Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

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Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.

Thus reads an ancient stone at Thermopylae in northern Greece, the site of one of the world's greatest battles for freedom. Here, in 480 B.C., on a narrow mountain pass above the crystalline Aegean, 300 Spartan knights and their allies faced the massive forces of Xerxes, King of Persia. From the start, there was no question but that the Spartans would perish. In Gates of Fire, however, Steven Pressfield makes their courageous defense--and eventual extinction--unbearably suspenseful.

In the tradition of Mary Renault, this historical novel unfolds in flashback. Xeo, the sole Spartan survivor of Thermopylae, has been captured by the Persians, and Xerxes himself presses his young captive to reveal how his tiny cohort kept more than 100,000 Persians at bay for a week. Xeo, however, begins at the beginning, when his childhood home in northern Greece was overrun and he escaped to Sparta. There he is drafted into the elite Spartan guard and rigorously schooled in the art of war--an education brutal enough to destroy half the students, but (oddly enough) not without humor: "The more miserable the conditions, the more convulsing the jokes became, or at least that's how it seems," Xeo recalls. His companions in arms are Alexandros, a gentle boy who turns out to be the most courageous of all, and Rooster, an angry, half-Messenian youth.

Pressfield's descriptions of war are breathtaking in their immediacy. They are also meticulously assembled out of physical detail and crisp, uncluttered metaphor:

The forerank of the enemy collapsed immediately as the first shock hit it; the body-length shields seemed to implode rearward, their anchoring spikes rooted slinging from the earth like tent pins in a gale. The forerank archers were literally bowled off their feet, their wall-like shields caving in upon them like fortress redoubts under the assault of the ram.... The valor of the individual Medes was beyond question, but their light hacking blades were harmless as toys; against the massed wall of Spartan armor, they might as well have been defending themselves with reeds or fennel stalks.

Alas, even this human barrier was bound to collapse, as we knew all along it would. "War is work, not mystery," Xeo laments. But Pressfield's epic seems to make the opposite argument: courage on this scale is not merely inspiring but ultimately mysterious. --Marianne Painter --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Pressfield's first novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was about golf, but here he puts aside his putter and picks up sword and shield as he cleverly and convincingly portrays the clash between Greek hoplites and Persian heavy infantry in the most heroic confrontation of the Hellenic Age: the battle of Thermopylae ("the Hot Gates") in 480 B.C. The terrifying spectacle of classical infantry battle becomes vividly clear in his epic treatment of the Greeks' magnificent last stand against the invading Persians. Driven to understand the courage and sacrifice of his Greek foes, the Persian king, Xerxes, compels Xeones, a captured Greek slave, to explain why the Greeks would give their lives to fight against overwhelming odds. Xeones' tale covers his years of training and adventure as the loyal and devoted servant of Dienekes, a noble Spartan soldier, and he describes the six-day ordeal during which a few hundred Greeks held off thousands of Persian spears and arrows, until a Greek traitor led the Persians to an alternate route. Rich with historical detail, hot action and crafty storytelling, Pressfield's riveting story reveals the social and political framework of Spartan life?ending with the hysteria and brutality of the spear-thrusting, shield-bashing clamor that defined a Spartan's relationship with his family, community, country and fellow warriors. Literary Guild and Military Book Club selections; film rights sold to Universal Studios for George Clooney and Robert Lawrence's Maysville Pictures; UK rights to Bantam, Spanish rights to Grijalbo Mondadori, Italian rights to Rizzoli.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (August 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553580531
• ISBN-13: 978-0553580532
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (690 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #35,124 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

91 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressions of Gates of Fire, November 29, 1999

By	Rebekah Smith (Chapel Hill, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I loved this book! Five Stars means a thought provoking and powerful reading experience. Gates of Fire is a wonderful story, vividly told and built on "page-turner" techniques as effective as any I've ever met. These warriors, women, mentors, kings, and children evoke love, fear, and honor from the very first paragraph.

The jacket blurbs say "epic," and here "epic" doesn't just mean "long and involved." This historical novel is so true to its times that Homer's blend of perspective and immediacy, Herotodus' human interest and recognition of irony, the power of the gods and of fate are recognizable as you read--as well as a touch of dialogue that is about to become Platonic. By the time the first epic simile appeared in a battle narrative, Pressfield's world and the warrior society and life he had animated stood so solidly behind it that it was as powerfully moving, at least for this reader, as those of the Iliad.

Also moving were the respect and richness with which this Greek world was imagined. The result is a historical novel whose life invades the present. "What is the opposite of fear? How do I live? What is worth dying for?" As a reader you do march out with the army. You find yourself on a battlefield, not in a table-of-contents from a history book.

I recommend this book without reserve to anyone interested in Greek civilization, army life, military history, a meditation on life and time and sacrifice, or simply a good novel. Many thanks to Mr. Pressfield.

63 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stark and memorable, May 25, 2000

By	Susan Shwartz (Forest Hills, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Writing in a spare, violent prose that reminds me of what I (almost) remember of the Attic Greek I once knew, Mr. Pressfield brings ancient Greece and, in particular, the Spartans and those tributary to them with shocking clarity.

He has pulled off a technical tour de force, in making a period of history far removed from us seem once again fresh and in making us care as passionately as Xeo -- who wasn't even a Spartan born.

This is a story of heroism. But it is also a story of discipline, of loyalty between fighting men and to a state. For a book as violent as this, it is also a story of profound caring, both among the characters of the story and the readers it draws.

183 of 233 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laconians Arise! To the gates!, June 7, 2001

By	D. Roberts "Hadrian12" (Battle Creek, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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In 480 BC, led by the Persian king Xerxes, son of Darius, the Persians arrived on the border of Thessaly and Greece with an invading force totalling over 2 million. Here, at a mountain pass called Thermopylae, 300 Spartan warriors + a handful of squires and allies made one of the most valiant stands in military history. The Lacedamonians held the pass for the better part of a week, slaying something like 20,000 Persians (of which roughly 18,000 were university of Michigan fans). The title of Pressfield's book is appropriate as in Greek Thermo = "hot" and Pylae = "gates."

The battle is recorded in Book VII of Herodotus' "Histories." When the Spartans repeatedly repel Xerxes' stunned forces, Herodotus details the scene thus: "...it became clear to all, and especially to the king [Xerxes], that though he had plenty of men, he had but very few warriors." (Histories, Book VII, trans: George Rawlinson).

The text centers around a fictional Spartan squire named Xeones, the lone Laconian warrior to survive the battle (albeit with a multitude of serious wounds). In reality, the only Spartan to survive was a fellow named Aristodemus. Supposedly, he was a messenger who tarried along the path to Thermopylae and missed the battle. He spent the rest of his life in disgrace in the eyes of his fellow Spartans, despite a heroic showing at the battle of Plataea (the decisive battle of the Persian war).

Back to Xeones. Pressfield's presentation of the story is nothing short of brilliant. Captured by the Persians, Xerxes orders his personal historian to record the infantryman's story. Through the persona of Xeones, we are informed of events in the Persian war before, during and after the battle of Thermopylae. Xeones interacts with historical figures on both sides of the war, such as the Spartans Leonidas and Dienekes, as well as Xerxes, Orontes and Artemisia.

In this way, the book is much more than simply a narrative on the battle itself. We are invited to glimpse the rigid lifestyle of a Lacedamonian warfighter. The Spartans were able to relentlessly pound their adversaries into submission, but not with superior numbers. Rather, they relied on a brutal training regimen which instilled within their men an exemplary discipline and code of honor. Today, it takes 6 months for an individual to earn the Trident and Eagle of a U.S. Navy SEAL; the most respected fighting force of the present world. 2,500 years ago, it took 13 YEARS for a Spartan youth earn his place as a Lacedamon warrior (7-20), + another 40 years of military service to his country (20-60). Thanks to an obviously arduous scholarly research, Pressfield does a magnificent job of describing for us the extreme dedication that was entailed within this rigorous lifestyle.

This is a must-read book for anyone who is even vaguely interested in military or classical history. It is also a refreshing text for everyone who tires of the modern military climate where political correctness and social engineering projects are deemed more important than combat readiness. I would recommend this book to all history buffs, anthropologists, classical scholars and students / fans of Michigan State University! I will leave you with a passage from Nietzsche which glazed thru my mind over & over as I was reading this book. It engages the austere life of the gallant warrior:

They call you heartless: but you have a heart, and I love you for being ashamed to show it. You are ashamed of your flood, while others are ashamed of their ebb.

-"Also Sprach Zarathustra," first part, section 10: "On War and Warriors," trans: Walter Kaufmann of Princeton university.

This book is a tremendous feat. All the texts bearing the name "Gates Of Fire" will exalt all who have the ability to read: MOLON LABE!