Dialectical Journals

Can you guess what this is? I'll give you a hint, it's Greek. Still don't know what it is? Well it's written on the letter. It's called a Lambda, or a lower case Alpha. According to page 15, Onaximandros argues that all Spartan shields carry this symbol to represent their country, Lakedaemon. I chose it because it represents how proud the Spartans are to fight for their country. It also shows that they are very courageous and noble to fight in battle with one another. I think that this is like everyone in the United States wearing a United States pin, a flag. It shows that even though we are 50 states and many citys and towns in between, we are all one country and are united against anything that threatens us.


Chapter 4, 10/26/08
"This is how I learned then: There is always fire."
~Page 21

I just thought that this was a very powerful quote to start a chapter off with. I felt a lot of power coming from this quote and what it means. I think that to this boy, it means that he is finally learning what the real world is like. I think that when he watched the drills that his father and many other fathers did, he thought that they were just for fun. But now since he has been exposed to this killing and death and battle, he knows what it means to be a warrior and what a war is all about. I also made a connection to this quote and the title, Gates of Fire. Now that I have read this quote, I think that fire will be a recurring symbol that will follow this boy throughout this book. Thermopylae means Gates of Fire in Greek, but that is only because of the hot springs that surround the landscape. The fire the author talks about now is fire of death and battle. I like how he combines literal fire with the philosophical fire he talks about in the title of the book.

Chapter 5, 10/26/08
"Two summers later subsequent to this incident, in Lakedaemon, I witnessed a different kind of ordeal: a Spartan boy beaten to death by his drill instructors."
~Page 32

This goes back to one of my first quotes about how brutal the kids were trained when they went though the agoge. I am 14 right now and I cannot imagine the things that the Spartan boys went through when they were training to be a Spartan warrior. When I read things like this it makes my nuisances of today seem petty and small, such as when a piece of technology fails to work for me. I also chose this quote because it really struck me in the core. Words fail me when I try to think about describing what those poor kids went through just to become a Spartan warrior and fight for their country. Even army training programs today don't take in 13 year old boys and whip and even kill them. They don't even kill the recruits that do join the army. This quote just really woke me up to what a part of Spartan civilization is like.

Chapter 6, 10/26/08
"A man without a city is not a man. He is a shadow, a shell, a joke and a mockery."
~Page 39

This is another quote that I felt just had a lot of power. I think that this really shows Bruxieus' emotions during the speech that he gives. I chose this quote though because it really dives deep down into the ego and dignity of what it means to be a Spartan warrior, at least that is what I think this quote means deep down. It shows that without his companions or fellow warriors, a Spartan warrior is nothing. I also thought of the idiom "It takes a village to raise a child" when I read this quote. I connected that quote with this one because even though a child has one pair of parents, his/her friends will contribute to his/her personality and how they act.