The Persians were the good guys in that battle. If you don’t believe me then go check your bible to see who is viewed more favorably. It seems perverse to glorify these sick in the mind Spartans.
Also Leonidas was more like 60 during that battle, not 30 like the movie 300 portrays.
“The Persians were the good guys in that battle. If you don’t believe me then go check your bible to see who is viewed more favorably. It seems perverse to glorify these sick in the mind Spartans.”
Sick in the mind Spartans as compared to the Persians? I think you’ve missed the essence of the story. Think Alamo. Maybe that will be easier for you to comprehend :)
There were no “good” guys in that particular war. Xerxes was used by God to fulfill God’s purposes, but that does not make Xerxes good.
In a religious context, pagan boy buggering Greeks versus monotheist (Zoroastrian) Persians, you have a point. Xerxes’ imperial army may even have included some conscripted Judeans. Judea had been part of the Persian Empire for over a hundred years following Cyrus’ ending the Babylonian Captivity. But in terms of race and politics it’s the swarthy monolithic imperialist East versus the fair haired and proto-democratic individualistic West. The real context of the modern legend of Thermopylae was the oppressed Christian Greeks of the 19th century liberating themselves from the Ottomans (whose career and ambitions in Europe did truly parallel Darius and Xerxes).
Alliance with Rome and Sparta. 16 When people in Rome and even in Sparta heard that Jonathan had died, they were deeply grieved.* 17 But when they heard that his brother Simon had become high priest in his place and was master of the territory and its cities, 18 they sent him inscribed tablets of bronze to renew with him the friendship and alliance that they had established with his brothers Judas and Jonathan.g 19 These were read before the assembly in Jerusalem. 20 This is a copy of the letter that the Spartans sent: “The rulers and the city of the Spartans send greetings to Simon the high priest, the elders, the priests, and the rest of the Jewish people, our brothers. 21 The ambassadors sent to our people have informed us of your glory and renown, and we rejoiced at their coming. 22 In accordance with what they said we have recorded the following in the public decrees: Numenius, son of Antiochus, and Antipater, son of Jason, ambassadors of the Jews, have come to us to renew their friendship with us.h 23 The people have resolved to receive these men with honor, and to deposit a copy of their words in the public archives, so that the people of Sparta may have a record of them. A copy of this decree has been made for Simon the high priest.” 1 MACCABEES Chapter 14