Herodotus: Leonidas And The Spartans

Not only does Herodotus try to glorify the Spartans, he leaves out important facts regarding the thebans at the battle of thermopylae. This can be seen in diodorus account, diodorus himself explains the member of the greek mary, Diodorus states,“And there gathered at Thermopylae also a thousand Locrians, an equal number of Melians,and almost a thousand Phocians, as well as some four hundred Thebans of the other party; for the inhabitants of Thebes were divided against each other with respect to the alliance with the Persians”(Diodorus 11.4). Herodotus leaves out the important fact the the thebans were actually divided into two fractions with two different viewpoints. This is supported by a scholarly figure who states,“For the Thespians and

Strength is very important when it comes to survival. And they Smith talks about the Athenian hero whose name was Theseus. He was son of Athenian King But spent most of his youth with his mother in southern Greece. Before he was born his friends put a sword and shoes underneath a big Stone. So he grew up strong far beyond others and so his mom took him to the stone and lifted it with no trouble. He will sit to meet his father so his mom and grandfather had decided for him to go in a plane because they thought it would be less dangerous than him walking. Then one time he was installed for a tribute to participate and while he was in The Labyrinth. They did not know that his intentions were to kill the Minotaur. Later on his father watched the

Perhaps the best example of the traditional nature of Greek history lies in Herodotus. In answer to a question by wealthy Croesus of Lydia, Herodotus’ Solon states that in his opinion the happiest man ever to have lived was his fellow Athenian, Tellus, who “was from a prosperous city, and his children were good and noble. He saw children born to them all, and all of these survived. His life was prosperous by our standards, and his death was most glorious: when the Athenians were fighting their neighbors in Eleusis, he came to help, routed the enemy, and died very finely. The Athenians buried him at public expense on the spot where he fell and gave him much honor.” (Herodotus 1.30.4-5).

In Book Seven of The Histories written by the first world historian, Herodotus, captures the essence of power between the Greeks and Persians, and who under all circumstances will prevail over the course of the four years. These four years carry along the decision to invade Greece, the journey, and the actual battle itself. The constantly growing Persian Empire gradually becomes a prominent global force and wanting to acquire more territory. In the eyes of King Xerxes the next shift closer to that is the conquering Athens in particular, but Greece on a whole. The Persian army had phenomenal numbers, from the countless of people who they conquered in their endeavors such as Medes, Assyrians, and etc. The clashing of the empire of Persia and the city-states of Greece with coalitions of the different city- states, such as Sparta and Athens, was the start of the notable Battle of Thermopylae.

According to Mr.Duckworth, “Athens and Sparta differed in their ideas of getting along with the rest of the Greek empires.” However, Sparta’s differences made it a better city. Therefore, Sparta was a greater city to live in because the women in Sparta had more freedom, the army in Sparta was stronger, and Sparta’s economy was better.

One day a Persian emissary with his party were sent from Persia to Sparta to ask for “food and water” referring to submission to the Persian Empire, sent by the King of Persia, Xerxes. Leonidas decides to give a direct response to Xerxes by killing and kicking off the hill their messenger and their party. Tthe Spartan King proposed to go to war to attack Persia before they attacked them. He met with an oracle so he could know what would happen with his march to attack Persian and their blessing, the oracle warmed that they will be around death and disease, the King did not think twice and did not listen the warning of the oracle. From that point, Leonidas and his army went through several wars with different groups of Xerxes’s army, first the Medes, the Immortals, and the final battle with Xerxes front army. In their journey the king meets Ephialtes, a deformed hunchback in exile wishing to join the army, Leonidas tested him by rising his shield high but he was strong enough and he rejects him. Later Ephialtes gets revenge and betrays his homeland by helping the Persians to find the secret path that only local knew in exchange of rewards. While in Sparta, Queen Corgo finally coveys the congress to send the rest of the Spartan army to help fight the other in battle but it was too late. In the final war, Leonidas had very few men to battle, and he and his men die in

Orchestrating the widespread adoption of its culture and establishing a renowned veneration in its military, the Persian Wars were a momentous event in Greek history. The long fought war between Persians and Greeks was instrumental in uniting a region in disarray, fostering a culture of unity and collaboration evident throughout western civilisation even today. It foresaw the abandonment of slavery and prudent hierarchical structures in exchange for decadence, comfort and expression. The Persian Wars additionally demonstrated Greece’s prowess in both naval and land-bound combat. Commanded by the domineering Spartans on the battlefield and reinforced by the sea-fairing Athenians, the Greek forces were overwhelming in unity. The Persian wars

Menelaus, Helen's husband, convinced his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, to help retrieve her. He, along with the Greek heroes Achilles, Odysseus, Nestor, and Ajax led a large fleet throughout the Hellenic world. They crossed the Aegean Sea to Asia Minor and lay siege to Troy, demanding Queen Helen's return by Priam, the Trojan king. As time went on, the Spartans, who had control of the battle (as usual), started to lose their grip on the battle. In order to win, the Spartans had one last plan to save the queen. Now we go on further into the battle...

To the Greeks, besides being a skilled warrior, a hero contains several other admirable characteristics. For example, they must respect all aspects of authority. The Greeks give heroes no room for arrogance or pride. Instead, they were to be modest, and give credit to their culture and the gods for any help they contributed. They also had to believe and

In the year 480 CE King Leonidas of Sparta was faced with one of the toughest decisions in war history. He decided to take three hundred Spartan soldiers to war with him at the pass of Thermopylae. King Leonidas’ decision would mark his name in the history books, after his death statues and monuments, along with books and films were created to reflect on his heroism against the Persians. 300 is a prime example, and has been nominated for numerous awards and is a known movie for the events that took place in Thermopylae in 480 CE. Zach Snyder’s film was excellent and displayed some accurate events in history, but being based on the Battle of Thermopylae 300 did not portray Spartan life and the details of battle in a precise way. Most details about warfare, Spartan upbringing, and people involved in the war were off and not accurate to history.

The Greek historian Herodotus describes the processes in which an Egyptian embalmer goes about their work on the recently deceased. The embalmers display wooden models of the recently deceased to the relatives, which is supposed to be artistically accurate, like a painting for example. The perfect image, according to Egyptian embalmers, is that of a god, to which Herodotus refuses to mention in the context, due to his notion that it would be sacrilege to do so. After this, they show the relatives a second option that is less expensive than the previous and is of less quality but still considered deluxe treatment. The third option is finally shown, which is the cheapest option to go with, the lowest quality. The embalmers then ask the relatives

Without the help of Atheniens most of these battles would not have been won by the Greeks. King Darius the Great lost the Battle of Marathon to Athens who joined forces with Platea. What makes Greece Panhellienic is that when the Greeks win the Battle of Marathon they dont mention Platea who was the main city state in battle with Persia, they glorify and honor Athens for offering to help Platea. Then when Athens win its almost as they were the only ones fighting. In the play the ghost of King Darius visits Atossa and he basically asks her what is happening why do we keeping losing to the Greeks like we are suppose to be superior with men and armor. “No, not at all. But somewhere close to Athens all our forces have been overpowered” (Aeschylus Persians pg 14. lines 831-832). When this play is preformed it is done in Athens and so when the Atheniens are watching all this victory that went down they start to get excited and grow more and more love for their city state. When the Persians are all grieving the Atheniens grow pleasure out of that. Xerxes, Darius, and Atossa all show examples of defeat when they lose battles to the Atheniens and thats were the Atheniens express their joy. When the Persians curse Athens they are talking to all of Greece they are mainly expressing their hatred for Athens and Athens only. Athens being so widely attacked and having such an impact on Greece and their

He ran straight at the cave wall, head first, and bashed himself senseless. At least, he vaguely remembered doing that when he woke up with his scaly dragon face flat on the floor. It was stupid, but it was worth a try. His wyvern form was even tougher than his normal bullet-proof skin and inherent dragon healing powers. He’d tried slashing his wrists, but his fae runes just scurried to heal them. He could keep re-cutting, but when he passed out from the blood loss, the wounds would heal, and he’d wake up still very much alive. Repeated attempts just kept him out longer while his blood regenerated.

The narrow pass of Thermopylae contained a chokepoint that was a mere fifty feet wide, giving the vastly outnumbered Spartan force some bare hope of holding the line against the Persians. For three days Leonidas and his allied force held the pass against the Persians. They faced down Xerxes’ massive army and prevented the Persian force from advancing. Even Xerxes’ elite troops, the Immortals, could not dislodge the Spartans and their allies. On the third day, however, a secret path was betrayed to the Persians which allowed them to outflank the Greek defenders. Knowing the pass to be lost, Leonidas sent away his Greek allies, keeping back only his 300 Spartans and leading them out to face the Persians at the widest expanse of the pass. According to Greek tradition, the Persian forces were terrified by this act of Greek courage and had to be driven to battle by the whips of their leaders. The Spartans fought until their spears were shattered and their swords broken, refusing to give ground. When King Leonidas fell, the Greeks rallied and drove the Persians away from his body four times. In the end, however, not even the reckless courage and martial skill of the Spartan hoplites could suffice against the overwhelming numbers of the Persians and they were slain to the last man.

“Until now we used to say that the Greeks fight like Heros. Now we say: The Heroes fight like Greeks” (Winston Churchill). Western Civilization have been focused and built on the Greeks, especially their hero’s. The two main heroes of the Greeks were Achilles and Odysseus, from the two great Epic poems. Although, the heroes Odysseus and Achilles from Homer’s epics the Iliad and Odyssey display several differences and similarities.