The 2006 film "300", directed by Zack Snyder and starring Gerard Butler, which is based on the 1998 graphic novel of the same name, will be remembered as one of the most iconic-true-depiction-of-the-canon movies.
The film focuses on the historic Battle of Thermopylae in which a small contingent of Spartan warriors took on a vast Persian army. The film and novel are clear fictionalizations of these events, but are interesting to look at for their representations of a central tenant of ancient Greek civilization: masculinity and sexuality.
The film is ripe with eroticism and hyper-masculinity as the warriors themselves are near naked, incredibly buff and constantly cast in a romantic light. Spartan culture was indeed focused on the ideal male form, to the point of instituting a ritual in which weakness is discarded even as early as birth. Shaved Spartan boys are then thrust into a world of violence enduring what they called the agōgē in which they are taken from their mother's and raised by men.
The good guys are Greek soldiers, played by white actors, some with British accents. They are scantily clad in nothing more than a cape and crotch-clinging leather bikinis. They also possess hyper-masculine traits: stalwart, fearless, powerful and gritty.
The bad guys are the Persian army. Their leader Xerxes, his generals, and messengers are played by actors of African descent. In contrast, most of their bodies are covered up in armour and helmets, so nobody can really see their physiques like the Greeks.
The exception is Xerxes, who has a built physique that rivals the Greeks. However, his attractiveness is undermined by the fact that:
King Leonidas also refers to Athenians as a very weak "boy-lovers".
The film focuses on the historic Battle of Thermopylae in which a small contingent of Spartan warriors took on a vast Persian army. The film and novel are clear fictionalizations of these events, but are interesting to look at for their representations of a central tenant of ancient Greek civilization: masculinity and sexuality.
The film is ripe with eroticism and hyper-masculinity as the warriors themselves are near naked, incredibly buff and constantly cast in a romantic light. Spartan culture was indeed focused on the ideal male form, to the point of instituting a ritual in which weakness is discarded even as early as birth. Shaved Spartan boys are then thrust into a world of violence enduring what they called the agōgē in which they are taken from their mother's and raised by men.
The good guys are Greek soldiers, played by white actors, some with British accents. They are scantily clad in nothing more than a cape and crotch-clinging leather bikinis. They also possess hyper-masculine traits: stalwart, fearless, powerful and gritty.
The bad guys are the Persian army. Their leader Xerxes, his generals, and messengers are played by actors of African descent. In contrast, most of their bodies are covered up in armour and helmets, so nobody can really see their physiques like the Greeks.
The exception is Xerxes, who has a built physique that rivals the Greeks. However, his attractiveness is undermined by the fact that:
- he is associated with feminine traits: he wears makeup and jewelry that serve as a direct contrast to the almost naked Greek soliders, who are portrayed as hyper-masculine;
- he is associated with negative qualities: manipulative, dictatorlike, power hungry;
- his interactions with Leonidas are laced with subtextual homoerotic seduction, such as his insistence on getting Leonidas on his knees before him, or approaching him from behind and wrapping his hands around his shoulders.
King Leonidas also refers to Athenians as a very weak "boy-lovers".
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