Journal 3

Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire, Books 5 - 6: Chapters 18 - 29: Pages 190 - 314

• Chapters 18 and 19: These two chapters are of very little importance to the overall plot. All of these chapters are told from the perspective of the historian. Xerxes is feeling ill and confides that he's having troubling dreams. He's determined that these dreams come from blood guilt to Leonidas, but he is assured by his generals that this is not true. Athens is on the verge of being sacked, and his generals argue over whether Sparta is worth attacking or not.
• Chapter 20: Many of the following chapters are long in word count, but rather short in important content. This is not any kind of misdeed by the author; it is only that most of the chapters are descriptions of the battle, things which don't have any true bearing on the plot. Dienekes is selected as one of the Three Hundred, which means that Xeones goes with him. Alexandros and Olympieus are also both selected. Arete summons Xeo, and they discuss what he had already talked about with Dienekes. Xeo does, however, confirm that on a trip to Athens he had seen and talked with Diomache. Arete begs Xeones to allow her to summon Diomache to Sparta and then to run away with her to Athens, but Xeones refuses.
• Chapter 21: The Spartans arrive at Thermopylae and find the place deserted. Allies were supposed to meet them there. Leonidas sends messages to all the allies telling them to come. Raiding parties are sent to the surrounding area, taking everything they can and burning what they cannot. The Spartans and other Greeks are milling about an old broken down wall that needs fixing, so Leonidas King of Sparta walks up and simply, without a word, starts working on the wall, setting an example for the rest. Leonidas attempts to commit to memory all the names and nicknames of those around him, and converses and laughs with them. Finally the allies begin arriving. Nearly the same time, the Persians' massive forces arrive.
• Chapter 22: With the Persian forces still massing beyond countable numbers, Leonidas stages a candid speech to the Spartans which is meant for all to hear and to build courage for everyone.
• Chapter 23: Dienekes and Xeones are up before dawn walking around exploring the Hot Gates. The battle wall, The Phokian Wall, is completed. Leonidas is also up. Dienekes and a young man named Ariston and Alexandros have a very long discussion on fear, debating what its opposite is. They decide that the opposite is an untranslatable word, andreia. The Egyptians with whom they had talked so many years ago shows up in the camp with a translator to talk to them. Leonidas converses with him in disguise. He urges the Spartans to surrender, but Leonidas proposes a different idea: The Persians surrender to the Spartans. This is not received well, and the Egyptians leave.
• Chapter 24: The Medes of the Persians come forward, but for the longest time do not attack. Xerxes himself appears on a high ridge to watch the expected slaughter. The Spartans are not on the front lines first, but send the Thespians. Finally the battle starts. It is a massacre, but in favor of the Thespians, not the Persians, because the Persian armor is designed for open field fighting, not close combat. Finally the Spartans get in on the action. All the Greeks are exhausted simply from slaughtering Medes. Occasionally a Spartan is killed, but often the Spartan is saved by the shield of the man beside him. The battle constantly goes back and forth. The Spartans are far superior, but the sheer number of Medes keep pushing them back. Finally though, the Medes crack, and turn to run. The Spartans and other Greeks are elated.
• Chapter 25: Again, not much of import happens in this chapters, only more fighting and slaughter. Much the same as the first battle. A few Greeks here and there are lost, each one hurting the Greeks. At the end of the chapter, Xerxes sends his regiment of 10000 elite troopers, the Immortals.
• Chapter 26: The battle against the Immortals is not described, but Xeones says that Xerxes may judge the Spartans' effectiveness, and that by nightfall the Immortals were retreating. A merchant had camped with the Greeks whom the Greeks loved and who provided much humor. Dienekes helps Polynikes with his injuries. Polynikes and Alexandros make up, kind of.
• Chapter 27: Xeones tells Dienekes of his visit with Diomache in Athens, in which not much is said. Diomache is a priestess of Persephone in a monestery; both are aware that they cannot love each other, and that neither can abandon his/her post to live with the other. Thus, the two part.
• Chapter 28: Rooster is captured trying to talk to the Spartans, and he is beaten. Xeones and Alexandros talk to him through his injuries, and he informs them that Xerxes is offering great wealth to anybody who can flank the Spartans. He also says that he knows how to get to Xerxes' tent, and that a few men could get in and out in the dark to kill Xerxes. They leave. Dienekes punishes captured deserters by, instead of killing them as the crowd wants, releasing them and leaving them to the guilt of deserting.
• Chapter 29: More fighting in this chapter, not much to report. The Spartans are told that the Persians are moving to flank, but they don't believe them. At one point in the fighting the Greeks are retreating and pushed completely behind the wall. The enemy is dismantling the wall when from nowhere comes a vicious explosion from the heavens which terrifies the enemy and revitalizes the Greeks to beat back the Persians. It is learned that storms had wrecked large portions of the Persian navy. A Persian noble moves in to talk with Leonidas, and attempts to convince him to quit the field of battle with his forces. Leonidas' response is not learned.

• Holy crap. Those battle scenes are the craziest things I've ever read. I can feel myself there, holding the phalanx with the others. At one point in the book, before the final suicide battle, Xeones states that "The thought of fighting again on that farmer's ground of killing was too much for some to bear." This and other sentences make me feel for the Spartans and Greeks. It sounds stupid, but I felt tired reading about the exhaustion of the Spartans.
• My character sketch is going to be of the slave Bruxieus
• Appearance: Being Elean - hailing from a part of Greece - Bruxieus probably has light skin, although not much detail is given to his apperance. He is blind, and has the slave-brand of the Argives on his brow.
• Actions: Bruxieus flees the city with young Xeones and Diomache. For the longest time he kept them alive with his knowledge of herbs, cooking, and medicine. Eventually he dies of sickness, age, and cold.
• Ideas: Bruxieus' ideas aren't really fleshed out in this book; however, he does state that the only time one can be brave is in the presence of other men. He also does his best to keep the children from becoming feral.
• Reactions to Other Characters: Bruxieus loves Dio and Xeo. He also made basically every decision around the house despite being a slave. The master and mistress of the house deferred to him on every decision they made.
• Why he/she is important to the novel: He's important because he keeps Xeo and Dio alive while they're fleeing the city. Without him, none else of the novel could've happened.
• Why do I like or dislike the character?: I love Bruxieus. He's the voice of reason when there isn't much reason to go around. His knowledge of herbery and medicines keep the children alive in the wilderness. I wanna be Bruxieus when I grow up.