Our arrows will bock out the sun

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2007)

Then we will fight in the shade. That exchange was between a Persian emissary and Ionikes, Leonidas' lieutenant at Thermopylae. The most famous last stand in history. The title refers to the three hundred Spartans, who fought, and died, in the Batle of Thermopylae. Thermopylae. Greek for Gates of Heat, was the key to the Greek victory. The Battle of Salamis, the turning point of the war, was two months later. However, the movie didn't end with the Athenian victory at Salamis. It ended with the Greek victory at Plataea. That was the last stand of the Persians in Greece. Why did Xerxes invade Greece? Revenge. Ten years earlier, Darius, Xerxes' father, had invaded Greece and lost the Battle of Marathon. Darius was planning another invasion of Greece but died before he could do so. This was dropped into the lap of his son, Xerxes, to do. Ephialtes, the Greek traitor, was portrayed as a hunchback. Whether he was or not, I can't say. The name has become a Greek synonym for fear.