What Constitutes a Spartan in Steven Pressfields Gates...

Steven Pressfields: Gates of fire is based on a true story of how three hundred courageous warrior Spartans led by their king Leonidas and 700 Thespaian allies held off an army of over one million Persian infantrymen on a narrow pass in Thermopylae Greece in 480 B.C. for seven days. The Spartan Warriors were highly disciplined, physically and mentally tough soldiers that were dedicated to their country and way of life. The three hundred Spartan’s left home one day leaving their families behind, on a suicide mission to buy time for their countrymen to organize forces. Their sacrifice was unparalleled and their dedication and battle skill struck fear in the hearts and minds of their enemy. What constitutes a Spartan? According to Steven†¦show more content†¦in Greece. The story evolves around the famous battle of Thermopylae where three hundred Spartan warrior peers, knights and freedmen fought against tens of thousands of enemy Persians that wished to concur all of Greece. Pressfield creates a fictional story around one man, a squire named Xeones who survives the battle and is captured by the Persians and made into a protagonist and scribe to relay to the royal Persian historian Gorbartes. Xeones was a young boy of ten years that lived in Astakiots, a small Greek polis. His parents were prosperous farmers and his closest friend was his cousin Diomache and wise elderly slave Bruxieus. The opening battle in the book was the raiding of Astakiots by their alleged allies Pleuron, Aetolians and Kalydon. Astakiots was completely destroyed as a result of the conflict. Xeones and Diomache happen to be at the local market at the time and later found out that Xeones parents were killed. Xeones undying vengeance to destroy the invaders drove him to find a home and a place to belong. Together the three of them fled to the mountains for they were without a polis. They had to survive of the land and one day Xeones was caught stealing from a farm house and was punished by having nails pierce through both of his hands thus making it nearly impossible to avenge his parents death. Xeones then wanted to end his life but one night the god Apollo comes to him in a dream and shows him tha t he is