| Ὦ ξεῖν᾿, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
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| κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.
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| They told them forces would be rising from the east
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| Striking fear into their hearts as from the wild sea rose the beast
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| Just three hundred Spartans, as they met them side by side,
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| When arrows flew to cloak the sun, they stemmed the Persian tide
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| Lead our way, Leonidas
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| Give us strength and unite us
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| On these rocks the tide will break
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| And no one weep at our wake!
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| Tell them you saw us ride
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| To the gates of our destiny
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| Tell them we fought and died
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| For our land and our liberty
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| And then tell them, you saw us lie
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| On the ground as their law commands
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| Here they fought immortals and a man-god at these portals
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| On their shields and armour clashed swords and arrows, bodies gashed
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| And the phalanx held and would not break as Xerxes' pillar dared to quake
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| With the dawn a red sun rose, a lion’s wrath, a feast for crows…
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| Tell them you saw us ride
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| To the gates of our destiny
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| Tell them we fought and died
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| For our land and our liberty
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| And then tell them, you saw us lie
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| On the ground as their law commands
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| And so three hundred rode
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| With their dark fate bestowed
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| Upon their longest day
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| Where they lay
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| But so the word was spread
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| And, this the legend said,
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| Made Greece retaliate
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| For Sparta’s fate
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| Lead our way, Leonidas
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| Give us strength and unite us
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| On these rocks the tide will break
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| And no one weep at our wake!
|
| Tell them you saw us ride
|
| To the gates of our destiny
|
| Tell them we fought and died
|
| For our land and our liberty
|
| And then tell them, you saw us lie
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| On the ground as their law commands |