Letters to the Editor
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So far, the Slate board is winning!
This particular post is quite applicable:
http://fray.slate.com/?id=3936&m=18922800
A particularly good part (the "Dana" referred to is Dana Stevens, the Stephanie of Slate)
Dana also seems to have more than squeamishmess about the nature of ancient Greco-Persian combat, in which case he/she ought to become better informed. Basically, the idea was that two armies threw themselves in a violent clash together with the front ranks thrusting with spears and swords while the farther back ranks pushed to throw the whole crowd in the direction of their advance. While this kind of warfare was actually a lot less deadly than modern planes, tanks, machine guns, etc., it was definitely a very bloody business for about a hour at most until everyone got too tired to keep up the exertion (see John Keegan books on this subject). It would have been typical for the front ranks to leave behind heaps of dead or badly wounded so that those following up from behind would have to step over or stand on them to keep up the fight. It may not be a movie for everyone, but if you're going to make a movie about Thermopylae, it's hard to see how one could avoid depicting this kind of fighting.
And the piece de...
Finally and perhaps most importantly, there is Dana's obvious reluctance to embrace any part of the notion that Thermopylae was a kind of historical turning point for Western vs. Eastern civilization. But the fact is that these were two quite different civilizations and the Greeks did prevail in the end. That end came later the same year at the naval battle of Salamis when Athenian-led forces soundly defeated the Persian navy, rendering any further persian effort to push into Europe impossible (a wide range of modern histotians agree that Salamis was one of history's true turning points). We don't know what would have happened if the Persians won, of course, but we can say that something other than the rise of Hellenic and later Roman civilization might well have dominated the development of the Mediteranean world for the next 10 centuries. If Dana doesn't think that's a big deal, he/she ought to go back to college.
Its funny how in modern times and our increasingly feminized society how anything muscular is either gay or dumb. You know what I think is gay and dumb? "Music and Lyrics" or any other "chick flick" where the male lead might as well be a girl with a penis...