DOCSLIB.ORG

7 1/2-Foot Xerxes

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
7 1/2-Foot Xerxes 300 Ways to Teach the Epic Mary Ann Tobin, PhD Pre-published Excerpt from Teaching Comics and Graphic Narratives: Essays on Theory, Strategy and Practice. Ed. Lan Dong. Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2012. Film critics, several academics of my acquaintance, and even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad panned the movie 300 (2007) for its fantastical and inaccurate portrayals of the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BCE). In their critiques, they disparage the unlikely event of a battled-decked rhinoceros careening across that particular battlefield, the possibility of a giant lobster-clawed executioner, the demonization of Persians, and, apparently most disconcerting of all, a seven-and-a-half-foot nearly-naked Xerxes. Conversely, others praise director Zack Snyder’s use of choreographed performances before a blue-screen in order, as Todd McCarthy says, to “sumptuously realize” (par. 13) Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300 (1998)—itself a retelling of the second-hand account of the conflict written by Herodotus a half-century after the event took place. Regardless of 300’s flaws, it relies on the ancient conventions of the epic to depict Spartan concepts of honor, duty, glory, combat, and victory. It offers an engaging means of teaching epics like the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid to students of the YouTube generation. Beyond illustrating epic conventions, in its use of the current cinematic and video-game method of narrative suture, 300 presents opportunities to explore the form and function of epic poetry as oral history, helping today’s students to appreciate such texts in an entirely new way. Stephen Heath defines “suture” as “the dual process of multiplication and projection [forming] the conjunction of the spectator as subject with the film” (par. 40), in which “a character in the film com[es] to take the place of the absent one posed by the spectator” (par. 21). In other words, the action in the film is typically shown from the viewpoint of one or more of its characters, and the audience sees the action through those eyes. This method has been adopted by the video- game industry for use in role-playing games, wherein players select a pre-programmed or customizable Player Character (PC) with its own complement of weapons and, one could say, cultural ethos. In directing their PCs’ movements, players formulate their own narratives as they encounter new scenarios and incorporate new actions virtually every time they play. In order to advance to new levels within the game, players must rely on the wisdom gained from their previous plays. The application of narrative suture has also been embraced by amateur videographers, whose submissions to YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and other Internet-based social networks feature innumerable revisions of stories from television and film. The videographers literally weave themselves and their figurative points of view into their chosen narratives. Despite complaints of the mind-numbing qualities of video games, television, and movies, today’s students have a lot of practice suturing themselves into narratives, as well as following and recalling the kinds of multiple narrative threads and long digressions we typically find in epic poetry. These are cognitive efforts not usually attributed to Generations X and Y. Stephen Johnson, for one, seeks to dispel this stereotype in his article “Watching TV Makes You Smarter,” in which he argues that, ever since the debut of Hill Street Blues in 1981, the “Sleeper Curve,” as he calls it, “is the single most important new force altering the mental development of young people today [and] it is largely a force for good: enhancing our cognitive faculties, not dumbing them down” (par. 4). He explains that “to keep up with entertainment like 24, you have to pay attention, make inferences, track shifting social relationships. This is what I call the Sleeper Curve: the most debased forms of mass diversion—video games and violent television dramas and juvenile sitcoms—turn out to be nutritional after all” (par. 4). Similarly, the ancient epic storyteller relied on elements of audience participation—that his audience was engaged in active listening, would follow his tale over the course of several hours (or even days), and inferred their own cultural ethos by tracking the social relationships among the many characters in the poems. These are the very skills our students hone while watching episodic television shows and movies with multiple plot-lines and large casts made up of recurring roles, while making their own videos, or while taking on the persona of a Spartan warrior in the Halo videogame series. As my student B. Nedinic reminds us, the virtual real-worldliness of role- playing video games is a great feature, but “would be a wasted tool if not properly supported by . an interesting and engaging story” (2). The same is true for graphic novels and films like 300 that, via vividly stylized illustrations and computer-generated imagery, tell a story through realistic yet fantastic virtual worlds. Thus, the graphic novel and film 300 present practical, accessible, and entertaining ways to approach epic poetry, which, through fantasy, conveys to readers generally accepted universal truths. By aligning the audience’s point of view with that of the Greek army before battle, Dilios, 300’s storyteller in both the book and the film, weaves his tale for both an external audience and an internal one, inspiring both to adopt his cultural ethos. In this sense, readers and viewers are sewn (or sutured) into the narrative, much as the listeners of an oral poet would have been as they were regaled by their cultural history, like gamers are when they select their PCs, and like amateur videographers are as they record their own deeds for posterity. As Andrew Dalby tells us, the oral historian relies on formulae to master and re-create “a repertoire of stories” passed down from one generation of poets or singers to the next and, in the process, “develops the skill of producing, on demand, a poem that will satisfy the audience” (189). Epic storytellers always personalize their narratives in order to captivate their audiences while retaining the original tales’ characters, plots, dialogues, settings, and themes. However, Dalby cautions that the learning of those formulae “does not mean that any singer is compelled to repeat them without changing them” (189) or adding new twists to engage his listeners. Therefore, while we may cringe at the sight of a battle-decked rhinoceros, a lobster- clawed hatchet-man, or a super-sized Persian king, 300 re-envisions and reanimates the ancient art of oral history, thereby offering a practical means of teaching an often neglected element of the epic: neither the Illiad nor the Odyssey were meant merely to lie dormant on a page; they were to be performed before live audiences in order to awaken the imaginations of their hearers. Gamers and YouTubers, therefore, should be very comfortable with such concepts and should find approaching the epic in this manner more appealing than reading a static text. Moreover, as historian Victor Davis Hanson argues in his interview for Adapting the Graphic Novel, 300 “is consistent with a long line of interpretation . whether it’s vase painters in the fourth century or Herodotus in the fifth, each person is trying to convey this wonderful event” in his own way for his own time. Similarly, as Ruth Scodel asserts, “In a tradition of this kind, performers neither memorize fixed texts nor improvise freely. An aspiring performer learns stylized diction, performance style, themes, and the outlines of narratives and recombines them before audiences” (1). In speaking of his own participation in what he calls the “long, worthy history of stylized violence” (Adapting the Graphic Novel), Miller spins the same thread that Scodel traces in the works of the epic poets and singers. Works Cited “Adapting the Graphic Novel.” 300. Dir. Zack Snyder. Perf. Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, and Dominic West. Warner Brothers, 2007. Dalby, Andrew. Rediscovering Homer: Inside the Origins of the Epic. New York: Norton, 2006. Heath, Stephen. “Notes on Suture.” Screen 18.4 (1978): 48-76. Rpt. The Symptom: Online Journal for Lacan.com. Web. 10 Oct. 1997. <http://www.lacan.com/symptom8_articles/heath8.html>. Johnson, Steven. “Watching TV Makes You Smarter.” New York Times Magazine 24 Apr. 2005. New York Times.com. Web. 18 Oct. 2007. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/magazine/24TV.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&oref =slogin>. McCarthy, Todd. Review of 300, dir. Zack Snyder. Variety.com 9 Mar. 2007. Web. 28 August 2007. <http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117932810.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1>. “Making of 300.” 300. Dir. Zack Snyder. Perf. Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, and Dominic West. Warner Brothers, 2007. Nedinic, Boris. Response to “The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowmind.” Student essay. 11 Oct. 2007. Scodel, Ruth. Listening to Homer: Tradition, Narrative, and Audience. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. “300.” The Complete Works of Frank Miller. Moebius Grafix. Web. 29 Dec. 2009. <http://moebiusgraphics.com/comics/300.php>. 300. Dir. Zack Snyder. Perf. Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham, and Dominic West. Warner Brothers, 2007. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Herodotus, Xerxes and the Persian Wars IAN PLANT, DEPARTMENT of ANCIENT HISTORY
    Herodotus, Xerxes and the Persian Wars IAN PLANT, DEPARTMENT OF ANCIENT HISTORY Xerxes: Xerxes’ tomb at Naqsh-i-Rustam Herodotus: 2nd century AD: found in Egypt. A Roman copy of a Greek original from the first half of the 4th century BC. Met. Museum New York 91.8 History looking at the evidence • Our understanding of the past filtered through our present • What happened? • Why did it happen? • How can we know? • Key focus is on information • Critical collection of information (what is relevant?) • Critical evaluation of information (what is reliable?) • Critical questioning of information (what questions need to be asked?) • These are essential transferable skills in the Information Age • Let’s look at some examples from Herodotus’ history of the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC • Is the evidence from: ― Primary sources: original sources; close to origin of information. ― Secondary sources: sources which cite, comment on or build upon primary sources. ― Tertiary source: cites only secondary sources; does not look at primary sources. • Is it the evidence : ― Reliable; relevant ― Have I analysed it critically? Herodotus: the problem… Succession of Xerxes 7.3 While Darius delayed making his decision [about his successor], it chanced that at this time Demaratus son of Ariston had come up to Susa, in voluntary exile from Lacedaemonia after he had lost the kingship of Sparta. [2] Learning of the contention between the sons of Darius, this man, as the story goes, came and advised Xerxes to add this to what he said: that he had been born when Darius was already king and ruler of Persia, but Artobazanes when Darius was yet a subject; [3] therefore it was neither reasonable nor just that anyone should have the royal privilege before him.
    [Show full text]
  • Pdf 838.82 K
    300: Cultural Stereotypes and War against Barbarism Masoud Kowsari1 Abstract: During the era of Bush administration and post-September 11th anti-terrorism discourse, the movie 300 was one of the best exemplar of a close relationship between Hollywood pop culture products and the neo- conservatives’ political discourse of nationalism. From my point of view, 300 is not an example of outstanding artistic films, but a film that more than any other film contains an Iranophobic discourse, produced by Hollywood. The film is another example for ‘warfare-ization’ of public sphere and envisioning war as part of the people’s everyday life using pop culture products in U.S. after 9/11. Connecting war with collective memory, 300 brings war to the heart of everyday life. The Western or American youths should think that just like the brave and devoted Spartan soldiers in 300, they also fight for democracy, freedom, and glory. This film is full of cultural stereotypes on the Eastern and Iranian culture, in particular, their identity. For example, women are depicted as erotic objects. In contrast to the Spartan women who are free, brave, kind mothers and faithful wives, the Iranian women are represented as slavish, lustful, indecent, and homosexual. They look like the sexy dancers in nightclubs and discothèques. Using van Leeuwen’s approach in critical discourse analysis (2008), this paper is aimed at analyzing this film as a media text. Keywords: CDA, cultural stereotypes, Iranophobia, Islamophobia, women, 300. 1. Assisstant Professor, Social Communications Department, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, Email: [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • The Persian Wars: Ionian Revolt the Ionian Revolt, Which Began in 499
    The Persian Wars: Ionian Revolt The Ionian Revolt, which began in 499 B.C. marked the beginning of the Greek-Persian wars. In 546 B.C. the Persians had conquered the wealthy Greek settlements in Ionia (Asia Minor). The Persians took the Ionians’ farmland and harbors. They forced the Ionians to pay tributes (the regular payments of goods). The Ionians also had to serve in the Persian army. The Ionians knew they could not defeat the Persians by themselves, so they asked mainland Greece for help. Athens sent soldiers and a small fleet of ships. Unfortunately for the Ionians, the Athenians went home after their initial success, leaving the small Ionian army to fight alone. In 493 B.C. the Persian army defeated the Ionians. To punish the Ionians for rebelling, the Persians destroyed the city of Miletus. They may have sold some of tis people into slavery. The Persian Wars: Battle of Marathon After the Ionian Revolt, the Persian King Darius decided to conquer the city-states of mainland Greece. He sent messengers to ask for presents of Greek earth and water as a sign that the Greeks agreed to accept Persian rule. But the Greeks refused. Darius was furious. In 490 B.C., he sent a large army of foot soldiers and cavalry (mounted soldiers) across the Aegean Sea by boat to Greece. The army assembled on the pain of Marathon. A general named Miltiades (Mill-te-ah-deez) convinced the other Greek commanders to fight the Persians at Marathon. In need of help, the Athenians sent a runner named Pheidippides (Fa-dip-e-deez) to Sparta who ran for two days and two nights.
    [Show full text]
  • The Second After the King and Achaemenid Bactria on Classical Sources
    The Second after the King and Achaemenid Bactria on Classical Sources MANEL GARCÍA SÁNCHEZ Universidad de Barcelona–CEIPAC* ABSTRACT The government of the Achaemenid Satrapy of Bactria is frequently associated in Classical sources with the Second after the King. Although this relationship did not happen in all the cases of succession to the Achaemenid throne, there is no doubt that the Bactrian government considered it valuable and important both for the stability of the Empire and as a reward for the loser in the succession struggle to the Achaemenid throne. KEYWORDS Achaemenid succession – Achaemenid Bactria – Achaemenid Kingship Crown Princes – porphyrogenesis Beyond the tradition that made of Zoroaster the and harem royal intrigues among the successors King of the Bactrians, Rege Bactrianorum, qui to the throne in the Achaemenid Empire primus dicitur artes magicas invenisse (Justinus (Shahbazi 1993; García Sánchez 2005; 2009, 1.1.9), Classical sources sometimes relate the 155–175). It is in this context where we might Satrapy of Bactria –the Persian Satrapy included find some explicit references to the reward for Sogdiana as well (Briant 1984, 71; Briant 1996, the prince who lost the succession dispute: the 403 s.)– along with the princes of the offer of the government of Bactria as a Achaemenid royal family and especially with compensation for the damage done after not the ruled out prince in the succession, the having been chosen as a successor of the Great second in line to the throne, sometimes King (Sancisi–Weerdenburg 1980, 122–139; appointed in the sources as “the second after the Briant 1984, 69–80).
    [Show full text]
  • The Curse of 300? Popular Culture and Teaching the Spartans
    The Curse of 300 ? Popular Culture and Teaching the Spartans by Emma Stafford Introduction Sparta’s place on the curriculum Receptions of Sparta and why they matter First of all, the teacher certainly does not First, let’s take a very quick look at what it I teach Spartan history at the University have to teach the Spartans. There is a is about ancient Sparta which has of Leeds both as part of an introductory specific Sparta option in the OCR AS Level attracted people’s interest over the years course about the Greek World and also Ancient History, and obviously they have a since the Renaissance. as part of a range of more closely- significant part to play in the ‘Greece and focused Special Subject modules for Persia’ option for one of the A Level units. second and third year undergraduates, In the AQA Classical Civilisation A Level, including Image of Sparta and Classics on the Spartans likewise feature as part of an Major themes in the depiction Screen. I use the film 300, and other option on the Persian Wars. modern popular culture material, in of Sparta different ways in each of these modules: The concept of the ideal state as a subject in its own right for Classics on Screen, focusing on questions around Sparta options at AS and A Level Sparta has often been held up by political what the material says about theorists as a model for its mixed contemporary culture; and, in Image of OCR AS Level Ancient History, Unit constitution in 16th- and 17th-century Sparta, as a coda to the course’s survey AH1 Greek History from Original Europe (see, for example, Rawson (1969, of ancient ‘images’, which allows for Sources, Option 3 (of three): Politics pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Search for Hu Draft Draft Draft Draft Draft
    DRAFT HE WHO FIGHTS WITH MONSTERS DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT On All Hallows’ Eve, a community struggles under the boot of the Nazi war machine when ISBN-13: 978-1-950912-61-2 supernatural forces come to play a part in the conflict! From the artist of the bestselling Price: $24.99 ($33.50 CAN) Publisher: Ablaze Something is Killing the Children comes a tale that will send shivers up your spine... Writer: Francesco Artibani Artist: Werther Dell’Edera It's WorldDRAFT War 2 and the struggle between good and evil is in full force. In Prague, the great Size: 6.75 x 10.25 Bohemian city is being oppressed by the Nazi occupation and the population lives in terror, Page Count: 144 while the resistance forces try to organize themselves in the shadows. It is an almost Format: Hardcover, Full Color Recommended Age: Mature impossible task. With the ruthless SS tightening their grip on every street and neighborhood Reader 16 and up with overwhelming might, only one hope feeds the struggle. A crazy hope, which rests on the Comparison Title: The Walking fragile foundations of an ancient, monstrous legend... Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye KEYDRAFT SELLING POINTS: (ISBN-13 978-1-58240-672-5, $14.99), Something is Killing the * From the artist of the mega-hit "Something Is Killing The Children" series! Children Vol. 1 (ISBN-13 978-1-68415-558-3, $14.99), Department of Truth, Vol 1: The End Of The World (ISBN-13 978-1-5343-1833-5, $9.99) DRAFT Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror Ship Date: 4/26/2022 DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT THE BREAKER OMNIBUS VOL 3 DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT Si-Woon goes to the rescue of his friend Sae-Hee, kidnapped by Chang-Ho's gang, the high ISBN-13: 978-1-950912-63-6 school bully boss.
    [Show full text]
  • The 300 Controversy a Case Study in the Politics of Adaptation
    8 The 300 Controversy A Case Study in the Politics of Adaptation DAN HASSLER-FOREST Since its release in March 2007, Zack Snyder’s film adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300 has been the subject of heated debate. Not only have most American critics from both sides of the political divide focused on the film’s political subtext, it has even prompted the Iranian government to voice complaints against the film’s portrayal of the barbaric Persian hordes. It is unusual for an escapist blockbuster action film to attract this kind of debate, especially one that is based on a comic book. But as with last year’s V for Vendetta (James McTeigue, 2006), viewers and critics alike have viewed the film first and foremost as a political allegory, and have based their judg- ments of the film in large part on their political/ideological interpretation of it. As the following analysis aims to show, the debate surrounding the film raises issues that reveal a great deal about public views of literary adaptations, and in this case more specifically: comic book adaptations. A Question of Fidelity Critical, academic and public debates on the quality (or lack thereof ) of a film adaptation of a work of literature have traditionally focused on the degree to which the film version is faithful to the source text. Besides the trimming down of narrative information from lengthy novels to accommodate commercial films’ conventional two-hour running time, a major area of con- tention has always concerned the visualization of characters, locations and 119 120 Part Three.
    [Show full text]
  • REPRESENTATION of DISABILITY in the FILM 300 by BJ CHAPLIN
    (MIS)REPRESENTATION OF DISABILITY IN THE FILM 300 by B.J. CHAPLIN (Under the Direction of Leara Rhodes) ABSTRACT This thesis examines themes of disability representation and ableism in the film 300 . Though 300 has been criticized for alleged racism, sexism, and homophobia, and as a commentary on U.S. foreign policy, almost no one has examined the film’s representation of disability. Using a social construct theory framework, a content analysis of the treatment of disability and able-bodiedness in the film has been conducted. The resulting analysis has found that although the movie was set in the past, conscious decisions made by contemporary filmmakers provided an unmistakable ableist agenda for today. INDEX WORDS: 300, Ableism, Disability, Social Construct Theory, Frank Miller, Spartans, Zack Snyder, Stereotypes, Media Representation of Disability, Disability in Film, Disability in Media (MIS)REPRESENTATION OF DISABILITY IN THE FILM 300 by B.J. Chaplin B.S., Middle Tennessee State University, 2004 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2008 © 2008 B.J. Chaplin All Rights Reserved (MIS)REPRESENTATION OF DISABILITY IN THE FILM 300 by B.J. CHAPLIN Major Professor: Leara Rhodes Committee: Louise Benjamin Barry Hollander Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2008 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to take this time to acknowledge the undying support of my parents, Austin, Marc, Robyn, Alfred Jones III, Jessica Mentzer, Anthony Merola, Dr. Leara Rhodes, Dr. Barry Hollander, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Greco-Persian Wars Comics # # Greco-Persian Wars Comics
    # Greco-Persian Wars Comics # # Greco-Persian Wars Comics # Follow along to learn about new terms and create comic strips for the Greco-Persian Wars... # Greco-Persian Wars Comics # Fold your blank paper into 8 squares (4x2). When you see the red numbered symbol, fill in one of your eight comic strip boxes with a title, caption and drawing for that slide. Be sure that your titles or captions include all 10 of the key terms listed on the left! 1 Persian Empire 2 Hellenism 3 Mesopotamia 4 Golden Age 5 Greco-Persian Wars 6 Ionian Revolt 7 Darius 8 Xerxes 9 Delian League 10 Asia Minor # Greco-Persian Wars Comics # Fold your blank paper into 8 squares (4x2). When you see the red numbered symbol, fill in one of your eight comic strip boxes with a title, caption and drawing for that slide. Be sure that your titles or captions include all 10 of the key terms listed on the left! 1 Persian Empire 2 Hellenism 3 Mesopotamia 4 Golden Age 5 Greco-Persian Wars 6 Ionian Revolt 7 Darius 8 Xerxes 9 Delian League 10 Asia Minor # Greco-Persian Wars Comics # Follow along to learn about new terms and create comic strips for the Greco-Persian Wars... 1 Persian Empire had been on the rise 2 Greek kingdoms reach a Golden Age 3 Cyrus appoints tyrants to rule Ionia 4 Greek rebellions across Asia Minor 5 Darius squashes the Ionian revolts 6 Persian plan to crush all of Greece 7 Darius & Xerxes struggle for years 8 Greeks go back on the offensive 1 Greco-Persian Wars Comics 1 1 Persian Empire had been on the rise The Persians originated in what is now Iran.
    [Show full text]
  • Xerxes: a Persian Life
    2017 IV Xerxes: A Persian Life Richard Stoneman New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015 Review by: Mauro Serena Review: Xerxes: A Persian Life Xerxes: A Persian Life. By Richard Stoneman. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015. ISBN 978-0-300-18007-7. xi + 257 pp. £25. he Achaemenid dynasty and the Persian Empire have attracted much academic interest over the last few decades. This attention, however, stands in marked contrast to individual rulers. In 2015, T this gap in the scholarship was partially filled by two monographs on Xerxes: Emma Bridges’ Imagining Xerxes: Ancient Perspectives on a Persian King, and Richard Stoneman’s Xerxes: A Persian Life. The purpose of Stoneman’s book is to understand “what is to be the ruler of the largest empire the world had seen yet” and “how the dominant picture of Xerxes … came into being” (15). The first three chapters set the scene: they narrate how Darius I and Xerxes came into power, present a survey of some of the main features of the empire (including how it came into being, how it acquired its multi-national character, and its neighbours), and give a description of the public image of the king at the court. The fourth chapter addresses some of the problems connected with the extremely complex field of Zoroastrian studies and then focuses on Xerxes’ religion, seen in the light of the various interpretations of the Daeva Inscription, and his attitude towards foreign gods. There follow two chapters dedicated to the invasion of Greece, described as a “distraction” and ultimately a mistake; but crucially, and Stoneman insists on this point, the king was not demoralized and did not sink “into apathy and devoted himself to buildings and women.
    [Show full text]
  • The Battle of Marathon: the Stunning Victory and Its Contribution to the Rise of Athens
    Studia Antiqua Volume 5 Number 2 Article 5 December 2007 The Battle of Marathon: The Stunning Victory and Its Contribution to the Rise of Athens Doug Marsh Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studiaantiqua Part of the History Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Marsh, Doug. "The Battle of Marathon: The Stunning Victory and Its Contribution to the Rise of Athens." Studia Antiqua 5, no. 2 (2007). https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studiaantiqua/vol5/iss2/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studia Antiqua by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Battle of Marathon: The Stunning Victory and Its Contribution to the Rise of Athens Doug Marsh THENS had never before been faced with so great a threat as the approach APersian forces to the Greek mainland in 490 b.c.e. Angered by the insolence of Athens and Eretria, which had recently supplied aid to rebelling Ionian cities, the Persian king Darius dispatched his generals Datis and Ataphernes “with the charge to reduce Athens and Eretria to slavery and to bring the slaves back into his presence.” Both Herodotus and Plato saw this dispatch as a mere pretext to accomplish his true aim: to enslave all of Greece and Europe.1 He moved first against the Eretrians, “reputed to be amongst the noblest and most warlike of the Hellenes of that day (and they were numer- ous); but he conquered them all in three days.”2 Having accomplished his objective against Eretria, Darius next turned his gaze to Athens, leaving it and its citizens to decide whether they ought to attempt to resist their seemingly inevitable defeat.3 Faced with almost certain ruin, many Athenian generals did not wish to fight, “seeing that they were too few to fight with the army of the Medes.” With the voting generals evenly split between those for and against fighting, the deciding vote was to be cast by Callimachos, the polemarch.
    [Show full text]
  • Week 7: the Persians Wars
    Week 7: The Persians Wars Lecture 12, Marathon, Key Words Aryans Media Babylonia Lydia Persia Cyrus Achaemenid Armenia Syria Cappadocia Croesus Cambyses Egypt India Sudan Persian Gulf Darius Samos Polycrates Scythia Macedon Miltiades Danube Earth and Water Boeotia Chalcis Corinth Demaratus Cleruchs Aegina Ionian Rebellion Aristagoras Miletus Naxos Sardis Eretria Lade Hipparchus archon 496/5 Phrynichus Chersonnesus Piraeus Themistocles 1 Mardonias Thrace Mt. Athos Rapprochement Datis Artaphernes Delos Carystus Pheidippides Pan Carneia Arête Beach head Cavalry Archers Plataeans Herakleion Marshes Charadra Soros Cynosura Phaleron Dromoi Grundy Stoa Poikile Aeschylus Hastings Spanish Armada Neville Chamberlain Bertrand Russell Churchill Marlborough Holocaust Sophocles Euripides Aristophanes Socrates Plato Aristotle Phidias Parthenon Pericles Scientific Revolution Western Civilization Marathonomachoi 2 Chronological Table for Persian History and the Persian Wars 2000-1000 Indo-Iranians migrate from the Eurasian plains of south Russia, across the Caucasus Mountains and into upper-Mesopotamia; others move east of the Caspian Sea and into the Indus river valley (founders of the Aryan Sanskrit civilization). 1150-1000 Phrygians migrate from the Balkans into central Anatolia; spread of iron technology: early Iron Age (1150-550). 950 Phrygian kings establish capital at Gordium and unite Anatolian plateau. 900-612 Assyria dominates the Near East. 844 Assyrian records refer to the Iranian tribes, the Persians. 836 Assyrian records mention the Medes. 705-690 Phrygian power shattered by Cimmerians (Iranian or Thracian nomads, who swept over Asia Minor and Syria at the end of the 8th /early 7th century); Lydia becomes independent of Phrygia. 700-675 Medes coalesce into a united kingdom under the initiative of the Mede Deioces (Hdt.
    [Show full text]