Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos cover. Bard Publishing
Corporation, 625 Madison Ave. NY Vol. 1, No. 33, August 1966.
(Stan Lee, Editor; Roy Thomas, Writer; Dick Ayers, Artist;
John Tartaglione, Inker; Sam Rosen, Letterer; Irivng Forbush, Camp Mascot).
[Private collection: D. B. Levine]
Tenuous tie-in to Herodotus: In the comic,
Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos help to rid Greece of the Nazi Invaders,
working with the Greek Underground. In Herodotus’ Histories,
the Hellenes, under the leadership of Athens and Sparta (Themistocles the
Athenian and Pausanias the Spartan), fight to rid Greece of the Persian
Invaders… There’s even a traitor…
Read on…
Too bad the Traitor wasn’t named EPHIALTES…
HERODOTUS’ HISTORY….
AS SEEN IN THE ORACLES.
Oracles play a great role in the stories told
in Herodotus’ HISTORIES. Let’s see how they tie in with the stories he tells.
Figure out what the context of each of the
following is:
“I know the number of the grains of sand and the extent
of the sea,
And understand the mute and hear the voiceless.
The smell has come to my senses of a strong-shelled tortoise
Boiling in a cauldron together with a lamb’s flesh,
Under which is bronze and over which is bronze.”
1.47
You have come to my rich temple, Lycurgus,
A man dear to Zeus and to all who have Olympian homes.
I am in doubt whether to pronounce you man or god,
But I think rather you are a god, Lycurgus.
1.65
There are many men in Arcadia, eaters of acorns,
Who will hinder you. But I grudge you not.
I will give you Tegea to beat with your feet in dancing,
And its fair plain to measure with a rope.
1.66
“Lydian, king of many, greatly foolish Croesus,
Wish not to hear in the palace the voice often prayed for
Of your son speaking.
It were better for you that he remain mute as before;
For on an unlucky day shall he first speak.”
1.85
I shall shake Delos, though unshaken before.
6.98
Vainly does Pallas strive to appease great Zeus of Olympus;
Words of entreaty are vain, and so too cunning counsels
of wisdom.
Nevertheless I will speak to you again of strength adamantine.
All will be taken and lost that the sacred border of Cecrops
Holds in keeping today, and the dales divine of Cithaeron;
Yet a wood-built wall will by Zeus all-seeing be granted
To the Trito-born, a stronghold for you and your children.
Await not the host of horse and foot coming from Asia,
Nor be still, but turn your back and withdraw from the
foe.
Truly a day will come when you will meet him face to face.
Divine Salamis, you will bring death to women’s sons
When the corn is scattered, or the harvest gathered in.
7.141
For you, inhabitants of wide-wayed Sparta,
Either your great and glorious city must be wasted by Persian
men,
Or if not that, then the bound of Lacedaemon must mourn
a dead king, from Heracles’ line.
The might of bulls or lions will not restrain him with
opposing strength; for he has the might of Zeus.
I declare that he will not be restrained until he utterly
tears apart one of these.
Considering this and wishing to win distinction for the
Spartans alone, he sent away the allies rather than have them leave in disorder
because of a difference of opinion.
7.220
Now the Euboeans had neglected the oracle of Bacis, believing
it to be empty of meaning, and neither by carrying away nor by bringing
in anything had they shown that they feared an enemy’s coming. In so doing
they were the cause of their own destruction, for Bacis’ oracle concerning
this matter runs as follows
When a strange-tongued man casts a yoke of papyrus on the
waves,
Then take care to keep bleating goats far from the coasts
of Euboea
To these verses the Euboeans gave no heed; but in the evils
then present and soon to come they suffered the greatest calamity.
8.20
When the sacred headland of golden-sworded Artemis and
Cynosura by the sea they bridge with ships,
After sacking shiny Athens in mad hope,
Divine Justice (dike) will extinguish mighty Greed (koros)
the son of Insolence (hubris)
Lusting terribly, thinking to devour all. [2] Bronze will
come together with bronze, and Ares
Will redden the sea with blood. To Hellas the day of freedom
Far-seeing Zeus and august Victory will bring.
Considering this, I dare to say nothing against Bacis concerning
oracles when he speaks so plainly, nor will I consent to it by others.
8.77
There is, however, a prophecy made by Bacis concerning
this battle:
By Thermodon’s stream and the grass-grown banks of Asopus,
Will be a gathering of Greeks for fight and the ring of
the barbarian’s war-cry;
Many a Median archer, by death untimely overtaken will
fall
There in the battle when the day of his doom is upon him.
I know that these verses and others very similar to them
from Musaeus referred to the Persians.
9.43
INSCRIPTIONS:
[1] There is an inscription written over these men, who
were buried where they fell, and over those who died before the others went
away, dismissed by Leonidas. It reads as follows:
Here four thousand from the Peloponnese once fought three
million.
[2] That inscription is for them all, but the Spartans
have their own:
Foreigner, go tell the Spartans that we lie here obedient
to their commands.
[3] That one is to the Lacedaemonians, this one to the
seer:
This is a monument to the renowned Megistias,
Slain by the Medes who crossed the Spercheius river.
The seer knew well his coming doom,
But endured not to abandon the leaders of Sparta.
7.228
SOLON SOLON SOLON
As Croesus stood on the pyre, even though he was in such
a wretched position it occurred to him that Solon had spoken with god’s
help when he had said that no one among the living is fortunate. When this
occurred to him, he heaved a deep sigh and groaned aloud after long silence,
calling out three times the name “Solon.”
1.86