Expert: Maria - 11/9/2008

Question
I teach 6th grade geography and we just finished ancient Greece.  Many of them have seen 300 and they want to know how to write and say "with this shield or on it" in ancient Greek.  I hope you can help.

Answer
Hello,

the phrase you mention is written as follows in Ancient Greek:

-“ ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τὰς “(Greek letters), that is “He tan he epi tas" (Latin transliteration)

Or:

-“ ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τὰν “ (Greek letters), that is “he tan he epi tan “(Latin transliteration).

The only one difference between these sentences which mean the same, that is “Either with the shield or on it”,  is  the word “tas” (genitive case) instead of “tan” (accusative), since the preposition “epì“ meaning “on / upon“ can take either the accusative or the genitive.

In short  the sentence means “Either bring the shield back or be brought home dead upon the shield“,  

This quotation from Plutarch’s ‘Apophthegmata Laconica’ (Sayings of the Ancient Spartans) was uttered in fact by the Spartan mothers who wished their sons to return from war either with their shield or on it, since, if a soldier  returned home alive without his shield, it meant that he had lost it while running for his life and then he had been a coward.

Best regards,
Maria
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Here’s the pronunciation of each word of the above sentences:

- ἢ (Latin transliteration “he” ) is pronounced like the E in ‘attention”.
It means “either”.

-τὰν  (Latin transliteration “tan”) is pronounced like TAN in “Tanagra”, the city of ancient Boeotia, Greece.
It is the accusative feminine singular, Doric form,  of  the definite article meaning “the” which implies the accusative feminine singular  “aspìda” (shield) and means literally “the (shield) “.

- ἢ  (“he” ) is pronounced like the E in ‘attention”. It means "or".

-ἐπὶ (epì ) is pronounced like EPI  in “epic” but with the stress on the “i”.
It is a preposition which takes either the accusative or the genitive and means “on “ / “upon”.

-τὰς (‘tas’ ) is pronounced like TAX in “taxonomy” but wit a double S instead of the X.
It is the genitive feminine singular, Doric form, of  the definite article meaning “the” which implies the genitive feminine singular “aspìdas” (shield) and means literally “the (shield)“.

-τὰν ( “tan”, variant of “tas”) is pronounced like TAN in “Tanagra” (see above)

Finally note that the Doric was the dialect of ancient Greece spoken in the Peloponnesus and then in Sparta.

Latin transliteration is nothing but the Greek text written in Latin alphabet we use still today.

Plutarch of Chaeronea (born 46- died c.122 AD)was a famous Greek biographer who wrote also "Parallel Lives ", a series of biographies of famous men.