Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Privateer]

I never really imagined the Spartans as bellowing like WWE wrestlers; they're supposed to be laconic. They would use few words, keep their faces expressionless, and let their actions speak for them.

The line about 'fighting in the shade' is famous of course, and incredibly cool, but it would be more effective if the guy delivering the line did it with supreme indifference.

[daskalos]

Well, yes, of course, the Spartans did lose that herioc battle, but it is worth noting that they only lost it because they were betrayed by another Greek. Had they not been, they could have held the pass until the Persians got tired or reinforcements arrived.

On this topic, the most notable quotation comes not from a general or a king but a poet, Simonides, carved, I believe, somewhere in the pass. "Stranger, passing by, tell the Spartans / that here, obedient to their laws, we lie."

The name of man who betrayed the Greeks to the Persians was Ephialtis. I don't know much about Ancient Greek, but I do speak the modern version, pretty well. Several years ago while watching the news in Greece after a bad storm that caused fatal floods, I saw the word "EPHIALTIS" keyed over video of the floods, and I thought, WTF? What could that rotten quisling have to do with floods in northern Greece? Turns out the the word in Modern Greek means "nightmare."

Were I more diligent in my research I could explicate the etymology for you more clearly, but my guess is that the name in Ancient Greek didn't mean nightmare and that it's come to mean that only through millennia of association.

On Pressman's novelization, I understand the position of both those who loved it and those who couldn't get through it. I did get through it, and enjoyed it, mostly, but only because I'm intensely interested in Ancient Greek history. He wrote a great story -- it's his sentences and paragraphs I have some issues with.

[mindmetoo]

[Hollywoodaction]

[Tarmangani]

I'm angry that I cannot watch this movie right now. It looks so cool.

[Hollywoodaction]

[J.B. Clamence]

[corroonb]

I actually read Ancient Greek and have read Herodotus, although not this particular incident. By far the best translation is the Oxford Univesrsity Press one by Robin Waterfield.

Full Greek text and translation is available here:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0125

Link to Thermopylae section here:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Hdt%2e+7%2e210%2d225

Λεωνίδας is the Greek and is pronounced LE(Short E)-O(Long O)-NI-DAS I believe.

BTW Herodotus is not really an historian in the modern sense as a lot of what he wrote was misinformed crap. Thucydides was the first proper historian and is the real Father of History. Herodotus was also known as the father of lies.

[SuperFly]

Marathon beach was one of the most beautiful and peaceful beaches in Greece before they modernized it in the 80's and 90's and built it up into a pay and park beach. We used to go camping there throughout the 70's - there were two tavernas on the whole beach and it was thick with pine trees and sand for two miles before you got to the ocean...paradise.

I just googled the satellite map and the pine trees are still there but it's totally been built up with roads and hotels.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[JongnoGuru]

[SuperFly]

Are you serious?

Yes we camped there on many occasions throughout the 70's because my old man was stationed at Hellenikon AFB (he met my mom and found a way to keep extending his assignment there so he stayed in Greece for the majority of his 20 years in the USAF - not counting WW 2 and Korean wars) and my brother and I spent our summers in Gerakas (where my grandparents lived) which was about 30 minutes from Nea Makri - Marathon beach. Our house was near the air base though... Remember how when you get off the main road, you have to drive forever through the sandy roads and pine trees to actually get to the beach? We also have a house on the isle of Samos where my grandmother on my moms side is from...my grandfather on my dads side immigrated to NY from Greece when he was 10 yrs old so my dad was born and raised in the states. My grandfather fought in WW 1 and my dad was in WW 2, Korea and Vietnam. (Army Air corps, then the air force)

My mom has all the photo albums from there. In 75 we got a camper and ditched the old family tent.

The one thing about that place and other places we used to go camping back then...if you pitch a tent somewhere on the beach and there's no one else around, the one thing you could always count on...the first Greeks to come along would come pitch camp 100 yards away from you - even when they had three miles of empty beach in front of them...my old man always used to complain about that!

The nice thing about camping at marathon beach was that if we needed supplies, all we had to do was drive 15 minutes to the Naval Communications station at Nea Makri and go to the base exchange.

But the lamb chops in those tavernas were the best!

Did you go to American Community Schools in Halandri by chance?? If you did....theres a chance we know eachother, or you know my older brother....

What's your story?

[manlyboy]

The Spartans didn't "lose". It was a suicide mission from the get-go. The objective was not to defeat Xerxes, but to delay him.

[JongnoGuru]