Thermopylae (lit. "hot gates") was a pass that the Greeks tried unsuccessfully to defend in battle against the Persians led by Xerxes, in 480 B.C. Although the Spartans who led the defense were all killed, and may have known in advance that they would be, their courage provided inspiration to the Greeks, many of whom otherwise might have willingly medized* (become Persian sympathizers), or so the Spartans feared. Although the Spartans lost at Thermopylae, the following year the Greeks did win battles they fought against the Persians.
* Medize comes from the word "Mede," the name many Greeks used for the Persians.
Xerxes' fleet of Persian ships had sailed along the coastline from northern Greece into the Gulf of Malia on the eastern Aegean Sea towards the mountains at Thermopylae. The Greeks faced the Persian army at a narrow pass there that controlled the only road between Thessaly and Central Greece. The Spartan general and king Leonidas was in charge of the Greek forces that tried to restrain the vast Persian army and keep them from attacking the rear of the Greek navy (under Athenian control). Leonidas may have hoped to block them long enough that Xerxes would have to sail away for food and water.
Unfortunately for Leonidas, after a couple of days, a medizing traitor named Ephialtes led the Persians around the pass running behind the Greek army. The name of Ephialtes' path is Anopaea (or Anopaia). Its exact location is debated.
Leonidas sent away most of the amassed troops.
On the third day, Leonidas led his 300 Spartan hoplites (elite troops selected because they had living sons back home), plus their Boeotian allies from Thespiae and Thebes, against Xerxes and his army that included "10,000 Immortals." The Spartan-led forces fought this unstoppable Persian force to their deaths, blocking the pass long enough to keep Xerxes and his army occupied while the rest of the Greek army escaped.
Aristeia relates to virtue and to the reward given the most honored soldier. In the Battle at Thermopylae, Dieneces was the most honored Spartan. According to Spartan scholar Paul Cartledge, Dieneces was so virtuous that when he was told that there were so many Persian archers that the sky would grow dark with the flying missiles, he replied laconically: "So much the better -- we shall fight them in the shade." Spartan boys were trained in night raids, so although this was a show of bravery in the face of countless enemy weapons, there was more to it.
Themistocles was the Athenian in charge of the Athenian naval fleet that in name was under the Spartan Eurybiades. Themistocles had persuaded the Greeks to use the bounty from a newly discovered vein of silver at its mines at Laurium to build a naval fleet of 200 triremes. When some of the Greek leaders wanted to leave Artemisium before the battle with the Persians, Themistocles bribed and bullied them into staying. Some years later the heavy-handed Themistocles was ostracized by his fellow Athenians.
After Leonidas died, there is a story that the Greeks tried to retrieve the corpse by means of a gesture worthy of the Myrmidons trying to rescue Patroclus in the Iliad XVII. It failed. The Thebans surrendered; the Spartans and Thespians retreated and were shot by Persian archers. The body of Leonidas may have been crucified or beheaded on Xerxes' orders. It was retrieved about 40 years later.
The Persians, whose naval fleet had already suffered seriously from storm damage, then (or simultaneously) attacked the Greek fleet at Artemisium, with both sides suffering heavy losses. According to the Greek historian Peter Green, the Spartan Demaratus (on Xerxes' staff) recommended splitting the navy and sending part to Sparta, but the Persian navy had been too heavily damaged to do so -- fortunately for the Greeks.
In September of 480, aided by northern Greeks, the Persians marched on Athens and burned it to the ground, but it had been evacuated.
Thermopylae Terms to Know
Further Reading on Thermopylae
Section from Herodotus on Leonidas' stand at Thermopylae Herodotus 7. 222-228.Diodorus Siculus on Thermopylae
Thermopylae: The Battle for the West, by Ernle Bradford
The Spartans, by Paul Cartledge.
"Leonidas' Decision," by R. Hope Simpson. Phoenix, Vol. 26, No. 1. (Spring, 1972), pp. 1-11.
Dating the Battle of Thermopylae
"Herodotus and the Dating of the Battle of Thermopylae," by Kenneth S. Sacks. The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol. 26, No. 2. (1976), pp. 232-248."New Light on Thermopylai," by W. Kendrick Pritchett. American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 62, No. 2. (Apr., 1958), pp. 203-213.
