Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Molon Labe, the Code of Those Born Fighting

Via comment by Roswell on One veteran on gun control 

 Confederate Louisiana Brigade Throwing Stones at Advancing Federal Army of the Potomac, c.1862 Giclee Print 

Or stones if that's all we have.

If you are a reader of comments here at American Thinker then you have probably noticed an increasing use of the term molon labe. For those of you unfamiliar with the term and too busy (or too lazy) to look it up, I've done it for you. 

It is a Greek expression first attributed to King Leonidas of Sparta when the Persian invader Xerxes I, prior to the Battle of Thermopylae, demanded that the Spartans lay down their arms and submit to him. Its essential meaning was, "Up yours, pal: come do your worst." In so many words, it is the Greek equivalent of the response of Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe* of the 101st Airborne Division, who when surrounded at Bastogne, Belgium during WWII, reportedly said, "Nuts!" to a German demand for surrender. Screaming Eagle lore has it that the defiant general's actual response to the German general was in language unreportable in those more discreet days, "Eff you, Kraut!" Whatever, the unflinching meaning of both statements is abundantly clear:


"Come on, hoss; take your best shot."

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