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Friday, March 9, 2007

300: Didn’t the Spartans Have Slaves?

posted by on March 9 at 18:48 PM

There’s a lot of screamin’ and yellin’ going on about the new gay porn sand-and-sandals epic 300. Is it a metaphor for the Iraq war? Does it endorse torture? Is it anti-gay? Anti-lesbian? Anti-Persia/Iran? We hated it, the New York Times hated it, and Slate has issues

300 digitally re-creates the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., where, according to classical history and legend, the Spartan king Leonidas led a force of only 300 men against a Persian enemy numbering in the hundreds of thousands….

Here are just a few of the categories that are not-so-vaguely conflated with the “bad” (i.e., Persian) side in the movie: black people. Brown people. Disfigured people. Gay men (not gay in the buff, homoerotic Spartan fashion, but in the effeminate Persian style). Lesbians. Disfigured lesbians. Ten-foot-tall giants with filed teeth and lobster claws. Elephants and rhinos (filthy creatures both). The Persian commander, the god-king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) is a towering, bald club fag with facial piercings, kohl-rimmed eyes, and a disturbing predilection for making people kneel before him.

Meanwhile, the Spartans, clad in naught but leather man-briefs, fight under the stern command of Leonidas (Gerard Butler), whose warrior ethic was forged during a childhood spent fighting wolves in the snow. Leonidas likes to rally the troops with bellowed speeches about “freedom,” “honor,” and “glory,” promising that they will be remembered for having created “a world free from mysticism and tyranny.”

But here’s a word I haven’t seen in any of the reviews yet: helots. Uh, didn’t the Spartans, bravely fighting for their freedom (when they weren’t getting it on), own slaves? Indeed they did:

Not all inhabitants of the Spartan state were considered to be citizens (part of Damos). Only the ones that had followed the military training, called the agoge, were eligible. However, the only people eligible to receive the agoge were Spartiates, or people who could trace their ancestry to the original inhabitants of the city. Others in the state were the Perioeci, who can be described as civilians, and Helots who were state owned serfs.

RSS icon Comments

1

Indeed, they did own slaves, but 300 remains a fucking amazing comic.

Posted by Gitai | March 9, 2007 7:24 PM
2

Yeah, Spartans owned slaves, but so did the Athenians, the beard-wearing, democracy-inventing, philosophy-spewing boy-bangers.

Posted by Gloria | March 9, 2007 7:45 PM
3

Oh, and every other single society at that time.

Posted by Gitai | March 9, 2007 8:05 PM
4

Gotta love the first line of the NYT review: " '300' is about as violent as 'Apocalypto' and twice as stupid. "

I love AO Scott.

Posted by golob | March 9, 2007 8:08 PM
5

God. Who wants to go see an action movie that's stupid?

Movie critics are invaluable, aren't they?

Posted by elenchos | March 9, 2007 8:21 PM
6

Dan, forget being a critic and get back to sucking dick.

Posted by rufus | March 9, 2007 8:44 PM
7

I've been dying to see this movie for months. Yes, I know the characters are completely one-dimensional. Yes, it is one long gratuitously violent battle scene from beginning to end, and mostly CGI. But... but, I really liked the graphic novel. And the movie trailers seem to indicate that they transferred the graphic novel to the big screen almost perfectly. It looks awesome. It will be my guilty pleasure for the month. Sue me.

Yes, Spartans owned slaves. Pretty much every culture at the time owned slaves. While this movie's premise is based on a vague historical reference, it does not pretend to be remotely historically accurate. With all the monsters and creatures, it is almost more a fantasy movie than a historic period film. Sort of a blend of "Alexander" and "Lord of the Rings".

Oddly, even though I'm a flaming homo, a perfect Kinsey 6, and I thought "Troy" was totally gay, this movie doesn't seem all that homo-erotic. I'm not sure why. I know it has all those buff guys wearing glorified leather speedos and capes. The costumes and buff guys don't seem much different than "Troy". But the whole intent seems different. Homo-eroticism is about more than simply costumes. It is about the underlying vibe. Do the guys give each other veiled smouldering looks, a-la "Ben Hur"? Or do they just wear skimpy costumes while portraying violent battle scenes? To me, the interaction between Frodo and Sam in "Lord of the Rings" was way more homo-erotic, and they remained completely dressed from head to toe throughout all three looonnng movies. The longing looks, the soft reassurances, the hugs (*sigh* so romantic!). They did everything but kiss. Perhaps with all the easy access porn, guys in capes don't seem particularly gay to me. Maybe "300" will end up being homo-erotic, but the trailers don't seem like it. I'll report back after I've seen the movie.

Posted by SDA in SEA | March 9, 2007 9:16 PM
8

I like to serf.

Posted by pyrofly70 | March 9, 2007 9:21 PM
9

my pushing-five-year-old boy is dying to see it, and he's almsot certainly straight, i'm guessing. he's very mechanically inclined, anyway....

Posted by ellarosa | March 9, 2007 9:40 PM
10

I saw it in IMAX, didn't turn me gay. My favorite part: the god-king Xerxes is played by 'take a shit guy' from Lost.

Posted by Some Jerk | March 10, 2007 12:18 AM
11

Yes, it was stupid. Yes, it was racist. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. The visuals were spectacular. And neither the insipid dialogue nor the racist subtext weigh too heavily on the movie as a whole. My theory is that, while one shouldn't ignore the underlying racism/bigotry apparent in the movie, one can forgive it because it's clear that this isn't the message that the makers are peddling. But maybe I'm just a racist...

Posted by nick | March 10, 2007 12:26 AM
12

If you were an hellenist, Dan, or if you had just a tiny bit of knowledge in the domain, you would be branded as an idiot for saying that.
So what are you missing? Well, for spartans, we are slaves—or rather something in between, probably close to the state of a barbarian. We don't necessarly toil for other people (although you'll admit this is arguable), but we do toil. And we definitly would toil more if we did not have machines to do the toiling for us.
So for greeks, to be free meant, amongst other things, to be free from toil. And in the context, you could say it was a probably true, because they wouldn't have had time to invent sciences if they didn't have slaves feeding them while they were busy doing that.

Posted by Mokawi | March 10, 2007 2:26 AM
13

I didn't finish the reasonning did I? Well, if to be free means free from toil, then somebody has to do the toil. Therefore, to be free means to have slaves, and therefore in their case enslave a whole nation in to get them to do the labouring while they concentrate on politics and war exercise.

Posted by Mokawi | March 10, 2007 2:32 AM
14

Um, racist? Is it racist to tell others that the Persians fought against in the Greeks? That's true. It's history. The movie, while a legend, is based on that history.

Guess what: Sometimes brown people don't like white people. It happens. Does it whitewash our history, where white people had slaves? Of course not. But pretending that white folks have been the only evil in the history of the world doesn't help.

Man, it's hard to be liberal when you simpletons are on "my side".

Posted by 433 | March 10, 2007 9:58 AM
15

Um, racist? Is it racist to tell others that the Persians fought against the Greeks? That's true. It's history. The movie, while a legend, is based on that history.

Guess what: Sometimes brown people don't like white people. It happens. Does it whitewash our history, where white people had slaves? Of course not. But pretending that white folks have been the only evil in the history of the world doesn't help.

Man, it's hard to be liberal when you simpletons are on "my side".

Posted by 433 | March 10, 2007 9:58 AM
16

But wait. Wasn't homosexuality (male and female) widely practiced in ancient Greece? Particularly Sparta? And weren't the Persians an Aryan race? You know the people who eventually ended up in Germany and Idaho. Methinks this movie may leave a lot out.

Posted by dreamflying | March 10, 2007 10:59 AM
17

Cut the PC crap. Racist? Persia was THE imperialist superpower of that era. They were invading Greece. Get it? Those horrible racist Greeks, trying to avoid conquest—shame on them!

If it wasn't for those Spartan slave owners, the world would’ve been spared the scourge of Western Civilization, and the slave owners in Athens who invented democracy would've fallen into the dustbin of history.

Read page 1 of the History of Western Civilization before posting this crap.

Oh, and a note about Xerxes, the Persian king: one of his satraps asked if one of his 5 sons could be spared from fighting in the war. Xerxes had the son cut in half, and the entire invading army marched between the two halves of his body. Benevolent humanitarians, those Persians.

Posted by Blob | March 10, 2007 1:08 PM
18

Yeah, the Persians themselves were an Aryan (and hence white) ethnic group, but they controlled a lot of other regions which may or may not have included other ethnicities.

Still, like pretty much every historical and fantasy epic, non-white skin = evil. Useful shorthand, I suppose, but when you consider how little plot 300 actually has, you'd think they could have afforded to be a bit more subtle. Oh well.

Posted by Megan | March 10, 2007 1:12 PM
19


"I love to serf"

ROFL

That was fucking great!


"Man it's hard to be liberal with you simpletons on 'my side' "

Sigh.
It's sad how often I think that.


Posted by K X One | March 10, 2007 3:03 PM
20

Gee whillikers the Spartans had slaves! And Athenians! And the Cretans! And slavery is in the Bible! And the Romans had slaves, too! And the Franks, Gauls and Visigoths! And the Vikings!
Usually you don't hear about this part of history. So "300" does not stand out in this regard. To pick one group at random, we have lots of portrayals of Vikings that just fail to mention they often captured lots of people to use them as slaves -- this is strangely omitted both at the football stadium in Minneapolis and here at Shilshole's statue celebrating Leif E.
Should we protest?

Posted by Joe the Moe | March 10, 2007 5:54 PM
21

My problem is this movie wasn't homoerotic enough. It's the spartans for fuck's sake. Gay that shit up. It's like ignoring the elephant in the living room. I'm looking at you, Frank Miller.

Posted by J.R. | March 10, 2007 7:00 PM
22

You see, when they say they fight for freedom, they mean *their* freedom - not freedom of all men. The freedom that they had to earn as you pointed out, through military service. Even if they were Spartiates, they weren't necessarily citizens.

If the Persians won that war, then the Greeks would have all be their slaves.

Posted by Ernie | March 10, 2007 7:48 PM
23

Only white male cultures practiced slavery. Sparta and it's capitol Athens was the worse. Plato had dozens of slaves. Whatever Plato wrote is tainted by his slave owning status.


African cultures never had slaves. That's why we need a black woman president. No more war or slavery then.

Posted by History Buff | March 10, 2007 9:51 PM
24

Ok, think we missed the "based on a graphic novel by fucking FRANK MILLER" you know the Sin City guy? Not one I'd count on being the best historian, and for that matter how many time period movies have you seen recently that delved into the deeper social and political aspects of society rather than casting hotty actors/actress' and inserting random sex scenes?

It’s based on a graphic novels interpretation of a show down between a small contingent of (by their standards at the time) free men and an invading force. A story of bravery in the face of over whelming odds, and most importantly a story of people getting royally fucked up in horrific ways for the big screen!

Its Hollywood peoples not the history channel! Relax, and have fun once in a while or be damned for all eternity because you spent all your time being in a snit over social issues of peoples long dead and ranting about it online, which last time I checked really accomplishes dick!

Posted by Annoyed that I wasted the time on this post | March 10, 2007 11:08 PM
25

I almost forgot.

Hoo-Ha!

Posted by Still annoyed that I wasted the time on this post | March 10, 2007 11:10 PM
26

History Buff, you are joking right? If not, your post might qualify as the most ridiculous thing I've read so far this year.

Posted by Someone who has ACTUALLY studied History | March 11, 2007 6:05 AM
27

That movie rocked. And the Spartans handed the persians the best fight in years. And historically there where 1000, and there also was a General from greece who had a Navy to battle the persian ships. Oh and eventually the persians did win, they burned Athens, and made of with a few slaves, and after a few years the greeks and probably stock from Spartans returned to Persia with Alexander and commenced there own Xerxes like ass whooping. Fitting potrait that you come to fuckin take our lands we can come and take yours. It just back then men were up in eachothers faces on the battlefield and the stories were epic.
Now they fight apart, Ieds and laser guided missiles. Not much to compare there militarily speaking.
And it is pretty cool that a King fought and died with his men in Battle.
And Xerxes was impressed and it is legend. And Egyptians and persians owned slaves duh. Hell today our society is but slaves, slaves to the Law, slaves to money, slaves to debt and bills, and slaves to one another. We just don't wear armbands. Oh yeah we do Watches.

Posted by DreadLion | March 11, 2007 9:24 AM
28

Um, wasn't that Shah guy that the Americans/Brits installed in Iran, and whos deposing by revolution remains a major grief against Iran, big on the whole Persian history angle?

Posted by Art | March 11, 2007 11:10 AM
29

To #23

African cultures/tribes/empires had slaves. They also sold slaves. Nubia's wealth came from not only gold and cattle but also slaves. Raiding their neighbors, kidnapped them, and shipped the slaves downriver to Egypt.

The idea of Race is highly overrated. We make it a high issue and it is not.

Posted by Simon | March 11, 2007 12:55 PM
30

no, those aryans are not the same as hitler's mythological aryans. read a book.

Posted by No | March 11, 2007 4:35 PM
31

my big fat greek war.

Posted by ellarosa | March 11, 2007 9:28 PM
32

Thanks for pointing that out, No. Hitler spent huge amounts of resources to trying to rewrite history to move the origin of the Aryans (which has the same root as Iran) from India to Germany, failing quite miserably.

Posted by Gitai | March 11, 2007 10:38 PM
33

Slaves? In a MOVIE? I am shocked- shocked! Why wasn't Mudede all over this, telling us why we should contemplate racism more, then smack our little boys with hammers for crying?

Actually, I sort of want to see it, if only for the dreamy guy who is on the posters. Plus the colour scheme looks neat, and it's violent.

Posted by Thom | March 12, 2007 1:39 AM
34

I hear from people who've read the graphic novel that it was a pretty accurate adaptation of it. It's a bit silly to try and judge it as a historical movie - it's based off a comic book, for crying out loud. I'm wiling to bet Xerxes wasn't really 9 feet tall and painted gold. I know it's a long shot, but there may also not have been huge monstrous lobsterman executioners.


Personally, I thought the visuals were excellent. The costuming definitely held my attention. The movie itself... well, I haven't read any of Miller's stuff, and it wasn't really my thing. Now, David Wenham, on the other hand... I'm just glad to have gotten to see the man in a leather bikini.

Posted by wench | March 12, 2007 8:58 AM
35

Yes, they had helots. Actually, Spartans most likely took the helots into battle with them, to keep the warriors watered and tended. They were more than likely at Thermopylae, and the total number in the Greek force may have been somewhere around 5000, or maybe more. I did come out of my first viewing wondering why they kept talking about their own freedom when the Spartans had helots. However, their slaves were other Greeks, and I get the feeling the Spartans were more fighting for Greek autonomy than "freedom".

The brown/black thing was unfortunate, but one of the things the movie doesn't really go into, aside from to show elephants and the rhinocerous, is that Xerxes already had a large stake in Egypt, which is why so many of his emmisaries are black.

The lesbian and deformed stuff I'm ready to forgive, because as it says in the beginning, the Spartans killed off children who were malformed, and lesbianism and sexual perversion is a common comic-book sign of temptation and evil, because the comic-book code is still a fresh scar in the industry memory. However, the Spartans did actually encourage their women to take lovers, perhaps of the Sapphic persuasion.

Posted by Kat | March 12, 2007 9:05 AM
36

Thanks #29

Race is over-rated. All large "civilized" societies had some form of slavery who do you think built the pyramids in Africa? And it was Africans who caught other Africans and sold them into slavery. Do you really think those capturing Africans thought they were taken those captured for a ride in the ship... Let race go. And why is #23 associating slavery with brown/black people, Africans were not the default slaves the people of the particular society were, LOL... And what is a "male culture" do you know of any female empowered cultures where women bossed men around or where the women waged and fought wars???

I seen the movie last night I'm Black and wasn't offended at all, yeah there were a few parts that made me raise an eyebrow but thats life. Overall thought it was beautiful, well done, and a good story. True or a full out lie or somewhere in between who really cares but those people who wants the world to know that they read a book or paid attention in history class,,, "look at me Im smart",,, sometimes you got to go and just enjoy the art, sometimes life is not as colorful as we hope it to be, art/exaggeration helps.

Posted by me | March 12, 2007 11:28 AM
37

300 was truly amazing. How you screw up the great and easy to Hollywoodify story of Thermopylae is inconceivable, but it was done. We laughed for about 4 hours after we realized we couldn't get that 2 hours of our lives back.

The whole motivation for suicidal tactics began from the Mystic Oracle and they have the stupidity to declare an end to Mysticism? WTF? Persia was ruled by 9-foot tall gold homosexuals? And they rode Rhinos into battle? Who knew? It had the least believable non-consensual sex ever recorded! What was that? They looked like they were waiting in line for lattes through the whole thing. Frank Miller and Zack Snyder are unbelievably dumb in this one. This movie is funny and it gets funnier every-time you think about it.

File under dadaist comedy and get unbelievably stoned before you watch it. (The colorist should win an award for best look-up table though, it's worth watching just to see that in action.)

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38

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41

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