"But we'll be stronger than you all."
Indeed, if one pays any attention to such Laconian poetry as is still extant, and to the march music which was played on the flutes when they were going to meet their enemies, it becomes clear that Terpander and Pindar were right in connecting poetry with bravery. The former speaks thus of the Lacedaemonians:
"Where the youths are bold with the spear,
And the voice of the muse is clear,
And justice to all is dear."
And Pindar says of them—
"Where the old are wise in council,
And the young are brave in fight;
Where song and dance are honoured
On many a festal night."
For they represent them as being most warlike and at the same time most poetical.
"The sword with song full well combines,"
as the Laconian poet says. Even in their battles the king first sacrificed to the Muses, to remind them, it would appear, of their education and their former contests, that they may be bold in danger, and do deeds worthy of record in the fight.
XXI.—In time of war, too, they relaxed their strict rules and allowed their young men to dress their hair and ornament their shields and costumes, taking a pride in them such as one does in high-mettled horses. For this reason, although they all let their hair grow long after the age of puberty, yet it was especially in time of danger that they took pains to have it smooth and evenly parted, remembering a saying of Lykurgus about the hair, that it made a well-looking man look handsomer, and an ugly man look more ferocious.
During a campaign they made the young men perform less severe gymnastic exercises, and allowed them to live a freer life in other respects, so that, for them alone of all mankind, war was felt as a relief from preparation for war. When their array was formed and the enemy were in sight, the king used to sacrifice a kid, and bid them all put on garlands, and the pipers to play the hymn to Kastor; then he himself began to sing the paean for the charge, so that it was a magnificent and terrible spectacle to see the men marching in time to the flutes, making no gap in their lines, with no thought of fear, but quietly and steadily moving to the sound of the music against the enemy. Such men were not likely to be either panic-stricken or over-confident, but had a cool and cheerful confidence, believing that the gods were with them.