Through Dilios' narration, the life of young
Leonidas is depicted, chronicling his journey from a boy to a man through the
Spartan doctrine of
Agoge.
The climax of this is when the young Leonidas kills a giant wolf using
an improvised spear, after which he returns to Sparta and is crowned
king. Years later, Persian messengers arrive at the gates of Sparta
demanding its submission to King
Xerxes.
Offended by their threats and behavior, Leonidas and his guards kick
the messengers down a well. Knowing that these actions will precipitate
a Persian attack, Leonidas visits the
Ephors,
ancient priests whose blessing he needs to convince the Spartan council
to authorize going to war. He proposes a strategy to repel the
numerically superior Persians by using the terrain of
Thermopylae(the Hot Gates); his plan involves funneling the Persians into a narrow
pass between the rocks and the sea. The Ephors consult the Oracle
Pythia,
who decrees that Sparta must not go to war. After Leonidas departs a
messenger from Xerxes appears, rewarding the Ephors for their covert
support and revealing that they have been corrupted by Xerxes.
Denied by the Ephors, Leonidas follows his plan anyway, deciding to
set out with only 300 soldiers. While he does not require the council's
permission for this, taking such a small force turns what had been a
bold strategy into a certain suicide mission. Leonidas hopes that the
sacrifice of himself and his men will spur the council to defy the
Ephors and all of Greece to unite against the threat to freedom and
democracy (represented by Greece) posed by slavery and tyranny
(represented by Persia).
Along the way to Thermopylae, the Spartans are joined by
Arcadians and various other
Greeks.
Along the path, the band encounters a sacked & burning town,
apparently caused by Persian Immortals. Only a young child is left to
live. They construct a wall at Thermopylae to contain the approaching
Persian advance. Meanwhile, Leonidas encounters
Ephialtes of Trachis, a hunchbacked Spartan whose parents fled Sparta to spare him certain
infanticide.
Ephialtes asks to redeem his father's name by joining Leonidas, warning
him of a secret path the Persians could use to outflank and surround
them. Leonidas is sympathetic to the eager warrior but rejects him, as
Ephialtes cannot properly hold a shield, which would compromise the
Spartans'
phalanx formation.
Prior to the battle, the Persians demand that the Spartans lay down
their weapons. Leonidas refuses, and with their tightly-knit phalanx
formation the Spartans use the narrow terrain to repeatedly rebuff the
advancing Persian army. Xerxes personally approaches Leonidas to
persuade him to surrender, offering Leonidas wealth and power in
exchange for his loyalty. Leonidas declines, promising instead to make
the "
God-King" bleed. Outraged, Xerxes sends in his elite guard, the
Immortals,
whom the Spartans dispatch. As the Spartans continue to defeat Xerxes'
forces, Ephialtes defects to the Persian king and reveals the location
of the secret path. When they realize Ephialtes' treachery, the
Arcadians retreat. Leonidas orders a reluctant Dilios to return to
Sparta to tell the Council of their sacrifice.
In Sparta,
Gorgo, Queen of Spartareluctantly submits sexually to the influential Theron in exchange for
help in persuading the Spartan council to send reinforcements to
Leonidas. Following her address to the Council, Theron publicly betrays
the Queen, prompting the councilmen to cry out in outrage and Gorgo to
kill him out of rage, spilling open a bag of Persian coins from his
robe. The exposure of Theron's treachery, along with their Queen's
plea, prompts the Council to unite against Persia. Meanwhile, at
Thermopylae, the Persians use the goat path to surround the Spartans.
Xerxes'
generaldemands their surrender, again offering Leonidas titles and prestige.
Leonidas seemingly bows in submission, allowing one of his men to leap
over him and kill the general instead. A furious Xerxes orders his
troops to attack. As Persian archers shoot at the remaining Spartans,
Leonidas rises and hurls his spear at Xerxes, cutting the King on the
cheek, thus making good on his promise to make "the God-King bleed."
Visibly disturbed by this reminder of his own mortality, Xerxes watches
as all of the Spartans are slaughtered by a massive barrage of arrows.
Concluding his tale before an audience of attentive Spartans, Dilios
declares that the Persian army, depleted by desertions out of fear and
the heavy casualties they suffered at the hands of a mere 300 Spartans,
now faces 10,000 Spartans commanding 30,000 Greeks. Although still
outnumbered, Dilios declares that the Greeks shall have victory.
Praising the sacrifice of King Leonidas of Sparta, Dilios leads the
brave Greeks in a charge against the Persian army, beginning the
Battle of Plataea.
