Public Service Annoucnement "Then we will fight in the shade"

[jack]

Public service announcement:

* Whether you like the line or not, "Then we will fight in the shade!" was not made up by Zack Snyder.
* Nor was it made up by Frank Miller.
* It could have been made up by Herodotus. (According to wikipedia, according to Herodotus, according to rumour, Dienekes said it.)

Comments

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Yep, para 226. A similarly laconic response is attributed to the Spartans when Philip (?or was it Alexander) asked if he should come as friend or foe: "neither"; though I've also seen that attribute to the Molossians, so it could have been one of those things that ancient historians thought too good to pass up.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

A true g(r)eek would say "no" :)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I can't spend my entire working day reading ancient greek historians (sadly) but I note that the freedom-v-slavery propaganda goes back to ancient times too; Herodotus has Xerxes tell his nobles, "thus both those who have committed wrong against us will have the yoke of slavery, and also those who have not committed wrong" when he's working up to his invasion of Greece and prospective subsequent conquest of all Europe.

Herodotus also has him predict that conflict between Greece and Persia is inevitable which, given Alexander's conquests and then Rome/Byzantium's centuries of war with Persia, and perhaps even the West's cold war with Iran since the revolution, might be considered prophetic. (Herodotus predated Alexander so this isn't hindsight.)

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

Everything but the Herodotus reference is sort of going over my head - I wouldn't have considered that it was anyone but Diekenes who said it first :)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

There's not really anything *to* go over your head. You know the quote. You can deduce it was in 300. You can deduce that was directed by Zack, and based on a comic book by Miller. You know that it was an old quote, and can deduce from my post someone accused it of being recent.

And then I ironically point out that even if someone recent didn't make it up, we can't know for sure if Herodotus was right, he probably wasn't actually *there*, so for all we know someone made it up between the battle and the histories.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I apologise for saying it was obvious. I just reread this post, and had no idea what I was talking about until I read my explanation :)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yes you did. You could tell that you might assume the line was modern, but it wasn't.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Yes, but now I read it, I see the point is that someone thought it was fake and a silly Hollywood bravado insert quote, whereas in fact it was a bravado original quote. I wish I could remember exactly what someone had said and where though; I must have seen several references to post this.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I can't remember where, sorry.