Skip to content

Order by Dec 10 for Christmas: 27 days left. Shop gifts

Spartan Surfers

7th century BC

Callinus

Poet of Ephesus who wrote the oldest surviving Greek war elegy, a call to idle young men to take up their courage.

2 sourced lines

Every line we carry

Each one links to its source, what it means, and the shirt in any of our looks.

  1. How long will you lie there? When will you find your courage?

    The oldest Greek war elegy opens with a challenge to young men lounging while war surrounds the land: how long will you lie there, when will you have a brave heart? It works as a wake-up call for any season of drifting.

    Fragment 1.1-2 West, our translation from the Greek

  2. Even as you die, throw your spear one last time.

    Callinus tells each man, even while dying, to make one last throw. It is the purest statement of finishing what you started. Whatever the outcome, empty the tank.

    Fragment 1.5 West, our translation from the Greek