Blog Number 97 - The death of King Leonidas in Frank Miller's '300'

In Blog Number 78, I included an illustration by Peter Connolly of the last day of fighting at Thermopylae. This image shows the remaining Greek warriors who stood in the widest part of the pass which would allow them to inflict the greatest amount of casualties.

In the first two days, the Greek army was constricted by the width of the pass, however, in a wider part of the battlefield which they occupied on the last day, they were able to spread their lines so that they could face more of the enemy at a given time. King Leonidas knew that it would only be a short period of before they would be surrounded.

It was during this part of the battle that the Spartan king died. Two of Xerxes' brothers died along with many other Persians who tried in vain several times to seize the body of Leonidas before the remaining Spartans were finally able to deny them.

One of the most memorable scenes in 'The 300 Spartans' is when the Persian envoy asks for the body of Leonidas in return for their lives. The Spartan Pentheus replies, 'We stay with our king' and it was then that the remaining Greeks were killed by the arrows 'which blot out the sun'.

The death of King Leonidas will be the most powerful part of the '300' and I wonder if Gerard Butler will say his final words as written by Frank Miller; 'My queen. My wife. My love. Be strong. Good-bye.