Leonidas, the Spartan king, has a wife as tough as he is. Did they exaggerate that?
A. Not really. Spartan girls were bred to be almost as tough and strong as the boys, since it was up to them to produce future warriors. And Spartan women had the time to engage in physical fitness, since all the traditional women’s work – cleaning, cooking, even caring for children – was conveniently being done by slaves. In the film, Leonidas’s wife sends him off to Thermopylae with the bracing command, “Come back with your shield, or on it.” We don’t know if she actually said that to him, but it was the traditional line Spartan mothers gave to their sons as they marched off to fight. Q. Any other lines that are historically accurate? A. There’s a great one that’s straight from Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian. As the massive Persian army advances toward Thermopylae, the outnumbered Spartans are told that the Persian arrows will “darken the sun.” “Good,” one Spartan replies. “Then we will fight in the shade.” Best. Line. Ever. The filmmakers thought so too, since they used it t
