Blog Number 54 - The Persian army in Frank Miller's '300'

Here is an image, once again from John Warry's book 'Warfare in the Classical World'. The warrior depicted is one of Xerxes' Immortals, who were the elite of the Persian army. The illustrations in '300' seem to be more accurate relative to the depiction of the Persian warriors than the Greek, with the exception of the Persian king Xerxes.

Thanks again Patti.

Blog Number 53 - Armor worn by the '300' Spartans at Thermopylae

One can't help but notice that the Spartan warriors as depicted in Frank Miller's '300' are devoid of most of the armor that they would have worn during the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Therefore, to clarify any misconceptions about their armor, here is an illustration in John Warry's book entitled 'Warfare in the Classical World' which shows how a Greek hoplite would have been armed when meeting the Persian army.

When you factor in the opressive heat of the Greek summer in August 480 B.C. along with the weight of the armor, one must marvel at the condition of these warriors. Even more astonishing is that King Leonidas was in his 50's, which would have been considerably older than the Spartiates that he was leading!

If you would like to see other illustrations like this one, please let me know.

Many thanks to Patti, Dotty & Jane. Cheers!

Blog Number 52 - Is Zeus the inspiration behind the illustration of King Leonidas in Frank Miller's '300'?

In one of my blogs that I posted last week, I wondered who Frank Miller used as an inspiration for his illustration of King Leonidas. Several days later I received a comment from Kryptes who mentioned that F.M.'s illustration of the leader of the 300 Spartans bore an uncanny resemblance to a statue of Zeus. After making a side-by-side comparison, I would have to agree that there is a huge similarity!

Therefore, it could be easy to draw a conclusion that the statue of Zeus is the basis for the illustration. I know I'm reaching here, however, a parallel can also be drawn, since Zeus was the king of the gods in Greek mythology and Leonidas was the king of Sparta.

Does it seem as if the illustration of King Leonidas could have been inspired by the statue of Zeus or is it a coincidence?

This only reinforces why I encourage comments since it can be illuminating as it was in this instance and it can provide ideas for many blogs to come.

Gracias to Kryptes!

Blog Number 51 - Ephialtes and eugenics in Frank Miller's '300'

The historical accounts of Sparta have recorded that a newly born child was shown to the city elders who determined if the infant was healthy or unfit to live. If not, the male children were thrown into a gorge on Mount Taygetos called the Apothetae which was known as the 'place of rejection'. The girls on the other hand were left in a basket so that there was a chance that a shepherd or anyone strolling by would take the child in.

Ephialtes (pronounced Ef-ee-ul-tez), the traitor of Thermopylae as depicted by Frank Miller in '300', is a Spartan by birth who because of his deformity was whisked away by his parents so that he wouldn't be left to his fate as the other 'sickly' Spartan children were.

Since Herodotus wrote that Ephialtes was from Malis, not Sparta and that there wasn't any mention that he was a hunchback as depicted in '300', this condundrum was most perplexing since I tried to reconcile Miller's Ephialtes as being Spartan instead of Malian. After giving it some thought, I wrote Blog Number 18 which I tried to my explain why F.M. portrayed him with the aforementioned characteristics.

Thanks to Lynne & Jane!

Blog Number 50 - More cast members named in Frank Miller's '300'

A couple of months ago, when I started thinking about what would be a catchy title for this web log, I had some reservations about naming it "300 blogs about Frank Miller's '300'". I really did!!! I thought to myself, how would I be able to come up with the content that would allow me to post something 300 times without being repititious?

Well, here I am today with a milestone of sorts, writing my 50th blog and going strong! It seems as if every week there is some news filtering out of Montreal, Canada about actors named and the roles that they will be playing in '300'.

According to the IMDB, the latest news is that Englishman Tom Wisdom will be playing Astinos and stuntman David Leitch, the Hero Spartan. At some point in time, hopefully in the near future, these roles will be more defined since they don't appear as characters in '300'.

Then again, you could say that there were at least '300' Hero Spartans!!!

Blog Number 49 - Andrew Pleavin to play Daxos in Frank Miller's '300'

Several weeks ago, a reader left a comment for me on the September 30th blog, which stated that Englishman Andrew Pleavin had been cast in Frank Miller's '300'. According to the IMDB, it has now been confirmed that Pleavin will portray Daxos, the leader of the Arcadians.

Coincidentally, Andrew Pleavin played the part of Orestes in 'Atilla', which starred Gerard Butler who will be occupying the role of King Leonidas of Sparta.

I am grateful to the individual (anonymous) who left the comment for me and would like to thank him/her once again! Cheers mate!

Blog Number 48 - The battle formation of the '300' Spartans

Here is another illustration from Frank Miller's '300', of which this one shows the phalanx, which was the military formation used by the 300 Spartans. If you haven't had a chance to see the comics, there are hundreds of images with such detail that I've wondered how long it took Frank Miller & Lynn Varley to complete all the illustrations.

Inasmuch as there are so many to choose from, my favorite illustrations are the ones which focus on the Battle of Thermopylae.

What would be some of the other images that you would like to see from '300'?

Thanks Ebwhite!