mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
It was, um, a lot of years ago today (480 B.C., to be exact) that King Leonidas and the Spartans were defeated by Xerxes’ army at Thermopylae. Well, that’s according to some accounts. Some historians say that we can’t be sure exactly what day in late summer the Battle of Thermopylae happened, but for our purposes today (namely, a timely Quick 10) we’ll stick with the ones who have agreed on August 11.
10 Things 300 Didn’t Tell You
1. We often hear the epic battle called the Battle of Thermopylae, but the truth is, there were lots of Battles of Thermopylae, including one in WWII. In 1941, the British Commonwealth set up their defenses in the same pass that was used in 480 B.C.
2. However, that pass is a lot bigger than it used to be. At the time of the historic stand against the Persians, the pass is estimated to have been no bigger than 30 meters. Now, due to silt deposited by rivers over time, the coastline of the Gulf has grown by at least three miles.
3. Another reason this Quick 10 is particularly fitting right now: according to “The Father of History”, Herodotus, the Battle occurred while the Olympic Games were going on. Of course, Herodotus also earned the nickname “The Father of Lies”, so you may want to take that with a grain of salt.
4. We don’t really know how many warriors there were on either side, but if you agree with Herodotus, there literally millions of Persians vs. 7,100 Greeks. It’s pretty widely agreed that his estimation is ridiculous – it was probably closer to 200,000 Persians total (including warriors who didn’t make it to the battle at all).
5. Some of those perfect quotes from the movie are the real thing. If you’ve seen 300, you no doubt remember a Persian warrior telling a Spartan warrior that the Persian arrows would be so numerous they would blot out the sun. “Then we will fight in the shade!” was the Spartan’s response. Supposedly, this is a real quote from a Spartan named Dienekes.
6. Likewise, Leonidas was thought to have really said “Come and get them!” when the Persians told the Spartans to surrender their weapons.
7. Those Spartans sure are quotable. Another quote that has perhaps lasted thousands of years is the Queen’s response to the messenger who asked why Spartan women were allowed to speak amongst men. “Because only Spartan women give birth to real men,” she said. Plutarch, a Greek historian, recorded this memorable line in the Moralia under “Sayings of the Spartans”.
8. The poet Simonides wrote an epitaph for the 300; it was engraved on a stone and placed at the point of the Spartans’ last stand. The original no longer exists, but a copy was made. It has been translated many different ways – here are a few of them:
• Stranger! To Sparta say, her faithful band
Here lie in death, remembering her command.
• Go tell the Spartans, thou who passest by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.
• Stranger, tell the Spartans that we behaved as they would wish us to, and are
buried here.
• Go, stranger, and to Lacedaemon tell
That here, obeying her behests, we fell.
9. Literally, Thermopylae means “hot gates”. It was so named becaues of the sulfurous springs there; the narrow pass served as a gateway to them.
10. The person buried in Leonidas’ tomb may or may not be Leonidas. While most of the Spartans were buried where they fell, it was custom to bring the King home and give him a proper burial. However, they didn’t get the body until 40 years later (the Persians got to him first). Obviously, the body was just bones at that point, so it was impossible to know if they actually belonged to Leonidas or not.
Shhh…super secret special for blog readers.
Comments (20)
Comment
You forgot *the* most important inaccuracy: despite all that “freedom” rhetoric in 300, the Spartans were notorious slaveholders. They were so outnumbered by their own slaves that they spent all day training in combat to put down any slave revolt quickly.
posted by Rich Hudson on 8-12-2008 at 12:18 am
Another quote that is thought to be true is the one that Leonidas’ wife tells him when he leaves for battle, dont remember the exact words from the movie : “Either come back holding your shield, or on it”
posted by Christos on 8-12-2008 at 12:45 am
Did you know that 300 is based after a FAKE comic book based on the 300 left?
posted by Sam on 8-12-2008 at 1:51 am
I had no idea those quotes were real, or at least assumed to be real. Any more of those?
Nice list.
posted by XIII on 8-12-2008 at 5:18 am
You indeed raise some valid points. Never really gave it much thought but you are right indeeed.
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
posted by Jim McDosh on 8-12-2008 at 7:16 am
The movie also did not tell you what happened afterward. The Persian army continued onward and burned Athens to the ground (including the original Parthenon).
There are still some parts of the Acropolis that show evidence of the fire.
posted by D-Mac on 8-12-2008 at 10:33 am
The Spartans prized the pithy saying. The English word word ‘laconic’ means ‘from Lacon’, the area around Sparta.
posted by Martin on 8-12-2008 at 10:42 am
Did you know the persians really did have a giant man? His name was Brian.
posted by Theodorick on 8-12-2008 at 10:52 am
That’s because it’s a MOVIE. You can’t expect “300″ to be historically accurate, no more than you can expect a Hispanic person from Mexico to know how to speak English. It’s based on a graphic novel. I HIGHLY doubt that Frank Miller intended to make his graphic novel historically accurate.
posted by graphicartist2k5 on 8-12-2008 at 11:06 am
Two things ..
Christos, that is a common saying of the women of Sparta. A mother was ofter heard to say “with it, or on it” to her sons.
Also, this Jim McDosh fellow is obviously a spammer. Perhaps you someone should do something about it??
recaptcha: Attorney Yankton
posted by Alice on 8-12-2008 at 11:27 am
Dienekes is a fictional spartan created in thebook, “Gates of Fire”…
posted by leon on 8-12-2008 at 1:19 pm
Leon; Wikipedia is your friend.
Dienekes was also a /real/ Spartan, created in the fifth century, by his mother and father. Present at the Battle of Thermopylae. Or one of them anyway. Voila.
posted by Pyleic on 8-12-2008 at 9:46 pm
Leon; Wikipedia is your friend. Go look up the entry on Dienekes.
He was also a /real/ Spartan created in the not-book, “Greece”.
posted by Pyleic on 8-12-2008 at 9:48 pm
Another spartan saying: “If your sword is too short, take a step forward”
posted by Simon on 8-12-2008 at 9:52 pm
It should be called 299 since that one guy left to tell the story. 299 not 300.
posted by Edward on 8-12-2008 at 10:45 pm
I was wanting to know if the hunchback traitor finally got his own harem.
posted by BoredQuiz on 8-13-2008 at 5:10 pm
the traitor’s name was Efialtis, which literally translates to “Nightmare”
posted by vasilis on 8-14-2008 at 2:37 pm
The Spartans who fought in Thermopylae were all homosexuals – it was standing operating instructions in the Spartan army that homosexuals were more suited to fighting external enemies because they could rape their enemies better than women can. Gross. But kinky.
posted by Robert L. on 9-26-2008 at 7:29 pm
In 1941, the British Commonwealth set up their defenses in the same pass that was used in 480 B.C.
If by “the British Commonwealth” you mean Cyprus which was indeed part of the British commonwealth, along with the greek forces they fought against the Germans in a battle which was started with the Italians before WW2.
The British fought against the germans along new zealanders and greeks in the Battle of Crete not thermopylae.
posted by dasdad on 3-9-2009 at 8:03 am
Robert L Quit trying to spit your own deluded homosexual propaganda out about any nation. The Spartans teamed up with a young boy because the boy would talk of things, especially dealing with death, that he would be ashamed to talk of in front of his father. It was easier to train someone who was not your son, punishment included.
posted by Chris on 3-10-2009 at 9:24 pm