Thermopylae: the 300 at the pass (480 BC)

Thermopylae is a place in central Greece. Its name, Θερμοπύλαι, means “the Hot Gates”. There are hot springs there: θερμός means hot, and a πύλη is a gate. The Greek historian Herodotus also writes about an old wall with a gate across the road.

In ancient times the road was very narrow. On one side there were steep mountains. On the other side there were marshes and the sea. Herodotus says that in some places there was only room for one cart. A narrow pass like this is called τὰ στενά, “the narrows”. Greeks still use the word στενά today, for a pass between mountains or for a narrow strip of sea between two coasts.

A big army cannot spread out in a narrow pass. Only a few soldiers can fight at the same time, so a small army can stop a much bigger one. Its horsemen cannot ride around the enemy either. That is why the Greeks chose Thermopylae to wait for the Persians.

In 480 BC the Persian king Xerxes invaded Greece with a huge army and fleet. Herodotus gives numbers in the millions, but no land could feed so many people. Today historians think the Persian army had between 70,000 and 300,000 men. They do not agree on the exact number.

About 7,000 Greeks waited at Thermopylae. Their leader was Leonidas, one of the two kings of Sparta. He had brought 300 Spartan soldiers. Each one was a hoplite, ὁπλίτης: a foot soldier with a bronze helmet, a long spear and a big round shield, the ἀσπίς. The hoplites stood shoulder to shoulder in a phalanx, φάλαγξ, like a wall of shields.

For two days the Persians attacked and could not pass. Then a local Greek, Ephialtes, showed Xerxes a secret mountain path, the Anopaia ἀτραπός. Now the Persians could come from behind. Leonidas sent most of the Greeks away. On the third day he stayed with his 300 Spartans, 700 men from Thespiae and 400 from Thebes. Herodotus says the Thebans gave up, but Leonidas, the Spartans and the Thespians fought to the end. Then the Persians marched south and burned Athens.

The Spartans were famous for short, clever answers. Ancient writers tell several stories about Thermopylae.

The best known is in Plutarch, a Greek writer who lived almost 600 years after the battle. He says that Xerxes wrote to Leonidas: “Send me your weapons”, in Greek τὰ ὅπλα. Leonidas wrote back just two words: μολὼν λαβέ, “come and take them”. We do not know if Leonidas really said this. Herodotus, who wrote much earlier, does not tell this story.

Herodotus tells another one. A man warned that the Persians had so many archers that their arrows would hide the sun. A Spartan called Dieneces answered: good news, then we will fight in the shade!

After the war, stones with short poems were set up for the dead. Herodotus copies the one for the Spartans: “Stranger, tell the Spartans that we lie here, obeying their orders.” Many people say that the poet Simonides wrote it, but we cannot be sure.

Thermopylae is still alive in the Greek language. When Greeks say «φυλάω Θερμοπύλες», “I guard Thermopylae”, they mean: I defend something important with all my strength, even when it is hard. The poet Constantine Cavafy wrote a famous poem called «Θερμοπύλες». It honours people who guard their own Thermopylae in life.

The name of the traitor lives on too. In Modern Greek, a person who betrays his country can be called an «Εφιάλτης». The same word with a small letter, εφιάλτης, means a nightmare, a very bad dream.

Many words of the battle are everyday words today. A shield is an ασπίδα, weapons are όπλα, and an οπλίτης is an ordinary soldier without a rank in the Greek army. Since 1955 a bronze statue of Leonidas with his spear and shield has stood at Thermopylae, and on the monument you can read the words «ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ».