The Night before Thermopylae — “The Hot Gates”
“Phaedrus's praise for erôs (love) as a precondition for courage employs poetic
quotations from poems that in fact state that wisdom is the true precondition,
and that erotic passion without thoughtfulness leads to disaster.” ~
http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/plato-and-the-poets/
The backbone of a man needs love. Without
That it becomes a wounded reed, a limb
That hangs loose from the trunk, however stout
The oak might be. Devotion gives to him
A living sturdiness that is not blown
About by breezes, or even by winds sent
By chance. A warrior does not need a throne
For courage. Soldiers lie inside their tent
Together in the dawn before the fight
That threatens lovers’ Spartan blood with death.
They breathe together in the calm of night
And when the war comes, shout with single breath.
..If both must die in glory, still they know
….Their love will fire the centuries with its glow.