Option I: How is the Spartans mentioned in the New Yorker? How do these references connect to what you have read in class? What do the references suggest about how the authors and their intended readership perceive Classical Literature and or Ancient Greece?
The Spartans have always been compared with other Greek city states such as Athens and Rhodes. For the record, Greece, during the ancient times, were never considered (either internally or externally) as a single entity. Instead, they were composed of individual cities that always competed against each other. They were most of the time broken. In most articles available in The New Yorker, the Spartans and their birthplace, Sparta (i.e. the Greek city) have always been related to the way how they manage their internal affairs, especially when it comes to combat and military endeavors.
In one article authored by Mendelsohn (01), for example, the Spartans have been mentioned as one of the adversaries of the Athenians and the citizens of other Greek city states. The author, however, focused more on how the politics of the numerous Greek cities reflect the brokenness and division of the different global political entities in the world today, especially during the most heavily conflicting period of the past two World Wars . The Spartans were mentioned neither in a positive nor negative way. Their politics and ideologies were merely compared with that of other Greek cities and countries during that time. For example, Mendelsohn compared Sparta’s fall to that of the Soviet Union after the Cold War. Athenians’ ideologies when it comes to societal management and politics were also compared to that of the United States—and their never ending push for democracy.
In another article published in The New Yorker entitled Arms and the Man, Mendelsohn (01) labeled the coalition that the Spartans were a part of scrappy, mainly because of the fact that they failed (and at some point did not want) to become unite even at the face of stronger opponents and threats to their existence such as the Persian Empire. It is important to note that The Persian Wars, a period of conflict between the Greek City States and the Persian Empire that lasted at least two generations (especially when viewed from the Persian Empire’s perspective because it started when Darius wanted to humiliate the Greece and ended when Xerxes finally got defeated in the Battle of Salamis.
Much of Mendelsohn’s recollection of the events that happened to the Spartans, the wars and political conquests they participated in, the type of people and governance they maintained, and the fact that they, along with other Greek City States never got to unify themselves to create a single state or political entity, were nevertheless in line with the information presented during class discussions and readings, which means that they are, in general, in line with the idea about Spartans being presented in most History books, among other sources.
In another The New Yorker article authored by David Denby (01), he focused on the accuracy of the events that were presented in the movie Spartans. The article was entitled Men Gone Wild; the objective of which was to discuss Shooter and 300. 300 was the movie adaptation of the Battle of Thermopylae where King Leonidas together with his 300 strong men set out to defend the kingdom from a looming Persian invasion headed by former Persian emperor’s son Darius, Xerxes. Having watched the movie itself and compared it to the real accounts based on class readings and history books, the author of this paper can say that there were indeed some accurate parts in the story. It is clear, however, that in that modern adaptation of the Battle of Thermopylae, it was the Greeks, particularly the Spartans who were glorified; the Persians (i.e. modern day Iran), however, were humiliated.
According to Denby, the movie was considered by the Iranian government representatives as an item of psychological warfare “that was intended to prepare Americans for an invasion of the country” . Clearly, the present day Persians did not like that the west (as represented by the Spartans in the movie 300) was being glorified at the expense of their Persian history and culture. The movie, for the record, was indeed one that was meant to romanticize the victory of the Spartans over the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae. If one is going to use the entire course of the Greco Persian wars, however, it would indeed turn out that the Persians did a terrible job at accomplishing their mission (i.e. to humiliate and invade Greece) considering the fact that the Greek coalition was supposed to be no match against the much larger, stronger, and wealthier Persian Empire.
Works Cited
Denby, D. "Men Gone Wild." The New Yorker (2007): http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/04/02/men-gone-wild. Web.
Mendelsohn, D. "Arms and the Man." The New Yorker (2008): http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/04/28/arms-and-the-man-3. Web.
—. "Theatres of War." The New Yorker (2004): http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/01/12/theatres-of-war. Web.
