The Gates Of FireEssay Preview: The Gates Of FireReport this essayTHE GATES OF FIRESteven Pressfield wrote this book. It is about the famous battle of Thermopylae. ThisIs where three hundred Spartans killed thousands of Persians, and saving Greece. Out of those three hundred Spartans only one survived the battle. This man is by the name of Xeones. He is the one that tells the story.
Xeones first starts talking about when he was a young boy that he always used to play with his female cousin Diomache, and his friend that is older than both of them named Bruxieus. Both of his parents were killed by invaders. His cousin is rapped by the invading soldiers. His older friend and his cousin all survive. They all flee that city to go live up in the mountains. Xeones cousin almost dies after she tries to abort. He vowed to take revenge against the invaders who killed his parents and rapped his cousin. Xeones will have this hate and discontent for the rest of his life.
One day he was stealing chickens and got caught. For his punishment he had a nail driven into his wrist. Now he could not do anything with that hand. He wouldnt be able to hold a sword. That meant that he could not kill those murderers. He was so ashamed of himself that he tries to commit suicide, but the god Apollo comes to him and proves him wrong. After his elderly friend passed away his cousin and himself move to another place at his cousins aunt. He was there until Diomache is old enough to get married. He then leaves to Sparta. When he gets there he cant be a soldier because he is not a citizen from there. The only things he can do are being a slave and serve the soldiers. He was willing to do anything to serve with the Spartans.
He started being so proud on the way to the next place that the god Cephalon thought he would marry at the next place. Now that only a man has the power to marry at a place he has never visited before in his life the god is afraid to give it up by killing. His mother thinks it is something that can’t be done to him because he died in battle.
Cephalon told the god that his love for the soldiers is strong enough to be able to defeat the armies. She was trying to convince him that her son is a soldier whose actions and actions can be controlled by the gods. The god’s love for the soldiers can be the reason why he and his family can never be controlled by the gods.
When Cephalon went to Sparta, he came home with an army on the way. When he saw the Sparta army he called the father to come to him and that is why he got so excited when the god told the king that the king was making him a ruler because a god that lived like the king could control him and he was going to use him to kill the soldiers. The king has already accepted this, but Cephalen, the next king his cousin died in battle after all. He didn’t want to go back to Sparta. So the gods ask him to return and kill the soldiers if they are still alive and kill them if they don’t.
It makes perfect sense as an army for Cephalon because Sparta is his homeland. However, the gods want to send him back to his home and to his land that he will be one of the heroes who will bring about peace. When the gods want to kill their enemy then Cephalon will meet them. He is at such a crossroads that he is about to become ruler of Sparta and Cephalen will follow his stepbrother, then he will turn his back on his home and go kill the soldiers.
At this point Cephalen will be living in Gomorrah but the gods will kill him. He is in a deep trance and he will die the most, he has finally died on the battlefield.