02-27-2009, 09:36 PM
Quote:I think it might be interesting to show the evolution of Thermopylae in the popular imagination: from the history which inspired the first film The 300 Spartans which in turn inspired the comic The 300 which in turn led to the recent film.I just wrote a Dutch article about that. It makes for depressing reading, because official historians, when they encounter Leonidas, suddenly become very, very careless. Paul Cartledge's recent book is a case in point. He takes for granted that Leonidas sacrificed himself - ignoring that Herodotus himself offers an alternative (Leonidas was abandoned by his allies) and says that he is presenting nothing but a hypothesis, which he introduces with the word gnome. That can not be taken as a statement of fact, but Cartledge manages to do so.
Anyhow, this thread should remain off-topic. Back to the movies.