how much of the Movie 300 is related to Ancient Sparta?
The 2006 movie 300 is based on the graphic novel ‘300’ by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley about the Battle of Thermopylae. The movie uses a lot of fiction to make the story more interesting and movie like, but is backed up by the use of historic facts. But how much of the Movie 300 is related to Ancient Sparta? Does the movie only use real places or is there more history in it then we think? A lot of answers about the movie 300 have been answered using the great Greek historian Herodotus as a source of information.
The Battle of Thermopylae took place in Thermopylae, Greece 480 BC between the Persians and Greeks. 300 follows the main idea of the historical battle but in many aspects adds things in. A prime example of this is the number Greeks that fought. The movie makes us believe that 300 Spartans with a handful of other Greeks fought in the battle, when in fact a total of approximately 7000 Greeks including the 300 Spartans fought. On the other hand aspects such as some of the movies main characters of the battle have been documented as real people from the time such as the King and Queen of Sparta (King Leonidas and Queen Gorgo) and the Persian king (king Xerxes).
The movie itself might be based on the Battle, but spends a lot of its time flashing back to the Spartan city where an idea of Spartan life is seen. The movie has Queen Gorgo playing an important figure in the cities life with forms of political power and influence who gives military and political advice to her husband. An example of this is during the scene when the Persian messenger insults the queen for interrupting the political conversation between him and the king (between only men) which resulted in him being kicked down into a bottomless pit. Spartan women had more rights than the rest of Greece population; this set them apart from other city-states culture wise.
The movie shows a religious aspect of Sparta, which involved King Leonidas consulting with an Oracle at Delphi. The oracle is seen as a woman with great wisdom and a spiritual nature; she has great influence over political, military and major decisions in life. Herodotus had said that it was the Oracle who told Leonidas to go to war and that he must die to save Greece, if he didn’t, Greece would fall. This gave King Leonidas his decision to stay and fight, it is also believed that this was the reason he never backed down even when things turned for the worse, since he believed that with his death, Greece will be saved.
The Persians of the movie are seen as a great Evil and the Spartans as Good, but in reality Sparta like all of cities of Greece constantly fought over land and to build their slave force. The battle of Thermopylae is famous for many reasons, one reasons is it was one of the rare occasions when all of Greece allied to fight a common enemy. The Persian army had many deformed characters and beast, even their king and his personal body guard army ‘The immortals’ were deformed. This aspect of the movie is pure fiction, mainly because the Persian army consisted of only men, not beasts or giant deformed monstrous men like creators. King Xerxes is seen as a 9 foot man covered in piercings, when in fact he wasn’t.
The Immortals are Xerxes personal Body guard army; in the movie they wear silver masks to cover their demon like faces. In reality, the Immortals were a real force that served the Persian rulers during the Greco-Persian Wars. They did cover their faces with black cloth and used light armour with wicker shields as protection. This on the other hand were nothing compared to the Spartan warriors way of fighting and their armour. Spartans unlike the ones depicted in the movie wore body armour, for Greeks body armour was a valuable asset. The Spartan warriors were known as hoplites that used a spear as their main weapon with their large round shields. The Immortals got there name for maintaining strength of 10,000 men, even if some are wounded or died, they would instantly replaced.
The Movie has the Spartans betrayed by one of their own a local shepherd named Ephialtes. In the movie Ephialtes was seen as a deformed hunched backed man who sold out the Spartans in hope for a generous reward. The Spartans were in fact betrayed by the local Ephialtes for a reward, but he wasn’t deformed like depicted in the Movie. The deformities of the Persians and of Ephialtes were added in to strengthen the notion that the Persians were the Evil, or bad guys of the film.
Since the story of the movie was based on an actual battle, there were aspects that must had to be kept if the story was to be true. Which is what the directors of 300 did, but this didn’t stop them from changing parts of the story to make it more interesting and ‘out there’. The fiction added to the movie gave more interest to the movie so that it would appeal more to the audience which is the target for any successful movie.
From the written evidence from Herodotus, studies from novelists of ‘300’ and modern historians all have shown to the best of their ability the story of Thermopylae. The directors of 300 did follow the story and many aspects of the historic last stand of 300 Spartans and their fellow Greeks. But without the added fiction to bring significance to characters, more appeal and a personalisation of what the directors thought would best suit the Spartan warriors the movie wouldn’t off been as successful as it was.
Bibliography
- http://www.fanpop.com/spots/ancient-history/videos/1023350/title/true-history-about-300-movie-spartans?part=1 - 10 part youtube video called ' The True History about 300 the movie, Spartans
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae - information on the battle of Thermopylae
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus - info on Herodotus
