Any cool Greek sayings/battle cries?

[Wormwood]

AERA!
"Air". (Traditional Greek battle-cry. Sorta like "Bansai!")

Molon Lave!
"Come and get it!" (Leonidas, to the Persians)

"Freedom or Death"
(Battle cry of the 1821 Greek Revolution)

Ochi.
"No." (Greece's official reply to the Italian demand of surrender, WW2)

"From this point on, we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like the Greeks"
- Winston Churchill

 

[Black Omega]

And the so macho reply by Sparta to Alexander the Great when he was on his 'Conquer Greece' Tour.

Alexander: If I enter Sparta, I will raze it to the ground.

Spartans: If.

And on Alexander went to Argo, Sparta evidently could wait.Possibly non-historical but it's stayed with me from my years reading Greece History.

 

[Darklone]

More!

More more more !

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

"Never leave your buddy's behind!"

 

[shilsen]

"Never leave your buddy's behind!"

I presume that's "Never leave your buddies behind". Unless you're referring to the famous "Legion of Love" (can't recall which city-state they came from - Thespis, maybe?) which consisted only of homosexuals, and encouraged pairs of lovers to join, since the assumption was that you were really interested in protecting your partner. And considering that they were a remarkably effective fighting force, obviously never leaving your buddy's behind worked there

And in keeping with the above, here is the famous battle-cry of Hector, which was unfortunately cut from the Iliad due to Greek censorship:

"I got your Trojan right here!"

 

[Eben]

King Darius of Persia told the Scythians that it was folly to resist the might of Persia and to bring simple gifts of earth and water as symbols of submission.
Instead of the tokens of submission Darius received an unusual collection of symbolic gifts: a mouse, a frog, a bird, and five arrows. Darius pondered these and considered them positive signs of submission; the Scythians however, meant them to represent something entirely different. The historian Herodotus records the alternative interpretation: "Unless the Persians fly away like birds, hide in the earth like mice, or leap into a lake like frogs, they will never see their homes again, but will die under our arrows."

quoted from: http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/

 

[Tetsubo]

I've seen a picture of a Greek lead sling bullet with the phrase, "Eat this" cast into it.

 

[Florin]

Well, having a Greek girlfriend, I can tell you some modern-day Greek um... battle cries...

These are all translated into English because I have NO idea how to spell them.

"I'll make you eat wood." -typical threat to children from mother

"You'll be meat in the pot." -another threat to children from mother

"Go f*** the Virgin Mary." -general curse

"Go f*** your Jesus Christ." -another curse

Of course, these could just be specific to her family, but I've heard them uttered in Greek a number of times.

 

[Eben]

The coolest Latin threath ever:

"Hannibal at portas"

 

[willpax]

Some early Greek lyrics

from Richard Latimore's _Greek Lyrics_
(these aren't exactly battler cries but might give you some idea of the tone and attitude some of the ancent Greeks had):

from Archilochos (c.650 b.c. poet and mercenary):

By spear is kneaded the bread I eat, by spear my Ismaric wine is won, which I drink, leaning on my spear.

Some barbarian is waving my shield, since I was obliged to
leave that perfectly good piece of equipment behind
under a bush. But I got away, so what does it matter?
Let the shield go; I can buy another one equally good.

I will make nothing better by crying, I will make nothing
worse by giving myself what entertainment I can.

Glaukos, a solider of fortune's your friend as long as he's fighting.

The fox knows many tricks, the hedgehog only one.
One good one.

One main thing I understand,
to come back with deadly evil at the man who does me wrong.

From "Hybrias" (the name means "bully"):

My wealth is great; it is a spear and a sword,
and the grand hairy shield to guard my body.
With these I plow, with these I harvest,
with these I tread the sweet vine from the grapevine,
with these I am called master of the rabble.
And they who dare not carry the spear and sword
and the grand hairy shield to guard their bodies,
all these fall down before me, kiss my knee, hail me
their high king and master.