|
Discuss this article in the forums.
With the big success of 300 , there have been some "purists" who have expressed concerns that the movie is doing an injustice to history. I've had the same concern about movies like Flyboys, but not about 300.
First of all, the battle of Thermopylae happened nearly 2,500 years ago. Getting all the facts correct about the battle is impossible.
Second, anything we know of the battle was written by Greek historians who where inspired by the acts of their fellow Greeks. Their accounts and poems read like a propaganda news report straight from the Stars and Stripes during the Battle of the Bulge.
With all that said, the movie got the outline of the battle correct. Some plot was added and minor things changed, but nothing truly of consequence.
Here is what was reported by the Greek historians that 300 got right.
- 7,000 Greeks were led by King Leonidas to fight against the Persian Empire's 100,000 to 2,000,000 in the narrow pass of Thermopylae (Greek estimates).
- Before the battle began, there were approximately 200 Persian ships destroyed by a violent storm.
- The Spartans yelled "come and take them" when the Persians ordered them to throw down their weapons.
- The battle lasted for three days with the Greeks stopping several waves of attacks.
- The goat path behind the Spartans was betrayed by a Greek traitor named Ephialtes.
- At this point, all troops fled or surrendered except for the 300.
- A Spartan did say, "Then we will fight in the shade" in response to someone saying that the Persians arrows will hide the sky.
- The Spartans fought until the last man was slain in a sea of arrows.
- 4,500 Greeks died including the 300 and 20,000 of the Persian Empire died (Greek estimates).
After that, the makers of the film had plenty of creative licenses, but they caught the essence of the story that has inspired Greeks and others for two and a half millennium.
References
Hamilton, Edith (1993). The Greek way. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
Hanson, Victor Davis (2006, October 11). History and the Movie "300". Retrieved March 14, 2007, from http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson101106.html
Hanson, Victor Davis (1999). Wars of the ancient Greeks. Washington: Smithsonian Books.
Perrett, Bryan (1992). The battle book: crucial conflicts in history from 1469 BC to the present. London, England: Arms and Armour Press.
Trager, James (1994). The people's chronology: a year-by-year record of human events from prehistory to present. New York, NY: Henry Holt.
Discuss this article in our forums
Got something to say on this topic? Tell us about it in our forums.
|
