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Victor Hanson has a nice column on the movie "300," which is about the heroic Spartan stand at Thermopylae against the invading Persian army in 480 B.C., and which has been making some waves on the American scene. In addition to being a rightward conservative voice in American politics, he is a classicist. I'm not going to see the movie, and I generally don't care for movies that depict ancient history; as Hanson points out, they are mostly comic-book like. But he has some interesting comments that I want to keep:
(Source: Victor Davis Hanson at RealClearPolitics.com)
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Victor Hanson has a nice column on the movie "300," which is about the heroic Spartan stand at Thermopylae against the invading Persian army in 480 B.C., and which has been making some waves on the American scene. In addition to being a rightward conservative voice in American politics, he is a classicist. I'm not going to see the movie, and I generally don't care for movies that depict ancient history; as Hanson points out, they are mostly comic-book like. But he has some interesting comments that I want to keep:
Finally, some have suggested that "300" is juvenile in its black-and-white depiction - and glorification - of free Greeks versus imperious Persians. The film has actually been banned in Iran as hurtful American propaganda, as the theocracy suddenly is reclaiming its "infidel" ancient past.
But that good/bad contrast comes not from the director or Frank Miller, but is based on accounts from the Greeks themselves, who saw their own society as antithetical to the monarchy of imperial Persia.
True, 2,500 years ago, almost every society in the ancient Mediterranean world had slaves. And all relegated women to a relatively inferior position. Sparta turned the entire region of Messenia into a dependent serf state.
But in the Greek polis alone, there were elected governments, ranging from the constitutional oligarchy at Sparta to much broader-based voting in states like Athens and Thespiae.
Most importantly, only in Greece was there a constant tradition of unfettered expression and self-criticism. Aristophanes, Sophocles and Plato questioned the subordinate position of women. Alcidamas lamented the notion of slavery.
Such openness was found nowhere else in the ancient Mediterranean world. That freedom of expression explains why we rightly consider the ancient Greeks as the founders of our present Western civilization - and, as millions of moviegoers seem to sense, far more like us than the enemy who ultimately failed to conquer them.
(Source: Victor Davis Hanson at RealClearPolitics.com)
