*300* is such a GREAT MOVIE!!! 

"May you live forever" is basically an insult to a Spartan. They were bred to be warriors, and to die in battle is the greatest honor to them.

The whole "over the top" style of story telling was not intended to be a historical account. It was in fact the story as told to the troops at the end of the film by Dilios. He was the narrator throughout this entire film, and it was him inspiring the troops in the final battle (the one where Greece finally drove out the Persians for good). When Leonidas sent his lieutenant Dilios home from Thermopylae (missing one eye), he chose him not because he was wounded, but specifically because he had a gift for story telling. So the epic tale of their battle was told by the skilled orator Dilios, and the imagery you see is what he conjured in the minds of Spartans. When Dilios told the grand story of the fate of the 300, most of the Spartan soldiers had never seen an elephant... or a rhino... or even a Persian soldier for that matter. In his story telling, when he says Xerxes was tall with a deep voice... the men imagined him standing 8 feet tall, and having some supernaturally deep voice. When he says the sun was blotted out by their arrows, they imagined the sky becoming dark with millions of arrows.

"May you live forever" I always took this as a form of insult. Having to live forever with the guilt of his betrayal. He will also never get a true, honorable spartan death as he desired.

“Why did they think 300 was enough?” They didn’t. But it was the maximum number Leonidas could bring. 300 is a king’s escort. 301 is an army. The ephores forbade Leonidas from sending any armies anywhere.

They only took 300 because they couldn't legally bring the Spartan army. It did allow them to slow down the Persians until the Greeks could mobilize. Also, the Persians morale was shook seeing what 300 Spartans could do, so when they saw thousands at the later battle, their confidence was shattered.

"May you live forever" This would have been a curse for a Spartan. To die in battle was the highest honor.

I love hearing the story of Butler screaming “This is Sparta” and the whole crew laughing their asses off. They thought it was absolutely ridiculous until they watched the dailies

That "pit of death" is just a well. The event of the Spartans throwing the Persian messengers into a well actually happened ten years before Thermopylae. The Persian messengers came asking for earth and water, and the Spartans replied "Go dig it out yourself!" before throwing them into the well to die. At the same time in Athens, the Athenians did the exact same thing to Persian messengers sent to Athens, except they threw the messengers into a pit used to execute condemned criminals.

"Come back with you shield, or on it." Is taken from Spartan culture. The shields were quite heavy so if someone fled they wpuld drop ot to move faster. If they came back with their equipment then they fought with honour. Or on it , meaning they died with honour.

Michael Fassbender looks like he really enjoyed his role Also the actor who got heel-kicked into the pit is Peter Mensah. He played Oenomaeus, Spartacus' trainer in the series who's visuals were inspired by 300

-"What happened to those warriors of Thermopylae?" -"Dead to the last man."

Fun fact: the word "laconic", which means to speak or write while using very few words, is named for Laconia, the region of Greece Sparta was located in. Thats because of their absolutely legendary propensity for outrageous action movie one-liners 😂 My favorite example is when Philip of Macedon was threatening to invade Sparta, and demanding that they surrender. He asserted that if his army invaded, they would burn pillage and destroy everything. The Spartans reply was simply "if". Also, "it almost feels like they took genuine pages from the comic book, and recreated it" They pretty much did exactly that, lmao. A lot of shots from the movie are EXACT recreations of frames from the comic, and the whole movie is practically shot for shot a copy of the original comic book. Zach Snyder would literally photocopy the book and use the sheets to figure out how to set up his camera

"Did Leonidas just tell him to go have sex?" Yes. He quite literally told him to go "F**K OFF!". (Politely) LMAO

Frank Miller's work has always been about masculinity and heroism. He said that when he saw the 1962 film "300 Spartans" as a boy it changed his creative life, as he stopped thinking of heroes as guys who always won (e.g. Superman) but rather someone willing to die for something important. So it was inevitable he would do his own "300" comic.

Having Dilios as the narrator was actually brilliant. It instantly fixed any concerns of why the Immortals and others in the Persian army look like demons/monsters, since its Dilios retelling the story, and exaggerating some things as storytellers do

3:20 - "I wish that you could tell me what would be exaggerated vs not..." -Spartans didn't fight naked, they had some of the most sophisticated and high-tech armor in the ancient world. Frank Miller knew this, all of the "inaccuracies" in the graphic novel are artistic license choices, he was inspired when he visited Thermopolye and saw a statue of Leonidas in the nude except for his cape and helmet. He found the image evocative and thought that in his mythologized version they should fight shirtless, barbarian hero style. 24:55 "And the choreography is out of this world!" IRL, they never broke that formation you saw at the beginning of the battle if they could help it. (And the fact that they held the pass against an endless supply of Persians indicates that they never broke formation at that battle) By staying together in a tight "phalanx" where each soldier, as he described to Ephialtes, shielded the man next to him, they were like a big impenatrable metal human tank with spears stabbing out at you. The Persian slave army had shields and helmets made of wicker and no armor. 30:00 "May you live forever" - that's a curse. Dying in battle is the highest honor, dying of old age or never dying at all is the fate of a coward. -There was no conspiracy to bribe the monks. Spartans were as religious and superstitious as everyone else in the ancient world and really thought they couldn't send more than 300 guys. The subplot with his wife wasn't even in the comic and was added for the movie. Without the added material, Gorgo only had one scene. Spartan women enjoyed an exceptional level of freedom and social agency for the ancient world and they wanted to showcase that and give Lena Heady more screen time and more to do. -Nearly all the city-states sent soldiers, not just the Arcadians mentioned in the movie. They did represent the largest contingent, but in total Leonidas had about 5000-7000 men under his command. -It was a two-front amphibious batte. Along with The Hot Gates, The Athenian Navy was holding off The Persian Navy at a similar choke point several miles up the coast. Both fronts had to hold or else Xerxes could get behind the other front and cut them off. These events are depicted in the sequel "300: Rise of an Empire" (Not as good but worth seeing. Eva Green as Artemisia alone is worth it.) -Xerxes was a normal sized guy with a beard, not a Navi-sized top-to-bottom waxed super-twink. His army was indeed estimated to be a million strong, although some estimates place the number as low as 300,000. He did NOT have elephants, rhinos, ninjas, orcs, whatever that knife-handed guy was, or "magic"... (black powder wasn't invented for another 1400 years in China.) He did have cavalry but he couldn't get them up to the choke point, part of why The Spartans chose to fight there. He is actually pretty well known in history, especially in The Middle East; He expanded The Persian Empire to it's largest territorial boundaries and completed several massive multi-generational construction projects. His defeats in Greece however were believed to begin The Persian Empire's decline. -When the goat path was discovered, Leonidas began a phased retreat of the Greek forces under cover of night. It is not clear if Leonidas planned to stay behind with a token force to cover the retreat or was simply going to retreat last after everyone else and was attacked before he could finish.("Spartans NEVER retreat!!!" - that's nonsense. Spartans WIN. They have no problem retreating when it is the most tactically advantageous or only option) At the time of the last stand, several hundred *Thebans and Thespians* were still with the remaining Spartans, (seriously done dirty by Frank and the movie) althogether totalling about 1000 men. Fighting lasted all day. Leonidas was killed in the early afternoon and his soldiers fought to keep his body from the Persians until the last man fell in the evening.

May you live forever is basically the biggest insult one spartan can say to another

The inability to understand why he told the traitor "may you live forever" ... that might just be the biggest red flag possible. If someone doesn't immediately comprehend the concept of being tortured by shame, particularly the shame of betraying someone, RUN from that person. You don't want the company of someone who thinks that was a well-wishing moment and thinks that you can live a long and happy immortal life in that circumstance.

The ultimate honor for a Spartan IS to die in battle, but at the same time, they have no issue with growing old and dying of old age. To a Spartan, growing old meant that you were unkillable on the battlefield and no one could challenge your skill. There's a story from Greece about an old man who wanted to watch the Olympic games, but no one was offering him a seat. He kept searching throughout the stands, but could not find an empty seat, or someone willing to offer him their own. When he reached the section of the stands where the Spartans were seated, the moment they saw him, EVERY single Spartan present IMMEDIATELY stood up and let him pick a seat of his choosing. The old man was deeply moved by this gesture, and the rest of the spectators were completely in awe as well. He turned to the rest of them before choosing his seat and said, "Only in Sparta does it pay to grow old."

This battle was essentially a attempt to delay the Persian army long enough for the Athenian General Themisoticles to rally the other Greek city states. Themistocles was successful and a combined Greek Fleet severely damaged the Persian fleet at the battle of Salamis shortly after Thermopylae. The battle at the end Plataea a year later would be the final battle in the War, where 75,000-85,000 greeks(Spartans, Athenians, Megarans, and Corinthians)defeated 100,000,-150,000 Persian and Persian allies. 200 years later Alexander the great would successfully do the opposite of what Xerxes tried as Alexander Conqueored the Persian Empire

"Tell me what is exaggerated." Literally EVERYTHING

I've seen Frank Miller's style both from this movie, Sin City, and seeing the covers of some of the stuff Frank Miller did in shops. He has a very distinctive art style that was used a whole lot in this movie, especially the end credits. He likes to keep things in two or three colors, usually black, red and white, with occasional yellow. The red splattering across black is very much a signature visual of his. I felt like it was very well used in 300 particularly. Absolutely loved this movie. So good. And great reaction! Enjoyed.

The whole idea of a Phalanx(the formation the Spartans used) is to push with the shield and then stab and move a step forward. The formation is a threshing machine when The enemies are the wheat.

Trivia: The real Leonidas was 60 years old when he died at Thermopylae.

This is probably the role that got Lena Headey the Cersei Lanister part. Even though Ephiltaes betrayed the 300, the Persians still made him look like a fool, and he didn't realize it

the one eye Spartan telling the tale is Faramir from "Lord of the Rings"

The greatest honor of a Spartan is to die in battle, say may you live forever is like wishing him the worst curse.

If you want to learn more about what really happened here. I very highly recommend listening to "Dan Carlin's Hardcore History". Specifically episode 56-58, King of Kings. It's worth it and the man is one hell of a storyteller.

Something about the Immortals: Athanatoi in greek, Anusiya in persian (meaning "the comrades"). They were 10.000 precisely, and if someone died, fell sick or wounded, they were promptly replaced, in order to be always ten thousand; that gave the name Immortals. And of course they were not dark ninja zombies. They were an elite infantry chosen among pure Persian or Midian warriors, proficient in spear, sword and bow fighting.

"May you live forever. " the greatest insult you can lay on a Spartan. As in, you will never have a glorious death.

"May you live forever" = "You'll never have a Spartan death" Hearing that, he knew what was about to happen. He knew they (the Spartans) would never submit. This is totally inspired by the comic book, which has little to do with real history in the first place. For sure spartans weren't going into battle half naked. Hoplites were relatively heavy armored soldiers. They became famous for their laconic humor (named after them), so they are basicly the grandfathers of all one liners in action movies.

I expect someone already mentioned this, 750 comments = TL/DR, but the actor who was the narrator was also Faramir from LOTR.

just the fact we still remember them and this battle in great detail 3400 years later tells you the truth about their ability as warriors , this battle stuck in the mind of man all these years and has been pass down and written about for 1000s of years !

Gates of fire By Steven Pressfield although fictionalized is a very good book about the Battle. They started with a total of about 7000 defenders the final battle was fought by the 300 Spartans and about 700 Thespians

Keep in mind: the entire story is told from the point of view of a soldier trying to inspire troops before a battle. So like most campfire stories and fishing tales, elements are exaggerated and fantastical...

King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans weren't alone at Thermopylae. There were a total of 7,000 Greeks holding that pass, but they were still VASTLY outnumbered by the Persians, who brought an expedition force ranging from a quarter-million to half a million soldiers (250k-500k). Leonidas WANTED to take more Spartans, but the Oracle at Delphi told him that if he did so, he would bring bad luck to Sparta because a major religious festival was going on at that point. The Oracle also told Leonidas that Sparta was only allowed to fight if it was prepared to suffer terrible losses, and if its king was prepared to die, because he would not survive.

Archaeologist here: yes, this movie takes a lot of artistic license and embellishes a lot. I wouldn’t call it historically accurate, but it got a few things right. The agoge, the training scene at the beginning, was somewhat accurate. The Spartans were known to discard infants deemed ‘undesirable’, and the whole ‘show that a god king can bleed’ was to show that Xerxes blood was red. In Greek mythology, the Gods would bleed mana, or a sort of liquid gold. Think of that scene in Thor love and thunder. Several others mention the ‘may you live forever’ line, yes, that was a major insult to true Spartans. Also, the line ‘come back with your shield or on it’ was a reference to a warrior in combat being carried back home on his shield having died in battle, or returning with his shield in victory. The alternative was to return without your shield, which was seen as dropping the heavy shield so you could run away from battle faster as a coward.

This was the movie that got me into audio and sound design when I was 17. Of course, seeing other movies in the theater, I had noticed little things before, like how sounds were coming from beside and behind me at certain times when I saw The Matrix a few years before, but I saw this in the theater and was blown away! I actually stayed in my seat when it ended, watched the crew clean the room, and just stayed for another showing, specifically to pay attention to the audio. I became obsessed. Bought the DVD with a $170 "home theater in a box" setup, went to college for audio production, and now I can't really have a movie or gaming setup without proper surround sound. When I upgraded to Blu-ray in 2009, the first movie I got was 300, along with The Dark Knight. But the sound design in this movie with a proper setup is absolutely insane, even almost 20 years later.

One of the things that this story leaves out is Sparta had a bunch of slaves, called Helots. The Helots did almost all the work, while the Spartan women usually supervised them. This freed up the men to do nothing but train for war and fight. There was also an unofficial tradition where young Spartan soldiers has to slip out and murder a Helot without being caught or seen. This helped prove not only their ability to fight, but also their stealth, intelligence, and ruthlessness. All Greek city-states had slavery at this time, but other Greeks looked askance at the Spartans because the Helots were themselves Greeks. Slaves in the other cities were all non-Greeks. .

Much as I loved this movie, I always got a bit of a laugh every time the Spartans talked about 'freedom'. Historically, the Spartans had little regard for anyone's 'freedom'.

I worked on the film. It was not filmed like this, it was mostly filmed on blue screens

Ephialtes's name became a byword for traitor after his betrayal.

he said "may you live forever" because the greatest honour for a spartan is to die on the battlefield, it was an insult

Aristodemas, the real-life Spartan the character Dilios was based on, was one of the original 300. He was sent back by Leonidas with an eye injury. Being the only survivor, his reputation suffered and he was thought of as a coward. During the Battle of Platea, he broke ranks and charged the Persian lines alone, proving his detractors wrong. He was killed.

Assassins Creed Odyssey took the iconic "This is Sparta" heel kick and turned it into the most effective move in the game

19:42 I love that Rodrigo Santoro is almost unrecognizable. This demonstrates how good an actor he is.

Darling, the line Leonidas throws at Ephialtes is hitting him into the heart because it has no good meaning. This guy is known in history as one of the biggest traitors of all time and seen aside men like Judas. So the meaning behind Leonidas words of "May he live forever" is very simply that no one ever forgets that it was him who betrayed his own people.

"May you live forever" can also be interpreted as "I hope that the story of your shameful betrayal of your country is retold for generations and is never forgotten." And Leonidas got his wish, because we're still talking about it!

18:24 No, Xerxes never reached Sparta. Between the Battle of Thermopylae/Hot Gates, and the Battle of Salamis, Xerxes lost most of his navy. He became concerned about being trapped in Europe, and pulled most of his army back to Asia, leaving a small force to continue the invasion. Xerxes lost most of his remaining army to starvation on the way back to Asia, and the forces he left behind were wiped out at Plataea, the final scene of the movie. By the time he returned to Persepolis, he had lost most of his political influence, and was assassinated by his court about 15 years later. Given how much of western society has been influenced by the Greeks, it's interesting to think about how different the world might be had Xerxes succeeded.

Never forget, the narrator/Dilios is Faramir from Lord of the Rings. Also the second movie, 300: Rise of an Empire, is 100% worth watching

You are getting a full dose of Testosterone with this one. The guy who didn't want to die was one of the other Greek soldiers. A Spartan would never admit that if he even thought it. Good reaction.

The man that was talking to Michael Fasbender’s character prior to the battle and didn’t want to die was the leader of the Arcandians that they met on the road. He wasn’t a Spartan.

If the Greeks made breakfast commercials: THIS IS SPARTA A COMPLETE BREAKFAST!

Did you notice that the queen was cersei from Game of Thrones and the narrator was faramir from lord of the rings?

Sparta was like if the U.S. Marines had their own city-state.

Is not difficult to comprehend for us men, in the marines we thought the same, we thrive for wars and combat.

Spartans! What is your profession? HAOUW HAOUW This is Sparta!!! For tonight we dine in hell! These scenes are so iconic ❤💪

Look closely and you’ll see many famous actors. Michael Fassbender is among them. The training these actors went through is unbelievable. Molon Labe “come and take them/it” has since been said in battles and wars

Nearly EVERYTHING in 300 is exaggerated compared to what happened historically. It's about as accurate as "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" was to the real man. In real life, Persia was more open and progressive than Sparta. Persian women could own businesses. Countries defeated by Persia could practice their native religion, keep their language and culture. Persia only wanted taxes, and conscripts if war broke out. Persia didn't consider Xerxes a god. They were strongly monotheistic and worshiped Ahuru Mazda. The misconception that Persians worshipped their king came after Greek emissaries noticed Persians bowing to their king out of respect. In Greece, man only bowed to gods and never to another man... so they assumed they thought Persians treated their kings as gods. The Persian "Immortals" got that name because there were always the same number of Immortals (replaced as they died). From the outside, it looked like they survived every battle.

4:32 He's not blaming the King, he's thanking him. Spartans lived for war. He gifted them the greatest battles of their generation.

Gerard Butler was asked if he ever uses his Spartan voice in real life. He related a story about being delayed in an airport for several hours. Finally the gate attendant announced there would be free meals and beverages on the flight. In his best Leonides voice, he bellowed “Tonight we dine in hell!”.

There’s a saying Spartan Mothers said to their sons when they went off to war, “Come back with your shield . . . or on it.” Basically don’t retreat. You win or you die on the battlefield. So ya, they really were that metal. The Spartan reputation is well deserved.

"I'm assuming a few things in this movie are going to be exaggerated." Truer words were never spoken.

it's cool that you know a lot of the history around this battle, far more than most people

Ephialtes didn't just betray his people for a bit of fun - he betrayed the people who would have killed him by law as a child. He spent his whole life on the sidelines, envying the normal kids, knowing full well that he would probably never be one of them. - From his point of view, Leonidas has denied him his best chance of a life worth living. - You laugh at his betrayal for women and gold - but you don't realize that if you're so ugly that no one would ever want to have sex with you ..... that's worse than not being able to have children. Life then consists only of pointless and cruel suffering that gets worse and worse.

One thing I appreciate about Miller's writing is that all of the best one liners are taken directly from historical documents.

I love how Lena Headey has played the Queen of Sparta, Queen Mother Cersei Lannister, and Queen Guinevere. It's like she was made to be an impressive Queen on screen. (Not to mention she played Sarah Connor for a couple of years as well, so just in general being a bad ass fits her apparently!)

Aristodemas, the real-life Spartan the character Dilios was based on, was one of the original 300. He was sent back by Leonidas with an eye injury. Being the only survivor, his reputation suffered and he was thought of as a coward. During the Battle of Plataea, he broke ranks and charged the Persian lines alone, proving his detractors wrong. He was killed making his rebuttal.

Just a small correction here: The movie is not based on the history of the battle of Thermopylae but on the Graphic Novel called "300" by Frank Miller, which is a fictional retelling of historic events. As such basically everything in it is pretty exaggerated. Leonidas told Ephialtes that he wishes him eternal life as a Dis. If he lives forever he can never have an honorable death worthy of a Spartan warrior.

13:14 before battle, Spartans were known to groom themselves. Things like combing one's hair. They wanted to have a good looking corpse.

This movie created so many men with "alpha wolf spartan" syndrome. Still see those Spartan helmets on cars, mostly trucks, usually with a dose of road rage.

Regarding the one liners... Spartans were known for their comebacks. When king Phillip of Macadon (Father of Alexander the Great) sent a message to Sparta during time of war saying " “If I conquer your city, I will destroy you all.” .. Sparta only replied with "If". The Spartans didn't "Want to die" but like many other warrior "tribes", they saw death on the battlefield as the most noble. For instance the Vikings also sought death on the battlefield as they believed they would be allowed in to Valhalla. There were Proverb like "Hurry to your death, before your place is taken". Fun fact about the Spartans is that before the battle they bathed, which was seen by an Persian spy. Persia saw this as a "weak" thing not understanding that the Spartans would bath to prepare themselfs for death. Basicly them taking a good long bath was them saying "Yeah i'm ready to die" The "May you live forever" remark was ment as a "Let no one forget your name, the traitor of Sparta". Regarding the 300 Spartans.. Yes there were only 300 Spartans at the battle as mentioned before by other commentors this had to do with them not being allowed to go to war but 300 was played of as "oh no this is my personal bodyguard". But they had formed alliances with other Greek city states and the number of greeks at this battle was closer to 7,000. Many things regarding the battle have been exaggerated as the story of the battle was told by the only spartan survivor, which ofcourse led to him making things grander than they were to motivate the spartan troops for the next battle, and also because that tends to happen in history.

0:52 This is directly based on the comic “300” by Frank Miller and not directly based on the historical events. It’s not historically accurate.

What's crazy is that it wasn't even around 300, it was closer to around 3000

📽️Awesome Vicky 300🎥

This movie is the transposition of the visual novel made by Frank Miller (the same author of Sin City). The story and thestyle is largely inspired by his graphic novel... Just to give credits where it belongs

The movie is amazing, I had the pleasure of reading the comic first. But it is a fable, in reality, the Spartans had a lot more help and they also had a huge technological advantage in the fact that they had bronze and copper armor and weapons as opposed to patchwork of Persians who at the most, had wicker shields. Also the Spartans were a highly trained army, where Persians were a patchwork of different nations. There is an amazing book called "Thermopylae: The Battle for the West" that is a great account of this and the battles that followed, like the naval battle at Salamis, Palatea, Mycale, Sestos and Byzantium.

Spartans used the narrowness of Thermopylae to funnel the larger Persian army into smaller fronts, where the more heavily armed Spartans were at a huge advantage.

The history is close, but a bit different. It was 300 Spartans and about 4000 soldiers from other cities. On the Persian side, they kept really good records. We know the Persian army was around 900,000 people at that point. The Spartans were able to hold Persia for a few days at the pass, until they grew frustrated and decided to sail their army, even though there was bad weather. They sailed their ships into the worst storm of the decade and lost an enormous numbers of people. The Spartan delay lead to the destruction of the Persian advantage by weather. Greek history was saved by a mix of pig-headedness and luck.

The great genius of this movie (and the comic book) was taking a historic event and turning it into a mythological fantasy while remaining true to the broad outlines of the actual story. I could watch this movie over and over again. Several of the one-liners, like "we will fight in the shade," and "Persian, come and get them" (our weapons) are claimed to be actual comments made by Leonidas or other Spartans in the actual battle. "Come and get them" in particular is reported by Plutarch and is often remembered in the Greek phrasing, "molon labe," a popular slogan among gun owners whenever politicians start talking about taking people's guns.

Zack Snyder is the best director making adaptations of comic books 🤩

The hole was a well. He took them there because they asked for earth and water... "there is plenty of both down there"

THIS IS SPARTA!!!!

Leonidas says to Efialtis "I hope you live forever". He lives eternally in the heart of every Greek as the worst betrayer. In Greek, a nightmare is called Efialtis.

My biggest gripe about 300 and its sequels are how everyone has a British accent 😂

The 300 weren’t seen as “enough guys” but, rather, were sent to slow the Persians down, in hopes that the army would follow in support. Fun fact: many of the great Spartan one-liners (e.g. “…then we shall fight in the shade”) survive from the original accounts of the battle. Whether they were actually said on the battlefield is an open question but they are definitely not lines written by Hollywood.

Three things, the guy who played the Storyteller also played faramir in The Lord of the Rings. The guy that played the captain of the 300 is also the same guy that plays GARP in the one piece live action. And the only way for you to have your name on your tombstone in Sparta is as a man to die in battle four as a woman to die in childbirth. That's also how they honored their women Spartan women were trained in Warfare and we're considered incredibly competent Hoplites. Easily the equal of any regular Hoplite unit from any other city-state.

Facts: 1. King Leonidas was around 60 years old when he fought this battle..!! Also today's military schools, teach his war tactics.. 🔥⚔ 2. Efialtis (Εφιάλτης) (The traitor who told Persians the secret passage), actually means "Nightmare" in Greek 3. The phrases below, were actually told by Spartans in that battle a) Get back with your shield, or on it. (᾿Ή τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς) b) Then we will fight in the shade. c) Come and get them. (Μολὼν λαβέ)

In addition to what everyone else said about "May you live forever" His name did live forever because his name Efialtes means "Nightmare" in Greek. Just wanted to add that as I am Spartan, at least, my families bloodline comes from old Sparta. Nowadays we just say Ellinas, which means Hellenic and turned over the years to Greece/Greek.

"Why did they think 300 was enough?" They didn't, it was a delaying tactic for the rest of Greece to mobilize and prepare... plus there were about 7,000 Greeks fighting the first day. Plus, in mythology, there was a prophecy one of the Spartan kings had to die or Sparta would be destroyed (Sparta had two ruling kings at this point in history).

My favorite nerdy detail of this movie is the way some of the shots were captured. They made a custom camera rig that had 3 different focal length lenses on 3 different cameras. That is how they were able to get some of the action shots where it starts wide and zooms in when it goes into slow motion and then goes back to wide angle. It was all done in one action so the zooming felt very fluid because it was all captured at once and they were able to pick and choose their framing for different shots.

one historical quirk about spartan society is that in their society women could inherit and own land, and by marrying one man after another who all fell in battle some spartan women were the richest women in history aside from queens and empresses

The Carneia was one of the tribal traditional festivals of Sparta, the Peloponnese and Doric cities of Magna Grecia (The Greek speaking area of Southern Italy), held in honor of Apollo Karneios. It was an annual festival that took place from the 7th to the 15th day of the month and all military operations were suspended during that time.

Iv been to Greece.. been to the pass , they have a statue of a lion where Leonidas body was found ... and the sign is still there ...." go tell a Spartans passers by that here by spartan law we lie "

The comic was already an exaggerated version of history. - First of all, every one of the 300 was accompanied by a slave squire that carried for him the replacement spears, food, etc. - Second, they didn't fight in underwar xD. Every one of the 300 is a noble and had a full set of armor, which was not a common thing because those were expensive and were made enterily of bronze. As military society they train everyday in the full armor, that is made of bronze and is very heavy, and that's why they were buff beasts. That was uncommon because even if nobles in other cities owned full good armor sets, they weren't trained that often, they just own those armors as a sign of wealthy.

Dilios' story is a sad one. Despite following his kings' orders, he was still shunned by the Spartans. The end battle was the Battle of Plataea, and Dilios fought like a madman, but was still never given his honor.

21:22 as You just said, "this is so metal".... it`s a movie like a 2 hour Manowar Video....

Actually the Spartans were about a thousand, because anyone of them had two assists with the same training education and they had spears,arows, they were always near and took the place of their boss if was injured or died.Those assistants were Greeks from the places controlled by Spartans,"Lakonia".

Historian here. The movie is 100% true. It's basically a documentation.

Fun fact: The last known words of the real, historical Leonidas were, “Molon Labe,” which would translate to, “Come and take them.” Also, the term “laconic”, meaning a concise or terse statement, especially a blunt or elliptical rejoinder, is named for Laconia, a region of Ancient Greece that contained Sparta. In addition to Spartans being known for their tough and warrior culture, they were also known for their verbal austerity and pithy remarks.