The Last Stand Of Leonidas And The Battle Of Thermopylae

Hear of a tale a thosand skalds would sing

How an eastern army came to claim the west

How all cities rallied under the Spartan king

For in battle his people eclipsed the rest

We must defend Hellas from the Persian hordes

For even if I shall not prevail through the fray

By will and blood, by our spears and swords

We shall meet them at the pass of Thermopylae

And at the passage of the fiery gates

Twas but a twin chariot broad

By rock and sea, a fortress in faith

The enemy nation gathered awed

The Spartans so prepared to fight until the end

Their courage ever unrivalled in myth and legend

A Malian son spoke unto Dienekes of Sparta

Concerned of a great fear of the Persian archer

"Their numbers are innumerable is it not best to run?"

"Their arrows are so many, they will cover the sun"

To this Dienekes laughed and answered unafraid

"Good, then we will have our battle in the shade"

The armies below formed and charged the assault

And so began the ferocious battle of Thermopylae

There the massive Persian attack came to a halt

For there would be no Sparta surrender on that day

King Xerxes threw his heroes the immortal ones

Against the Spartan wall that would not break

His empires finest, their ranks became undone

Succumbing at the hands of the warrior state

As the Spartans had victory within their reach

By their own hellenian blood they were betrayed

Their stregth corrupted, the stronghold breached

So began the end of the resistance at Thermopylae

Ephialtes oh accursed name

Thou shall live on in infinity

Thou art traitor thou art shame

Thus is your poisoned legacy

"O ye men who dwell in the streets of broad Lacedaemon!

Either your gloriuos town shall be sacked by the children of Perseus

Or, in exchange, must all through the whole Laconian country

Mourn for the loss of a king, descendant of great Heracles."

Betrayed by their own, facing an imminent defeat

The Spartans knew no surrender or no retreat

Surrounded by the enemy they formed a last stand

That held shield by shield until the last man

The warriors spilled blood, broke bone and marrow

Until the Persian ordered forth bow and arrow

And the sun did darken shying from the mayhem

The Spartans fell dead and Leonidas fell with them

We fell here for Sparta and her law

So carve in stone our epitaph

Go tell the Spartans oh passer-by

That here by her law we lie