known in ancient Greece that all the Spartans who had been sent to Thermopylae had been killed there (with the exception of Aristodemus and Pantites), and the epitaph exploits the conceit that there was nobody left to bring the news of their deeds back to Sparta. Greek epitaphs often appealed to the passing reader (always called 'stranger') for sympathy, but the epitaph for the dead Spartans at Thermopylae took this convention much further than usual, asking the reader to make a personal journey to Sparta to break the news that the Spartan expeditionary force had been wiped out. The stranger is also asked to stress that the Spartans died 'fulfilling their orders'.
  The first line of the epigram was used as the title of the short story "Stranger, Bear Word to the Spartans We…" by German Nobel Prize laureate Heinrich Böll. A variant of the epigram is inscribed on the Polish Cemetery at Monte Cassino.
  John Ruskin expressed the importance of this ideal to Western civilization as follows:
  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]
  Cicero recorded a Latin variation in his Tusculanae Disputationes (1.42.101):
  Dic, hospes, Spartae nos te hic vidisse iacentes
  dum sanctis patriae legibus obsequimur.
  Tell, stranger, to Sparta that you saw us lying here
  since we followed the sacred laws of the fatherland.
caption: Epitaph with Simonides' epigram
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