The 300 Spartans

October 2015 Hollywood vs History The movie 300 is about the events of the Battle of Thermopylae. Of course, it is a dramatized version of the actual events of history. Hollywood takes historical events and dresses them up with glam and over exaggerations to catch the viewers interest. This can be bad in some situations because it can leave the viewer with the impression that certain things happened when they actually might not have. The movie 300, while enjoyable to watch, is a very…

The Movie 300 and the Real Battle of Thermopylae The Battle of Thermopylae. There may be some people who have never heard about it before, but it was the kind of battle that people made movies out of. The movie 300 was made in 2006 and is a retelling of this famous battle during the Persian Wars in 479 BC. This battle is of important significance due to the intensity of the battle itself and the outcome. This is the battle where 300 Spartans were lead into battle by King Leonidas of Sparta.…

Frank Miller’s 300 is both a graphic novel and a film adaptation by Zach Snyder. Both serve as a story telling of the famed battle of the pass at Thermopylae previously told by Herodotus. It tells of the Spartan King Leonidas bravely leading 300 Spartan warriors against the very large Persian army. Frank Miller details the story of the strong but grossly outnumbered Spartans, the story’s obvious underdog. The Persian army according to history was in the recent business of acquiring land by force…

“Others” The film 300 had a main focus of the Spartans and their elite soldiers. Anyone that was not a member of this elite society was depicted as “others.” “The Greeks created a new set of ideas about what it was to be a member of a human community” (Herodotus, Histories). The film came out at a sensitive time for today’s Persians and was received in a very negative way by them. It was in a time of war and many saw it as an attack and a ploy to unite Americans against the Persians. There were…

most know was Sparta. Sparta only had 300 solders called Spartans. The Spartans fought as a single unit, they were led by King Leonidas. Leonidas I lead the 300 Spartans and about 100,000 other Greek soldiers to fight in the Battle of Thermopylae. They were ready to fight the Greeks with full force. Xerxes was surprised that they were ready. On 480 BC, is when the battle began, the first wave of Persians charged at the Spartans, the Spartans began to…

much true. Throughout Spartan history, babies were brought to the council by their parents, for an inspection. This inspection would now be called infanticide. Infanticide is the killing of a child within a year of birth. During the inspection, council men who are generally sixty years old or older would check for any deformities in the children before deciding if they were fit to be a Spartan. The inspection determined their fate. Would they grow up to be a strong Spartan warrior or cast over…

which taught the Spartan males the true values of Spartan life and society. The boys learnt obedience to the law, companionship, bravery and self-sacrifice. After the second Messenian War Spartan life was based on controlling a large number of enslaved helots. . Through its hard training the Agoge taught in Spartan citizens mental and physical qualities needed to preserve their life and society to defend it against internal and external threats. Ten days after a child was born, Spartan babies…

amongst itself for a while because no one could decide what to do about the massive armies that were coming their way. Eventually, the Greek cities voted that Sparta should lead the Greek army because of its uncontested reputation during wartime. The Spartans elected to defend Greece from the North, on a mountain pass called Thermopylae. The Greek soldiers only numbered about 6,500…

Spartans were proud people. They pride themselves in being the most military focused city-state. They practiced and mastered almost every military practice known in that time. Sparta valued military strength over the many city-states of Greece, and they succeeded in doing so. The army of Sparta was almost always outnumbered, but they were so tough, that they managed to push through and emerge victorious in most battles. The strengths outweigh the weaknesses because they had an advanced…

Women and gender have played huge roles in our history and in ancient films that we see today. We have seen these gender roles in Troy, 300, Alexander and many more. Throughout ancient history, women have showed and have helped us understand more about different ancient Greek cultures. With there role in society we are able to find out more about how each Ancient Greek city felt about gender and gender roles. The roles that women have played in history and in these movies are different and…