300

The History Net has a good article by Barry Strauss* on the Battle of Thermopylae. Given the current commercial success of the film adapation of the 1998 Frank Miller comic '300', it is useful to review the realities and the facts of the real event and contrast it with the Hollywood treatment and the comic book's heroic reality.

Quote from the article:

"Stripped of its helmet, Leonidas' head is framed by his long hair. The lean skin of the warrior's face, its color gone, stands out all the more against a short and pointed beard. The dirt of battle is probably still upon Leonidas, and there is a dark purple bruise on his chin from the pooling of what little blood is left. Ragged bits of tissue and bone hang from his severed neck, and flies and beetles have landed on his skin. If the dead Spartan king's eyes could see, they might look 140 miles to the south -- all the way to Athens, the road to which now lies open for Persia."

* Professor of history and classics at Cornell.