The famous phrase, “Come back with your shield - or on it.”
https://www.facebook.com/1526506277606537/photos/a.1544282062495625.1073741842.1526506277606537/1540688659521632/?type=3&theater
“Another, as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him, saying, "Either this or upon this.”“
ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς,
Ḕ tā̀n ḕ epì tâs
"Either [with] it [your shield], or on it”
“Meaning "either you will win the battle, or you will die and then be carried back home on your shield”.“
"It was said by Spartan mothers to their sons before they went out to battle to remind them of their bravery and duty to Sparta and Greece.”
“A hoplite could not escape the field of battle unless he tossed away the heavy and cumbersome shield. Therefore "losing one’s shield” meant desertion. (Plutarch, Moralia, 241)“
"Come back with your shield - or on it” (Plutarch, Mor.241) was supposed to be the parting cry of mothers to their sons. Mothers whose sons died in battle openly rejoiced, mothers whose sons survived hung their heads in shame.
Asked why it was dishonorable to return without a shield and not without a helmet, the Spartan king, Demaratos (510 - 491) is said to have replied: “Because the latter they put on for their own protection, but the shield for the common good of all.” (Plutarch, Mor.220)“
"It means come back with your shield (having won) or come back dead on your shield (having an honorable death in battle).”
“Besides its primary function as a protective device, the shield also
had symbolic meaning. A Spartan mother had warned her son to "return either with your shield or on it” (Spartan shields were large enough to serve as stretchers or funeral biers). If a hoplite returned home alive without the shield, it meant that he had thrown it away while running for his life (its weight made it a formidable obstacle to fast running), an act of cowardice.“
http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/8c_p1.html
Picture:
Mankind: The Story of All of Us (TV show on the History channel)
The Spartans prepare for battle
Joe Alblas / History Channel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mankind:_The_Story_of_All_of_Us
http://www.history.com/shows/mankind-the-story-of-all-of-us
http://www.history.com/shows/mankind-the-story-of-all-of-us/videos
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