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Original at the Sparta Archaeological Museum
Leonidas, one of the double kings of the ancient Greek military state of Sparta
In 480 BC, according to the Greek chronicler Herodotus, the Persian king Xerxes, with 2,641,000 men (chroniclers at that time sometimes tended to exaggerate) of fighting troops moved to water and via Macedonia to land in southern Greece.
At Thermopylae, a isthmus between the mountains and the cliffs, troops from Thebes and Thespis, as well as Leonidas with 300 of his strongest hoplites - foot soldiers equipped with sword, lance, helmet, shield, breastplate and leg splints - fought.
For a whole day, he and his frontline Spartans withstood the attack of this mighty army. The betrayal of the Greek Ephialtes, who led a Persian elite unit into the backs of the defenders via a goat path at night, made their position untenable. Leonidas decided to continue the fight with a small contingent of Thespis volunteers and his men so that the allies could retreat and re-form.
Because the Persians could now attack from two sides, they dissolved their phalanx and formed a circular hedgehog position against which Xerxes had his rider elite of the legendary "immortals" race. But even this one failed to wrestle down the defenders. When the Great King had to watch bitterly as thousands and thousands of Persian armies died in the battle against a few hundred Greeks - Greek historians report 20,000 fallen Persians - he ordered his archers and slingshooters to advance.
Towards the end of the second day, under a seemingly endless hail of arrows and bullets, the last act of this unbelievable tragedy that went down in history closed.
Even today a stone tablet embedded in the rock at the battlefield announces the heroic event: "Wayfarer, come to Sparta, report there, you have seen us lying here as the law ordered".
But this hecatombe should not be in vain. It provided the Greek fleet with the necessary time to launch a decisive relief attack against the Persian Armada at Cape Artemision.
Exhibit of the Archaeological Museum in Sparta under inventory number 3613, dated 480-470 B.C.
Particularly interesting about this Leonidas depiction is the lush Lophos (crest of horse hair) and the two ram heads adorning the cheek rails on the battle helmet.
Replica made of ceramine (high-strength special plaster) in bronze finish.
This product was added to our catalog on Saturday, February 1, 2014.