The guy as well as derides the fresh new Athenians because ‘boy-lovers’, conveniently forgetting that all out of his soldiers might have fallen towards you to exact same class
Spartan boys was basically, like many Greek boys, likely to mode homosexual matchmaking that have old dudes, and you can Xenophon says one Spartan soldiers got male lovers, even though they hated the practice of specific organizations, including Thebes, just who prepared their top-notch military doing pairs off lovers. Having Greeks, guaranteeing sexual relationships between soldiers suggested which they create strive more complicated in order to allure and you will include their lovers.
Leonidas is obviously straight; the guy gets specific soft pillow-talk with Gorgo and you can thinks of her body when he contemplates submitting so you can Xerxes (which obviously had their freak toward a long time ago and you will never seemed back).
Another way that the film considerably betrays the brand new Spartan spirit was with its treatments for Dilios (David Wenham), whom will lose an eye fixed attacking that’s delivered back so you can Sparta through to the last battle. They are the actual only real survivor (from a battle famous correctly for the insufficient survivors) and the narrator of flick. From the film’s conditions, their dismissal throughout the army enables him to offer Leonidas’ like so you’re able to Gorgo and you can, a year later, to lead a giant army of Greeks to win over the Persians at battle from Plataea.
However, it ignores that Spartan community thought leaving a good race otherwise staying in beat a sign of complete cowardice and you will ethical worthlessness. The newest poetry of Tyrtaeus away from Sparta dwells in detail on need for passing away from inside the competition, supposed in terms of to describe it as “beautiful” (particularly, at least, is one way so you can translate the brand new Greek agathos); a guy just who flees battle are affected personal embarrassment and you will impoverishment and be forgotten just after death. Plutarch accounts well-known stories where Spartan moms and dads deny sons which endure fights where Sparta try outdone; in several circumstances the newest mothers go in terms of to help you eliminate cowardly sons. He says, Spartan mothers share with its departing sons to go back along with their safeguards (that is, victorious) or in it (which is, getting continuous this new shield given that an extender); coming back without the protect try an indication that the man threw out their secure therefore he may flee less.
In place of are offered order in order to avenge the newest Spartan deceased, Dilios would-have-been ridiculed, along with his individual mom might have attempted to destroy your. Therefore the motion picture knows about so it; Gorgo says to Leonidas to go back together with protect otherwise on it. Very again, the film helps make a show away from claiming things and doing something very different when adopting the laws and regulations manage disrupt this new tale.
But Zack Snyder probably realized one to presenting a ring regarding macho beefcake fighters groping both during getaways regarding assaulting do maybe not enjoy so well toward partner-boys and you may young adults his motion picture is geared towards, so instead the guy overlooks that and has the benefit of instead mostly chaste and you can presumably heterosexual men
In fact, Dilios is actually a genuine people. His actual title is Aristodemus, and he and one guy, Eurytus, suffered attention problems during the Thermopylae (Herodotus calls they a sickness of your eye, asia beauty date-hyvitykset but maybe he setting a wound). Leonidas purchased them to go back home, however, Eurytus declined and fought even when blind. Aristodemus, however, obeyed Leonidas; this means that, Herodotus informs us he had been branded an effective coward, and you will men refused to speak to him otherwise give your an effective light to possess his fire. A 3rd Spartan, Pantites, together with lasted given that he had been delivered someplace since an excellent messenger and you can did not go back to Thermopylae over the years. The guy hanged themselves.