11
“The Acts of Idiots”
There was a strange smell in the air at Thermopylae—a mixture of copper and bad eggs, the heavy perfume of broom growing everywhere and a salty undertone of sea. At the foot of a steep cliff hot, sulfurous springs gushed out and ran along gullies cut into the ground. These were called locally The Pots and an altar above them was dedicated to Heracles. A tourist visiting the site in the second century A.D. recalled: “The bluest water I have ever seen was at Thermopylae.”
This was where the Spartans and allies decided was the best place to prevent the Persians from entering central Greece. It was an astute assessment. Thermopylae was a coastal passage; on one side mountains ran down to a narrow strip of land and on the other was the tideless sea, full of marshy banks and shoals.
At the western end of the pass, which Xerxes was approaching, the entrance was only two and a half yards wide. For about a mile the land then opened out to about sixteen yards in width and culminated in an ancient, dilapidated, drystone crosswall with a gateway (the wooden gate itself was long gone). The wall ran along a low spur to the sea. Beyond it stood a mound some 150 feet high. Another stretch of beach and scrub followed, leading to a final eastern passage only wide enough for a cart to drive through.
King Leonidas was a younger son and so had not been brought up as a future king. He underwent the fearsome agoge like any other Spartan male child, and only inherited the throne after the death of his half brother, the able but mentally fragile Cleomenes. A “man much concerned with his courage,” as Diodorus Siculus puts it drily, he arrived at Thermopylae at the head of a force of four thousand men. These included a royal bodyguard of three hundred Spartiates. They were probably supported by nine hundred helots. Because of the Carneia no larger number was allowed (and even that was stretching a point), but after the full moon on September 18, 480, and the end of the festival major reinforcements were promised.
The Spartans were accompanied by more than two thousand hoplites contributed by other Peloponnesian states and on the way they also picked up two Boeotian contingents, including four hundred soldiers from Thebes. Leonidas was especially insistent on the conscription of Thebans, for their city was strongly suspected of siding with the enemy and his call for fighting men would smoke out their true allegiance. In fact, the authorities at Thebes simply sent the king all their malcontents and political opponents.
On arrival at Thermopylae, Leonidas decided to make his stand at the wall, which he had his men repair and strengthen. This was a wise choice, for while the western and eastern passes were narrower, the land alongside them sloped upwards only relatively gently. For all that, Thermopylae was a wonderful defensive position. To his dismay, though, the king learned that the pass could be turned. There was a pathway through the hills that the Persians, if they discovered it, could use to take the Greeks in the rear. To avert that danger some local allies, Phocians, were ordered to occupy a strongpoint on the pathway and repel any outflanking force the Great King might send.
Leonidas was ready.
—
Across the water from the Hot Gates on the northern tip of the island of Euboea stretched a long shelving beach, ideal for drawing triremes out of the water to dry out. Behind lay shallow hills. On a headland a small temple faced the dawn. It was dedicated to Artemis, goddess of wilderness, huntress, a virgin who watched over women in childbirth. The weather could certainly be wild there, as an ancient sunken ship, discovered in 1926, bears witness; it carried one of the masterpieces of Greek art, the famous just over life-size bronze statue of Zeus (or possibly Poseidon) fashioned only twenty years after the Persian invasion. Northwards across the water lay the island of Sciathos and the peninsula of Magnesia, which curled up on itself around the gulf of Pagasae.
It was here at Artemisium that the Greek fleet gathered, apart from the flotilla left behind to guard home waters. After all the Great King might not fall in with the wishes of the Greeks, but, bypassing them, sail out into the Aegean and island-hop towards Attica and ultimately the Peloponnese.
Behind Eurybiades and Themistocles and their ships lay friendly Euboea and an easy escape route south between the island and the mainland. The main disadvantage was that the waters at Artemisium were a little too open fully to counteract Persia’s maritime superiority.
Three Hellenic triremes were stationed at the harbor of Sciathos, a small island north of Artemisium, as lookouts. As Xerxes’ fleet proceeded down the exposed littoral of northeastern Greece, ten of his fastest warships were sent on ahead to locate, if possible, the Greek fleet. When the captains of the triremes saw them approaching they fled. But it was evidence of the great speed of Persian (or perhaps more accurately Phoenician) ships that they had little trouble in catching the three enemy boats.
The Persians picked out the best-looking sailor on the first boat they seized, took him forward, and slit his throat as a human sacrifice. The second crew had rather more luck; one of its marines resisted until he was nearly cut to pieces. When at last he was overcome, his admiring captors coated his wounds in myrrh and bound them up in linen bandages (their other prisoners they treated simply as slaves). The third ship ran aground, but its crew got away and returned by land to Athens via Thessaly.
This success was more than countered by a natural disaster. Reassured by reports from its ten advance warships, the Persian fleet sailed down towards Sciathos and Artemisium. Early one morning, probably on September 11, a northeasterly gale blew up out of a clear sky. An unaccommodating coastline meant that although some ships were out of the water on narrow beaches many were at anchor eight lines deep. The storm was fierce and lasted for four days. There was no chance of riding it out. Those captains who had sensed what was about to happen drove their ships onto the shore; but a large number were driven off their moorings by a rising swell and smashed against rocks. Herodotus claims that four hundred triremes and penteconters were lost “at the lowest estimate.” He exaggerates, but there is no doubt that Xerxes had been dealt a blow.
It was rumored that the Greeks had appealed for assistance to Boreas, god of the north wind. If so, he had listened.
—
At Thermopylae a Persian rider approached the repaired wall behind which Leonidas had made his camp. Some Spartiates happened to be on duty at the time and the scout counted them. He noticed to his surprise that some were stripped naked for exercise and others were combing their hair (which they wore long). How frivolous, he thought. Once he had finished his survey he trotted off and reported back to the Great King, whose army was waiting in Thessaly.
Apparently Xerxes was bewildered by the briefing:
The truth, namely that the Spartans were getting ready to die and to hand out death themselves with all their strength, was beyond his comprehension, and what they were doing seemed to him the height of folly, the acts of idiots.
Xerxes sent a letter to the Spartan king, calling on him to surrender. He wrote: “Hand over your weapons!” “Come and get them,” came the laconic response. On September 17, after four days of fruitless waiting either for the Spartans to withdraw or for all his army to arrive, Xerxes launched a full-scale attack on Leonidas and his tiny force.
Wave after wave broke on the Greek defense, to no effect. Even the famous Immortals were unable to make an impression. The Greeks had longer spears than the Persians and more impenetrable armor. Above all, the Spartans were good at drill. They would turn their backs on their opponents and pretend to be retreating in confusion. The Persians would fall for the trick and rush forward with a great clatter and roar. Then, just at the last minute, the Spartans would about-turn, catch the pursuers off-balance, and inflict heavy casualties.