Sparta and Athens the two city-states

they battled and battled

never ending their hate,

From the ashes, one brings democracy’s light;

The other, a bloodthirsty city-state, hungry for fight.

Athens rose with democracy as their superpower,

Blooming like a marble stone in its finest hour.

The wooden walls of their navy held power,

Crushing the Persians in a salt-sprayed hour.

The Athenian navy trapped them on the island shore,

Breaking the myth that Spartans never lose a war.

While others stayed inside to weave and to spin,

Spartan women trained hard for the strength deep within.

Three hundred stood firm at the narrow stone gate,

Defying the millions and sealing their fate.

Two kings sat on thrones while the elders held sway,

Guiding the city in the old, iron way.

One rose on marble with a sailor's bold pride,

The other through iron where the warriors reside.

A city of wisdom versus a city of might,

Two shadows of Hellas in the flicker of light.

Beneath the high columns of the Parthenon's crest,

The thinkers and poets were put to the test.

With wisdom in stone and a fleet on the sea,

They paved the bright path for the bold and the free.

They lived for war, and war alone,

No golden halls or kingly throne.

With iron will and strength of hand,

The fiercest guards of Grecian land.

One rose on marble with a sailor's bold pride,

The other through iron where the warriors reside.

A city of wisdom versus a city of might,

Two shadows of Hellas in the flicker of light.

Over:

The marble has crumbled and the iron has rusted away,

Yet the ghosts of these rivals still haunt us today.

Two paths to a legacy, one of thought and one of war,

Echoing through history forever and evermore.