Ok – so I was dragged kicking and screaming to see the movie “300” by my Gerard-Butler-obsessed friend Kelli. Blood-and-guts movies do not interest me, especially when the plot has anything to do with ancient history. I lose interest in these types of films quickly and most often I turn to a book or play games on my palm to pass the remainder of the time. As we showed up at the IMAX in Chicago this past weekend to see “300”, I had a book in my hand and a fully charged palm TX in my pocket. However, within the first 10 minutes of “300” I started noticing that the Spartan women had some really good lines and the Spartan men (at least in the movie) were showing utmost respect for them. It was not your typical “women are here for the sex scenes” war movie.
I will try not to spoil the entire film in case you haven’t seen it, but I do want to highlight three scenes that were rather surprising and empowering for the women in the movie. The first one is the opening scene in which a Persian messenger arrives in Sparta to deliver a message to King Leonidas (Gerard Butler). During the dialog, the Queen Gorgo (played by Lena Headey) speaks up. The messenger looks sternly at Leonidas and says “Why does this woman think she can speak amongst men?” Rather than waiting for Leonidas to defend her, she steps forward and answers “because only Spartan women give birth to real men.” Yeah, she went there.
I will not describe the second most-memorable scene because it gives too much away, but let’s just say that Spartan women know how to handle a sword and leave it at that. And just as she runs him through, she turns his words against him with “This will not be quick, you will not enjoy this, and I am not your Queen!” You will just have to see the movie to understand what that means. ;)
The third scene doesn’t even involve a single female actress, but it speaks volumes about the respect that the men supposedly held for the ladies. King Xerxes and King Leonidas are face-to-face and Xerxes is threatening to make the Spartan women into slaves. Xerxes threatens “Consider the fate of your women” to which Leonidas responds “Clearly you don’t know our women” and goes on to muse that he could have brought 300 Spartan women into battle and still kicked their butts.
So who knows if this “respect for women” was even real or if Hollywood just added it in to make us lady-folk tolerant of another estrogen-challenged movie. Of course given the time frame of history here, I would be willing to bet that said “respect” toward women was a creation of the movie-makers. Either way, it was refreshing and at least held my interest even though it showed a lot of dismemberment and killing. If you can get past that, it’s a halfway decent film.
I really wanted to find a photo of Queen Gorgo and the “sword incident” but I had no such luck. If anyone knows where I can find that particular shot, please post the link. Thanks!
Update: Thanks to Carms for linking me to this pic. Not the exact shot I want, but pretty sweet anyway!
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64 comments
gemini021
It’s Hollywood through and through, they love to distort History. Here’s a good reference article: http://www.livescience.com/1360-sparta-spandex-disturbing-distortions-300.html
B.M.A
Sorry to break it to everyone, but women were not respected by the Greeks, but actually Persia. They even had a female commander. They couldn’t even own slaves, unlike the Spartans whose socity was 80% slaves!
laura
Also, Roman and Greek women in that time period were taught to read, write, and fight. They were very respected, and allowed to marry whoever they chose.
laura
I saw this movie, and loved it. I know exactly what ‘I am not your Queen.’ Means in that certainscene, but I’l not spoil it for the maybe two people who haven’t seen it yet.
Ben
While Spartan women did have many privileged that other females in the Greek world 300 did take much leeway with American, particularly Feminist propaganda. The actual quote that Gorgo stated was:
“‘When asked by a woman from Attica, ‘Why are you Spartan women the only ones who can rule men?, she said: ‘Because we are also the only ones who give birth to men.'”
That is too say that women of Sparta respected and revered their men (something that modern Feminist don’t do) as much as themselves. It wasn’t stated to a messenger or man. Laconic wit was pervasive in Sparta and contrasted against Attic wit (salt).
I don’t know if more but rather different rights based on different ideals. No rights over your child the day it was born. Women did not join the army even in the military state of Sparta, etc. They didn’t have “perfect equality” but it worked fairly well.
@ Brittany
Yes Hollywood did exaggerate. You seem to nothing of Sparta to make such a claim. The entire movie was Spartans being for freedom is laughable. There were more slaves (called Helots) in Sparta than Spartans. Spartans viewed themselves as superior Greeks and were Fascist by nature.
That is what I loved about them.
@ John Paul
They did not practice homosexuality. Yes each young man was encouraged to bond to a older man but it was to create a stronger unity in battle. Anal sex was prohibited in pederasty.
Brittany
It is fact that spartan women were semi-equal with men. They were raised strong and healthy because Spartan society was based on being a military powerhouse and they believed that a strong, healthy woman would give birth to strong, healthy offspring. They could own land if it was passed down to them. Hollywood did not exaggerate. They were respected, but the reason was so that they could give birth to strong soldiers, so was it genuine? May be not. But, it was very different for times like these in 650 BC for women to have some gender equality. Also, the women were not trained to fight as a last defense. If they did fight, it was on them. The training to be strong was strictly for giving birth..
SolenmSerpent
I found the movie particularity entertaining for that reason: women had respect. And as I’m looking into Greek, Athenian and Spartan cultures, women in Sparta had more freedom, more privileges than women in other cultures. They could own land, learn to read and write, and compete in athletic games. They were expected to be able to defend themselves and the homes of their husbands and children and despite not being able to vote, they were strong influences in the choices of their communities.
:)>- :d/
abercrombieautumn
All of this discussion really has me wanting to watch this movie! But with a parent so that I can have my eyes covered at orgy scenes…not my cup of tea.
Valerie
Some decent sites on Spartan women.
http://ancienthistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_women_of_sparta
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/aegean/culture/womenofsparta.html
http://elysiumgates.com/~helena/Women.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/aristotle-spartanwomen.html
http://www.women-philosophers.com/Axiothea-of-Philesia.html
http://www.indiana.edu/~thtr/2002/lysistrata/women.html
Not that I think it is right (quite the opposite) but orgies were quite common in high society back then.
john paul
hah the Spartans were encouraged to practiced homosexuality,they were pederast who only considered woman necessary for conception of children
the movie is BS anyhow