Molon labe

Molon labe (Greek: μολὼν λαβέ molṑn labé), meaning "come and take [them]", is a classical expression of defiance. According to Plutarch,Xerxes, king of Persia, demanded that the Spartans surrender their weapons and King Leonidas I responded with this phrase. It is an exemplary use of a laconic phrase.

When properly transliterated with diacritics, the spelling becomes molṑn labé. The modern Greek pronunciation is somewhat different from the ancient Greek: Ancient Greek: [molɔːn labé]; Modern Greek: [moˈlon laˈve]. The literal translation is "having come, take". While English normally requires an explicit object in a transitive imperative construction ("Take them!" or "Take it!"), Ancient Greek does not; the object them is understood from context.

The first word, μολών molōn, is the aorist active participle (masculine, nominative, singular) of the Greek verb βλώσκω blōskō "to come", meaning "having come". The root is evidently ΜΟΛ, so that βλώ-σκ-ω is apparently a contraction for μολώ-σκ-ω. Where English would put two main verbs in two independent clauses joined by a conjunction: "come and take", a strategy sometimes called paratactic, Ancient Greek, which is far richer in participles, subordinates one to the other, a strategy called hypotactic: "coming, take". The first action is expressed with a participle with adverbial force. In this structure, the participle gives some circumstance (the coming) attendant on the main verb (the taking).

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