"Odd as it sounds, the feeling within that cozy copse evoked a hearth of home, a haven. One could still smell that deery smell, the gamy scent of their coats. None of the party spoke, yet each, I will wager, was thinking the same thought: how sweet it would be, right now, to lie down there like the deer and close one's eyes. To allow all fear to depart one's limbs. To be, just for a moment, innocent of terror."
~Page 321
I chose this quote because I thought it was amazing the way the author described the way this part of the story. It shows that even though the warriors are Spartans, they still feel fear. I could imagine how they feel because of this paragraph, how they want to just be free of war. Be free of the worries of dying and battle. It also struck me because I have felt like this before. Many times when I make the top 4 or 2 in a tournament, I always just want to lay down and let go the worries of "What if I lose this bout?". But I always persevere, just like the soldiers of Sparta.
Chapter 32, 12/2/08
"The Persians within the tent fought just as their fellows had in the pass and at the Narrows. Their accustomed weapons were of the missile type, javelins, lances and arrows, and the sought space, an interval of distance from which to launch them. The Spartans on the other hand were trained to close breast-to-breast with the foe. Before one could draw breath, the locked shields of the Lakedaemonians were pincushioned with arrow shafts and lanceheads. One heartbeat more and their bronze facings slammed into the frantically massing bodies of the foe. For an instant it seemed as if they would utterly trample the Persians. I saw Polynikes bury his eight-footer overhand in the face of one nobleman, jerk its gore-dripping point free and plunge it into the breast of another. Dienekes, with Alexandros on his left, slew three so quickly the eye could barely assimilate it. On the right Ball Player was hacking like a madman with his throwing axe, directly into a shrieking knot of priests and secretaries cowering upon the floor."
~Pages 337-338
I chose this quote because it shows the distinctions between the Persian and Spartan warfare. The Persians were more formal while the Spartans were more ferocious and beast like. The Persians had more long range weapons, whilst the Spartans had more close range weapons like the xiphos to slash away at opponents. I also chose this quote because of the way the battle is described. I could really see many Spartans such as Dienekes and Alexandros hacking and jabbing away at the Persians so quickly that the eye could not process it fast enough.
Chapter 35, 12/3/08
"'Do you hate them Dienekes?' the king asked in the tone of a comrade, unhurried, conventional, gesturing to captains and officers of the Persians proximately visible across the oudernos chorion, the no-man's-land.
Dienekes answered at once that he did not. 'I see faces of gentle and noble bearing. More than a few, I think, whom one would welcome with a clap and a laugh to any table of friends.'
Leonidas clearly approved my master's answer. His eyes seemed, however, darkened with sorrow.'I am sorry for them,' he avowed, indicating the valiant foemen who stood so proximately across. 'What wouldn't they give, the noblest among them, to stand here with us now?'"
~Pages 360-361
~Pages 360-361
I chose this quote because it shows how honorable the Spartans are. Dienekes shows that even though the Persians are the enemy that want to take over all of Sparta and Athens, he would still invite him in for a drink. I think this is because he knows that many of the soldiers that are fighting for Xerxes don't want to be there and would invite the Spartans over for a drink as well if they were not fighting in a war.
Chapter 36, 12/3/08
"'As when a wildfire upon a hillside at last consumes itself and flares no more, so my fit of grief burned itself out. A peace settled clemently upon me, as if gift not alone of that strong arm which clasped me yet in its embrace, but of some more profound source, ineffable and divine. Strength returned to my knees and courage to my heart. I rose behind the king and wiped my eyes. These words I addressed to him, not of my own will it seemed but prompted by some unseen goddess whose source and origin I could not name.
'"'Those were the last tears of mine, my lord, that the sun will ever see.''"
~Pages 373-374
I chose this quote because it is a very powerful quote at the end of the book. This is when Lady Paraleia is talking about Alexandros' death after word is reached that the 300 lost at Thermopylae. It is just so powerful the way that she relates her grief to a wildfire. Wildfires are very strong forces that often takes very long to stop. The fact that her grief is this strong is very interesting. I also chose this quote because I felt very strongly toward this quote. I had a very important in my life die once and I felt exactly this way. Yes the pain gradually grew weaker, but there was always that last dying spark of the wildfire of grief that still hung on.
