As I returned home from work last night, my roommates were watching the movie 300. The movie is based on the Greco-Persian Wars fought between 500 and 450 BCE. The movie highlights the battle of Thermopylae, the famous last stand of the 300 Spartans.
The beginning of the movie shows life in early Sparta, including the growing up process for the Spartan male. Highlights include the inspection of the child, sending him to various military style training facilities, and sending him off into the wilderness where he must fight to survive for an extensive period of time. While this makes for an entertaining story line in the movie, how much of it is actual fact? Where children really treated this cruelly in ancient Sparta, or is this all part of the director's plot to make for a blockbuster film? It just so happens that the book I am reading for our class book report is all about the Battle of Thermopylae, and it sheds some light on the early years of Spartan life.
Sparta was a nation built around its military, and subsequently life was based around it. Emphasis on military discipline and fitness began almost at birth. Shortly after the child was born, the mother bathed it in wine in order to see if her child was strong. Pending the child surviving the wine bath, it was brought before the Gerousia, the Spartan Senate. The child was subsequently inspected by the Gerousia. If it had any deformities or imperfections, the child was taken to Mount Taygetos and abandoned.
At the age of seven the child was enrolled in military training. They lived in dormitories and were trained in discipline and physical activity. By the age of twelve, they were assigned a mentor, who would take over as a quasi-father for the child. Like most of the ancient Greek world, it is quite certain that the pair would have had intimate relations.
At age eighteen they joined the Spartan reserve army. As a final act of their schooling, they were sent into the wilderness with only a knife and their prior knowledge. Their mission was to kill members of the helot population. (The helots were a non-free group of people living in Sparta.)
After reviewing the facts, it can be noted that the movie does have some truths in it. I assumed that it was simply a Hollywood glorified war epic, but come to find out that the opening scenes were quite accurate. It will be interesting to see just how accurate the entire movie is as I keep reading the book.
image came from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifXJcdnrubrqvzBCBDft_DGdnkVa8BJvdt_FyX3df8CNCnXkuZP2SIfkDyDETwQbThCmFHFC3oqDiXiXRvAOnyXx-SO3C7JkdcOhkSiDCvEOoeZij4gHj1DM8M2yWhB98L8SQajGUqZLI/s400/sparta300.jpg
As we talked about this movie in class and it was mentioned that most of it was made up, I find it rather interesting that you found some major truths. You will have to continue to keep us posted on your findings.
ReplyDeleteThe military style schooling that the boys were sent to, and how they were sent out into the woods, and had to survive. To me this sounds a lot like modern day Boy Scouts. My two brothers and my dad all Eagle Scouts, so I have been around this all my life. They attend polar bear camps were they have to survive in the freezing cold, they have to sleep in the woods by themselves for a night at summer camp and learn how to light a fire with out a match. As Boy Scouts are not mandatory and are non violent it is interesting to see that there is still a Military style training occurring today.
I was sick on monday, so I am sure I missed the talk about this movie. Granted, I do not know how accurate the actual combat scenes are (I highly doubt they were accurate at all,) but for the most part the way that they were raised and their upbringing coincides with the book. So when you say it sounds like the boy scouts, I can see where the similarities are. Granted, I think this would have been a lot more difficult than the boy scouts...
ReplyDeleteYes, I am sure it was more brutal, I was just trying to make connections to the present.
ReplyDeleteI really like this post. I work at a movie gallery so I like watching a lot of the historical movies (since I can rent for free), but I still haven't watched "300." Which is doubly surprising because it has Gerard Butler in it. I also like to find the truths in historical movies to see how accurate they are.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read that Ashlee said it reminded her of Boy Scouts, I was like really? Why boy schout mom would bathe her kid in wine and see if he survives? But I do see similarities with tribal rituals of sending the young boys into the woods for a time being until they find their way home, usually a coming of age ritual with the early Native Americans.
Nice going, and I hope to hear more about the Greco-Persian war from your book!
Hi Ben,
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, ancillary details of Greek life (the training & education of young boys in Sparta, for instance) are fairly accurate. And the battle styles (Greek phalanx formation) are pretty close as well (although I did find it interesting that the Spartans fought an awful lot by themselves at times, all in slow-mo, muscle-rippling action...I wonder why?). But the larger thrust of the movie is essentially a campfire story told to Greek soldiers before Plataea to get them juiced up for the next day's battle, meaning there were no Persian man-monsters with hooks for hands or fantasy war elephants. Artistic license, we might say...
Cheers,
---add