The Isles of Greece – Stanzas 6 and 7

Again, I could not do these 2 stanzas separately because they deal with the same event in history, The Battle of Thermopylae.

Here, I have also split the stanzas at places, because I felt that was the only way to do it.

Stanza 6.

'Tis something, in the dearth (scarcity) of fame,

Though link'd among a fetter'd (chained, tied down, restrained) race,

To feel at least a patriot's shame,

Even as I sing, suffuse my face;

My understanding - His shame fills his mind and thoughts even as he writes this, seeing as he considers himself a true Greek patriot.


For what is left the poet here?
For Greeks a blush—for Greece a tear.

Me - Because he does not know what else to do, except grieve over the loss of the majesty of Greece. Again his helplessness and angst is stressed here. I do not know about everyone else here, but I feel his pain and I share in his anguish, if only for the duration of my working on this poem. I am sure I will forget, move on to other things, but, as of right now, my feelings are real, I find myself in the past, standing alongside the poet, hoping there was something more I could do.

End of Stanza 6.

Stanza 7.

Must we but weep o'er days more blest?

Must we but blush?—Our fathers bled.

Me - And here again, we see his anger and his pride. We (the poet, the people of Greece, and I, because as of this moment I feel I am right there with them, please forgive me, but that’s just the way it is) must not sit here and weep over our past heroes, they were after all our forefathers, we have their blood running through our veins as well. We will fight back just as they did.


Earth! render back from out thy breast

A remnant of our Spartan* dead!

Of the three hundred grant but three,

To make a new Thermopylae*!


Me - He calls out to his fellow Greeks, reminding them of the battle of Thermopylae, where Xerxes with 1,00,000 men were stumped by 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas. (See notes on The Battle of Thermopylae); saying even if 3 of them would be amongst the warriors today, that would suffice.

End of Stanza 7.


The History behind this.

Thermopylae: The famous battle of Thermopylae was the effort of the Spartans, lead by their King Leonidas, to slow down the Persians.

The significance of this battle is the amazing dedication and determination of the 300 Spartans who cleverly positioned themselves at the tight passage of Thermopylae where the Persians could only get through few at a time.

Though vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the Persian advance until a defector informed the Persians of an alternate route, leading to the defeat of the Greek army and the sacking of Athens.

The Spartans lost this battle and it is said that the sun was hidden by the storm of arrows but the Spartans sacrifice will never be forgotten in Greece.

These verses also remind me of a song children sing at national celebrations of the 1821 Revolution- when Byron fought with the Greeks-

it says in rough translation:

"Oh 300 arise and come back to us again, and see how much alike you your children are".

In the days of Byron, the Greeks again unite to honor freedom with the same courage. This battle also significantly slowed down and weakened the Persian army, which was a tremendous help in the ensuing Battle of Salamis (stanzas 4 and 5), where, ultimately the Persians were defeated.

Now, if you watch the film 300 you should be blown away by it; amazing movie, and after knowing the history behind it, all the more so.

Am going to do that tonight itself.

For understanding the history in relation to the poem, what you have read thus far will suffice.

However, if you truly want to know about how the events took place in detail, read on. It's almost story like, and very readable.

Background of The Battle of Thermopylae.

Xerxes I, king of Persia, had been preparing for years to continue the war against the Greeks started by his father Darius. In 484 BC the army and navy of Xerxes arrived in Asia Minor and built a bridge of ships across the Hellespont at Abydos to march his troops across.

According to Herodotus, Xerxes had over five million men,
while
the poet Simonides estimated three million;

Herodotus also wrote that the army drank entire rivers and ate the food supplies of entire cities.

While these are clearly exaggerations, it is clear the Greeks were enormously outnumbered.

An alliance of Greek city-states was quickly formed, headed by the militaristic Sparta, whose supremely disciplined warriors were trained from birth to be amongst the best soldiers in the world at that time.

The Spartan soldiers had mastered the phalanx formation - essentially a tight wall of overlapping shields.

The Greek states held back from sending the full force of their armies, however, citing religious reasons. Fearing an uprising of their huge slave population, and fearful of going to war before the conclusion of the Carneia festival, the deeply superstitious Spartans contributed only a small force of 300 hoplites, hand-picked and commanded by King Leonidas.

Knowing the likely outcome of the battle, Leonidas selected his men on one simple criterion: he took only men who had fathered sons that were old enough to take over the family responsibilities of their fathers.

Because of its defensible terrain, the mountain pass of Thermopylae, also known as the "Hot Gates", was chosen as the site of battle. At the time it consisted of a pass so narrow, two chariots could barely move abreast – on one side stood the sheer side of the mountain, while the other was a cliff drop into the sea. Along the path was a series of three "gates," and at the center gate a short wall was hastily erected by the Greek army to aid in their defense. It was here in the August of 480 BC that an army of some 7000 Greeks, led by 300 Spartans, stood to receive the full force of the Persian army, numbering perhaps some forty times its size.

See Map of Thermopylae.

Also see Battle layout of Persian invasion led by XERXES into Greece.



Xerxes did not believe such a small force would oppose him, and gave the Greeks three to four days to retreat.
The Persians were initially astounded upon seeing the Spartans oiling themselves and performing calisthenics, not understanding its ritual significance, performed by men with the resolution to fight to the end.
Meanwhile, the Persian army was growing restless, and Xerxes sent his troops into the pass with hellish results. The Persians, with arrows and short spears, could not break through the long spears of the Greek hoplites' phalanx. Enormous casualties were sustained by the Persians as the disciplined Spartans orchestrated a series of feint retreats, followed by a quick turn back into formation.

Greek morale was high.

Herodotus wrote that when Dienekes, a Spartan soldier, was informed that Persian arrows blotted out the sun, he remarked with characteristically laconic prose, "So much the better, we shall fight in the shade."

The 6000 Greeks defending the pass slew the Persians in a similar manner on the second day of battle, fighting in a relay manner. After watching his troops fall before the Greeks, Xerxes decided to send his legendary Immortals, so named for their fierce fighting and impenetrable line. Whenever one would fall, another would quickly fill the gap in the ranks. However, even the Immortals lacked the power to break the Spartan phalanx.

After the second day a Greek named Ephialtes defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes of a separate path through Thermopylae.

The pass was defended by the other 1000 Greeks, from Phocis, who had been placed there when the Greeks learned of the alternate route just before the battle, but they were not expecting to engage the Persians. The Phocians offered a brief resistance before fleeing, and the Persians advanced unopposed.


Leonidas then realized that further fighting would be futile. On August 11 he dismissed all but the 300 Spartans.
A contingent of Thespians, led by Demophilus, stayed as well in a suicidal effort to delay the advance. Leonidas also had a force of Thebans, but after some fighting they defected to the Persians.
Although the Greeks killed many Persians, including two of Xerxes' brothers, Leonidas was eventually killed, along with all 300 of his men.

The last Spartans were killed by a barrage of arrows after fighting fanatically to recover their king's body, having been driven back into the narrowest part of the pass onto a small hill.


There is an epitaph on a monument at site of the battle with Simonides's epigram, which can be found in Herodotus's work The Histories, to the Spartans, which to keep the poetic context can be translated as:

Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie

or more literally as:

Oh foreigner, tell the Lacedaemonians that here we lie, obeying those words.

Another translation (by Michael Dodson, 1951) captures the spirit of enduring service to the state which was taught to all Spartan warriors:

Friend, tell the Spartans that on this hill we lie obedient to them still.

Aftermath


While a technical victory for the Persians, the enormous casualties caused by a few thousand Greeks was a significant blow to the Persian army.

Likewise, it significantly boosted the resolve of the Greeks to face the Persian onslaught.

The simultaneous naval Battle of Artemisium was a draw, whereupon the Greek (or more accurately, Athenian) navy retreated.

The Persians had control of the Aegean Sea and all of Greece as far south as Attica; the Spartans prepared to defend the Isthmus of Corinth and the Peloponnese, while Xerxes sacked Athens, whose inhabitants had already fled to Salamis Island.

In September the Greeks defeated the Persians at the naval Battle of Salamis, which led to the rapid retreat of Xerxes. (see stanzas 4 and 5).

The remaining Persian army, left under the charge of Mardonius, was defeated at Plataea by a combined Greek army again led by the Spartans, under the regent Pausanias.

The Persians, never to return to Greece, were soon to fall under the shadow of Alexander the Great.


Legends:

The legend of Thermopylae, as told by Herodotus, has it that Sparta consulted the Oracle at Delphi before setting out to meet the Persian army. The Oracle is said to have made the following prophecy in hexameter verse:

“O ye men who dwell in the streets of broad Lacedaemon!
Either your glorious 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.
He cannot be withstood by the courage of bulls nor of lions,
Strive as they may; he is mighty as Jove; there is naught that shall stay him,
Till he have got for his prey your king, or your glorious city.”

In essence, the Oracle's warning was that either Sparta would be conquered and left in ruins, or one of her two hereditary kings must sacrifice his life to save her.


And now if you see the film, more power to you.