Sparta (Elegy of Heroes) - Dragony

Ὦ ξεῖν᾿, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε

κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.

They told them forces would be rising from the east

Striking fear into their hearts as from the wild sea rose the beast

Just three hundred Spartans, as they met them side by side,

When arrows flew to cloak the sun, they stemmed the Persian tide

Lead our way, Leonidas

Give us strength and unite us

On these rocks the tide will break

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

On the ground as their law commands

Here they fought immortals and a man-god at these portals

On their shields and armour clashed swords and arrows, bodies gashed

And the phalanx held and would not break as Xerxes' pillar dared to quake

With the dawn a red sun rose, a lion’s wrath, a feast for crows…

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

On the ground as their law commands

And so three hundred rode

With their dark fate bestowed

Upon their longest day

Where they lay

But so the word was spread

And, this the legend said,

Made Greece retaliate

For Sparta’s fate

Lead our way, Leonidas

Give us strength and unite us

On these rocks the tide will break

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

On the ground as their law commands