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The Battle of Thermopylae has been the topic of a large cultural inspiration, as it is perhaps the most famous last stand of all time. This "against all odds" story is passed to us from Herodotus. He relates the story of 300 Spartans defending the Pass of Thermopylae holding out against almost "2 million" [sic] Persians for three days.[1]. Combatants Greek-city states Persian Empire Commanders Leonidas I †Xerxes I the Great of Persia Strength 300 Spartans 700 Thespians 6,000 other Greek allies2 60,000-2,000,000 (estimates vary)1 Casualties 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians; 1,400 Greek allies in total. ...
Last stand is a loose military term used to describe a body of troops holding a defensive position in the face of overwhelming odds. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Although modern historians have questioned the numbers presented by Herodotus, with most agreeing at around 150,000 invaders, the story has resonated with authors and poets for centuries. The bravery and resolution of the Spartans is inspiring.
Cultural references
- Thermopylae has been used as a name for ships; for example, a clipper ship 212 feet in length displacing 91 tons was launched in Aberdeen in 1868. Christened Thermopylae, it established speed records and was also notable for having a male figurehead wearing armor, helmet, shield and sword.
- The battle of Thermopylae has become legend among pro-gun activists, who espouse the phrase molon labe a quote attributed to Leonidas at the battle.
1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...
Thermopylae was a clipper ship built in 1868 by Walter Hood & Co of Aberdeen to the design of Bernard Weymouth of London for the White Star Line of Aberdeen. ...
Molon Labe! (Greek: ΜOΛΩΠΛΑΒΕ or , ancient pronunciation (IPA): , modern: ) means Come and take them! // The first word, , is the aorist active participle (masculine, nominative, singular) of the Greek verb βλώσκω, meaning having come. ...
Poetry and song | Verse(s) | Notes |
Earth! render back from out thy breast
A remnant of our Spartan dead!
Of the three hundred grant but three,
To make a new Thermopylae! | Lord Byron
Don Juan
Canto iii, Stanza 86, 7 |
The King with half the East at heel is marched from land of morning;
Their fighters drink the rivers up, their shafts benight the air,
And he that stands will die for nought, and home there's no returning.
The Spartans on the sea-wet rock sat down and combed their hair. | A. E. Housman,
The Oracles (last verse)
from his book "Last Poems". |
I was neither at the hot gates
Nor fought in the warm rain
Nor knee deep in the salt marsh, heaving a cutlass,
Bitten by flies, fought. | Observation by
the decaying, regretful speaker
of T. S. Eliot's "Gerontion". |
O love, O celibate.
Nobody but me
Walks the waist high wet.
The irreplaceable
Golds bleed and deepen, the mouths of Thermopylae. | Sylvia Plath,
suicide at 31,
faces her own Themopylae
walking in the garden
in the poem
"Letter in November". |
"Go tell it" -- What a Message --
To whom -- is specified --
Not murmur -- not endearment --
But simply -- we -- obeyed --
Obeyed -- a Lure -- a Longing?
Oh Nature -- none of this --
To Law -- said sweet Thermopylae
I give my dying Kiss -- | In Emily Dickinson's
"'Go tell it' — what a message"
she is definitely
no jurist. |
When boyhood's fire was in my blood
I read of ancient free men
In Greece and in Rome where bravely stood
300 men and three men | The first verse of
Thomas Osborne Davis'
"A Nation Once Again". | When You Go Home,
Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow,
We Gave Our Today | The epitaph inscribed on the
Commonwealth cemetery
war memorial at Kohima,
probably inspired by the epitaph of Simonides. Attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds | | Verse original | Verse translation | Notes | “Exercitus noster est magnus,” Persicus inquit, “et propter
numerum sagittarum nostrarum caelum non videbitis!”
Tum Lacedaemonius respondet: “In umbra, igitur, pugnabimus!”
Et Leonidas, rex Lacedaemoniorum, exclamat: “Pugnate cum animis,
Lacedaemonii; hodie apud umbras fortasse cenabimus!” | “Our army is great,” the Persian says, “and because
of the number of our arrows you will not see the sky!”
Then a Spartan answers: “In the shade, therefore, we will fight!”
And Leonidas, king of the Spartans, shouts: “Fight with spirit,
Spartans; perhaps we will dine today among the ghosts!” | Cicero | Τιμή σ' εκεινους όπου στην ζωή των
ώρισαν να φυλάγουν Θερμοπύλες.
Πότε από το χρέος μη κινούντες΄
δίκαιοι κ' ίσοι,σ'ολες των τες πράξεις,
αλλά με λύπη κιόλας κ' ευσπλαχνία,
γενναίοι οσάκις είναι πλούσιοι κι όταν
είναι πτωχοί, πάλ' εις μικρόν γενναίοι,
πάλι συντρέχοντες, όσο μπορούνε΄
πάντοτε την αλήθεια ομιλούντες,
πλην χωρίς μίσος για τους ψευδωμένους.
Και περισσότερη τιμή τους πρέπει
όταν προβλέπουν (και πολλοί προβλέπουν)
πως ο Εφιάλτης θα φανεί στο τέλος,
και οι Μήδοι επί τέλους θα διαβούνε. Lord Byron, English poet Lord Byron (1803), as painted by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, (January 22, 1788 – April 19, 1824) was the most widely read English language poet of his day. ...
Alfred Edward Housman (March 26, 1859 – April 30, 1936), usually known as A.E. Housman, was an English poet and classical scholar, now best known for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. ...
Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965), was a poet, dramatist and literary critic. ...
Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist. ...
This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Thomas Osborne Davis (October 14, 1814 - September 16, 1845) was an Irish writer and politician who was the chief organizer and poet of the Young Ireland movement. ...
The Commonwealth of Nations (CN), usually known as The Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states all of which are former colonies of the United Kingdom, except for Mozambique and the United Kingdom itself. ...
The Azmak Cemetery, near Suvla Bay, Turkey, contains the graves of some of the soldiers who died during the Gallipoli Campaign. ...
This memorial in England lists the names of soldiers who died in the First World War. ...
Kohima is the hilly capital of Indias north eastern border state of Nagaland which shares its borders with Burma. ...
Cicero at about age 60, from an ancient marble bust Marcus Tullius Cicero (IPA:Classical Latin pronunciation: , usually pronounced in English; January 3, 106 BC – December 7, 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, political theorist, philosopher, widely considered one of Romes greatest orators and prose stylists. ...
| Let honor be to those in whose life
it was set to guard Thermopylae.
Never moving away from duty;
Just and equals in all of their acts
But with sadness and compassion
Brave once they are rich and when
They are poor, again brave
Coming to aid as much as they can;
Always speaking the truth
But without hate for those who lie.
And even more honor they deserve
When its predicted (and many predict)
That Ephialtes will appear in the end
And the Medes will finally pass through
| The Greek poet Kavafis who lived in Alexandria
of Egypt at the turn of the 20th century
wrote one of his more famous poems entitled
Thermopylae in 1903. The poem actually created
the expression guarding Thermopylae and has been
told in honor of other dead, such as those of
the Imia crisis. Cavafy, around 1900 in Alexandria, Egypt Constantine P. Cavafy, also known as Konstantin or Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, or Kavaphes (Greek Κωνσταντίνος Π. Καβάφης) (April 29, 1863 – April 29, 1933) was a Greek poet who is oftenly included in the most important literary figures of the 20th century. ...
---- Alexandria (Greek: , Coptic: , Arabic: , Egyptian Arabic: Iskindireyya), (population of 3. ...
Imia and Kardak are the Greek and Turkish names, respectively, of a set of two small uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea, 2. ...
| Przechodniu powiedz Polsce
żeśmy polegli
wierni w jej służbie | Passerby, tell Poland
that we fell
faithfully in her service | Inscription on the Polish war cemetery at Monte Cassino: | La patria así se forma
Termópilas brotando;
constelación de Cíclopes
su noche iluminó | And so the nation forms
Thermopylae springing;
a Cyclops constellation
its night enlightened | The National Anthem of Colombia, IX Stanza IX: | Combatants United States United Kingdom Poland New Zealand Canada Free France India and others Germany Commanders Harold Alexander Mark Clark Oliver Leese Albert Kesselring Heinrich von Vietinghoff Frido von Senger Strength 105,000 80,000 Casualties 54,000 20,000 The Battle of Monte Cassino (also known as the Battle...
In 1887, a Bogota comedian named José Domingo Torres, combined his two passions of theatrical music and his love for his country to push for the creation of a national anthem for Colombia. ...
Dimitris Varos (born 1949 on the island of Chios) is a modern Greek poet, journalist, and photographer, . He has been director and editor-in-chief of many Greek national newspapers, including Chiakos Laos, Acropolis, Ethnos, Proti, Ethnos tis Kyriakis,Typos tis Kyriakis and many national magazines. ...
Novels | Author | Novel | Description | | German author and Nobel Prize in Literature recipient Heinrich Böll | Wanderer, kommst Du nach Spa... | Takes its title from the German translation of the inscription on the Spartans' tomb. In it a young German soldier at the end of the Second World War is wounded on the Eastern Front and is brought to a field hospital which was a school. He wonders if it could be his school, which he only recently left to become a soldier. On seeing the partially erased quotation of the title on a chalkboard, his question is answered. | | David Gemmell | The Lion of Macedon | Discusses the Battle of Thermopylae several times as part of the studies of the lead character, a Spartan named Parmenion. | | Stephen King | The Dark Tower | Includes a comparison with the Battle of Thermopylae when a character fights alone against a series of enemies coming through a single doorway. | | Valerio Massimo Manfredi | The Spartan | Gives an account of the Battle of Thermopylae. The novel uses the battle to set up one of the protagonists who is apparently sent out on a mission by King Leonidas before the final Persian attack. | | Written and illustrated by Frank Miller (with painted colors by Lynn Varley) | 300 (graphic novel) | Depicts the Battle of Thermopylae and the events leading up to it from the perspective of Leonidas. The comic was particularly inspired by the film The 300 Spartans, and was made into a movie called 300 in 2007. | | Jerry Pournelle | Novels set in the Empire of Man Universe | The seat of the Empire of Man is located on the planet Sparta, not Earth. An Emperor at the time of the Mote in God's Eye stories is named Leonidas. | | Steven Pressfield | Gates of Fire | Depicts the battle as told by a squire of Dienekes, who had been wounded during the fight, but was revived to tell Xerxes of the Spartans' heroism. | | John Ringo | Ghost, 2004 | Includes a description of the battle fought at Thermopylae, and quotes Simonides' epigram. | | Gene Wolfe | Soldier of the Mist, 1986
Soldier of Arete, 1989 | Narrated by Latro, a soldier who fought on the Persian side at Plataea (after Thermopylae) and suffered a serious head wound there, which makes him forget everything after 24 hours. | Nobel Prize in Literature medal. ...
A monument of Heinrich Böll in Berlin Heinrich Theodor Böll (December 21, 1917 – July 16, 1985) was one of Germanys foremost post-World War II writers. ...
Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...
The Eastern Front was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ...
Field hospital of the Radom-Kielce Home Army area, during the Operation Tempest of 1944 A field hospital is a large mobile medical unit that takes care of the casualties outside the hospital buildings. ...
David Andrew Gemmell (August 1, 1948–July 28, 2006) was a popular UK fantasy writer and occasional historical fictionalist. ...
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author best known for his enormously popular horror novels. ...
The Dark Tower is the seventh and final book of novelist Stephen Kings Dark Tower series, published September 21, 2004 (Kings birthday) by Donald M. Grant Publishers, and illustrated by Michael Whelan. ...
Valerio Massimo Manfredi (born 1943) is an Italian scholar of archaeology, journalist, TV host, mainly famous as historical novelist. ...
Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American writer, artist and film director best known for his film noir-style comic book stories. ...
Lynn Varley is an artist who has been responsible for the coloring of several comics. ...
300 is a historically-inspired comic book (later collected as a graphic novel) written and illustrated by Frank Miller with painted colors by Lynn Varley. ...
Trade paperback of Will Eisners A Contract with God (1978), often mistakenly cited as the first graphic novel. ...
The 300 Spartans was a 1962 war film depicting the Battle of Thermopylae. ...
300 is a 2007 film adaptation of the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller about the Battle of Thermopylae. ...
2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the Anno Domini (common) era. ...
Jerry Pournelle at the 2006 Stanford Singularity Summit Jerry Pournelle, (born August 7, 1933) is an American essayist, journalist and science fiction author who contributed for many years to the computer magazine Byte. ...
The Mote in Gods Eye, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, is a science fiction novel that was first published in 1974. ...
Steven Pressfield is an American author, predominatedly of military historical fiction set in classical antiquity. ...
Gates of Fire is a 1998 novel by Steven Pressfield that recounts the Battle of Thermopylae through Xeones, a Spartan squire and the lone survivor of the battle. ...
John Ringo is an American science fiction and fantasy author, who specializes in the subgenre of military science fiction, concentrating on SF scenarios that have a lot of infantry battles and other types of ground combat. ...
Ghost is a novel by John Ringo. ...
Gene Wolfe (born May 7, 1931) is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. ...
Films | Film | Date | Description | | The 300 Spartans | 1962 | Depicts the Battle of Thermopylae. | | Patton | 1970 | General Patton refers to the Battle of Thermopylae when talking with his generals and aides, does not tell them the result of the battle until after the U.S. troops have already been sent off to fight. | | Go Tell the Spartans | 1978 | Makes direct reference to Thermopylae, comparing the French defenders of a Vietnamese village to the Spartans, and forecasting the same result for a later generation of American soldiers. In this case, the technology is on the side of the defenders. | | The Last Samurai | 2003 | The main characters refer to the battle of Thermopylae twice, including right before engaging in a battle they are almost certain to lose. | | 300 | 2007 | Based on Frank Miller's graphic novel 300, a retelling of the battle from the perspective of Leonidas. | The 300 Spartans was a 1962 war film depicting the Battle of Thermopylae. ...
Patton is a 1970 epic biographical film which tells the story of General George Pattons commands during World War II. It stars George C. Scott, Karl Malden, Michael Bates, and Karl Michael Vogler. ...
Go Tell the Spartans is a low-budget and critically acclaimed 1978 American film about U.S. advisors in the early days of the Vietnam War. ...
The Last Samurai is an action/drama film written by John Logan and Edward Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz based on a story by Logan. ...
300 is a 2007 film adaptation of the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller about the Battle of Thermopylae. ...
300 is a historically-inspired comic book (later collected as a graphic novel) written and illustrated by Frank Miller with painted colors by Lynn Varley. ...
Television | Show | Episode | Description | | Samurai Jack | "Jack and the Spartans" | A group of warriors, similar in appearance to Spartans, defend a narrow gateway against a vast robot army. They have been in combat for 300 years. At the end of the episode the King remarks the 300 and 1 (300 warriors and Jack) when retelling the tale on his death bed. | | Xena: Warrior Princess | "One Against an Army" | Xena and Gabrielle have to defend the pass of Thermopylae from the invading Persian army. However, in this version of the story, Xena herself is up against 300 Persian soldiers, and not 300 Spartans against thousands of Persians. | | SeaQuest | "Spindrift" | After being shot during a rescue mission of his shipmate Loonie Henderson, SeaQuest's chief of security Jim Brody's last dying words are "Back with your shield or on it", a reference to a saying attributed to mothers of Spartan men as they went to war. Captain Hudson later explains to Henderson that Brody meant his sacrifice for her, just like the Greeks at Thermopylae, was worth it. | | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | "What You Leave Behind" | Dr. Julian Bashir, who has a penchant for last stands, offers to take Ezri Dax on a date in a holosuite program depicting the Battle of Thermopylae. | Samurai Jack was an Emmy-award winning animated television series created by animator Genndy Tartakovsky that aired on Cartoon Network from 2001 until 2004. ...
Xena. ...
The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...
Space station Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (ST:DS9 or STDS9 or DS9 for short) is a science fiction television series produced by Paramount and set in the Star Trek universe. ...
What You Leave Behind is the final episode of the television show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. ...
Julian Subatoi Bashir, M.D., (played by Alexander Siddig) is a character in the fictional Star Trek universe. ...
Last stand is a loose military term used to describe a body of troops holding a defensive position in the face of overwhelming odds. ...
Lieutenant (junior grade) Ezri Dax (played by Nicole de Boer) is a fictional character in the seventh and final season of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and in the novels which continue the story. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with holodeck. ...
Video games | Developer | Year | Video Game | Description | | Bungie Studios | | Marathon (computer game series) and Halo (series) | Bungie games often contain classical references. Among the references to Sparta, Marathon 2 contains a level called "My Own Private Thermopylae" and the main character in the Halo series is a military combatant trained in the SPARTAN-II program. | | Creative Assembly | | Spartan: Total Warrior | The protagonist is a soldier in the Spartan army. Notable characters from Greek mythology and history also make an appearance in the game (ie. King Leonidas). | | Creative Assembly | 2007 | 300: March to Glory | Based on the film 300. | | Firaxis Games | | Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri | One of the seven factions in the game is named The Spartan Federation, and follows a similar ideology and culture as the original Sparta. | | SCEA | | God of War | The protagonist, Kratos, is portrayed as an ex-commander of the Spartan Army. | Bungie Studios is an American video game developer founded in 1991 under the name Bungie Software Products Corporation (more popularly shortened to just Bungie Software) by two undergraduate students at the University of Chicago, Alex Seropian and Jason Jones. ...
Marathon is a series of science fiction first-person shooter computer games from Bungie Software originally released for the Apple Macintosh. ...
Halo is a video game series created by Bungie Studios. ...
Marathon is a series of science fiction first-person shooter computer games from Bungie Software released for the Apple Macintosh. ...
Creative Assembly (officially The Creative Assembly Ltd) is a British video game developer established in 28 August 1987 by Tim Ansell, best known for their Total War strategy games series (Composed of Shogun, Medieval, Rome and the forthcoming Medieval 2) and some sports games developed for distribution under EAs...
Leonidas can refer to: Leonidas I, king of Sparta, ruled c. ...
Creative Assembly (officially The Creative Assembly Ltd) is a British video game developer established in 28 August 1987 by Tim Ansell, best known for their Total War strategy games series (Composed of Shogun, Medieval, Rome and the forthcoming Medieval 2) and some sports games developed for distribution under EAs...
300 is a 2007 film adaptation of the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller about the Battle of Thermopylae. ...
Firaxis Games is a computer game developer. ...
Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri (sometimes abbreviated to SMAC or Alpha Centauri) is a 4X turn-based strategic computer game created by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier under the auspices of Firaxis Games in 1999. ...
This is a disambiguation page Sun Certified Enterprise Architect (a professional certification) Sony Computer Entertainment (a company) This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ...
God of War is a video game for the Sony PlayStation 2 console released on March 22, 2005. ...
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