The film 300 tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae while shedding light on the social and governmental structures that advanced the city-state of Sparta. Ancient Sparta was one of the most powerful city-states in Greece. Their influence and power were widely recognized as the product of their militaristic mentality. Ancient Sparta designed a warrior culture solely to train soldiers and ensure their victory in every battle. Sparta's army may have become a huge source of interest for modern media. Films like ​300​ aim to capture the physical prowess and vigor of ancient Spartan warriors, while exposing the different factors that lead to their rise to become such a powerful city-state; such as infanticide, the agoge tradition, and the role of ephors in government. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Infanticide was a practice practiced by countless ancient city-states, including Sparta. Infanticide is the intentional practice of eliminating a child immediately after its birth. The idea of ​​infanticide was such an important practice in ancient Greece that it became an integral part of their culture and included in important mythological stories. In Hesiod's epic poem, “Theogony,” infanticide is a recurring concept, as when the titan Cronus devours his children shortly after birth. For the ancient Spartans, the practice of infanticide was used as a means to ensure that only healthy and strong people had a place in their society. Plutarch was a Platonic philosopher who noted ancient Sparta's practice of infanticide in his early writings, The Life of Lycurgus. Plutarch explained that “the elders of Sparta examined each newborn baby and if he was well built and robust, they ordered the father to raise him and assigned him one of the nine thousand plots of land; but if he was badly born and deformed, they sent him to the so-called Apotetae, a place similar to an abyss at the foot of Mount Taygetus. Zach Snyder (the director of 300​) attempts to capture this image in the opening scene of the film. Leonidas is taken to the edge of a cliff and is observed for any defects. Finding none, he is soon returned to his mother, a fate that hundreds of Spartan children could not share, as the camera pans below the cliff and the audience observes the bones of countless dead children. Contrary to ancient scriptures and the depiction of infanticide summarized in the 300s, modern researchers have found no evidence that Spartan children were thrown off a cliff. However, the practice of infanticide was still a reality, just not as extreme as it was in the 300s and Plutarch depicted it. Anthropologist Theodore Pitsios of the Faculty of Medicine of Athens states that, "after more than five years of analysis of human remains extracted from the pit, also called apotete, researchers found only the remains of adolescents and adults aged between 18 and 35 years". 3 The bones were those of forty-six men dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries BC. This discovery, while rejecting the fact that Spartan children were those thrown from the cliff, confirms an argument different from ancient sources according to which the ancient Spartans threw captured prisoners and traitors from the cliff. Spartan children, if deemed unfit to serve under the state, would be abandoned on a hill, left for nature to consume, or on the off chance that they would be adopted by strangers. Although ​300​ took the path of Plucarchus when it came to explaining infanticide, Plutarch's description of infanticide and the modern description of infanticide in ancient Spartaboth describe the reason for infanticide in Sparta as a result of their determination to keep only able-bodied and able-bodied people in their homes. the state. A strong, skilled male would lead to a skilled soldier, and a strong, skilled female would grow and give birth to more soldiers. Sparta's methods for conducting infanticide contrasted sharply with how other city-states practiced it. One of the main distinguishing features was that when it came to infanticide in Sparta, a member of the Spartan council of elders was the one who would inspect and determine the fate of the child. Plutarch explained how the council of elders was a creation of King Lycurgus and how they were charged with the inspection of newborns. This is different from the 5 methods of other city-states such as Athens, which simply required the father to do the inspection and eliminate the child if he was deemed unfit to serve under the state. Ancient Spartan society revolved around military might, making the army a key aspect of Sparta. To produce such a formidable army, Sparta created an educational system that welcomed boys at age seven and trained them in the art of war until they graduated and joined the army. This system was called agoge and conditioned these children both physically and mentally to prepare them for the battlefield. ​300​ did a great job capturing this ancient Spartan tradition. After Leonidas is checked for deformities, the film's time shifts to the future when he is approximately seven years old. Two soldiers forcibly take him away from his mother while she cannot pursue him. The way Snyder portrayed Leonidas' mother highlights how difficult a time it is for a Spartan mother. She is crying and calling Leonidas' name but cannot chase him because a soldier holds her back, putting the audience in a state of empathetic spectator who can feel her pain. The agoge subjected boys to extreme measures to teach them discipline, obedience to authority, and athletic prowess. They were often deliberately starved to strengthen their mental strength, but were also encouraged to steal food from the canteen to teach them to be sneaky. Unfortunately, if they were caught, they were severely punished, usually with flogging, but if done correctly they taught boys the skills necessary for spying and sneaking. “To prevent their [agoge boys] from being too distressed by hunger, while [the agoge magistrate] did not allow them to take what they wanted without any problems, he allowed them to steal something to relieve their hunger.” Being cunning and sneaky on the battlefield was an important Spartan ideal. Stealing food was a way to strengthen these skills and they would draw on these skills to help them complete their right of passage. A Spartan soldier's rite of passage was an event that marked their transition from child to adult citizen of the state. ​300​ described the right of way as the task of a young Spartan boy to kill a giant wolf. The film shows Leonidas alone in the snowy mountains using the resources around him to survive in the harsh climate. Using all the skills he learned from the agoge, he manages to kill a wolf and comes back as champion. This depiction of a Spartan boy's rite of passage is in direct contrast to ancient writing. While ​300​ expressed the right of passage as a noble test of bravery and courage, in reality it was a dark and frightening tradition that the Spartans called “Helot killing.” The Helots were a class of unfree workers who were treated maliciously by the Spartans. According to Plutarch, “The magistrates [Ephors] set free in thecampaigns the most discreet of the young [Spartans], equipped only with daggers and necessary supplies. During the day they scattered to dark and secluded places, where they hid and lay quietly. But at night they took to the roads and killed all the Helots they captured. In the 300s it is ridiculous when Stelios defiantly says to one of Xerxes' ambassadors: "Run. Go and tell your Xerxes that here he faces free men, not slaves. Sparta was one of the largest proprietary city-states of slaves, so it is absurd that they hadthe audacity to say that free men stood up to tyrants when they exercised an unjust nationwide tyranny over the Helots. Snyder over-glorified how respectable the Spartans were. This was done in an attempt to attract the audience.When presented with a main protagonist, the audience prefers them to contain minimal flaws because they represent the ideal, "the hero" in one way or another, so it would be unwise to expose one of Sparta's major flaws in a film that honors the main protagonist three hundred. However this does not do justice to those whom the Spartans abused Snyder focused on making the Spartans great and noble while making the Persians evil, and to achieve this by focusing on the physical ugliness of the Persians. However, it would have been much more moving if he had added at least some of the plight of the Helots and then let the audience decide for themselves whether or not there were any good guys in ​300​, rather than simply labeling the Spartans were good and the Persians were bad. The Spartan government was the entity that developed a warrior culture and made it the first priority of ancient Spartan society. Influential in the spread of a militaristic mentality in ancient Sparta were the Ephors. The Ephors were five male magistrates selected annually from each territorial settlement of Sparta. Contrary to the belief of most scholars that the Ephors were democratically elected directly by the people, they were actually chosen by pure luck through an annual drawing. “The kingships were hereditary, while the ephorate. . .came, Plato tells us 'almost to be an assigned power' and appears to have been assigned by lot from a large elected pool or by some other similar procedure. Once in office, the most important role of the 9 Ephors was the implementation of public policies. “They [the ephors] could introduce laws, decrees and declarations of war and peace.” The ephors exercised almost completely uncontrolled power. The laws they enacted governed the state and no one was above the law, not even kings. Kings who questioned the ephors' authority would be imprisoned or threatened with death. Making an example of the kings and showing how even the kings were not above the laws of the state served as an example to every citizen of Sparta that the rule of law was absolute and no one could question it. Part of the law stipulated that every male must serve in the army and join the agoge at the age of seven. The ephors enforced these laws with death threats and these threats encouraged the obedience of the Spartan people towards the government. The subordination of civilians to the Spartan government allowed them to easily accept the warrior culture and militaristic values ​​of the society since they were established by law and nothing was above the law. 300 perfectly encapsulated the strength and influence that the ephors exerted on ancient Spartan society. Even as king, Leonidas had to consult with the ephors before he could take the army and lead it against the Persian empire. No matter how much Leonidas begged the ephors, they remained steadfast in theirs)..