Click2Flicks - 300 - Chapter 6 - GORGO

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b><i>300</i></p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 6 - GORGO</font></font></b></p> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">In ancient Greece, where communication between spies and their home base took time, how did Sparta realize that Xerxes was launching an invasion? According to Herodotus, Demaratos sent a <a href="http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Herodotus/Herodotus7.html" target="_blank"><b>hidden message</b></a> to his former city:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>The Lacedaemonians</i></b> [Spartans] <b><i>were the first of the Greeks to hear of the king's design against their country; and it was at this time that they sent to <a target="_blank" href="images/consult.jpg">consult</a> the <a target="_blank" href="images/delphic_oracle.png">Delphic oracle</a> . . . The discovery was made to them in a very strange way. Demaratus . . . was at <a href="http://www.livius.org/su-sz/susa/susa.htm" target="_blank">Susa</a> at the time when Xerxes determined to lead his army into Greece . . . and . . .</b></i> [Demaratus] <b><i>resolved to send tidings of it to Sparta. So as there was no other way of effecting his purpose, since the danger of being discovered was great, Demaratus framed the following contrivance. He took a pair of tablets, and, clearing the wax away from them, wrote what the king was purposing to do upon the wood whereof the tablets were made; having done this, he spread the wax once more over the writing, and so sent it. By these means, the guards placed to watch the roads, observing nothing but a blank tablet, were sure to give no trouble to the bearer.</i></b> (Herodotus, <i>Histories</i>, 7.239)</font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">Traveling incognito, the message arrived in Sparta. No one suspected something so important was hidden in the tablet until Queen Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, had a suggestion:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>When the tablet reached Lacedaemon, there was no one, I understand, who could find out the secret, till Gorgo, the daughter of Cleomenes and wife of Leonidas, discovered it, and told the others. "If they would scrape the wax off the tablet," she said, "they would be sure to find the writing upon the wood." The Lacedaemonians took her advice, found the writing, and read it; after which they sent it round to the other Greeks.</i></b> (<a href="http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Herodotus/Herodotus7.html" target="_blank"><b>Herodotus, <i>Histories</i>, 7.239</b></a>)</font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">Gorgo, thus, was instrumental in alerting the Greeks about the approaching invasion.</p> <p>We know of at least two additional stories, from antiquity, about Gorgo. The first, quoted by Paul Cartledge in <i>Thermopylae</i>, goes to the strength of Spartan women generally:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>... Gorgo ... was once allegedly asked by a critical - or envious - non-Spartan woman, “Why is it that you Spartan women alone rule over your men?” Gorgo adroitly evaded the question and shot back, “Because we Spartan women are the only women who give birth to [real] men!"</i></b> (Cartledge, <i>Thermopylae</i>, page 133)</font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">The next anecdote takes place as Leonidas is leaving Sparta for Thermopylae. Knowing she will never see her husband again, Gorgo asks him what she should do. <a target="_blank" href="images/plutarch.gif"><b>Plutarch</b></a> - <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Plutarch.html" target="_blank"><b>writing</b></a> hundreds of years later - has the king tell his queen:</p> <blockquote><font face="Times New Roman"><b><i>Marry good men and give birth to good children.</i></b> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0140444637/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-3582203-6771218#reader-link" target="_blank"><b><i>Plutarch on Sparta</i></b></a>, page 146)</font></blockquote> <p align="justify"><font face="arial, helvetica">Scholars believe Leonidas was about fifty years old at the time. His opponent, Xerxes, was approximately 39.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="300_story_ch5.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>  <a href="300_story_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="300_story_ch7.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td>  <td align="center" valign="top"> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.awesomestories.com/includes/ad_format.js"> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </td>  </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>