Trollheart

Looking for something a little different, I got this idea from the movie channel TCM, an ad they had for the movie 300, and the music they used as background. The idea here is to relate a major moment from history, and to back it with music that seems either appropriate in lyrical or title terms, or that evokes the spirit of the story through the music itself. I have no idea how regular or indeed occasional this series will be, given all the other stuff I have to do, but while the idea was fresh in my head I wanted to get it down on the computer screen and up on the journal. So here's the first one, a story most if not all of you will know, with my own observations and comments and as I said, music I feel lends itself to the story and relates well to it.

The Battle of Thermopylae - Greece - 480 BC


Xerxes

If you didn't see the movie or know of the story, here it is: it begins with the emperor Xerxes, ruler of Persia, who reigned over pretty much most of the world at that time. Xerxes (519-465 BC), also known as Xerxes the Great (name pronounced "zerk-sees") was the son of Darius I, against whom the Athenians and Spartans had repulsed the first invasion of Greece, most famously at the battle of Marathon (490 BC). After his father's death, Xerxes made it his business to succeed when Darius had failed, and in 483 BC he began laying plans. His army was massive, estimated at around a hundred thousand men (although ancient writings speak of a million men; unlikely at best) and believed unstoppable. However, he had reckoned without the Spartans.

The Spartans

From the very first years of their lives, Spartans were taught the ways of war and combat. They were brought up in a strictly and often brutal military environment; many did not even survive the first year of basic training, and it was not at all unusual for boys to die by the hundreds, the Spartans' way of weeding out the weaklings and ensuring only the best of the best made it into the proper army. Boys given their first shield by their mothers were apparently advised "With this or on it", meaning you either came back victorious from a battle or you did not, and were carried home as a fallen hero on your shield. Life in the Spartan training camps was hard. Male children were taken from their mothers at age seven and pressed into service. There was little food so the only way to survive was to steal it, however if you were caught the instructors would beat you mercilessly. A tough regime certainly, but there's no denying that it made strong, devoted men and powerful, committed warriors out of those who survived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huYubXNbzKk
Spartans lived, breathed and ate and drank war. They knew their weapons inside out and backwards, and the greatest of all honours was to die in battle, defending your country, or city-state as it was then. Word of an approaching Spartan army would often cause mass hysteria and the opposing army would fall over themselves to surrender, even if the enemy's force was much smaller than their own. They were Spartans, after all! Miliitary service did not end until age sixty --- assuming you lived that long --- and so in every sense you can say that the army was a Spartan's life. Spartans were great believers in equality and shunned displays of ostentation, so that their houses were always very sparsely furnished, just the most functional of items with absolutely no room for luxury or comfort, hence the word spartan passing into common usage as a synonym for something that is bare-bones.

The Spartans' arch enemies were the Athenians, and yet when Darius marched on Greece they banded together in an alliance of necessity to withstand the Persian ruler. So too did they stand against his son when he attempted a second invasion of their country.

"None shall pass"

The original plan was to block the approaching emperor's progress at a narrow pass called the Vale of Tempe, in Thessaly, however it soon became apparent this was not closed off and that the pass could be sidestepped by Xerxes taking his army instead through another one, the Saratoporo Pass. With this in mind, the Greek army retreated to the pass at Thermopylae, deciding to make their stand here. They also setup a naval blockade at the nearby port of Artemisium, hoping to thereby cut off Xerxes's progress completely. About seven thousand men, then, made a valiant last stand against an army which could have been anything from twelve to forty times its size, over a period of seven days before falling. Three of these days were days of battle, when the Spartan king Leonidas fought with incredible courage against an overwhelming force. As is often the case in such situations though, there is a weak link and this was a traitor who went to the Persian emperor and revealed to him an alternative path by which he could outflank the defenders and come up behind them.

When word of this betrayal reached Leonidas he was furious but knew the game was up. Spartans however did not surrender, and as noted before, they believed there was no greater honour than to die in battle. And so Leonidas, wishing to save as many lives as possible (and, one would suppose, add to the already depleted defences of his city-state for the later battles) but being a Spartan himself and knowing his men would die before running away, dismissed the vast bulk of his forces and with a few hundred other allies his three hundred Spartans held the pass for another day before finally being overrun.

Aftermath and place in history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4bgXH3sJ2Q
Although the attempt to block Xerxes failed at the last, the Battle at Thermopylae has gone down in history as a great victory, that so few could stand against so many for so long, even if they fell in the end, as surely they must have done. In common with other "lost causes" like the Alamo, the Charge of the Light Brigade and Custer's Last Stand, it is seen not as a defeat (although it certainly was) but more in the light of a valiant and heroic last stand against overwhelming odds. Rather like the way perhaps Dunkirk is now viewed: that could be seen as the BEF running away from Hitler, but has been recorded by historians as the miraculous rescue of thousands of soldiers would otherwise would have been killed or taken prisoner. Sometimes, to paraphrase Machiavelli, the ends do not justify the means, and the intent of the action is more important than the outcome. Leonidas knew he had to hold the pass, if only to buy time for the defences in Sparta and Athens to be shored up, or the cities evacuated if necessary, and he was proud and glad to be able to give his life in that cause. We can assume from what we know of Spartan life that it would never have crossed his mind to try to escape, or to surrender or plead for his life, or that of his men. In his eyes, as in those of all Spartans, there was no decision to be made. There was only defence of the motherland, combat, and death if necessary.

What Thermopylae does show us though is how canny and experienced a tactician Leonidas and his fellow general Themistocles were, They knew the one point where they could make their stand, they knew the place they could resist the much larger army, and due to the narrowness of the pass, Xerxes's superior numbers meant very little, because the Persian army could only send so many troops into the pass at a time. There was no way to rush it, as no doubt they would have done on an open battlefield, where the odds would have been so in the Persian ruler's favour that you would expect him to overrun the Spartans and their allies. But here, in Thermopylae, Leonidas and Themistocles were on "their turf". They had, literally, the high ground and the upper hand, and it was Xerxes who was at a disadvantage. Had the Greeks not been betrayed, who can say what might have happened? His army battered by attrition, perhaps the Persian king might have deemed the loss too great and the effort not worth it and retreated. His supplies were running low, and he may not have been able to wait the defenders out. It could have worked.

The Battle of Thermopylae has gone down in history as one of the great examples of courage under incredible pressure and of a smaller force facing without fear or hesitation a much larger one. Of course, the terrain figured hugely in the effort to throw back or at least hold the Persian army, but without the unwavering, steely courage and valour of the Spartans and their allies, this would have meant nothing. It's one thing to be told to hold a pass because it's strategically important, quite another to give your life in that defence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-ZwE1OxZ4M
It's interesting to note that the name "Thermopylae" means "hot gates" in Greek, and was supposed to be one of the entrances to Hades, the Greek equivalent of Hell. No doubt, as they tried over seven days to overwhelm the small Greek force in the pass, the Persian army came to believe this was indeed what it was. After the Battle of Thermopylae the Persian army surged forward but were in the end defeated by the Greek alliance, and their attempt to invade Greece was never again attempted. After the battle a commemorative stone was erected at the tomb of the dead defenders, bearing the inscription: Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018