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Sto se tice filma Gates of fire

Welcome to the website of best-selling author Steven Pressfield, where the #1 question we're getting these days (early '07) is, "Is the new movie 300 based on your book Gates of Fire?" That's a very reasonable question. The answer, however, is no. 300 comes from a graphic novel of the same title by Frank Miller. There's no connection between it and Gates of Fire.

The second most-asked question is: "Okay, if this new movie isn't based on Gates of Fire, will there be a Gates of Fire movie at all?" The answer to that is a little trickier. Gates has been under option to Universal Studios since it was first published in 1998. For a while George Clooney was part of the project, as was the director Michael Mann. A number of screenplay drafts have been written by the excellent young writer David Self (Road to Perdition, Thirteen Days). However, so far the stars have not aligned in such a way as to green-light the project. Certainly Universal is watching to see how 300 does at the box office.

There's a third question we're getting that's kind of interesting. Readers have seen the trailer for 300, including the quotation about "having our battle in the shade." A number of them have written in, asking, "Did the movie steal that from your book?" (Since that quote is the epigraph at the front of Gates of Fire.)

The answer is we both stole it -- from Herodotus. The quotation is a true historical one from the true historical Spartan, Dienekes. He really said it, at Thermopylae in 480 B.C., when the Spartans had taken possession of the pass and were awaiting their first sight of the million-man Persian army, advancing to attack them. Here's the full passage from Herodotus' The Histories, translation by Aubrey de Selincourt:

"Of all the Spartans and Thespians who fought so valiantly the most signal proof of courage was given by the Spartan Dienekes. It is said that before the battle he was told by a native of Trachis [a nearby town] that, when the Persians shot their arrows, there were so many of them that they hid the sun. Dienekes, however, quite unmoved by the thought of the strength of the Persian army, merely remarked: 'This is pleasant news that the stranger from Trachis brings us: if the Persians hide the sun, we shall have our battle in the shade.' He is said to have left on record other sayings, too, of a similar kind, by which he will be remembered."

Alas, I've never been able to locate any of Dienekes' other sayings. Wouldn't they be cool?
Photo by Tony Keppelman

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