\'Gates of Fire\' By Steven Pressfield

[Polinik]

No one has any real idea HOW the ancients actually spoke to one another - we do not even know how Greek was pronounced. There is some intimation in various dramas that have come down to us but we've no real idea how ordinary people, Spartans or otherwise, conversed in the street or in the act of fighting.

Theo

Exactly.I will stress this for a hundredth time: We,today (not to say "historians") tend to oversimplify ancients,exaggerate those few known facts, and worst of all make anecdotes into rules...We absolutely love the last one.
Some woman said "? ??? ? ??? ???" , it was written and now millions,especially ones who learn history from Hollywood think every single Spartan mother said the exact same sentence to her departing son. Some Spartan woman was not killed because she cheated husband,and today the "fact" is Spartan women went around sleeping with everyone and husband even encouraged it????COME ON!!!?? Homosexuality and extent of historian idiocy in for example poorly understood terms like "lover",ant then making up the whole soap opera scenario story to agree with that bad translation is not even worth mentioning...

The Spartans were seen and described by outsiders as men of few words, not keen of oratorship...That does not mean one simple sentence was the most any Spartan was allowed,or wanted to say..especially to one another. Xenophobia or simply dislike of others or whatever you like to call it, probably made them use less words when addressing strangers. And it made an image of laconic Spartans. I do the same thing today, and someone who does not know me might get a wrong picture...But saying excellent book is bad because Spartans say more than 4 words in a sentence,or just saying in any way 300 idiocy is good...leaves me speechless???

Worst is millions and millions of young Americans and others all around the world, think the same way, having completely wrong picture of Sparta, without even knowing in what part of world Greece is. That comic author,as well as director of that "movie" 300,made probably irreparable damage to both Spartan and Greek history..I wish so much they have never heard of Thermopylae.