Sayings of Spartans

[Dowly]

Everyone's familiar with quotes like "Then we will fight in the shade" that have been attributed to Spartans in movies and other stuff, but did they really have such a sharp tongue? According to Plutarch, yes, they definitely did.

Sayings of Spartans (Unknown):
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...*/unknown.html

Ex. "Someone on seeing a painting in which Spartans were depicted as slain by Athenians, kept repeating, "Brave, brave Athenians." A Spartan cut in with, "Yes, in the picture!""


Sayings of Spartans (attributed):
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...ans*/main.html

Ex. "When the physician said to him, "You have lived to be an old man," he said, "That is because I never employed you as my physician." (Pausanias, the son of Pleistoanax)


Sayings of Spartan women:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...an_women*.html

Ex. "In answer to her son who said that the sword which he carried was short, said, "Add a step to it."

[Aktungbby]

THANKS FOR THIS

A Spartan had as an emblem on his shield a fly, and that, too, no bigger than life-size. When some mockingly said that he had done this to escape being noticed, he said, "Rather that I may be noticeable; for I come so close to the enemy that my emblem is seen by them in its true size."

When someone, initiating a Spartan into the Mysteries, asked him what his conscience told him was the most unholy deed he had ever done, he said, "The gods know." And when the other became even more insistent, and said, "It is absolutely necessary that you tell," the Spartan asked in turn, "To whom must I tell it? To you or to the god?" And when the other said, "To the god," the Spartan said, "You go away then."

Psst Dowley! I know what Finnish brew you're drinking! Brewed in Finland!