Gates of fire essay

Gates of fire essay

Gates of Fire Summary,Steven Pressfield

WebGates of Fire is a work of historical fiction by Steven Pressfield centered around the famous Battle of Thermopylae ( BC), in which a heavily-outnumbered force of native WebApr 25,  · “ Gates of Fire ” Get custom paper NEW! smart matching with writer I like the adventure and thrill of the Spartans as well as reading about war battles. Give a brief WebGates of Fire Essay Topics. 1. The difference between freedom and servility is a recurring theme of the book. Although the Spartans are attempting to preserve their own freedom, WebI. SUBJECT Gates of Fire is a novel about the Battle of Thermopylae that takes place in ancient Greece. The novel began by focusing on its protagonist, Xeones, who had died WebEssay on Gates of Fire. Steven Pressfield's The Gates of Fire is set in the fifth century B.C. in Greece. The story revolves around the famous battle of Thermopylae where three ... read more

He sees this as a dishonor. While Polynikes covets the position Dienekes has amongst the warriors, he is one of the first to be chosen for the Three Hundred, since he has male heirs. Dienekes is only able to participate in the battle after he adopts the son of his bastard nephew, allowing him to have an heir. Xeones describes in detail phobologia, or the science of studying fear. The exercises that the men of Sparta perform are supposed to drive out fear and produce a state of, what Xeones called esoterike harmonia, or the state of self-composure in which the warrior drives out all fear and, metaphorically, produces an individual and unique note, which all things possess. While talking with Dienekes and Alexandros, Xeo learns not only about esoterike harmonia, or the self-composure, but also exoterike harmonia, in which the Spartan enters into a state of unity with his fellow Spartans, who produce a metaphoric harmony.

Each individual note comes together to create a beautiful and harmonious accord. In passion it unites husband to wife, lover to lover, in wordless perfect union. In politics, exoterike harmonia produces a city of concord and unity, in which each individual, securing his own noblest expression of character, donates this to each other. The women are described as wearing no cosmetics or facial paint in other cities in Hellas, but in Sparta, the women Xeones encounters wear none of these. The primary role of women, as can be seen in the novel, is to produce sons. Spartan women were meant to produce boys, who would then defend the city. Spartan women were brood mares, the pampered damsels of other cities might scoff, but if they were mares, they were racers, Olympic champions.

The wife of Dienekes, she was first married to his brother, who died in battle. Arete has produced four daughters, but no sons. However, she still runs her household and manages her servants. The Lady Paraleia asks Xeones about the interrogation of her son by the Peers. It is clear by the way she speaks, that here, in the home, the women are in charge. One of the most striking examples of this is during the trial of Rooster. The Peers decide that he and his family should be killed. However, Arete prevented them from killing the newborn boy by forcing her husband to claim it as his own.

In doing this, he became eligible for the Three Hundred. The women of Sparta were also the ones who galvanized the Spartans into action. Refugees from other cities came to Sparta, young mothers with children. There, the wives of Spartan warriors heard their stories and spurned their husbands into action, telling them of the horrors the citizens had been through. A delegation of wives and mothers presented itself to the ephors, insisting that they themselves be sent out next time, armed with hairpins and distaffs, since surely the women of Sparta could disgrace themselves no more egregiously nor accomplish less than the vaunted Ten Thousand. Though not much is said about the economic status of Sparta, several things are explained that allow the reader to infer the economic status.

The men of Sparta are employed as full time warriors, and women are only meant to be wives and mothers. Therefore, the food was grown and provided by a group of people called the Helots. Helots were a group of people, somewhere between serfs and slaves, that provided most of the economic support for Sparta. The Helots were Messenians and Laconians, both regions being controlled by Sparta. One of the only examples of this other culture was in Rooster. It was only through the support of the Helots that the Spartans were able to have a standing military at all times. Though it is not expressly stated in Gates of Fire, the general attitude toward other Greek nations is one of contempt. Even Athens looked to Sparta as a city to be admired.

Man is weak, greedy, craven, lustful, prey to every species of vice and depravity. He will lie, steal, cheat, murder, melt down the very statues of the gods and coin their gold as money for whores. This is man. This is his nature, as all the poets attest. That gift, my young friend, is war. He speaks of every nation except Sparta, or Lakedaemon. This includes city-states such as Sparta or Thebes. The Spartans believe that they are superior to the other Greek city-states, as they only concern themselves with war, rather than greed or depravity. There are several benefits to life as a Spartan. Spartans are very well off economically. Since the Helots supported the Spartans monetarily and agriculturally, Sparta was a wealthy nation.

It was also very well respected. The other Greek city-states followed the command of the Spartan king and commander of the army, Leonidas, at Thermopylae. Also, with a full time, standing army, the city-state of Sparta was one of the most well-protected cities in Greece. However, the biggest advantage to Spartan life was the emotional closeness of Spartans to each other. Therefore, one had to completely trust and rely on the man to his left to protect him. Through the training that started in boyhood, the Spartans learned to rely on each other and completely trust one another. The unseen glue that bound it together. However, Xeones shows that there are several down sides to living in the Spartan society. Boys are raised away from their families, and are raised to be warriors.

The training they are subjected to is harsh and occasionally, in the minds of the reader, cruel. If one was a Helot in Spartan society, their life would be miserable. Helots were not only looked down upon, but occasionally were treated cruelly. The worst part of Spartan society was the fact that their men were often at war, and if not at war, training for it. The harsh training conditions and the wars that the Spartans fought in led to a short life expectancy for Spartan men. Not my son! Spare him! Therefore, it was incredibly emotionally taxing to be a Spartan woman. Through his narrative, Xeones describes Spartan life without ever being a Spartan by birth. It is through Xeones that the reader gets to discover the life of the society Xeones adopted as his own, and the reader feels a sense of loss as each character, including Xeones himself, dies.

While the work is one of fiction, it does a wonderful job in detailing the life of Spartans as they prepare for the Battle of Thermopylae and the Persian War. Remember: This is just a sample from a fellow student. Starting from 3 hours delivery. Language has become a tool of mind control for the oppressive [ One aspect of that is consistently dominant, is the theme of manipulation, and how even the most overt and simplistic forms of manipulation manages to keep the citizens of Oceania so loyal so successfully. One way in [ In George Orwell's , Winston Smith cannot escape the state's domination. Yet his inability is not only because of government power. Rather, even if he did have an opportunity to leave Oceania, his actions indicate that he [ Soldiers who fight in wars suffer in unimaginable ways not just physically but also mentally.

Honor is critical to the Spartan way of life and it is gained in the battlefield. For them, honor is achieved through dying in the battlefield. Spartans are not afraid of fighting and dying but in failing to do what they can for their people. They are strong in spirit as they live to die so others may live. While there is brutality in such a mindset, I cannot help but admire their dignity as soldiers and citizens. They are fighting for what they consider as the most important thing in this world, a life of freedom, and that is what kept them fighting as long as they can. Death ends human lives but not their history as long as someone survives to tell it and record it. Gates of Fire attests that the fire is not in the boundary that the Persians cross.

The fire is in the belly of every Spartan, that indefatigable will to fight for their families and country. Hundreds of Spartans died in the Battle of Thermopylae but their deaths are something we remember for their ultimate sacrifice and love for their people. Buy Essay Pay For Essay Write My Essay Homework Writing Help Essay Editing Service Thesis Writing Help Write My College Essay Do My Essay Term Paper Writing Service Coursework Writing Service Write My Research Paper Assignment Writing Help Essay Writing Help. Login Order now. Call Now! Order now. Search for:. Order now! Fill out the order form step-by-step. We need you to be detailed. Get Custom Essay from:. Gates of Fire Gates of Fire is more popular now than when it was first published because of the movie which is based on the same historical event, the Battle of Thermopylae.

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Gates of Fire is a story about the Spartan way of life and their fight to protect their country. The story is told by a dying Spartan squire named Xeones, who was captured by the Persian army after the battle at Thermopylae. He is telling the story to the Persian king. The story took place around B. Xeones began the story in a small town where he grew up called Astakos. He tells of how his town was destroyed and how he was taken in by the Spartans. Eventually he became a servant for a Spartan youth name Alexandros, who was the protégé of Dienekes. Xeones finally became a squire for the Spartan officer Dienekes. Steven Pressfield's The Gates of Fire is set in the fifth century B. in Greece. The story revolves around the famous battle of Thermopylae where three hundred Spartans held off hundreds of thousands of Persians, saving Greece.

Pressfield creates a fictional story around the battle where one man, a squire named Xeones, survives to tell the Spartan story of the battle and the events preceding it. Xeones, who is the protagonist, tells his life story to the royal Persian historian while in captivity. This life history of Xeones constitutes the body of the book. The Battle of Thermopylae, which Herodotus recorded in his writing The Histories, was one of the most arduous and notable battles of western history. Herodotus was an extremely significant historian who lived during the 5th century B. In this primary source writing, he portrays how Xerxes was superstitious and tyrannical, how the battle informs you about the Spartan culture, how the values of Greek promoted society, and he displayed how significant the Persian invasion was on Greek development, for example, their political and intellectual expansion.

The Persian King Xerxes. Up to this point, the Persian army was seen as too massive and powerful to be stopped. A unity of command was agreed upon; King Leonidas of Sparta was chosen to lead the Greek forces. He was chosen to lead because of the unsurpassed warring abilities the Spartans were so well known for made him perfect for the objective of stopping the Persians. Athens and Sparta had formed a league against Persia. Even with the league, Greece was at a major disadvantage. In the words of Eric V. The sheer size of this unwieldy mass contributed to its undoing. Even outnumbered, the Spartans still showed immense bravery. We will fight in the shade! William J.

Duiker and Jaskson J. Spielvogel, p. The Athenian and Spartans fought for many days but suffered very heavy losses. On the second night of the battle, a Greek traitor helped the Persian army. He informed the Persian army on how to get around the Greek army and attack from behind. Luckily, Leonidas, the Spartan general, was able to guild the Athenian army to safety. However, he returned to Thermopylae to fight Persia with the rest of the Spartan army. Eric H. Cline and Sarolta A. Takalcs, p. After the Persians defeated the Spartans, they burned.

The Persian Wars were a series of destructive and malevolent battles which occurred in the time frame of B. C and — B. The Greek victory over the Persians in the Persian Wars cannot be attributed to only one factor, more it was a commixture of factors. Such factors include unity, leadership, strategy, tactics and the pre-eminence of the Greek soldier. Each contributing factor was to play a distinctive and pivotal role in the various battles to come, which ultimately would lead to the subsequent demise of the Persians. Leonidas was the king of the Spartans during the time of the Persian War. The Spartans were the elite of the elite when it came to military strength.

One of the greatest displays of his courage and honor was in his last battle, The Battle of Thermopylae. At the Battle of Thermopylae the Persians were trying to come down into Greece through the mountain pass Thermopylae. The odds were heavily against the Greeks with the Persians numbering in the hundreds of thousands and the Greeks only having a couple thousand Athenians and only Spartan warriors under the command of King Leonidas. The Greeks stopped-up the pass with phalanxes and were slaughtering the Persians. The battle was looking like a major victory for the Greeks until the Persians discovered a back-road on a mountain pass and were about to surround the Greeks.

King Leonidas told the remaining Athenian Greeks to flee back to Athens while he and his hundred Spartans held off the Persians. The Spartan army caused massive damage to the Persian army by killing off thousands of them. All the Spartans died in that battle, along with Leonidas, but this weakened the Persians and allowed the. The Battle of Thermopylae goes down in history for being one of the most heroic feats of bravery in any war. The Spartan King Leonidas led Spartan warriors in a fight to block the Persian Army from passing into Greece through a two meter wide pass through the mountains of Thermopylae. The Persian army that vastly outnumbered the Spartans was beat back for two days and during those defeats they suffered heavy losses that outweighed the Spartans 20 to 1.

All was lost on the third day after a traitor revealed to the Persian King Xexres that. Xerxes was a man of power. The Great King of Persia, his empire encompassed the majority of the known world. On his invasion of Greece in the spring of BCE, he reportedly commanded a horde of over two million men. Even the Greek oracle at Delphi encouraged prudence in face of such an overwhelming force 7. Thus the question arises of why such an army failed to compel Greece into submission. The Greek victory against Persia was largely due to efforts of mainly Athens but also Sparta as well. Athens was responsible for the major turning points of the Persian invasions, while Sparta was responsible for the deciding battle.

Miltiades, with his skilful battle strategies, defeated the Persians during their second invasion at Marathon, which gave Athens a confidence boost on their military. During the third invasion, when the Athenians were evacuated to Salamis, Themistocles had devised a plan to trick the Persians which had resulted in Persian army without a supply line. s importance had revealed during their sacrifice at Thermopylae and at Plataea, where they provided the most effective part of the army. The legendary battle of Thermopylae, in B.

E, demonstrated the strength, courage and bravery of the Spartan Army that went up against the Persians. The Spartans held off the Persian army of Xerxes for two days until their position was flanked by a secret trail. However, in the face of unbeatable odds and with the knowledge of a victory being almost impossible, they fought with the utmost confidence in themselves and proved that the Spartan army was one of the strongest armies in Greece, even though they were eventually defeated. Frank Miller and Zack Snyder depict the Battle of Thermopylae with more action and entertainment in their versions to appeal to a larger audience.

Moreover, in the Battle of Thermopylae, Persian forces led by Xerxes outnumbered the Greeks yet again. However, the militant Spartans took up arms and were able to defeat the large Persian army. Thermopylae allowed the Greek forces to come up with various tactics and strategies in order to defeat Persia. Next, the Battle of Salamis was a naval battle between several Greek city-states and Persia. The mark of the ending of the Greco-Persian wars gave way to Athens arising from the ashes as the dominant and central city-state of Greece, which then provides political and cultural advancements during its golden age.

In BC, when the Persian horde, estimated by some historians to range from , to 1. Despite the massive threat that was encamped on the shores off the Gulf of Maliakos in small town known as Trachis, the Greeks refused. Sparta, known for their superior military might, were chosen by the Greek leaders to lead a coalition of Greek warriors to defend their homeland from the invading Persian army Frye, Through the manuscripts of Herodotus, an ancient historian who hailed from the mountainous lands of Greece, modern day historians have been granted the ability to piece together the multitude of events that supposedly transpired during the years and BC between the Persian empire and the city-states of the classical Greece Herodotus.

The second Persian invasion of Greece, which took place in the previously mentioned years, was a part of the many series of battles and encounters that made up the Greco-Persian Wars. This invasion in particular, however, probably saw one of the most distinguished battles in ancient European warfare befall. As a whole, the second Persian invasion of Greece consisted of several battles that transpired within a close proximity of one another chronologically. The war itself was fairly short-lived, even for its time, lasting only the course of approximately one year.

The battles themselves took place in Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Platae, and Mycale Setzer. The Persian invasion forces were led by King Xerxes I of Persia, the son of Darius I of Persia. Prior to the reign of Xerxes I, King Darius I had wanted to take control of ancient Greece. As such, he ordered two campaigns which made up the first Persian invasion of Greece. Much to his hindrance, however, Darius I breathed his last breath before he was presented with the opportunity to carry out a second invasion. Essay Topics Writing. Home Page Research Gates of Fire Essay. Gates of Fire Essay Decent Essays. Open Document. Gates of Fire By: Steven Pressfield Subject Person- Spartan Warriors Place- Greece B. Event- Battle of Thermoplae.

Concept- Xeones recounts his life leading up to the battle. Object- Greek city-states consisting of Spartan Warriors, Thebans, Thespian Volunteers And around Helots Fought The Persian Empire at the pass of Thermopylae.

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WebGates of Fire Essay Topics. 1. The difference between freedom and servility is a recurring theme of the book. Although the Spartans are attempting to preserve their own freedom, WebNov 19,  · Gates of Fire Summary The Knights Tale In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. So Duke Theseus agrees and then defeats King Creon of Thebes. The WebApr 25,  · In BC the Persian Empire marched with a force of two million men against Greece. In Greece’s defense a small army of 2, Greek soldiers marched out WebGates of Fire is a work of historical fiction by Steven Pressfield centered around the famous Battle of Thermopylae ( BC), in which a heavily-outnumbered force of native WebApr 25,  · “ Gates of Fire ” Get custom paper NEW! smart matching with writer I like the adventure and thrill of the Spartans as well as reading about war battles. Give a brief WebI. SUBJECT Gates of Fire is a novel about the Battle of Thermopylae that takes place in ancient Greece. The novel began by focusing on its protagonist, Xeones, who had died ... read more

Frank Miller and Zack Snyder depict the Battle of Thermopylae with more action and entertainment in their versions to appeal to a larger audience. George Orwell's as a Historical Allegory Essay One aspect of that is consistently dominant, is the theme of manipulation, and how even the most overt and simplistic forms of manipulation manages to keep the citizens of Oceania so loyal so successfully. Unlock this Study Guide! A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. Overview Gates of Fire is a work of historical fiction by Steven Pressfield centered around the famous Battle of Thermopylae BC , in which a heavily-outnumbered force of native Greeks led by the Spartans held the invading army of the Persian Empire at bay for several days. Better Essays.

What does Polynikes reveal about his motives when he apologizes to Alexandros at Thermopylae? The boys, no older than fifteen, would hold on to a wooden bar while they were whipped, gates of fire essay. Call Now! His biggest desire was to be a good athlete, a good catholic and to be a hero for his country. Modern and Ancient Interpretations of Xerxes Essays Words 5 Pages.