Gates Of Fire

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This is probably the best account of Thermopylae out there. The battle comes to life in a way only the best novels can achieve. The brotherhood formed by combat is really pushed here and characters who seem unlikable at first become more so over time. The book’s small-scale focus on a minor player means that we don’t get any real considerations of the broader organization or issues (really, Persia’s decision to invade is never explained), so if you want to see that I’d recommend a book like Farewell, Great King. This tells the story of Themistocles and his leadership of Athens during and after the war and can provide a useful counterpoint to the more gung-ho account in this book. Alas, I haven’t seen any naval officers try to do for Salamis what Pressfield does for Thermopylae here. Naval warfare is truly underdeveloped in historical fiction for this period. At Thermopylae, the allied Greek nations deployed a small force of four thousand Greek heavy infantry against the invading Persian army of two million strong. Leading the Greeks was a small force of three hundred Spartans, chosen because they were all "sires" — men who had to have sons who could preserve their blood line, should they fall in battle. [4] Xeo jumps a few years into the future, when he is working as Alexandros’s sparring partner. He tells a story that conveys the brutality of the Spartan training regime. One night during a brutal drill, Polynikes angrily breaks Alexandros’s nose for a small breach of protocol. In the aftermath, Alexandros develops asthma which seems to be triggered by fear. Dienekes tries to help him master his fear, pushing Xeo to fight Alexandros as hard as he can, because he knows Alexandros will live a disgraced life if he can’t become a warrior. a b c "How the Soviets accidentally discovered the 'Gates of Hell' ". BBC. 2020-10-23 . Retrieved 2020-10-23. No, I did not use re-enactors, nor have I worn hoplite armour. I did spend a couple of days with a guy named Hunter Armstrong, founder of the International Hoplology Society at Sedona, Arizona. He is a “weapons athlete,” actually a sword master from the Japanese school. He helped enormously, just brainstorming with me as we tried to re-imagine what hoplite combat was like. Other than that, it was all inspiration and imagination.

After they return to Sparta, Xeo is interrogated by Alexandros’s mother, Paraleia, as to her son’s behavior and courage during the journey. Afterward, Dienekes’s wife, Arete, befriends Xeo and asks him to keep an eye on her nephew, Rooster, who’s gained a reputation for treasonous sentiments. When Xeo asks, she assures him that his childhood vision of Apollo was real, and she becomes a maternal figure to him. A couple of days later, Rooster is assigned as squire to Alexandros’s father, Olympieus, and Xeo begins training under Suicide to eventually become Dienekes’s squire. seks hikayeleri Hemen ellerine telefonları alan elemanlar karılarına video eşliğinde sakso çektiriyorlar

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What specifically are you hardening your mind and body against? What are the challenges you can expect in war that you need to be prepared for mentally and physically? There's a recurring character in my books named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like my conception of art and the artist: What I liked most about the book was that it is unflinching in its presentation of both the glory and the pity of war – most books tend to pitch one line or the other. Do you think the Spartan defence at Thermopylae was worth it? Told from the perspective of a captured, critically wounded Spartan helot (all the Spartans died, after all) who is being questioned by Xerxes (King of Persia) for information about the Greeks, the story presents a sympathetic, insider view of Spartan society and accurately presents the values of Greek civilization in contrast to that of the Persians. Pressfield is intimately familiar with the major historical accounts of the battle and fills in the many gaps with events and conversations that could have, and possibly should have, happened.

Author Steven Pressfield is perhaps best-known at the moment for his book The Legend of Bagger Vance, a story about golf, which has just been made into a film by Robert Redford. Film-rights to Gates of Fire have been taken up by George Clooney’s production company. If you consider the potential enemies that you might fight, what is the limitation of thinking about only one of those adversaries as you prepare? a b c d e Brummell, Paul (2005). Turkmenistan. Bradt Travel Guides. pp.133–134. ISBN 978-1-84162-144-9.

Am I right in thinking you worked on revising a screenplay of Total Recall? Do you have any other film credits? Gates of Fire is a 1998 historical fiction novel by Steven Pressfield that recounts the Battle of Thermopylae through Xeones, a perioikos [1] (free but non-citizen inhabitant of Sparta) born in Astakos, [2] and one of only three Greek survivors of the battle. Gates of Fire". New York Times. 1998 . Retrieved 18 August 2016. My childhood home, before fate set me upon the road which found its end at the Hot Gates, was originally in Astakos in Akarnania, north of the Peloponnese, where the mountains look west over the sea toward Kephallinia and, beyond the horizon, to Sikelia and Italia. As you may guess, the book centers upon the Battle of Thermopylae, the same subject as the movie 300. As you read through the book, you will see why that movie treated it the way it did. The heroism on display at that time in that place makes any comic book superhero look silly by comparison; it's only natural that Leonidas & Co. should have their own line of action figures. Seriously. Stunning. If you have any interest in ancient history, the ancient Greeks, history in general, warfare, or just plain good writing, you owe it to yourself to read this book.