Women In The Battle Of Thermopylae

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In the Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas who was the king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, led 300 of his personal guards against the massive Persian army which was led by King Xerxes who perceived himself as a God-King who possessed divine kingship. Sparta was greatly outnumbered but they put on a great fight against Persia in order to protect their own people from having to be enslave by Xerxes. The film portrayed accurately the military, politically and role of women sides in Sparta but distorted the actual historical facts about the warfare and battle scenes and it also clearly portrayed the human biases that currently pervade against the Iranians (Persians). At a whole, the film was statistically wrong as it only featured 300 Spartans…show more content…
She was seen walking behind Leonidas on the street when the Persian messenger came and she even talked back to the messenger when he insulted her of speaking among men. That scene showed the status of women during that time and it was rare to have a woman participating in a political discussion which in this case, between Leonidas and the Persian messenger. Spartan women enjoyed a level of public visibility and outspokenness. They could own property and daughters could inherit along with sons. Their tunics were worn in a way whereby they were given a little more freedom of movement and the chance to reveal a little bit of skin if they desired and in the film, Queen Gorgo was always wearing tunics that revealed her torso and her back and it might be a little too revealing as compared to what the actual Spartan women would wear, but adding a little bit of sex appeal in a Hollywood-produced Greek movie is a norm. They were also given good education in both the arts and athletics. Queen Gorgo advised Leonidas when he was confused whether or not he should go into war with the Persians and in reality, Spartan women were not afraid to voice out their opinions in public and their husbands actually listened to them. Spartan women were so important because they were in-charge of breeding the finest men for their military. In one scene which Queen Gorgo was addressing the Spartan Council, this will be…show more content…
This could be derived from the fact that there was an ignorance regarding the role of Persian women in history. The film showed the audience that Persian women were shallow and sexually objectified as well. They were seen dancing provocatively in very little clothings back in Xerxes’ palace. In reality, Persian women were priestesses, warriors and leaders. Roman sources showed clearly the women among the ranks in the Persian cavalry in the Sassanian era: "in the Persian army...there are said to have been found women also, dressed and armed like men..." [Zonaras (XII, 23, 595, 7-596, 9) in reference to forces of Shapur I]. They continued to participate in leadership roles well after the fall of Sassanian Iran. It is also very clear that the Persians are portrayed as “evil” because the film was entirely focused on how the brave Spartan warriors fought with the evil Xerxes in order to protect their people and their homeland. How would the Persians of today feel if they see their ancestors being portrayed in that negative way? The Iranian government was unhappy with how the movie depicted their culture and they felt that Hollywood and the cultural authorities in U.S were trying to attack Iranian culture. The producers probably did not factor that into consideration when they decided to target specific ethnic groups with negative attributes. They will just

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