GO TELL THE SPARTANS

ON THIS DAY in 480 BC, Leonidas reaches Thermopylae with 300 Spartans and 700 Allies.

King Leonidas and the Spartans before the famous "Wall of Bodies" on the third day of their heroic stand.


Thermopylae is one of the most famous battles of the ancient world, of course; it took place in northern Greece during the Persian Wars. The Greek forces, led by King Leonidas of Sparta, managed to hold out for three days against the forces of Persian king Xerxes I, said to have numbered "one million" but probably closer to 200,000. Still, the feat of the Spartans was remarkable. Eventually Leonidas released the other Greek forces and a small Spartan contingent remained behind to resist the advance. The Greeks were only defeated after a traitor betrayed a route by which the Persians were able to outflank them. Leonidas and the remaining members of his original 300 Spartans were killed to the last man.

Leonidas' plan was remarkable for taking advantage of the terrain. At the time of the battle, Thermopylae - which literally means "Hot Gates" due to the presence of natural hot springs - was a narrow neck of land between mountains to the west, and the sea to the east. Leonidas was able to place his forces in this narrow "bottleneck" and thereby wear the Persian forces down in a deliberate delaying tactic, allowing the Greek City-State Alliance to better prepare for a more effective defense deeper within the homeland.

I visited Thermopylae when I was training with Greek Special Forces in the lead up to the 2004 Olympics, which of course were held in Athens. An earthquake in ancient times, and the continuous deposition of sediment from the river and hot springs has substantially altered the landscape during the past few thousand years.

The site of the battle today - the road to the right is built on reclaimed land and approximates the 480 BC shoreline.


Two monument mark the spot of this historic clash between the cultures of East and West:

The modern monument at Thermopylae.

The modern monument bears the words "Molon Labe" (ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ) meaning "Come and take them" - the defiant words reportedly spoken by King Leonidas in response to Xerxes' demand that the Spartans surrender their weapons.


The ancient monument was placed on top of the burial mound of the Spartans at Last Stand Hill:

The commemorative stone marking the last stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae.


The original stone has not survived the ravages of time, but in 1955, the world's most famous epitaph was engraved on a new stone. The text from Herodotus is:

Ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε

κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.

"Go Tell the Spartans, Oh Passerby,

that here, in accordance with their Laws,

Three Hundred Lie"

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THE WARRIOR ETHOS

Incredibly, there is actually a blog called this, and even better it's Steve Pressfield's blog. Pressfield is the author of Gates of Fire, of course; story of the epic battle of Thermopylae, where the three hundred Spartans sacrificed themselves to save their country - the cradle of our Western Civilization - from assimilation and servitude to the Persian Empire.

Steve Pressfield explores the Warrior Ethos in his writings. As well as Gates of Fire, Pressfield also wrote The Legend of Bagger Vance, a story of the warrior mystique juxtaposed upon a golf tournament. Bagger Vance was successfully produced as a movie, of course, directed by Robert Redford and starring Will Smith, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron.

Set in Depression-era Savannah, a privileged Southern aristocrat Rannulph Junah suffers shell-shock from his experiences of World War I, where his entire platoon was wiped out; in the course of the story, Junah attempts to recover his game and his life with help from a mystical caddy. The Legend of Bagger Vance is loosely based on the Hindu sacred text Bhagavad Gita, where the warrior hero Arjuna refuses to fight. The God Krishna appears as Bhagavan to help him to follow his path as the warrior and hero that he was meant to be. This relationship was fully explained by Steven J. Rosen in his book Gita on the Green, for which Steven Pressfield wrote the foreword.

The game of Golf is actually symbolic combat based on ancient warfare; the golf clubs are actually tiny war hammers, and the white ball symbolizes the skulls of our enemies, which we tap into holes in the ground.


Back to Thermopylae

This is a worthy event to investigate, for anyone interested in the Warrior Ethos.

The Battle of Thermopylae (Greek: Μάχη τῶν Θερμοπυλῶν) was fought between an alliance of Greek city-states, led by Sparta, and the Persian Empire of Xerxes. The battle occurred during the second Persian invasion of Greece, at the pass of Thermopylae ('The Hot Gates'). The Persian invasion was a delayed response to the defeat of the first Persian invasion of Greece, ten years prior at the Battle of Marathon. Xerxes amassed a huge army and navy and set out to conquer all of Greece.

The Second Persion Invasion of Greece.

A Greek force of approximately 7,000 men marched north to block the pass in the summer of 480 BC. The Persian army (alleged by the ancient sources to have numbered one million but actually considered at between 100,000 and 300,000) arrived at the pass in late August or early September. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held off the Persians for three days in combat, before the rear-guard was annihilated in one of history's most heroic last stands. During two full days of battle, the small force led by King Leonidas I of Sparta blocked the only road by which the massive Persian army could pass. After the second day of battle, a local resident named Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks by revealing a small path that led behind the Greek lines. Aware that his force was being outflanked, Leonidas dismissed the bulk of the Greek army, and remained in a rearguard element of 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans and perhaps a few hundred others, the vast majority of whom were killed.

I had the opportunity to visit the site of the Battle of Thermopylae, while training with Greek Special Forces prior to the 2004 Olympics.

Simonides Monument on the Kolonos hillock, believed to be the actual location of the Last Stand.

Ω ΞΕΙΝ ΑΓΓΕΛΛΕΙΝ ΛΑΚΕΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΟΙΣ ΟΤΙ ΤΗΔΕ ΚΕΙΜΕΘΑ ΤΟΙΣ ΚΕΙΝΩΝ ΡΗΜΑΣΙ ΠΕΙΘΟΜΕΝΟΙ
"Go tell the Spartans, Passerby, that here, in accordance to their laws, Three Hundred lie."


At the time of the battle, Thermopylae was actually a pass between the mountains and the sea; control of this pass was critical to the Greek defensive strategy. Due to seismic activity, however, the shoreline has shifted, and the seas have withdrawn. A modern highway roughly follows the ancient shoreline.

A modern view of the pass at Thermopylae, viewed roughly from the area of the Spartan camp northward toward the Persian position. The modern road marks the ancient shoreline.

Thermopylae shoreline changes over the course of history.


Thermopylae is viewed by scholars as “the battle that changed the world”. The clash between the Spartans and other Greeks on one side, and the Persian horde on the other, was a clash between freedom and slavery. The Greek victories at Thermopylae Marathon, fought some ten years earlier, were turning-points not only in the history of Ancient Greece, but also of World History; subjugation to the Persians would have snuffed out Western Civilization in its infancy. In the mid-19th century, the economist John Stuart Mill described the battle of Marathon as “more important than the battle of Hastings, even as an event in English history”.

The modern monument of the Spartans with the bronze statue of Leonidas. An inscription reads Molon Labe; King Leonidas' reply to Xerxes demand that the Greeks lay down their arms: "Come and Get Them."




Saturday Bird HERE - King Leonidas would approve.



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