2. King Leonidas and his
leadership in the the
Greek and Persian war is
one of my favorite
Ancient Greek stories.
Ancient Greece has always been
fascinating to me. Men trained every
day of their life since they could
walk, to be warriors. Women were
just as trained in gymnastics and
fighting, as they were the last
defense for the city.
The culture was driven by the art of
combat and war. There’s no such
place like that today.
3. In late 480 BC, Persian king Xerxes lead an army of over 100,000 men to conquer
any land that was nearby and unclaimed by the Persians. This lead to a war
between Persia and Greece. After turning down an offer to submit to Persia,
Leonidas lead his 300 Spartans through the geographic favoring trail to lead them
to the opposing army. For three days the 300 warriors held off the Persian masses,
all taking place on the cliff side of the Gulf of Malia. The Battle for Thermopylae
ended after three days (Lohnes,18), when the Spartans refused to give up and
retreat, and fought to the death being overwhelmed by such big numbers.
It’s worth noting that the story of the battle was greatly over dramatized on both
sides of this war.
King Leonidas being pressured to
submit to Xerxes
4. I enjoy this story because of the tactical warfare
and battle strategy that the spartans held. They
took on 20,000 forces just by using narrow
geographic mountain passes that cause severe
bottlenecking issue for the Persian army. The
Spartan battle formations were designed
specifically to work as one large unit. The is
called a Hoplite Phalanx, in which shields and
long pole arms are the main weapons and
defense for each soldier.
The importance of this battle was
also a factors as to why I
appreciate the story. King Leonidas
fought for the freedom of his
people, to prevent the tyrant
Xerxes from turning the Greek
population into slaves. Nicolo Arena, DensityDesign Research Lab
5. The 300 Spartans movie was
the first telling of the story in
modern day.
This movie help shaped the telling of ancient
wars in the in 1960’s. But the movie shaped
the creative outlook for a young Frank Miller.
6. In 1998 Frank Miller
published his take on the
Battle of Thermopylae.
This graphic novel is what drove the
media to re-imagine the war between
the Greek and Persians. The artwork
for this story was able to show Millers
vision, without having to rely on the
limitation of a movies practical
effects.This made the comic an instant
hit for a telling of such a violent war.
7. Zach Synder’s 300 was an industry changing
movie. Visceral CGI, brutally violent fight scenes,
and breath taking cinematography changes the
landscape of not only movies, but also a more
visually telling of this bloody story.
The movie was based on the Mark Miller
comic, more so than the actually events,
but aside from a few changes, the story
was still close to the actual events.
9. How technology added to this story, a recap
• The story was originally told via word of mouth, and again
after the Persian-Greco war on parchment.
• Once technology was up to par, a movie was developed
in 1962 about the 300.
• A graphic novel was mass produced to tell the story of
King Leonidas
• The movie adaptation of the graphic novel changed the
vision of the story to be more gruesome, while also
coming up with new filming techniques and cgi effects
10. The dramatization of the 300 story may have added a lot of exaggeration to
the story, for the sake of entertainment purposes. This adds more to the
“underdog” aspect of the story, where it is far more impressive to skew the
numbers of the Persian army, as well as the final numbers of Greece’s army
at the end of the movie. The story Is also portraying the Persian army as
more demonizing and soulless troops, disfigured and ugly compared to the
6 pack wielding, handsome Spartans.
11. Many cultures have used the
techniques that were perfected in
this story. Between wars throughout
time, there have been many wars
and battles that have taken insight
from this story. This leads to new
stories that share the same themes.
The Battle of Tirad Pass in the
Philippines drew the opposing
forces into a bottleneck that made
the fights more equal.(MacKenzie,
15) The Battle of Wizna in Poland
had their 500+ plus army take on
more than 40,000 German soldiers,
in a battle that lasted three days as
well.(Blazesk,16)
Painting by John Steeple Davis
12. The Battle of Thermopylae is an example of heroic
sacrifice against impossible odds (Lohnes,18). During
the duration of history, any battle that relates to the
one-sided affair, draws direct correlation to the
Spartan and Persian battle.
13. Resources
-Battle of Thermopylae, Written by Kate Lohnes and Donald Sommerville on Jun 05, 2018
Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Thermopylae-Greek-history-480-BC
-The Philippine Thermopylae at Tirad Pass by Brian Scott MacKenzie on Dec 2, 2015. Retrived from
https://medium.com/@brianscottmackenzie/the-filipino-thermopylae-at-tirad-pass-2fd4f8b04e0d
-The Battle of Wizna - Around 800 Polish soldiers held of 42,000 Nazi soldiers for three days By Goran Blazesk on Sep 20, 2016.
Retrieved from
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/09/20/battle-wizna-around-800-polish-soldiers-held-off-42000-nazi-soldiers-three-days
-300, Written by Frank Miller, produced in May of 1998,
-300, Directed by Zack Snyder, released on March 9th 2007.
