different opinions on the reasons why Xerxes went to Greece. However, most people agree with the history of Herodotus: He believes that the roots of the Hippocratic War can be traced back to the age of the gods. The struggle for beautiful women as gods included Yi, Medea, and Helen, and the endless hatred that came from it.
Darius (the father of Xerxes), the invincible son of Systaspes, lost to the Athenians in the marathon. Although in the movie, Leonidas, the king of Sparta, mocked the Athenians as non-professional soldiers, but in the Marathon battle, the Athenians fought alone and defeated the Persian hussars on the Marathon plain with heavy infantry. This is also the first time the Persians have suffered from heavy infantry. This is just the beginning of failure for the proud Persians.
In order to avenge the Athenians, Xerxes, who succeeded to the throne, also avenged the rebellion of the Egyptians who had just conquered by Besses. In the second year after Darius' death, Xerxes gathered his forces. First he conquered Egypt and put the Egyptians into heavy enslavement. Then he figured out how to conquer the rich and magnificent Europa. They would start from Greece and its neighbors.
The messenger thrown into the deep well.
It is described in the movie that the cause of the war was that Persia sent envoys with the skulls of conquered kings to ask the Spartans to offer water and soil as sacrifices to express their surrender. But Leonidas, the king of Sparta, did not want to be humiliated, and threw the messenger into the deep well to show his resistance. In fact, Xerxes did not send messengers to Athens and Sparta to ask for water and soil, because Darius once sent messengers to these two cities to ask for surrender, but one city put the messengers into the pit (Greek name : Baratlon), another city threw the messenger into the deep well. The director appropriated the events of Darius's period to the era of Xerxes, which also proved the free will of the Spartans from one aspect. There are still many places in the movie about this kind of technique, and the history is adapted in time to achieve better results.
In the negotiations between Leonidas and the Persian messenger, Leonidas talked about the Athenians. He said with contempt that if those philosophers and homosexuals (the original word is boylovers) reject you... ) Maybe this sentence is not really from Leonidas, or even the specific source can not be found, but it is absolutely logical that this sentence is from the mouth of the Spartans. From this, it fully embodies the Spartans' contempt for philosophy and their mocking attitude towards the Athenians, thinking that they are not men, they are cartilage, and they can only play with words and words. In the Spartan dictionary, there is only the word "fight".
Persian enslaved army.
At the beginning of the film, the one-eyed Dirios, the narrator of the whole story, made a generous statement before the bonfire that an army of slaves from Persia was rushing towards Greece. In the history recorded by Herodotus, all the Persian army is the assembly of all the conquered armies in Asia and Europe. Among them are the Medieans, the Sakais, the Paionians, the Macedonians, and the Thracians. And so on, there are even Arab camel soldiers and Libyan chariot soldiers, a total of 2.6 million people, plus more than 5 million people who have accompanied the army for miscellaneous service, because there are so many people that they need Some rivers have been drained with water. The person who carried Xerxes the throne in the movie was one of the above-mentioned handymen. These handymen were even more than soldiers. The Persians moved almost the entire city, making war a kind of Enjoy, of course this is only for the slave owners who wield the whip.
In the second half of the movie, when 300 Spartan soldiers defeated the undead of Persia, the king of Persia had to send a large army of slaves. In the picture, the hideous guards wield their whips frantically in the dawn of dawn, shouting "forward! Forward!" This picture faithfully reproduced Herodotus's description, "The officers of the foreign army take it. Walk behind the troops with the whip, and beat the troops before entering.” ("History of the Greek-Persian War", Volume VII, Section 224) As for the rhinos, elephants, and magicians that appear in the film, Herodotus did not. Mentioned, but he wrote that many people in the foreign army fell into the sea and drowned, which coincides with the scene in the movie where the elephant stepped on the dead body of a Persian soldier and plunged into the sea.
Immortal.
Those who left a deep impression on many viewers were the chilling immortals in the war. The movie portrays the undead as monsters with blue-faced fangs: eyes are as dark as night, teeth as sharp as beasts, wearing a mask made of steel, powerful, soulless, and arrogant. In the history written by Herodotus, these "undead teams" are more real, and those legendary and terrifying colors are artificially created, rather than inhuman forces. The "Undead Team" is a Persian elite unit of 10,000 people. They are the bravest soldiers, with the most advanced costumes and the most gold. If one of them dies in battle, another will immediately replace him, thus ensuring that the number of troops will never change. Persians are extremely superstitious in the huge and unchanging number of ten thousand, which represents a huge and solid strength. These ten thousand people can also form a square array of one hundred rows and one hundred columns. The director used deification and exaggeration to show such a powerful force.
The treatment of soldiers who survived the war.
In the movie, only Dirios of the three hundred Spartans survived, because Leonidas needed Dirios to convey his final order to the House with vivid eloquence, so that all Greeks Everyone knows the tragic and heroic battle hymn of this time to defend our homeland and defend our freedom. In the real history, there are two people with eye diseases who got permission to leave the camp, one is Euritos and the other is Aristo Damos. The former did not want to leave the army, let others lead him to the Persian army, rushed into the crowd and died in battle. Another Alisto Damos is Dirios in the movie. He returned to Sparta but was scorned and excluded. No one wanted to care about him, they also called him the coward Alisto Damos. He endured the humiliation, washed away his shame in the battle of Plataia, and won the glory for himself.
It is not difficult to see from this that, in the eyes of the Spartans, they would either win the war or die. All soldiers who returned from a failed battle would be criticized. Someone once suffered from insult and hanged himself. .
The film does not accurately reproduce the history of Greece, but many spirits that have been interpreted by the director are still in line with Herodotus's Greece.
[Spartans are descendants of Hercules, Zeus will also bless them]
2. The Greek spirit and anti-Greek spirit in 300
People always say that war keeps women away, but the status of women in the "300" far exceeds the prejudices of those ancient times.
Anti-Greek spirit.
Leonidas taught his son to use his brain to fight, and the daughter of Cleomenes, the queen of Sparta, Golgo, taught his son to fight with heart; when the Persian envoy just made his intentions, Leonidas hadn't had time. When speaking, Queen Golgore laughed at the innocence of the Persians, saying that the Spartans would not offer their freedom. The Persian envoy was very angry and puzzled to accuse the woman of not having the right to speak. Golgo replied proudly. Only a Spartan woman gave birth to a real man; Golge could confidently say that only his own words can affect the king's mood in the face of a worried husband.
This is exactly the anti-Greek spirit shown in the movie. Spartan women have the right to be on an equal footing with men. But in many cities in Greece, such as Athens, women do not have any citizenship rights. The ancient Olympic Games were the most important ceremonial ceremony in Greece, but if a woman was found participating in the Olympics, she would be thrown off the cliff to death as a way to punish them for their restless behavior. The Spartans are definitely an alien in the Greek spirit at this point. They respect women and believe that they have nurtured strength and courage. In Sparta, women who have more children will be respected and honored. They will also receive the same training as professional soldiers and have the ability to fight on the field, and their combat effectiveness is definitely not inferior to many men. Therefore, in the House of Representatives, the angry queen Gore could easily and quickly pierce the body of the traitor congressman with a knife, without a trace of hesitation or mercy. This is one of the reasons why women in Sparta are respected.
Before the Three Hundred Spartan Warriors set off, Golgge directly called Leonidas to be a Spartan. His eyes were mixed with his wife’s attachment to her husband, and more of it was the perseverance to maintain honor before the expedition. Come back with your shield, or lie on it." This is a famous saying that is rarely passed down by the reticent Spartans. It was originally the words of a mother who told her son who was about to go to the battlefield. It was used here. , Replaced by his wife. This is also the difference between Spartan women and other women. If they can't win, they would rather their husbands or sons die on the battlefield than they would be deserters.
Anyone who has seen "Alexander" will have the impression that the Athenians are eloquent people. They rely on eloquence to gain respect and admiration from others. Before each expedition, Alexander would give an impassioned speech in front of the soldiers to boost morale. In Athens, the generals who lead the army must be both civil and military, not only brave and good at fighting, but also full of poetry and books. A well-known story happened around 450 BC. On the eve of the Greek battle to dominate the Aegean Sea, the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Pericles, and the young general on the side had a dispute over the verse describing a handsome boy. They all quote a mysterious verse of the ancients to support their views. The truthfulness of the story is difficult to consider, but a sentence from Edith Hamilton expresses the deep meaning of it, "Except in Greece, no generals in any other country have such stories handed down." The impression that Greece gives to people is that it is full of subtle and profound literary theories and the eloquence skills of overwhelming the crowd.
From this point of view, the Spartans are definitely an anomaly. They cherish words like gold and bury a lot of words in their hearts, let alone soft words. They have not received orthodox literary education since they were young. For them, it is all unnecessary things, as long as they can understand the limited characters so that they can understand the orders issued by the superiors. Before the expedition, there was no tender space between the relatives of Sparta, and there was no room for weakness and crying. As said in the movie, there is only strong bravery.
The ugly freak traitor Effiart was the chief culprit for the failure of the battle at Wenquanguan in the "300 Spartan". In reality, the traitor of the Spartans was not a freak, but a well-developed soldier. However, the Spartans hate people with weak bodies, and it is true that they abandon those newly born deformities. This is not due to any complicated reasons, they just think that such a person cannot fight. Just like Leonidas's concerns in the movie, they are in a neat formation when they send troops to fight, and they are indestructible, and any disharmony or weakness in any corner is fatal.
For many Greeks, they do not value combat effectiveness as much as the Spartans, and they do not discriminate against freaks, they just prefer and appreciate handsome people.
The image of Xerxes, king of Persia, is criticized by many people in the movie. The movie portrays him as a tall, dark man with eyebrows and eyes, covered in metal rings, mixing the dual characteristics of both sexes, which is very inconsistent with historical facts. First, the Persians are white, and secondly, Xerxes must be tall, handsome, and full of masculinity, not an intersex person who is neither male nor female. Herodotus has a very vivid description of him, "Among these millions, in terms of looks and body, no one is more than Xerxes (Xerxes) himself. Qualified to command the whole army.” ("History of the Greek-Persian War" Volume VII, Section 187) When Frank Miller designed the image of Xerxes, Xu referred to a symptom before the Persians fought in Greece: one The horse gave birth to a rabbit. Herodotus understood this that the Persians were miraculous when they set out, but when they returned to the same place they were fleeing for their lives. This is an ominous omen. However, since many people describe Darius as a vigorous horse, then a horse gave birth to a weak rabbit, which also implies that Xerxes is far inferior to Darius. Herodotus also wrote of a symptom at the time: a mule gave birth to a mule of both sexes, and the male genitalia was on the top. Such signs make it easy for people to understand that Xerxes has both sexes and male characteristics are prominent.
The embodiment of the Greek spirit.
Chloesos, the king of Lydia, once asked Solon from Athens, who is the happiest person in the world? Solon said without flattery, "I think it is Tylos of Athens", because he fought bravely, defeated the enemy, and died on the battlefield. Such a person is an extremely happy person. From this allusion, we can see how noble and great ideals are to win honor and defend freedom in the eyes of the Greeks.
The spirit of the Spartans that they would rather die than surrender in battle is the perfect embodiment of the Greek spirit. They believed that it was the highest honor to die on the battlefield for the country, and the Spartans rushed to die first. Just to win that magnificent death.
In the movie, when some Spartans were building fortifications at Hot Spring Pass, a Persian general once came here to intimidate. Millions of Persians are coming here, and their arrows will cover the sky. The Spartans laughed contemptuously and said, then we shall fight in the shade. This sentence reproduces Herodotus's praise of the hero Dienechis' deeds, "He didn't panic after hearing this, but he didn't pay attention to the Medieans (that is, the Persians) at all. He said that their Traches friends brought them very lucky news, because if the Medes had covered the sun, they could be in the shade instead of under the sun. Fight with them." ("History of the Greek-Persian War" Volume VII, Section 226) Such heroic rhetoric and courage not only made the Spartans rush to praise it, but also made his enemies fear and fear. In the movie, the Persian bows and arrows that obscure the sky reproduce the scene described in the book, which is shocking, and the Spartans laugh at the Persians for not having the courage behind the shield. It also allows everyone to deeply appreciate the bravery and fearlessness of the Persians. Greek spirit.
The most important thing in the Greek spirit is to advocate "freedom." Dirios said at the end of the story that the place where Leonisus and the three hundred Spartans died in battle is the place that anyone with a free soul should go. I believe that as long as you have seen "Braveheart", everyone's heart will tremble because Wallace lay on the guillotine and still let the cry of "freedom" ring through the sky. In Greece, the voice of freedom permeates every soul, every house, and even the stones on the side of the road. This is the country’s laws and promises, and it is conveyed to thousands of future generations.
[Spartan women have a high status]
3. The conflict between 300 and modern values
"300" reproduces the powerful visual impact of the Hippo War, swords, guns, swords and halberds. At the same time, the values in it also puzzled many viewers. not agree.
The movie portrays the Spartans into heroes with strong muscles, immortality, bravery and perseverance, and has all the advantages of a soldier. Not only that, but they also wore red cloaks and only underpants, so they had almost written a big "S" in front of them, proclaiming the world of their superhuman will and physique. The images of Persians are mostly slaughtered slaves and ugly faces, just like the man with a knife sewn on his arm, and the intersex man who lacks arms. Persian soldiers corpses piled up into mountains under the spears of the Spartans, it seems that their lives are not life, and death is not a pity.
Although it is difficult to distinguish between right and wrong or justice and evil in war, the Spartans represent freedom and they fight for themselves. Most of the Persians fought for slave owners. Many of these slaves were also free men. In the face of powerful forces, they gave up their freedom without resistance and committed themselves to slavery. The director deliberately exaggerated the gap between the strength and image of the two sides, and also expressed his support for freedom and protest against the slavery system.
Not only "300", most American cartoons and movies have promoted the importance of freedom. The element of justice will not be obliterated because of the death and injury in the war, that is, the pursuit of freedom can be chosen by oneself, rather than being controlled by the will of others.
Modern people are no longer squeezed by the slave owners of the past, and gradually no longer regard freedom as their goal. Perhaps it is precisely because of this that the Spartans' efforts for this purpose cannot be understood to a certain extent. In the era of the Hippo War, slaves did not have the right to live freely, and no matter how much money they had, they could not buy a life.
A Lydian, Adus’s son, Phetios, has tens of millions of gold and is rich in an enemy country. Faced with Xerxes’s battle in Greece, he contributed all his wealth and four of his five sons. He just wanted to stay The eldest son takes care of him and his property. Xerxes was furious after hearing this request, thinking that he had personally conquered Greece, his own son and relatives were in the army, and a slave had no right to request special treatment to escape the campaign. Immediately, Xerxes ordered the eldest son of Phetios to be split in half and placed on both sides of the road, allowing the Persian soldiers to march on the road between the corpses.
For the Spartans, and even for the Greeks, losing their freedom is like losing their lives. They will be yelled at by slave owners at any time. It is better to fight to the end. They were trained to live to the death since they were young, and they were thrown into the wolves to seek survival. They could not have the slightest compassion for the enemy, otherwise they would die without a place to be buried. The cruelty of this last fight is also created by the environment.
However, the freedom of the Spartans is also relative. Although they admire freedom so much, they also kept slaves and let them cultivate the land for the Spartans. This also shows that in free Greece, classes still exist, but the years of life have left people unconscious. Although the Spartans did not criticize or torture the slaves, they were just assigned a job. Even so, freedom still did not appear in everyone, and the form of slavery was not completely eradicated.
Xerxes’ mother, Queen Mother of Persia, Atosha once asked the Persian messenger, “Who rules them, and who is the shepherd of the soldiers?” The
messenger replied, “They are not slaves, and they are not subjects of anyone.” Aeschylus "The Persians")
There were also two Spartans who voluntarily killed the Persian messengers for the Spartans to pay for their lives. They came to the court of Xerxes and told all the Persians who had surrendered, "You I have never experienced freedom, and I don’t know if it tastes good. If you have tasted freedom, then you will persuade us to fight for freedom not only with guns, but also with axes" (" "History of the Greek-Persian War" Volume VII, Section 135)
This pursuit of freedom is innate, and it is also the most successful part of this film. It conveys this belief very well and informs people that countless people have been willing to To dedicate life to this, freedom is more noble than life.
"Passenger, go and tell the Rakai Daimens
we are here to sleep according to their orders."
-The epitaph of the 300 Spartan Warriors
Postscript:
Although the movie has made some achievements in expressing some Greek spirit, it continues The slow motion and stop-frame images that appear are too close to the comic format rather than the language of the camera. This is a bit of selfishness of Frank Miller, who worked so hard to draw the storyboard and participate in the director.
Please indicate the author: Nine-Tailed Black Cat
http://www.mtime.com/my/LadyInSatin/blog/508568/
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