WITH YOUR SHIELD OR ON IT: THE GENDER OF HEROISM IN ZACK SNYder’S 300 AND RUDOLPH Maté’S THE 300 SPARTANS Thorsten Beigel Since Russell Crowe succeeded in 2000 as a gladiator not only in the vir- tual Colosseum in Rome but also at the box offices all over the world, antiquity has continued to provide a fashionable genre for directors and film producers. One of the recent examples of the genre is Zack Snyder’s 300, an adaptation from Frank Millers graphic novel about the last stand of the Spartans at Thermopylae 480 bc.1 Miller’s award-winning graphic novel narrates the story of Leonidas and his men through the eyes of the sole Spartan survivor Dilios, who has been dismissed by Leonidas before the final battle in order to “make every Greek know what happened here.”2 Starting with a flashback that deals with the young Leonidas surviving the last trial of the agoge and returning back to Sparta as king, the story line continues with the arrival of the Persian envoys demanding the submission to King Xerxes. Leoni- das decides to kill them – the incident is related by Herodotus (7.133), though referring to the envoys of Xerxes’ predecessor Darius – and to face the imminent attack at Thermopylae. But since the Ephors, bribed by the Persians, refuse to send out the entire army on religious grounds, Leonidas resolves to “take a stroll” to the Thermopylae accompanied by three hundred chosen warriors as his personal body guard. The further course of the story follows more or less the well-known outlines of the ­Herodotean account but from a exclusively Spartan point of view.3 The frontal assaults of the Persians fail with heavy casualties but the traitor Ephialtes – depicted as a heavily deformed Spartan who is refused mem- bership in the three hundred – helps Xerxes to outflank the lines of the Spartans, who are annihilated in their famous last stand. 1 Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, 300 (Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 1999). 2 As revealed at the end, Dilios tells the story on the eve of the battle of Plataea 479 bc. 3 The role of the Greek allies, represented by an Arcadian force, is heavily downplayed. Being amateurs in contrast to the Spartan professionals they engage only after the main work has been done. 66 thorsten beigel Zack Snyder’s 300 closely follows Miller’s narrative and seeks to imitate the visual artistry of the graphic novel by making lavish use of computer technology and special effects. As a consequence, the film looks more like a historical fantasy than a typical historical drama. Nevertheless, it is not entirely a shot-for-shot adaptation, but shows some marked differences.4 The most obvious is that Snyder added the subplot in which Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, tries to convince the Spartan council to send reinforce- ment. Perhaps the most striking difference is the heavily biased depiction of the Persians which significantly exceeds the original. While the Spartans are depicted as semi-nude, overly masculine heroes, their Persian coun- terparts appear as effeminate or even include such monstrous and gro- tesquely disfigured characters as the “Berserker” and the “Executioner.”5 The Persians use weapons like a giant rhinoceros or grenades hurled by magicians and commit atrocities to civilians. Nevertheless, even their sin- ister, ninja-like elite corps, the Immortals, is no match for the brave Spar- tans. Soon after its release, the film engendered a controversial reception. The uncritical celebration of Spartan heroism and the biased depiction of the Persians brought protest upon Snyder for fostering racist, homopho- bic, and even fascist ideas.6 Also, popular culture parodies like Meet the Spartans and United 300 can be understood as a reaction to the blunt use of such cultural and sexual stereotypes.7 Since 300 focuses on a specific form of male heroism which Snyder (and probably the majority of the film audience as well) considers typically “Spartan”, it may seem paradoxical to write about the role of women in this film. However, Snyder’s portrayal of his male heroes does not depend on only the Spartiates themselves but also on the contrastive interplay between Leonidas and his men on the one hand and their counterparts on the other hand. Thus the digitally perfected, semi-nude bodies of the Spartans stand in contrast to the monstrous, disfigured horde of their Per- sian enemies, and the androgynous portrayal of King Xerxes as well as the derisive remarks about “boy-loving” Athenians and Arcadian amateur- warriors serve to sharpen the idealization of the Spartan protagonists. Even within the Spartan cosmos counterparts to the brave and straightforward heroes can be found, such as the corrupt politician Theron or the Ephors, 4 Cf. G.N. Murray, “Zack Snyder, Frank Miller and Herodotus: Three Takes on the 300 Spartans,” Akroterion 52 (2007) 11–35. 5 See Jeroen Lauwers, Marieke Dhont & Xanne Huybrecht in this volume. 6 Lauwers in this volume and Murray, “Zack Snyder, Frank Miller and Herodotus,” 12f. 7 Ralph Poole in this volume..