Description
The expression molon labe comes from an account of the historic Battle of Thermopylae between Xerxes I, king of Persia, and Leonidas I, king of the Greek city-state Sparta, in 480 b.c.
According to the Greek biographer Plutarch in a collection of Spartan sayings, Xerxes demanded the Greeks surrender their weapons. Defiantly, Leonidas answered: “Molon labe,” roughly translates to “Come and take them.”
