Steven Pressfields The Gates of Fire is set in the fifth century B.C. in Greece. The story revolves around the famous battle of Thermopylae where three hundred Spartans held off hundreds of thousands of Persians, saving Greece. Pressfield creates a fictional story around the battle where one man, a squire named Xeones, survives to tell the Spartan story of the battle and the events preceding it. Xeones, who is the protagonist, tells his life story to the royal Persian historian while in captivity. This life history of Xeones constitutes the body of the book.
Xeones tale starts when he was a young boy living in Astakiots, a small Greek polis. Xeones is ten and lives a happy life with his mother and father, who are prosperous farmers. Xeones closest friends are his cousin Diomache, and a wise elderly slave Bruxieus. The first conflict of the book is the sacking of Astakiots by their supposed allies Pleuron and Kalydon. Astakiots is completely destroyed and distributed to the conquerors. Xeones parents are killed and Diomache is raped. Together Diomache, Bruxieus they flee to the mountains. Diomache is pregnant from the rape and she tries to abort the fetus and nearly ends up killing herself.
Xeones, filled with grief over the death of his family and the destruction of his nation and faced with a life of living in the mountains without a polis, vows to take revenge against the invaders. This undying vengeance of Xeones will drive him the rest of his life. One day stealing chickens from a farm is caught and has a nail driven through his wrist as punishment. This nail cripples his hand. He can no longer grasp a sword. He will no longer be able to kill the murders of his parents. That night he is filled with so much shame he tries to commit suicide.
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Before he can the god Apollo comes to him and shows him a bow. His crippled hands can still draw a bowstring. After two years in the mountains Bruxieus dies and Diomache and Xeones decided to find a new polis. Diomache knows a rich woman in Athens and wants to go live with her until shes old enough to marry. Xeones, still filled with vengeance, wants to go to Sparta, home of the legendary warriors that constitute the best army in Greece. They cannot decide so they end up parting ways, Xeones to Sparta, Diomache to Athens.
In their entire lives they will only meet once more. When Xeones arrives in Sparta (Lakedaemon) he cannot become a soldier because he is not Lakedaemonian. Instead he becomes a squire, a station that is basically a form of slavery. This in itself doesnt present a conflict to Xeoes, he is willing to do anything to serve with the Spartans. For the rest of The Gates of Fire the conflicts are not Xeoness, but his masters. Xeoness first master Alexandros is a young Spartan around his age who is enrolled in the Spartan military school. Alexandross father is Polemarch and he is a pure bred Lakedaemonian. Alexandros isnt the military type though, he is much better at singing.
However, since he is a pure bred Lakedaemonian he has no choice but to serve in the military from the age of seven till he is sixty. He will become a full soldier at twenty when he completes military training. Xeones job as his squire is to be his sparring partner and clean his gear, and basically be his slave. Despite the fact that he is much better soldier than Alexandros, Xeones doesnt resent being his slave, indeed he grows to love him (as a brother.) One day during military exercises Alexandros lets his shield fall to the ground, a terrible crime in the Spartan military. Polynikes his training officer is to punish this crime. Polynikes is an Olympic champion and is considered one of the best soldiers in Sparta sees this and brutally beats Alexandros breaking his nose several times. Polynikes grows to hate Alexandros from this point on and makes it a personal goal to see that he is either disgraced or killed in training to stop him from entering the army. One day Alexandros tries to prove his bravery despite his physical limitations and daily humiliations by Polynikes. He sneaks off to a battle that is being fought close by.
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Xeones, his loyal squire follows him and fights bravely in battle. Alexandros is severally punished for joining battle without orders and has Xeones taken away from him. He is reassigned to Dienekes, Alexandros mentor. Dienekes is very old and is considered the most honorable soldier in Sparta. Xeones meets a helot named Rooster in his first year in Sparta. Rooster is the illegitimate son of Dienekess stepbrother, who was the greatest soldier of his generation before his death in battle.
Rooster has been offered a place in the army were he may earn citizenship for his renowned fighting ability. He turns it down because thinks of himself as a Medeian and hates the Spartans. He and his family are to be killed by a secret organization that tracks unloyal helots. Before his infant son is killed though Dienekess wife Arete steps forward and proclaims the son is her husbands bastard child. Everyone present knew that the infant wasnt really Dienekess son. But in order to please his wife he proclaims that the infant really is his son, saving the infants life. Xeones marries and has two children.
But he hardly knows his wife because he spends most of his time with his master on campaign. Under Dienekes Xeones fights many battles. These battles are against other Greek cities that have been showing signs of allegiance to the Persians. The Persian King Xerxes is the antagonist. He rules the largest empire that had ever existed stretching from India to Asia Minor. Xerxes has decided to conquer Greece and raises an army of two million men. Three hundred Spartans under their King Leonidas are sent to the pass of Thermopylae to hold off the Persians long enough for the rest of Greece to organize.
These three hundred are all-sires. Meaning that their lines have been preserved through a son. Dienekes would not have been eligible but he lied about Roosters son being his own so Dienekes is selected for the suicide squad. Xeones is forced to go with him. Alexandros and Polynikes are also selected. The Spartans fight with great bravery, killing twenty thousand Persians and delaying them seven days. Most of the last half of The Gates of Fire is about the military movements and plans of two armies. Very little conflict can be found in these, for that part of the story reads more like a history.
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On the last day Xeones is given the choice to leave. He decides to stay and die for Greece and his master. His wish isnt granted and Xeones is the lone survivor and lives to tell this story to the Persian historian. Shortly after he is done Xeones joins his comrades and dies of his wounds. Entry Two: I have very little in common with Xoenes. He was a Greek boy who lived twenty-five hundred years ago. He experienced such hardships in his short life, the rape and loss of his cousin, the murder of his parents, the destruction of his nation, g ….
