Journal 1

Journal 1: Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire, Books 1-2: Chapters 1-11: Pages 1 - 118

Hello, or as the Ancient Greeks would say, Me'ga khai're. This is my online journal for Gates of Fire which is turning out to be one of the better novels I've read.

• Intro and Chapter 1: A historian for the Persian King Xerxes is transcribing this book. The story starts in medias res after the Battle of Thermopylae. Xerxes is described as being desirous of more knowledge of the Spartans, and actually shows regret at having slaughtered all of them. The historian, unnamed, introduces a Spartan who was grievously injured but still alive named Xeones. Xeones is a Spartan squire who was born in a town called Astakos. He is told to tell his story to the historian, who will transcribe it for the "God-King." The story begins with Xeones discussing his own death. He compares being stabbed to being slammed by a shield, not being pierced. When dead, he descended into the underworld with the spirits of his comrades-in-arms. While elated at being joined in death, they weep for their lost story. Apollo, however, comes and tells Xeones that he will go back into life and tell the story. Suddenly, Xeones flies back into his body and is lifted into the tents of the Persians.
• Chapter 2: Xeones tells of the history of Thermopylae - it is Greek for "Hot Gates" and is a spa retreat for many Greeks. The wall around which a large portion of fighting took place was built in ancient times, and the Spartans rebuilt it. Xeones was assigned when he became a Spartan squire to be the squire of a Spartiate officer named Dienekes. Before this, however, his home was Astakos, which was razed in a raid, leaving Xeones without a home for years.
• Chapter 3: Xeones remembers a slave he had when he was a child named Bruxieus, who was blind. Bruxieus was a vital part of the decisions of the house. Xeo also remembers the training maneuvers in which the men of his village would participate in the summers. Nobody was particularly fond of these training sessions after the first few days, as all were farmers. One summer Xeo had some ptarmigan eggs and was going to market with his cousin Diomache to sell them. On the way they see fires. Men from villages that were allied with Astakos ride in on horses, and Xeo discovered that it was these men who were razing the village. They run away from the men and learn that Xeo's mother and father are dead, but Bruxieus is alive.
• Chapter 4: Xeones says that Xerxes doesn't need to hear about the razing of the village, because he's seen countless of them before. However, there is always fire. He says that he didn't have grief for his parents, only regret that he hadn't been there to fight. Bodies lay everywhere, and Diomache and Xeo wander around for a time. They then find Bruxieus who had been beaten. They realized that they had no idea where they were. A man who lost his infant keeps raving that even one Spartan would have saved them. They see an enemy who calls them to him for a conversation. They help the young children perform funeral rites for Xeo's parents, and then rape Diomache.
• Chapter 5: Diomache kept trying to abort a child she thought was growing from the rape. She, Xeones, and Bruxieus survived as well as they could for more than a month in the mountains, eating whatever they could find and begging from local farms. Diomache thought that she would never marry because of the rape. Xeo jumped in that he would marry her, but she scoffed him away. Bruxieus tried to keep the children from going crazy. They stole lambs, arrows, and a bow from various shephards throughout the countryside. One time Xeones was caught stealing a goose and was nailed to a board through his hands for a full morning. At this point he stops his tale and says that Apollo has directed him to jump ahead to a small story from his days as a Spartan, where a young man was lashed and would not give up, and so was killed from the lashing. A young man whom Xeones served at the time, Alexandros, was called by Dienekes, his training mentor, to discuss the event. Dienekes says that the young man displayed more than courage; he displayed recklessness. With the story concluded, Xeones finishes his previous tale, with Diomache and Bruxieus eventually rescuing him from the board to which he was nailed, but not before his hands were permanently disfigured.
• Chapter 6: That winter was the coldest in a long time. The group stayed in the mountains. Xeo kept refusing to go to a doctor, and wanted to be allowed to die, for he thought himself a coward. He regretted bitterly the fact that because of his hand injuries, he would never hold a spear like a Spartan. One night he crawled up to a snowy meadow and resolved to let the cold kill him. Just before he died, a stranger approached and comforted him by saying that the spear is inelegant. Xeo saw the bow on the stranger's back and realized that this was Apollo Himself, urging him to live because he can still fight as an archer. He is then rescued by Diomache and Bruxieus.
• Chapter 7: This is the longest chapter yet, but not much important happens. Xeones apologizes for the story taking so long, as Xerxes has overseen countless razings of towns. However, Xeo says that Xerxes doesn't realize the suffering it causes. He then tells that, years later as a Spartan squire to Dienekes, the Spartans ran into a fleet of Persian Egyptians while trying to rally support for a war against the newly discovered Xerxes. The men exchange conversations, and the Egyptian captain shows maps of the Persian Empire in order to scare the Spartans. Later, Dienekes tells Xeo the tale of a war he and his brother fought in, and the reason that Dienekes feels responsible for his brother's death - his brother said that his wife, whom Dienekes had the hots for, would belong to Dienekes after his death in war. Soon after, the brother died.
• Chapter 8: The historian reveals that Xerxes, conquering all of Greece, does not have time to listen to the story, so the historian is transcribing Xeo's story for later reading. Xerxes has requested to learn about the training practices of the Spartans. Xeones tells him the story of a particular eight-night training drill that cemented Alexandros' place as a Spartan. At the time, Xeones was assigned as a squire to Alexandros, and in this drill Alexandros got his shield up incredibly quickly to protect the line. This earned him the respect of the Spartiate high-rankers.
• Chapter 9: At the end of the training regimen, a young boy died from exertion. Alexandros blamed it on himself; this drove him to train harder. In addition, he developed asthma from multiple broken noses; the Spartans believed it to be because of fear, so Alexandros began learning how to control fear from Dienekes. The Spartans mobilized for a large battle, and Xeo was awoken at night to hear that Alexandros had taken off to stalk and follow the army, and Xeones set out to follow him.
• Chapter 10: Alexandros and Xeo continue to follow the Spartans, and Xeo explains to the historian how, to the Spartans, war is not a mystery, it is simply work. The two purchase night passage across a lake by boat, but the men betray the boys mid-journey and throw them over the side. Xeo tells Alexandros the story of his childhood, picking up where he had left off. Bruxieus had sent Diomache and Xeones to Athens, because they needed a city. Bruxieus soon dies of cold and of sickness, and the two set off to Athens. However, Xeones splits from Diomache and makes for Sparta.
• Chapter 11: Not much happens in this chapter of note, except for one thing. Most of the chapter is dedicated to describing the battle, which is basically a slaughter for the Spartans. However, as the Spartans are tending to their wounded after the victory, Leonidas commands them to tend to the enemy as well. Alexandros reveals himself, and is beaten, then received well. The Spartans begin to rid themselves of their war "possession."

• Gates of Fire is striking a deep chord in my mind. The characters are fleshed out incredibly well, I can relate to many of them, and the whole book seems incredibly real to me. All of Xeones' descriptions of the physical and mental pain of being nailed to the board, such as, "I begged the farm men to release me, to end my agony. I would do anything, and I described it all at the top of my lungs. I cried out to the gods in a shameful little boy's voice piping up the mountainside" make me feel like I am really there suffering the same fate as he is. The fact that the book starts in medias res lends a dark overtone to the entire book, because I know that no matter how good things get for the characters, they're going to die.
• This novel was recommended to me by my preacher. Ancient Greece is my absolute favorite time of history, more specifically the Spartans. Even more specifically, I love learning about the Persian invasion of Greece and the Spartan battles against them. My preacher is aware of this and told me of a book he had about Thermopylae. I accepted the book and realized that it's an incredibly historically accurate novel.
• This book is told in first person from two perspectives. The one that is used most often is the perspective of a Spartan squire captured from Thermopylae named Xeones, who is telling his life story. The other perspective, not used much at all throughout the book, is the perspective of a Persian historian who is never named. I trust Xeones because he claims to be inspired by Apollo to tell the story true, but I don't trust the historian because he is very biased towards the Persians.
• Technically, the setting of this novel is Greece after the Battle of Thermopylae while Xerxes is mopping up other city states. The characters are lying inside tents of the Persians while Xeones speaks. However, the story that he tells takes us back to before the battle, all over the land of Greece, from Astakos to Sparta. This double setting may seem confusing, but it all offsets nicely. One goes straight from hearing about the beauty of Athens in the story to the destruction of Athens in present time.
• Xeones is the main character of this story. He has other characters come and go, such as Diomache, Bruxieus, Alexandros, and Dienekes, but the constant is Xeones. He faces many problems, such as a lack of belonging to a city. His hands are horribly injured because of him being nailed to a board as a child, and as such he cannot hold a spear or shield. He still wants to fight with the Spartans to avenge his home city of Astakos, which had been razed to the ground.
• I currently have read the novel in its entirety, so I shall relate what I predicted while I was reading it. My prediction was that, because he fought at Therymopylae, Xeones would eventually graduate from the ranks of squire and become a full Spartiate infantryman. With this title, I predicted that he would go on to fight and fulfill what I knew from the beginning of the book would happen at the Battle of Thermopylae. I also predicted that he would rejoin with Diomache, just because I thought the author made her too important at first to not reintroduce her.