What Is Zack Snyder's Misconceptions

It is evident from Demeratus and Artemesia that Xerxes is not bias to his people based on their religion and ethnicity. Demeratus is an exiled king of Sparta who gave Greek advice to Darius 1 which encouraged Xerxes in becoming the successor “Demaratus advised him… Darius, recognising the justice of the argument, proclaimed him heir to the throne” as stated by Herodotus. It is also stated from Herodotus that Xerxes asks Demaratus for advice when going to the wars against Greece “Thou art a Greek… Tell me, therefore, what thinkest thou? Will the Greeks lift a hand against us?”. Xerxes also has a positive relationship with Artemesia, a non-Persian. Artemesia displays tremendous amount of loyalty and service to Xerxes. Artemesia is one of Xerxes’ naval commanders who displayed leadership in action during the Battle of Salamis “Master, see Artemisia, how well she is fighting, and how she sank even now a ship of the enemy”. From Xerxes’ relationship between Demeratus and Artemesia, it is evident that Xerxes treats his people based on their service and loyalty towards the Persian empire.

He shows the heroic qualities of sacrifice, strength, leadership, comedy,loyalty, and insight. He shows sacrifice through his going to Thermopylae to buy time for his people to prepare for war. He shows strength by not turning back, and instead fighting the Persians to save his people. He shows leadership through leading 300 sires (Men with sons) to fight for time, and inspiring them to stay and fight with him. He shows comedy through this quote “When Xerxes wrote again, "Hand over your arms," he wrote in reply, "Come and take them."”.Another quote that shows his comedy is this "When someone said “Because of the arrows of the barbarians it is impossible to see the sun," he said, "Won't it be nice, then, if we shall have shade in which to fight them?"”. He is loyal because when offered by Xerxes to join the Persians, and be given all of Greece he said “If you had any knowledge of the noble things of life, you would refrain from coveting others' possessions; but for me to die for Greece is better than to be the sole ruler over the people of my race.". He also shows by joining his men in all of the fighting. He shows insight through this quote “Leonidas, are you here to take such a hazardous risk with so few men against so many?" he said, "If you men think that I rely on numbers, then all Greece is not sufficient, for it is but a small fraction of their numbers; but

Scholars, artists, authors, and filmmakers in recent years have been interested in Herodotus’s depiction of the Battle of Thermopylae, creating several different versions and interpretations of the story across multiple forms of media. The legendary battle of Thermopylae, in 480 B.C.E, demonstrated the strength, courage and bravery of the Spartan Army that went up against the Persians. The Spartans held off the Persian army of Xerxes for two days until their position was flanked by a secret trail. However, in the face of unbeatable odds and with the knowledge of a victory being almost impossible, they fought with the utmost confidence in themselves and proved that the Spartan army was one of the strongest armies in Greece, even though they were eventually defeated. Although, some of the representations of the battle in today’s media do not accurately tell the same story that Herodotus did. Frank Miller and Zack Snyder depict the Battle of Thermopylae with more action and entertainment in their versions to appeal to a larger audience. Thus, by analyzing Herodotus’ description of The Battle of Thermopylae, as well as Miller’s and Snyder’s versions, today’s media have portrayed the original story differently in order to captivate a larger audience.

Greek art, especially sculpture, was a common way to explore and reach past the confines of mankind’s natural appearance be it through penises, huge muscles, or generalized unrealistic body standards. Hercules and the Hydra, a sculpture by Mathias Gasteiger, presents an image of masculinity through the expressive posture and form of Hercules once you look past those gleaming bronze pectorals, and into the intricate details of the piece.

After the death of Darius, his son Xerxes was persuaded by his overconfident advisor Mardonius to attack the Greeks, and in doing so, Mardonius exaggerated Greek weaknesses and character. Even when Damaratus repeatedly told Xerxes that the Spartans were the bravest and best fighters of Greece, Xerxes still mocked them for their appearance and actions. "For four whole days he suffered to go by, expecting that the Greeks would run away." (Herodotus)

The great historian, Herodotus, who is also known as the “father of history,” wrote many books on the Greek culture. Herodotus describes the cultural values of the Greeks in his detailed work, The Histories. Because the book concentrates on the Greek and Persian wars, he also writes about the values of the Persians. In his account of the Greek and Persian wars, Herodotus describes the different values of the Greek culture and the Persian culture in this famous book. From reading this work of Herodotus, it becomes clear that the values which each of these two cultures held, differed greatly.

“THIS IS SPARTA”, a famous quote from the Hollywood movie 300 (2006), is this movie by Zack Snyder true to what really happen? Sparta was a city-state in south west of Ancient Greece with a strict set of eugenics. Sparta was one of the two biggest and strongest city-states and is considered to have the strongest Army of its time. Persia was the super power of its time, it had expanding borders due to conquering and Persia had it eyes on Greece. After first failing to conquer Greece ten years earlier, Persia had returned to finish the job. The Battle of Thermopylae is the story of Sparta and its allies defending against the much bigger

Aeschylus' play, The Persians, took place at the Persian Royal Palace in Susa. It depicted the emotional response of the Persian Elders, the Queen Mother Atossa, a herald, King Xerxes, and the ghost of Darius upon hearing the news of the Persian defeat at the Battle of Salamis against the Greeks. The play began with a conversation amongst the Persians elders about their war with the Greeks. They possessed grave trepidations because of a lack of news from the front. This fear stemmed from the great risk King Xerxes took by calling all the heroes and soldiers of the Persian Empire to fight in Greece. At first, they were confident of their victory, describing their forces as an "unconquerable ocean of men". However, their fear persisted of their forces' decimation.

In reality Xerxes was far behind enemy lines where he couldn't get a spear in the cheek. Xerxes was also never that tall or never wore those clothes he was much shorter, fatter and wore fine silk clothes. Last minor difference was in the movie the Spartan soldiers were almost naked when going into battle. Actual spartan soldiers were covered head to toe in metal armor and never took their helmets off during combat.

Leonidas was the king of the Spartans during the time of the Persian War. The Spartans were the elite of the elite when it came to military strength. One of the greatest displays of his courage and honor was in his last battle, The Battle of Thermopylae. At the Battle of Thermopylae the Persians were trying to come down into Greece through the mountain pass Thermopylae. The odds were heavily against the Greeks with the Persians numbering in the hundreds of thousands and the Greeks only having a couple thousand Athenians and only 300 Spartan warriors under the command of King Leonidas. The Greeks stopped-up the pass with phalanxes and were slaughtering the Persians. The battle was looking like a major victory for the Greeks until the Persians discovered a back-road on a mountain pass and were about to surround the Greeks. King Leonidas told the remaining Athenian Greeks to flee back to Athens while he and his 300 hundred Spartans held off the Persians. The Spartan army caused massive damage to the Persian army by killing off thousands of them. All the Spartans died in that battle, along with Leonidas, but this weakened the Persians and allowed the

The battle of Thermopylae was the Greek’s first stand against the massive army of King Xerxes, and was the most influential battle of the entire war. Up to this point, the Persian army was seen as too massive and powerful to be stopped. The once warring city-states of Greece knew they couldn’t stand against the Persians alone, and knew in order to defend their homeland they would have to unite. A unity of command was agreed upon; King Leonidas of Sparta was chosen to lead the Greek forces. He was chosen to lead because of the unsurpassed warring abilities the Spartans were so well known for made him perfect for the objective of stopping the Persians.

I found four major internal conflicts present in the film: Leonidas’ unspoken love for his wife, Captain’s unspoken love for his son, Ephialtes’ desire to be needed and wanted, and Queen Gorgo’s struggle to determine how far she will go to help her husband. I believe the film is meant to be symbolic for freedom and the need for people’s sacrifice in the name of freedom. In the film there are 300 Spartans standing up to Xerxes and his, supposedly, millions of soldiers. The 300 not only willing put their life on the line they consider it an honor to fight and die for the freedom of their city and its people. 300 also has bit of irony in it, too. The 300 Spartans quite possibly could have held back Xerxes at Thermopylae if it had not been for Ephialtes. Ephialtes felt betrayed by Leonidas so, he informed the Persian command of a hidden trail that would allow them to flank the Spartans and ultimately lead to their defeat. The film is able to make the characters very relatable. There are plenty of close-ups and intense scores of music during important moments to help build emotion. These moments allow you to feel what the characters are feeling and help you to experience their internal struggles.

In Zack Snyder’s 300, the battle of Thermopylae, the life of the Spartans and the glory of war comes to life on the big screen for all audiences worldwide. The movie, 300, released in 2006 is based on the graphic novel written by Frank Miller, 300. The movie focuses on the use of the Classical past to portray everything from the upbringing of a Spartan to the bravery of King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans on the battle fields of Thermopylae against the mighty Persians. Unlike most Hollywood movies proliferated based on real events, the movie 300, keeps accurate to the novel and the events that occurred in history. Despite the minor alterations and exaggerations such abandoning body armor and over-glorifying the Spartans, the movie still remains faithful to both the novel and history by using the classical past to explore social norms, accurately depict the way of life, events that occurred such as the battle of Thermopylae and the nature of people during 500 BCE.

The Battle of Thermopylae, which Herodotus recorded in his writing The Histories, was one of the most arduous and notable battles of western history. Herodotus was an extremely significant historian who lived during the 5th century B.C. In this primary source writing, he portrays how Xerxes was superstitious and tyrannical, how the battle informs you about the Spartan culture, how the values of Greek promoted society, and he displayed how significant the Persian invasion was on Greek development, for example, their political and intellectual expansion. The Persian King Xerxes

The Battle of Thermopylae goes down in history for being one of the most heroic feats of bravery in any war. The Spartan King Leonidas led 300 Spartan warriors in a fight to block the Persian Army from passing into Greece through a two meter wide pass through the mountains of Thermopylae. The Persian army that vastly outnumbered the Spartans was beat back for two days and during those defeats they suffered heavy losses that outweighed the Spartans 20 to 1. All was lost on the third day after a traitor revealed to the Persian King Xexres that