Will the Olympics be postponed? Back in the day wars were postponed for the Olympics. During the second Greco-Persian war in 480 BC Xerxes invasion could not be met because of the Olympic truce.
Therefore Leonidas and his 300 were sent ahead as a sacrificial delaying force to allow the Spartans to come after the truce.
Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire described how the Greeks returned to the pass and sanctified it with athletic events and ceremonies and left an inscription on a stone, composed by the poet Simonides.
O xein angellein Lakadaimoniois hoti tede
keimneta tois keinon rhemasi peithomenoi
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here obedient to their laws, we lie.
They did not sully the sacred fire, obedient to their laws.
keimneta tois keinon rhemasi peithomenoi
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here obedient to their laws, we lie.
They did not sully the sacred fire, obedient to their laws.
