Literary Genius (Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield)

Name: arete

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Product:	Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield
Date:	13/12/00 (598 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Homer himself would be proud

Disadvantages: The tragedy that is human self sacrifice

Gates of Fire recounts the classic true to life tale from Greek history of when, threatened by an invading Persian army of somewhere between 200,000 and 2,000,000 (depending on which historical source you believe), the Greek city state Sparta dispatched 300 Spartan warriors to delay the advancing army. These 300 Spartan warriors and their allies, numbering around 1,100, made a stand to the death at a place called Thermopalyae, a small mountain pass through which King Xerxes invading army would have to come. The 300 Spartans and their allies not only held the pass through 3 days of fighting against the Persians finest soldiers but also, more critically, managed to destroy the momentum of the Persian advance. The Persian army was defeated the next year by the main body of the Spartan army. Steven Pressfield brilliantly brings ancient Sparta and the Spartan lifestyle to life. The battle scenes that he depicts are graphic and compelling and the book so brilliantly conveys the thoughts and feelings of those involved in combat that, after reading, you feel as if you have just been through it all yourself. This book is literature at its finest, I cannot recommend it enough. The 300 warriors fought to the death and, to this day, there is an inscription at Thermopalyae that says 'Go tell it to the Spartans stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws we lie'.

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