Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevsh
Have you read Steven Pressman's Gates of Fire?
An unbelievably articulate dramatization of the battle from the eyes of one soldier. And you may recognize a few lines in the movie from the book...
I may be speaking too soon because I haven't seen the film, but from the previews it looks a little too much fantasy/comic book (obviously, considering it's based on one!)
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Yes I have. I have read a lot of stuff about the Spartans. Most of the saying come directly from King Leonodis and other important figures from the Sparta. They are some of the few written sayings to be passed down from them.
Upon hearing that the arrows of the Persian where so numerous that they would block out the sun the Spartan reply was "Good, then we will fight in the shade"
When hearing that the Persians had so many ships that their torches at night looked like the stars in the sky Leonodis that that when he was a boy he had always wanted to touch the sky with his spear.
During the one of the olympic games held in Athens an old man was looking for a seat. When he walked by his fellow Athenians they refused to let him sit down but when he went over to where the Spartans where sitting several of the young men stood up and offered him their seats. He was said to have spoke the words that all Greeks know what is right but only the Spartans actually do it.
One women asked a Spartan woman why they bore such strong boys and she replied that it was because only Spartan women gave birth to men that where men.
It's sad that we don't have any writings passed down through the generations from these people like we do with the philosophers of Athens. The main reason is because the Spartans didn't believe in building anything or writing anything down. They only believed in fighting and reaching perfection through physical struggle. They were not conquers although they could have built an empire as big as Rome if they had wanted to. They didn't like to start a war. They only fought when they had to but when they did they would often only send 1 Spartan warrior for every 10 of the enemy and they won %99 of the time.
One Greek philosopher said that the Spartan people where more like ants than people.
To get a better idea of who they wher read this poem by one of their greatest warrior poets. Spartans would rehearse or sing these poems while going into battle
It is beautiful when a brave man of the front ranks
falls and dies, battling for his homeland,
and ghastly when a man flees planted fields and
city
and wanders begging with his dear mother,
aging father, little children and true wife.
He will be scorned in every new village,
reduced to want and loathsome poverty; and shame
will brand his family line, his noble
figure. Derision and disaster will hound him.
A turncoat gets no respect or pity;
so let us battle for our country and freely give
our lives to save our darling children.
Young men, fight shield to shield and never
succumb
to panic or miserable flight,
but steel the heart in your chests with
magnificence
and courage. Forget your own life
when you grapple with the enemy. Never run
and let an old soldier collapse
whose legs have lost their power. It is shocking
when
an old man lies on the front line
before a youth: an old warrior whose head is white
and beard gray, exhaling his strong soul
into the dust, clutching his bloody genitals
in his hands: an abominable vision,
foul to see: his flesh naked. But in a young man
all is beautiful when he still
possesses the shining flower of lovely youth.
Alive he is adored by men,
desired by women, and finest to look upon
when he falls dead in the forward clash.
Let each man spread his legs, rooting them in the ground,
bite his teeth into his lips, and hold.