[Word-for-word translation]
O stranger, announce to the Lacadaemonians [Spartans] that here
We lie, to their words [or laws] obedient.
Notes from Wikiquote
Epitaph on the Cenotaph of Thermopylae, recorded by Herodotus. | Note: There is a long unsolved dispute around the interpretation of the word rhemasi, such as laws, words or orders. | Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passest by,
That here obedient to their laws we lie. | Stranger, go tell the men of Lacedaemon
That we, who lie here, did as we were ordered. | Stranger, bring the message to the Spartans that here
We remain, obedient to their orders. | Oh foreigner, tell the Lacedaemonians
That here we lie, obeying their words. | Go, tell the Spartans, passerby,
that here by Spartan law we lie. | Go, tell the Spartans
stranger passing by,
that here, obedient to Spartan law,
we dead of Sparta lie
Variants
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