300 Movie Vs Greek History
In this paper I will be comparing and contrasting the events that took place in the movie 300 to the real events that were recorded throughout history by many historians that have studied these events of the one of the strongest Hellenic city-states Sparta.
The movie 300 was set in the spring of 480 BC when the Persian King Xerxes was trying to follow in his fathers footsteps who continuing his master plan to conquer the Hellenic city-states, arrives in Hellas. The previous attempts by the Persians had already turned most northern Hellenic tribes and states to the Persian side. The citizens of Athens and Sparta, the largest Hellenic powers of the time felt disrespected by the Persian emissaries' request to surrender to Xerxes. In Sparta, King Leonidas meets with the local oracle, who gives him two options: Either a Spartan king will have to be sacrificed, or Sparta will be burned to the ground. A year earlier (481 BC) a Panhellenic consortium of all southern city-states had already recognized the superiority of the Spartan army (the best organized and trained army at the time) and had declared King Leonidas as supreme commander of the combined Hellenic army. The decision was then made to have a small force block Xerxes' route to southern Hellas in the Thermopylae passage. The size of this passage at the time was 12 meters wide. The great historian …show more content…
For the Pellopanisians, (including the 300 Spartans) the sign generally read " In this place 4,000 Pelloponisians fought 30 million)." For the 300 Spartans (Lakaedaemonians), the sign read "Oh foreigner, tell the Lakaedaemonians that we are buried here obeying their laws," meaning that they never hesitated and never retreated from the enemy. In the end the impact of the battle was enormous for both sides: For the Persians, their morale dropped to zero, and for the Hellenes, they lost their fear of the Persian conqueror and organized their
The movie 300 was set in the spring of 480 BC when the Persian King Xerxes was trying to follow in his fathers footsteps who continuing his master plan to conquer the Hellenic city-states, arrives in Hellas. The previous attempts by the Persians had already turned most northern Hellenic tribes and states to the Persian side. The citizens of Athens and Sparta, the largest Hellenic powers of the time felt disrespected by the Persian emissaries' request to surrender to Xerxes. In Sparta, King Leonidas meets with the local oracle, who gives him two options: Either a Spartan king will have to be sacrificed, or Sparta will be burned to the ground. A year earlier (481 BC) a Panhellenic consortium of all southern city-states had already recognized the superiority of the Spartan army (the best organized and trained army at the time) and had declared King Leonidas as supreme commander of the combined Hellenic army. The decision was then made to have a small force block Xerxes' route to southern Hellas in the Thermopylae passage. The size of this passage at the time was 12 meters wide. The great historian …show more content…
For the Pellopanisians, (including the 300 Spartans) the sign generally read " In this place 4,000 Pelloponisians fought 30 million)." For the 300 Spartans (Lakaedaemonians), the sign read "Oh foreigner, tell the Lakaedaemonians that we are buried here obeying their laws," meaning that they never hesitated and never retreated from the enemy. In the end the impact of the battle was enormous for both sides: For the Persians, their morale dropped to zero, and for the Hellenes, they lost their fear of the Persian conqueror and organized their