Remembering Thermopylae and the Persian Wars in Antiquity

Abstract

...Physical monuments, enacted rituals and written texts all kept the battle of Thermopylae in Hellenic and Roman consciousness far beyond the reach of living memory. Today the surviving artefacts, poetry and prose related to Thermopylae therefore offer insight into the practices of commemoration of the Greeks of the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and Romans in and outside of Greece as well. Evidence of the violent events of just a few days in 480BC was reshaped throughout antiquity, creating lasting memorials designed to praise and honour the ideals of patriotic courage, ,heroic self-sacrifice and political freedom. Yet the reception ofThermopylae, as of all ancient events, also reveals the process of creation and recreation of memory, and the ancient Spartan, Hellenic and Roman identities formed and reformed out of a set of stories including Thermopylae...