Thread by @VeneficusIpse

White supremacists keep passing this quote around like it's ancient wisdom. It isn't. It's from 2001.

"If you worship your enemy, you are defeated.
If you adopt your enemy's religion, you are enslaved.
If you breed with your enemy, you are destroyed."

-Polydorus of Sparta

First: Polydorus has very few quotes attributed to him, and those we have aren't about racial purity but things like this: "When a certain man was continually threatening his enemies, Polydorus said, "Don't you see that you are using up the best part of your vengeance?"

Pausanias say of him, "Polydorus had a great reputation at Sparta and was very popular with the masses – for he never did a violent act or said an insulting word to anyone."

So if Polydorus didn't say this, who did?

Eric Thomson.

Eric Thomson is a Neo-Nazi who coined the term ZOG (Zionist Occupied Government), co-authored "The Hitler We Loved & Why," and wrote extensively for First Amendment Exercise Machine (FAEM), a website run by Robert Frenz, a prominent holocaust denier.

It was on Frenz's FAEM that Thomson wrote an essay in March, 2001 in which he includes the lines in question, followed by a torrent of racist drivel.

The lines are specifically attributed to Thomson elsewhere on the site, and are included in the main footer by Nov., 2001.

How it became attributed to "Polydoros of Sparta" is unclear. The earliest connection I've found between Polydorus and these lines is a prolific member of the RPG Codex Staff who used the quote, along with Nordic runes (themselves often favored by Neo-Nazis) in their signature.

Since then it has spread widely, showing up on Neo-Nazi sites like Storm Front and the Daily Stormer, and on a myriad of personal accounts across various social media platforms.

Any way you slice it, this quote is Neo-Nazi pablum. It originated in 2001 and has nothing to do with Polydorus or Sparta.

@MykeCole, any insights here on why "Polydoros of Sparta" specifically would be associated with this quotation?