Republican Congresswoman and conspiracy-theory adherent Marjorie Taylor Greene channeled the memory of the ancient Spartans on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, dawning a mask during a speech with the well-known Greek expression of defiance, Molon Labe.
The expression Molon Labe (Ancient Greek: μολὼν λαβέ), translates loosely to “come and take [them]” and is a classical expression of defiance.
It is among the phrases reported by Plutarch, attributed to King Leonidas in reply to the demand by the Persian King Xerxes I that the Spartans surrender their weapons.
In the United States, far-right militia groups and white supremacists have adopted the expression, which they have printed on masks, vests, t-shirts and other paraphernalia. Gun rights advocates also use the expression when defending their rights to own guns.
In a speech on the House floor, Taylor Greene, a freshman Republican Congresswoman and supporter of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, wore a mask emblazoned with the Greek expression.
She also wore the mask when she entered the U.S. Capitol, while protesting having to walk through a metal detector and screaming at reporters, calling them liars.
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15 comments
Thanks for your comment. Perhaps these folks are not aware that Sparta was not a democracy or a democratic republic?
Hey, a good quote is a good quote. I don’t know much about this congresswoman, but I only had to read as far as the cutline to know exactly where you stand on US politics with the “conspiracy theorist adherent” line. The American people are tired of the editorializing by the media. You say you built the Pappas Post taking a cue from HuffPost. I really don’t know much about them. And perhaps they don’t stick to their own mission which reads “We take a people-first approach in everything we report—be it news and politics or lifestyle and entertainment—and we cover real stories about real life. Regardless of who you are, where you live or what you believe, you can count on HuffPost to help you navigate what’s happening in the world and how it affects you.” Close to half the country voted for President Trump and are rational, educated, kind people who will continue to be unhappy that our leaders have not represented us. And, there was a lot of room for error and discrepancies in the pandemic election. Presumably almost half of your US readership feels the way I do and does not condone violence to anyone. Might I suggest reviewing a journalism 101 book to try and stay more neutral in your American political posts. Are your readers primarily here for one view of American politics? It would not have been difficult to get a quote from someone who thought it was great that famous Greek words were quoted. I was drawn to PappasPost for the culture and I applaud you for your efforts in this category and your other business ventures which sound fabulous. I was even considering a donation. Now, I’m sorry but not so much. Please consider this so we all feel welcome here.
Wow, what a completely biased and slanted article that you wrote, I’m especially disappointed that you singled out, according to you, that the expression Molon Labe is apparently belongs solely to, as you put it: “In the United States, far-right militia groups and white supremacists have adopted the expression, which they have printed on masks, vests, t-shirts and other paraphernalia. Gun rights advocates also use the expression when defending their rights to own guns.”
Your biased opinion, berated a sitting Republican Congresswoman said it all. I love how you brought up King Leonidas and twisted the two together, I hope that made the Greek in you proud. I can only take solace that you most likely would have been a spineless waterboy during King Leonidas’s time, when Greek warriors against tyranny meant something.
Please stop worshipping your god, Donald Trump. You have no place appropriating Greek culture for your fascist ideals. I doubt the Pappas Post will miss your ramblings. Goodbye.
Dyann, outstanding comment in covering all aspects of the reasons we read pappaspost and their current shortcomings. I do not forsee them shifting towards decency. Once objectivity is lost, the perpetrator grows defensive. Even worse, cannot be trusted anymore. I admire your kindness, but, even though not humbly, I’ve seen and heard too much politics in the past several decades to stick around. It was interesting sometimes while I read their articles. When I leave indecent web sites, I don’t make declarations, after all I don’t need them and they don’t need me. I just enjoyed the accuracy of your comment very much and was inspired to express myself. So long pappas. Take care Dyann.
This is a spelling comment.
To see the sun rise is ‘dawn.’
To put on clothing is ‘don.’
And – at first, I thought she misspelled “labia.”
Thank God for Matt Gaetz bringing to light
the endless double standard of the EGL:
Evil Godless Left.
Last year wicked witch Pelosi and Kamala Whoreis
encouraged & emboldened rioters Antifa and BLM
as they burnt down cities all across America; they looted, they murdered, they destroyed businesses, they attacked police and chanted they wanted the police force dead. They emotionally terrorized Americans for six months. But not a word of condemnation from the Left.
Notice: None of this happened at US Capital Rally last week by majority of Trump patriots storming the Capital. Most of the fiasco was more a frat boys party gone wild,
but the serious violence and door smashing was perpetrated by BLMers posing as Trumpers like John Sullivan, now arrested and admits he played a hand in killing of Air Force girl Ashley Babbit.
Say Her Name.
But for Ashley Babbitt’s death there is no outrage, there is no protesting like it was for the career criminal George Floyd, who pointed gun to pregnant woman’s belly.
No – Ashley was White.
Guess that’s why Archbishop Elpidophoros felt
no need for a photo op, not over an American Air Force vet that gave 14 years service to her country.
Nothing
How will this comment age? Like Gaetz, alone, in federal prison.
Sparta always based her actions in cold reality, not in conspiracy theories like the ones promoted today by QAnon and Trump cultists.
Nothing has done more damage to America than the rabid Godless Left. President Kennedy today wouldn’t recognize his party.
Dr. King would be horrified by what the violent social justice freaks have done to his message. It’s not about one’s character or merit, it’s now about political correctness demands on basis of color. Reverse racism run amok.
Be very certain you cowards: Trump will be back. The perverted Marxist Left is not the face of America.
Trump is True America.
You’re all wrong, most of the commenters anyway. None of you are even familiar with ancient Greek (language) or the history thereof. At least the author is of Greek heritage. Lycurgus on Sparta: “the most perfect model of government that was ever framed…”
And the foremost authority, a good old Paleocon academic:
https://oll.libertyfund.org/page/forrest-mcdonald-the-founding-fathers-and-the-economic-order
“These legal barriers were reinforced by ideological considerations. Granted, Americans were, by and large, a practical and not an ideological people, but they had embraced a pair of ideas that took deep roots. First was republicanism. When Americans proclaimed their commitment to republicanism as part of the reaction against George III in 1776, most did so willy-nilly without knowing what it entailed. The body of literature on the subject was large and readily found, however, and soon public figures were versed on the subject. The actuating principle of a republic was public virtue, virtue meaning manly devotion of one’s self to the wellbeing of the public. The opposite of virtue was vice, meaning effeminacy, or a love of luxury.
The very idea of economic growth that inheres in a market economy was incompatible with this primary principle of republicanism. Plato, believing that relative equality of property is essential to a republic, proposed to limit inheritances and recommended that no republic be established on the sea or on a navigable river, for that “would expose it to the dangers of commerce” and the inequalities that resulted from trade. Lycurgus, “in the most perfect model of government that was ever framed,” ancient Sparta, had forbidden trade altogether. And Montesquieu, whom American devoutly admired, declared that if people were allowed “to dispose of property [as they] pleased,” a republic would be “utterly undone.” As disparate a pair of Americans as John Adams and Benjamin Franklin agreed. Adams denounced credit as responsible for “most of the Luxury & Folly which has yet infected our People,” and declared that anyone who could devise a way to abolish credit forever “would deserve a Statue to his Memory.” Franklin characterized commerce as “generally cheating” and wrote bitterly of its corrupting and debilitating effects.”
Get thee to a library, you ignoratti.
Hahaha…
I hope you’re sitting down when you read this, ignoratti.
“It is a man of the New World – where bourgeois relations of production imported together with their representatives sprouted rapidly in a soil in which the superabundance of humus made up for the lack of historical tradition – who for the first time deliberately and clearly (so clearly as to be almost trite) reduces exchange-value to labour-time. This man was Benjamin Franklin, who formulated the basic law of modern political economy in an early work, which was written in 1729 and published in 1731. [7] He declares it necessary to seek another measure of value than the precious metals, and that this measure is labour.”
A. Historical Notes on the Analysis of Commodities, Karl Marx.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1859/critique-pol-economy/ch01a.htm
I’d urge you to get thyself to a library – books with large print and illustrations. Coloring books, ets.
“come and take [them]”
Having come, take! Believe it or not, Wiki can handle topics on linguistics, syntax, grammar, etymology. Your point is well taken.
“The phrase “molṑn labé” is in the Classical Greek of Plutarch, and does not necessarily reflect the Doric dialect that Leonidas would have used. The form “ἔμολον” is recorded in Doric as the aorist for εἷρπον, “to go, come”.[2] The classical pronunciation is [mo.lɔ᷆ːn la.bé], the modern pronunciation [moˈlon laˈve].[a]
The phrase is participial, its literal translation would be approximately “having come, take!”. This use of the participle is known as the circumstantial participle in the grammar of classical Greek, i.e. the participle gives a circumstance (the coming) attendant on the main verb (the taking).[3] It is a form of hypotaxis, where English would use parataxis, the conjunction of two verbs, “come and take”. This construction normally (but not always) occurs within narrative literature.[4]
The first word, ‘μολών’ (molōn, “having come”) is the aorist active participle (masculine, nominative, singular) of the Greek verb βλώσκω (blōskō, “to come”).[5]
The aorist stem is μολ- (the present stem in βλώ- being the regular reflex of μλώ-, from a verbal root reconstructed as *melə-, *mlō-, “to appear”[6]). The aorist participle is used in cases where an action has been completed, also called the perfective aspect. This is a nuance indicating that the first action (the coming) must precede the second (the taking).
The second word, λαβέ, is the second person singular imperative of λαμβάνω “take; grasp, seize”. The entire phrase is thus in the singular, i.e. Leonidas is depicted as addressing Xerxes personally, not the Persian army as a group.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molon_labe#
William Satire sounds like he cut & paste all that drivel.
Bottom line is still this:
you cannot serve Two Masters. Greeks in America
need to be patriotic toward America, if they live off the land, it’s no longer Greece or Cyprus that’s giving your plenitude.
It’s extremely rude to come to a foreign land and impose your brand of selfishness.
Also, even the great Greek Orthodox saints warned
that Greece & Cyprus would sell out their Orthodox faith to the immoral secular world and that’s why Financial Crisis came according to many clairvoyant elders.