Constantine P. Cavafy poems that deal with other situations such as closure (for example, "The walls"), debt (for example, "Thermopylae"), and human dignity (for example, "The God Abandons Antony"). The poem "Thermopylae" reminds us of the famous battle of Thermopylae where the 300 Spartans and their allies fought against the greater numbers of Persians, although they knew that they would be defeated. There are some principles in our lives that we should live by, and Thermopylae is the ground of duty. We stay there fighting although we know that there is the potential for failure. (At the end the traitor Ephialtes will appear,
Go Tell the Spartans refers to the Battle of Thermopylae where over 300 Spartans died trying to hold the pass'. While he is investigating the graveyard, Courcey spots a one-eyed VC soldier, who is presumably a scout. During a patrol, Courcey spots a group of nine Vietnamese women and children fishing along the small river that runs through the deserted village, despite intelligence that there are no civilians said to live in the area. That evening, the VC attack Muc Wa with a harassing attack in which the doped-up Lincoln is wounded. Courcey leads an ambush patrol that kills the Viet Cong mortar crew