Molon labe

Description

Molon labe (Greek: μολὼν λαβέ molṑn labé), meaning “come and take [them]”, is a classical expression of defiance. According to Plutarch, Xerxes, king of Persia, demanded that the Spartans surrender their weapons and King Leonidas I responded with this phrase. It is an exemplary use of a laconic phrase.
When properly transliterated with diacritics, the spelling becomes molṑn labé. The modern Greek pronunciation is somewhat different from the ancient Greek: Ancient Greek: [molɔːn labé]; Modern Greek: [moˈlon laˈve]. The literal translation is “having come, take”. While English normally requires an explicit object in a transitive imperative construction (“Take them!” or “Take it!”), Ancient Greek does not; the object them is understood from context.
The first word, μολών molōn, is the aorist active participle (masculine, nominative, singular) of the Greek verb βλώσκω blōskō “to come”, meaning “having come”. The root is evidently ΜΟΛ, so that βλώ-σκ-ω is apparently a contraction for μολώ-σκ-ω. Where English would put two main verbs in two independent clauses joined by a conjunction: “come and take”, a strategy sometimes called paratactic, Ancient Greek, which is far richer in participles, subordinates one to the other, a strategy called hypotactic: “coming, take”. The first action is expressed with a participle with adverbial force. In this structure, the participle gives some circumstance (the coming) attendant on the main verb (the taking).
The aorist participle may be used where the action is completed, called the perfective aspect. That is: the action of the participle occurs before that of the main verb. Thus the Greek provides a nuance similar to the English translation (come and [then] take it), making clear that the coming must precede the taking (i.e., “having come, take”). The latter λαβέ is in second person singular, and therefore is not being spoken to a large group of people, but rather to an individual. King Leonidas spoke to Xerxes personally, and not to the Persians en masse.
A better Greek designation of the relationship between the participle and the imperative verb is to view the participle not as adverbial (circumstantial) but rather as a verbal participle of attendant circumstances. The indicators of this usage are that the participle typically precedes the main verb and is in the aorist tense while the main verb is in either the indicative or imperative mood (here the imperative). Finally, the usage normally (but not always) occurs within narrative literature (Daniel Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996], 640-45). With these structures in mind, the participle then “borrows” the mood of the main verb and then adds the conjunction “and” after translating the participle. “Come and take!”