Gates of Fire (Pressfield)

Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae
Steven Pressfield, 1998
Bantam Books
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780553580532


Summary
Thousands of years ago, Herodotus and Plutarch immortalized Spartan society in their histories; but today, little is left of the ancient city or the social structure of this momentous culture. One of the few antiquarian marks of the civilization that has survived lies scores of miles away from Sparta, at a narrow Greek mountain pass called Thermopylae.

It was here that three hundred of Sparta's finest warriors held back the invading millions of the Persian empire and valiantly gave their lives in the selfless service of democracy and freedom. A simple engraved stone marks their burial ground.

Narrated by the sole survivor of the epic battle—a squire in the Spartan heavy infantry—Gates of Fire is a depiction of one man's indoctrination into the Spartan way of life and death, and of the legendary men and women who gave the culture an immortal gravity. Culminating in the electrifying and horrifying epic battle, Gates of Fire weaves history, mystery, and heartbreaking romance into a literary page-turner that brings the Homeric tradition into the 21st century. (From the publisher.)

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Author Bio
• Birth—1943
• Where—Port of Spain, Trinidad
• Education—B.A., Duke University (USA)
• Currently—lives in Malibu, California

In January of 1966, when Mr. Pressfield was on the bus leaving Parris Island as a freshly-minted Marine, he looked back and thought there was at least one good thing about this departure. "No matter what happens to me for the rest of my life, no one can ever send me back to this freakin' place again."

Forty years later, to his surprise and gratification, Mr. P is far more closely bound to the young men of the Marine Corps and to all other dirt-eating, ground-pounding outfits than he could ever have imagined. Gates of Fire is one reason. Dog-eared paperbacks of this tale of the ancient Spartans have circulated throughout platoons of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since the first days of the invasions. E-mails come in by hundreds.

Gates of Fire is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps' Reading list. It is taught at West Point and Annapolis and at the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico. Tides of War is on the curriculum of the Naval War College. From 2nd Battalion/6th Marines, which calls itself "the Spartans," to ODA 316 of the Special Forces, whose forearms are tattooed with the lambda of Lakedaemon, today's young warriors find a bond to their ancient precursors in the historical narratives of Pressfield's novels.

Steven Pressfield was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1943 to a Navy father and mother. He graduated from Duke University in 1965. His struggles to earn a living as a writer (it took seventeen years to get the first paycheck) are detailed in his 2002 book, The War of Art. Mr. Pressfield has worked as an advertising copywriter, schoolteacher, tractor-trailer driver, bartender, oilfield roustabout and attendant in a mental hospital. He has picked fruit in Washington state and written screenplays in Tinseltown.

With the publication of The Legend of Bagger Vance in 1995, Mr. Pressfield became a writer of books once and for all. His writing philosophy is, not surprisingly, a kind of warrior code—internal rather than external—in which the enemy is identified as those forms of self-sabotage that Pressfield has labeled "Resistance" with a capital R (in The War of Art) and the technique for combatting these foes can be described as "turning pro."

Mr. Pressfield believes in previous lives. He believes in the Muse. He believes that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration whom we call artists. Mr. Pressfield's conception of the artist's role is a combination of reverence for the unknowable nature of "where it all comes from" and a no-nonsense, blue-collar demystification of the process by which this mystery is approached. In other words, a paradox.

There's a recurring character in Mr. Pressfield's books named Telamon, a mercenary of ancient days. Telamon doesn't say much. He rarely gets hurt or wounded. And he never seems to age. His view of the profession of arms is a lot like Mr. Pressfield's conception of art and the artist:

"It is one thing to study war, and another to live the warrior's life."

Steven Pressfield's seven books include: The Legend of Bagger Vance, The War of Art, Gates of Fire, Tides of War, Last of the Amazons, The Virtues of War, The Afghan Campaign, and Killing Rommel. (From the author's website.)

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Book Reviews
A gripping and swashbuckling re-imagining of the battle of Thermopylae ... a novel that, in addition to plenty of sweep and sting, has a feel of authenticity about it from beginning to end.
Richard Bernstein - New York Times

Reading this fine novel, it is not hard to understand why warfare has proved to be one of the most enduring subjects of literature.
Mary Lefkowitz - The New York Times Book Review

Pressfield's first novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was about golf, but here he puts aside his putter and picks up sword and shield as he cleverly and convincingly portrays the clash between Greek hoplites and Persian heavy infantry in the most heroic confrontation of the Hellenic Age: the battle of Thermopylae ("the Hot Gates") in 480 B.C. The terrifying spectacle of classical infantry battle becomes vividly clear in his epic treatment of the Greeks' magnificent last stand against the invading Persians. Driven to understand the courage and sacrifice of his Greek foes, the Persian king, Xerxes, compels Xeones, a captured Greek slave, to explain why the Greeks would give their lives to fight against overwhelming odds. Xeones' tale covers his years of training and adventure as the loyal and devoted servant of Dienekes, a noble Spartan soldier, and he describes the six-day ordeal during which a few hundred Greeks held off thousands of Persian spears and arrows, until a Greek traitor led the Persians to an alternate route. Rich with historical detail, hot action and crafty storytelling, Pressfield's riveting story reveals the social and political framework of Spartan life--ending with the hysteria and brutality of the spear-thrusting, shield-bashing clamor that defined a Spartan's relationship with his family, community, country and fellow warriors.
Publishers Weekly

On a memorial stone placed at the ancient battlefield of Thermopylae are the words, "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie." Those simple words end and encapsulate this brilliant and brutal epic tale. Beginning at the training fields of Sparta, Pressfield (The Legend of Bagger Vance) ushers the reader through the climactic Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.E, fought by the combined armies of Sparta, Athens, and their allies against the invading soldiers of Persia. Narrated by the sole survivor of the battle at the "Hot Gates," in which 300 Spartans, hundreds of their allies, and tens of thousands of Persians died, this work portrays the men and women of ancient Sparta in intimate, dynamic detail. Pressfield weaves a fascinating tale of valor, fear, comradeship, and a courage that takes a handful of warriors beyond human frailty into immortality. An unforgettable novel. —Jane Baird, Anchorage Municipal Libraries, Alaska.
Library Journal

A triumph in historical fiction best describes this stirring account of the famous battle of Thermopylae, told by the lone survivor before succumbing to his wounds, in a logical follow-up to Pressfield's Homeric take on golf, The Legend of Bagger Vance (1995). The young squire Xeones is pulled from beneath a burned battle wagon when the carnage finally ends at the narrow mountain pass where, in 480 b.c., three hundred Spartans and a small allied force fought off, for a full week, the two-million-man army of Persian king Xerxes. Xeones is kept alive by the king's own physicians in the hope that he'll tell His Majesty all there is to know about those sublimely disciplined warriors who accomplished so great a victory. In a series of interviews recorded by the royal historian, Xeones recounts his own origins: forced to flee, newly orphaned, when his own city was sacked, he lived hand-to-mouth in the mountains until deciding to go to Sparta in order to learn all there was to know about defending himself. As he recalls Xerxes' army rolling inexorably into Athens, burning the city after a token defense, the survivor describes the decades of hard training endured by every Spartan male, and also the contacts he had with his youthful sparring partner, the silver-throated, sensitive Alexandros, and with the fair-minded, modest Dienekes (whose squire he would become). But by the time Xeones comes to the crux of his story, involving the mighty battle itself and the heroic actions of his comrades-in-arms, things have started to go awry again for the Persians. Although he will soon join his friends in death, Xeones lives long enough to know that their sacrifice was not in vain. While theromantic interests are somewhat stilted, the man-to-man and mano-a-mano elements are all superb, with a fine, elegiac tone—to be expected, frankly, given the historical details and the human touches.
Kirkus Reviews

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Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Gates of Fire: 

1. In a Q&A, Pressfield says that historical fiction at its best should "work to illuminate not only a theme that's true to [its] time, but to our contemporary era as well." Can you identify particular themes (central ideas) in Gates of Fire . . . and how they might illuminate our own time?

2. How would you characterize those who fought against such impossible odds at Thermopylae? Are those traits in evidence in our culture today? Are they necessary given that we no longer fight in hand-to-hand combat? Are the traits primarily of the military, or might they apply to the citizenry?

3. Many readers comment on Pressfield's skill at bringing the ancient Greek culture to life and presenting it as a rich backdrop for the battle of Thermoplylae. Do you agree? Talk a bit about his portrait of classical Greek life. What did you find most interesting?

4. For over 2,000 years, the events of Thermopylae have been told from the outside (no Greeks survived). Pressfield, however, uses a single survivor of the battle to tell the story from the inside out. Do you find Xeones convincing? Also, history traditionally is told from the perspective of those who led and shaped the events. Pressfield gives us a different vangtage point, one from the lower ranks. Why might he have chosen Xeones as the narrator?

5. Discuss the way in which Pressfield explores the different temperaments of fighting units: Thespians, who were more emtional; the Spartans, more stoic. Also consider the psychology behind the social bonding that develops in smalll, competitive groups—whether it's military, sports, college fraternities.

6. Do you think that Pressfield gets at one of the central mysteries of war: how warriors stand their ground to fight, against all rational instincts that urge retreat and safety? Why do warriors fight and what do they fight for?

7. What other times in history have a selfless few have sacrified for a great many? Think, of course, of Winston Churchill's famous "never was so much owed by so many to so few," at the start of World War II. Is such sacrifice possible today?

(Questions from LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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