Reviving the Past: Cinematic History and Popular Memory in The 300 Spartans (1962)

Konstantinos P Nikoloutsos

Classical World, Volume 106, Number 2, Winter 2013, pp. 261-283 (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.1353/clw.2013.0030

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Reviving the Past: Cinematic History and Popular Memory in The 300 Spartans (1962)
Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos

ABSTRACT: The paper investigates the artistic, economic, and so-

ciopolitical context of The 300 Spartans (1962), from its conception as an Italian peplum to its realization as a Hollywood epic lmed in Greece. I argue that the classical past is recreated on screen in ways that violate the historical record and becomes a vehicle whereby gender hierarchies are reproduced and morality is preached to the viewers. I conclude by showing how the revival of ancient Sparta on lm is informed by important events in post-Civil War Greek history and is deployed to propagate notions of national identity, memory, and pride.

I. Introduction
This paper explores the mechanisms whereby ancient Greek history is reconstructed and made available for popular consumption on the big screen. It uses as a case study The 300 Spartans, a CinemaScope epic about the Battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C.E.) produced by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation under the direction of Rudolph Mat. Released in the United States on August 29, 1962,1 the lm represents Hollywoods rst attempt to reenact one of classical antiquitys most iconic military confrontations and the events that led up to it. It is also
1 Before its ofcial domestic release, The 300 Spartans premiered in Philadelphia on December 31, 1961. See F6.5024 in The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Picture Produced in the United States, Volume F6, Feature Films, 19611970. In the late 1950s, it became customary for major Hollywood studios to test the reception of prestige pictures through a limited number (sometimes just one) of big-city, reserved-seat roadshows prior to general mass release. See, e.g., A. Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (Metuchen 1988) 13237; S. Hall and S. Neale, A Hollywood History: Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters (Detroit 2010) 161.

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one of the two epic lms produced during the so-called Golden Age of the genre (19511964) that draw on ancient Greek history.2 As such, it deserves special attention. Its study can enhance our understanding of the ways in which cinematic history seeks to reproduce, but ultimately violates the norms of written history by subjecting the past to the ideologies, concerns, and anxieties of the present, thereby turning gures and facts from real into reel. To date, The 300 Spartans has generated four critical responses.3 Scholars have identied many of the lms departures from the historical record and have pointed out several of the ways in which the events of 480 B.C.E. have been compressed, altered, and falsied in order to suit the anti-communist agenda of the United States during the Cold War era. The paper builds on these studies and seeks to show not only how ancient Greek history is distorted and ctionalized when it is brought to the big screen but also, most importantly, why. To this end, it will follow a different contextualized approach to the lm and investigate how the Battle of Thermopylae is rewritten so as to be in line with the industrial practices, economic policies, and aesthetic conventions that governed the production and promotion of epics in the 1950s and early 1960s. I shall argue that what makes The 300 Spartans a historical lm is not
The majority of epic lms produced by Hollywood studios during this period are set in Roman or biblical antiquity. The only other American epic inspired by Greek history is Alexander the Great (1956), directed by Robert Rossen, on which see K. P. Nikoloutsos, The Alexander Bromance: Male Desire and Gender Fluidity in Oliver Stones Historical Epic, Helios 35.2 (2008) 22428; K. Shahabudin, The Appearance of History: Robert Rossens Alexander the Great, in P. Cartledge and F. Rose Greenland, eds., Responses to Oliver Stones Alexander: Film, History, and Cultural Studies (Madison 2010) 92116. J. Solomon (The Ancient World in the Cinema, Rev. and Exp. Ed. [New Haven 2001] 3846) surveys four Italian pepla set in historical Greece; D. Elley (The Epic Film: Myth and History [Boston 1984] 6775) adds another three. On the reasons why Greece lacked Romes appeal for American lmmakers and was thought to be hard to sell to domestic and international audiences, see G. Nisbet, Ancient Greece in Film and Popular Culture (Exeter 2006) 3644; K. Galinsky, Film, in C. W. Kallendorf, ed., A Companion to the Classical Tradition (Malden 2007) 400, 402407; J. Paul, Cinematic Receptions of Antiquity: The Current State of Play, CRJ 2.1 (2010) 14143. 3 See E. Clough, Loyalty and Liberty: Thermopylae in the Western Imagination, in T. J. Figueira, ed., Spartan Society (Swansea 2004) 37478; D. S. Levene, Xerxes Goes to Hollywood, in E. Bridges, E. Hall, and P. J. Rhodes, eds., Cultural Responses to the Persian Wars: Antiquity to the Third Millennium (Oxford 2007) 383403; F. Lillo Redonet, Sparta and Ancient Greece in The 300 Spartans, in I. Berti and M. Garca Morcillo, eds., Hellas on Screen: Cinematic Receptions of Ancient History, Literature and Myth (Stuttgart 2008) 11730; A. J. L. Blanshard and K. Shahabudin, Classics on Screen: Ancient Greece and Rome on Film (London 2011) 10124.
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just its subject matter. It is also its production at a particular moment in the history of American cinema, when the genre was at the zenith of its popularity in Hollywood, and the use of widescreen CinemaScope and Techicolor became the means whereby major studios sought to outdo each other in terms of technological innovations and box-ofce earnings. Based on the premise that history on lm is intimately linked to the history of the medium, the paper sets out to explore the conditions under which The 300 Spartans was made, from the conception of the project as a low-budget Italian peplum to its realization as a multimillion-drachma Hollywood production shot entirely in Greece. Shedding light on these conditions will account for the lms misrepresentations at the level of imagein particular the Romanization of Greek antiquity in terms of armor and costumes, and its Westernization in terms of makeup and hairstyle. As will emerge from the examination of press material presented here for the rst time, this hybrid picture of classical antiquity stands in direct opposition to Foxs marketing strategies and the expectation of accurate history cultivated during the lms publicity campaign. As such, The 300 Spartans bears testimony to the studios conicting view of the historical epic as a mass-appeal commodity that pretends to offer audiences high culture, but in reality yields to the lure of nancial gain. Martin Winkler has recently proposed a reading of lms set in the classical world as visual texts and has persuasively argued that the author of the lm, the one, that is, who puts his personal stamp on the cinematic product, is in most cases the director.4 The paper seeks to expand this hermeneutic model, and will show that in the case of The 300 Spartans the mastermind behind Thermopylaes depiction on the big screen was Spyros P. Skouras, the Greek-born president of Fox (19421962). In conducting a close reading of the lms visual language, my goal is to demonstrate how scenes that focus on private life are tailored to reect Skouras view of the ancient Spartans as models of morality and icons of mass consumption. This appropriation of the classical past, as a vehicle with which to indoctrinate modern viewers and revalidate traditional notions of masculinity and femininity, is explored within the context of containment culture during the Cold War era, and the advocacy, by the U.S. government and media, of domesticity and gender hierarchy as the foundations of American family and society.
4

M. M. Winkler, Cinema and Classical Texts: Apollos New Light (Cambridge 2009)

2250.

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I shall close the paper by investigating how the representation of ancient Sparta is informed by, and alludes to, contemporary Greek history and politics. In pursuing this line of inquiry, I do not intend to explore the ways in which the lm exploits Greeces foreign relations and role as a proponent of Western democratic values in the communist Balkan peninsula after its accession to the NATO alliance in 1952. The issue has been addressed, albeit not fully, in previous scholarship. Given the involvement of the Greek government in the lms production, what I intend to show is how The 300 Spartans comments on Greek domestic affairs in the post-World War II period. In particular, I am interested in documenting the ways in which classical antiquity is used to legitimize practices and policies implemented after the Civil War (19461949), which marked, and divided, Greek society for ensuing decades. What my analysis will demonstrate is that popular history is interblended with national memory and propaganda in a historical epic that has more to do with the present than with the past.

II. From Italian Peplum to Hollywood Epic

The 300 Spartans originated as a peplum lm that was scheduled to be produced in Rome under the direction of Mat. Its Italian title was Termopili.5 The pepla,6 commonly known as sandaloni or sword-and-sandals, were a lone (streamlet) of Italian cinema, which ourished in the period 19581965, producing hundreds of titles. These were mainly low-budget, fantasy-adventure lms that featured a stock theme or character from the classical world (e.g., a strongman like Hercules). With the price of just a few hundred Italian lire for admission, peplum lms were domestically addressed to a poor and illiterate or semi-illiterate audience, such as workers and farm laborers.7 Since they were oriented toward mass consumption in order to generate enough revenue for the

5 See A. Synodinou, : (Athens 1998) 18387. 6 On the coining and (mis)use of the term, see P. Lucanio, With Fire and Sword: Italian Spectacles on American Screens, 19581968 (Metuchen 1994) 48, n.1; A. J. Pomeroy, Then It Was Destroyed by the Volcano: The Ancient World in Film and on Television (London 2008) 4648. 7 Scholarship on peplum lms is vast. See, e.g., Lucanio (above, n.6); R. Dyer, White (New York 1997) 14583; M. Gnsberg, Italian Cinema: Gender and Genre (New York 2005) 97132; Pomeroy (above, n.6) 2959; G. P. Brunetta, The History of Italian Cinema: A Guide to Italian Film from Its Origins to the Twenty-First Century, J. Parzen, tr. (Princeton 2009) 16164; K. Shahabudin, Ancient Mythology and Modern Myths:

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next feature, peplum lms sacriced historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment and prot. As Patrick Lucanio notes:
The peplum feature . . . is distinguished from spectacles produced by mainstream Hollywood studios mainly by what can be described as [the] peplums rejection of historical accuracy; the mytho-history . . . roots itself in an appearance of history, since even though the lm considers itself a historical narrative only the milieu itself is historical; that is to say that although the settings and the costumes which we see are clearly historical in nature, the narratives themselves are timeless mythopoeic tales of heroism. . . . [T]he organized events are clearly stylized to conform to the melodramatic code.8

Fearing that the revival of one of Greek historys most glorious moments would suffer a severe distortion if the lm remained in Italian hands, Skouras acquired the rights from the Italian producer Giorgio Venturini and moved the production to Greece, where he had signed contracts with actors who were to play the various supporting roles.9 The original script was revised in its entirety by coproducer George St. George in collaboration with three historical advisors hired by the studio.10 The new script was for a three-hour-long epic that was to be produced under the title The Lion of Sparta.11 Facing serious delays and budgetary problems

Hercules Conquers Atlantis (1961), in D. Lowe and K. Shahabudin, eds., Classics for All: Reworking Antiquity in Mass Culture (Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2009) 196216; F. Burke, The Italian Sword-and-Sandal Film from Fabiola to Hercules and the Captive Women: Texts and Contexts, in F. Brizio-Skov, ed., Popular Italian Cinema: Culture and Politics in a Postwar Society (New York 2011) 1751; Blanshard and Shahabudin (above, n.3) 5876. 8 Lucanio (above, n.6) 34, emphasis in the original. 9 As actress Anna Synodinou (above, n.5) 184 notes in her memoirs, Skouras intended to have the lm produced in London, where Cleopatra was also being lmed under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian. However, the unexpected death of the English producer whom Skouras had in mind for The Lion of Sparta made him change his plans and turn the production over to Mat with the agreement that the lm be produced in its entirety in Greece. 10 In revising the script, St. George reportedly drew on a variety of ancient sources, such as Herodotus, Thucydides, and Plutarch. He also consulted English historian Roger Beck; English classicist and writer of historical novels Rex Warner; and Prince Peter of Greece, an expert on anthropology. See [The Greek soldiers are incomparable even as Persians], , Dec. 6, 1960, 2. I use the polytonic system for Greek sources published before 1981 and the monotonic system for sources published after that. 11 Fox decided to change the title at the last minute to avoid confusion with The Lion (dir. Jack Cardiff), another of its lms scheduled for release in the same year. For the sake of consistency, hereafter I shall be referring to the lm by its U.S. release title.

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with another of its blockbusters, the notorious Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, Fox decided to cut down the script to two hours. To ensure its accuracy, the studio submitted the nal draft to the Greek Ministry of Education, which approved it with minor corrections.12 Filming began at Lake Vouliagmeni in Perachora, about thirteen miles north of Loutraki, on November 7, 1960, and lasted for nearly three months. With an initial budget of several million drachmas that was continuously revised upwards,13 The 300 Spartans was the most expensive lm made in Greece at the time. Emphasizing the benets of the project for his native country, Skouras stated during the press conference held in Athens on November 2, 1960: When the lm starts to play at all capitals around the world, the name of Greece will be gloried once again.14 This statement of Skouras invites multiple readings. First, it explains the portrayal of the Battle of Thermopylae not just as an example of Spartan heroism and self-sacrice, but, in sharp contrast to the historical record, as a pan-Hellenic effort to avert the spread of Eastern despotism in the democratic West.15 Second, it illustrates Skouras patriotism
12 While the Hellenic Ministry of Education did not object to the inclusion of the romance between the two ctitious characters, Ellas and Phylon, it requested that the Spartan King Demaratus, who was living in exile at the Persian court, be portrayed not as a traitor, but as a patriot serving Greece with the deceiving advice that he was supplying to Xerxes. See (above, n.10) 2. 13 The Greek press of the time makes inconsistent, and hence unreliable, references to the nal budget of the lm, quoting gures sometimes in drachmas and sometimes in dollars. See, e.g., [The Lion of Sparta], (Feb. 2, 1961) 3. An article from the same periodcited in 300 [The lm that gave birth to 300], (Mar. 10, 2007) 37raises the nal budget to the astronomical amount of $22 million, more than half of what Fox spent to produce Cleopatra, the most expensive lm the studio ever made. If that gure were true, it would have been recorded by other sources as well, such as Solomons corporate and nancial history of Fox. This confusion of gures and currencies in the Greek press illustrates the catchline millions in the making that became a commonplace for studios in their war against television. As Solomon (above, n.1) 133 points out, whether it was millions of dollars, francs, yen, or lire often was overlooked as the studios tried to equate prestige with seven-digit gures. This obsession with zeros is especially evident in an article in (above, n.10), where all gures are quoted in drachmas and thus look bigger and more impressive to the reader. 14 Quoted from (above, n.13) 37 in my translation. 15 On the lms pan-Hellenism, see Levene (above, n.3) 38586; Lillo Redonet (above, n.3) 12123, 130. The rst ve minutes of the lm are spent depicting Xerxes expedition as an attempt of the Persian King to conquer all of Greece. As Levene (above, n.3) 385 n.10 notes, the lm, as written and shot, had its opening scene in Sparta and introduced some basic features of Spartan life. The scene was included in the script of September 5, 1960, but removed from the second draft that was sent out to actors on

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and intention to restore the international image of his native country, which stood in ruins after World War II and the subsequent Civil War. At the same time, however, it conceals the fact that the main reason why Skouras wanted to see this medium-budget lm become a box-ofce hit worldwide was that Fox was on the verge of bankruptcy and desperately needed high gross prots. The initial appeal of the novelty of CinemaScope, launched in 1953 with Henry Kosters The Robe, faded rather quickly, and Skouras strategic plan to produce fewer and more expensive spectacular lms as a means of luring audiences away from television sets failed to return the money Fox invested in them. In 1959, the studios nances were in such bad shape that Skouras announced, just as he had in 1952 before the advent of CinemaScope, a 25 percent cost cut throughout the entire operation.16 The studio was also forced to sell to Webb and Knapp, a land development company, 260 acres of its lot, space later used for the construction of the commercial and residential complex now known as Century City. To recover its domestic losses, the studio, as Skouras statement quoted above illustrates, started to exploit the appeal of its big pictures in overseas markets, where historical epics found an especially ready audience. The signature trait of the genreits extravagant visual style with elaborate period costumes, monumental sets, and multinational casts of thousands of extrasmade it easy for such lms to cross geographical boundaries. As Sheldon Hall and Steve Neale explain:
Between 1958 and 1967, a little more than half of Hollywoods gross rental income came from foreign countries, with the biggest contributors being Britain, Italy, France, West Germany, and Japan. Because many of these and other territories, with the notable exception of Britain, had not suffered the same decline in theatrical attendance as the United States, they became crucial sources of revenue. . . . Aside from their audiences, there were other economic advantages to be derived from the overseas markets, advantages that favored

September 28, yet added again after Synodinou, whose role was reduced signicantly, wrote to Skouras and threatened to leave the production. Skouras sent her a big bunch of owers and a written reassurance that the lm would be shot in line with the original script (Synodinou [above, n.5] 18586). The scene was nally cut before the lm was released and replaced with various images of the Acropolis in an effort to promote Greece, through the most famous landmark of its capital, as a tourist destination. 16 On the nancial problems of the studio in the mid-1950s and early 1960s, see, e.g., T. Thomas and A. Solomon, The Films of 20th Century-Fox: A Pictorial History (Secaucus 1979) 1921; Solomon (above, n.1) 13245.

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foreign location shooting, multinational coproductions, and the setting up of subsidiary companies to make lms abroad. Such pictures were designated runaway productions, a derogatory term in common use from about 1960 onward, particularly with the American labor unions who saw work being taken away from their Hollywood-based members. As U.S. costs spiraled upward, European countries offered lower expenses for labor, raw materials, and technical facilities.17

Italy and Spain were the two countries that Hollywood production companies preferred because they combined studio facilities and cheap, often nonunion, labor. In this respect, The 300 Spartans marks a notable point of departure from common industrial practices. The economic benets for Fox deriving from Skouras decision to move the production to Greece were enormous. In 1953, the drachma was depreciated by 50 percent against the U.S. dollar, the dominant international currency at the time. According to the Bretton Woods monetary system, which Greece decided to join in an attempt to halt ination, the exchange rate was determined at thirty drachmas per dollar and remained xed for nearly two decades. As opposed to Italy,18 the Greek government did not impose limits on lm revenues that could be converted into dollars for remittance to the United States. Moreover, in order to attract big-scale productions from abroad that would boost the economy and stimulate the development of a domestic lm industry, the Ministry of Industry, with a bill that was announced in 1960 and passed in 1961, extended various types of nancial incentives to foreign studios, including a tax exemption for coproductions, earnings, and personnel salaries, if the studio decided to open ofces in Athens.19

Hall and Neale (above, n.1) 17778. The Italian government prevented the conversion of large amounts in lm returns into dollars and their transmittal to the United States. Hollywood studios were thereby forced to utilize these blocked earnings to continue producing lms in Italy. See Hall and Neale (above, n.1) 135, 178. 19 On the provisions of the bill, see : [The coproduction of lms by Greek and foreign producers is encouraged: Announcements of the Minister of Industry], (Jan. 10, 1961) 2. The Minister of Industry attended the press conference for The 300 Spartans and stated that the goal of the government was to make Greece an international lm center. Skouras announced that Fox had another two pictures on the way, which would generate a revenue of more than $5 million for Greece: It Happened in Athens, directed by Andrew Marton and released in 1962, and Theseus: The King Must Die,
18

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Skouras, evidently, had reasons other than his patriotic feelings to seek to produce The 300 Spartans in Greece. Greece offered Fox a nancially advantageous environment for shooting expensive spectacles on location. To minimize the cost, the studio drew two thousand extras from the Greek army, with the agreement to cover the transportation cost to Perachora, and to pay ve drachmas for each soldiers meals per day and two drachmas as pocket money.20 In addition, it relied on the areas abundance in raw materials (wood and stone, in particular), as well as cheap local labor to build the sets. The entire foreign cast and crew were put up at hotels in Loutraki, which were considerably cheaper than those of the nearby Greek capital, and the production did not move to the Alpha and Anzervos studios in Athens until all outdoors shooting was complete. In this way, Skouras aspired to produce a lm of epic proportions about the Spartan Alamo,21 which, as per his statement quoted above, sought to serve, in the eyes of the international community, as a testament to the glorious past of Greece as a whole.22 In other words, Skouras ambition was to create a cinematic monument with a propagandistic intent similar to that of the two monuments shown so prominently in the opening scene of the lm: the Acropolis and the Leonidas memorial at Thermopylae23 inaugurated by King Paul of the Hellenes,
which was based on Mary Renaults novel of the same title, but was never produced. See Synodinou (above, n.5) 184. A lmic version of the Iliad, with Sir Laurence Olivier in the role of Achilles, was also announced. A few scenes were shot at the Tolo beach in Arcadia, but the production was soon abandoned. See [The director of the Iliad will also lm ten documentaries here], (Oct. 4, 1960) 2; Pomeroy (above, n.6) 85, 13132 n.62. 20 See (above, n.10). The Greek army contributed hundreds of soldiers as extras to several foreign lms produced in Greece at the time, including the ill-fated attempt to bring Homers Iliad to the big screen (above, n.19) and Atlas (1961), a peplum-like lm shot in Athens and its vicinity under the direction of Roger Corman. See R. Corman, with J. Jerome, How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime (New York 1990) 109; P. McGilligan, Backstory 3: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1960s (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1997) 166. 21 For a comparison between The 300 Spartans and lms depicting the Battle of the Alamo, see Levene (above, n.3) 39498. 22 Skouras vision is best illustrated in the closing scene of the lm, in which the narrator recalls the famous epigram by Simonides and notes: Oh Stranger, tell the Spartans that we lie here obedient to their word. This last message of the fallen heroes rallied Greece to victory, rst at Salamis, as predicted, and then at Plataea. But it was more than a victory for Greece. It was a stirring example to free people throughout the world of what a few brave men can accomplish once they refuse to submit to tyranny. 23 The Leonidas memorial was paid for by the Greek-American organization Phalanx of the Knights of Thermopylae. The erection of the monument forms part of a larger

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formerly Duke of Sparta,24 in 1955. The production of a monumental, iconolatric narrative of national glory and pride, especially in transitional periods or at moments of crisis, is a popular method of historical reconstruction, as it helps consolidate notions of cultural identity, continuity, and power. As German philosopher and classicist Friedrich Nietzsche explains in his essay On the Use and Abuse of History for Life, originally published in 1874, monumental history is a commemoration, whether in visual or written form, of the extraordinary in older timesa nostalgia for the greatness that existed once and seems to be lost forever in the present. The heroic gures involved in this type of history come to dene an era that is long gone and irrecoverable, and their deeds are presented as examples to be emulated by posterity. As Nietzsche however points out, an excessive veneration of the superb individuals who live on in the pages of history books, and our fetishized attachment to them, can be neither innocent nor objective:

plan of the Papagos government known as Reconstruction, which began after the end of the Civil War and aimed at the economic and architectural rebirth of Greece. At the level of culture, the goal was to restore and promote classical antiquities in order for the state to revive its tourist industry and generate high revenues from it. In 195457, the architect Dimitris Pikionis undertook to revamp and morphologically unify all the sites around the Acropolis and Philopappos Hill by adding paths for pedestrians in an attempt to enhance the romantic appeal of the landscape and vistas (E. Yalouri, The Acropolis: Global Fame, Local Claim [Oxford 2001] 44). To accommodate bigger crowds, the Acropolis museum was expanded to a design by architect Patroklos Karantinos, who was also commissioned to revamp the Epigraphical Museum. In 1955, King Paul inaugurated the Athens festival, which featured, among other spectacles, performances of ancient Greek drama staged at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus on the south slope of the Acropolis. The 300 Spartans must be understood as part of this national effort, also addressed to prominent members of the diaspora like Skouras, to restore Greeces glory. 24 Instituted in 1868, amidst great reaction from the parliament since the constitution of 1827 prohibited the use of noble titles by Greek citizens, the title designated the heir to the throne and denoted a historical continuity between the Modern Greek (Bavarian) and Byzantine monarchies, as the last reigning emperor of Constantinople, Constantine XI Palaeologus, was previously the Despot of Moreas and ruled from the fortress of Mystras on Mt. Taygetus near the city of Sparta. In 1955, the title was conferred on Crown Prince Constantine II. On April 24 of the same year, Constantine was invited, in his capacity as Duke of Sparta, to inaugurate the citys new cathedralthe inaugural plaque still stands outside the church and cites his title. As part of the lms prerelease publicity campaign, Fox invited Constantine to attend the lming of outdoors scenes at Lake Vouliagmeni. See, e.g., [The Heir and the Princesses attend the shooting of the lm The Lion of Sparta], , Jan. 6, 1961, 3.

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As long as the past has to be described as worthy of imitation . . . it of course incurs the danger of becoming somewhat distorted, beautied and coming close to free poetic invention. . . . [We are] incapable of distinguishing between a monumentalized past and a mythic ction. . . . If, therefore, the monumental mode of regarding history rules over the other modes . . . the past itself suffers harm: whole segments of it are forgotten, despised. . . . Monumental history deceives by analogies [and] with seductive similarities. . . .25

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Associated in Greek popular memory with the Battle of Alamana fought in 1821 during the War of Independence, and the dynamiting of the Gorgopotamos Bridge in 1942 during the Nazi occupation,26 the last stand of the three hundred Spartans27 has come to occupy a prominent place in the countrys heroic past and has been invested with essentialist views of national exceptionalism and intolerance of suppression. With the help of commercial cinema, this archetypal tale of patriotism and self-sacrice aspires to traverse the narrow geographical boundaries of Greece and become a useful lesson for all people around the globea story that deserves to be remembered and imitated, as the voice-over explains in the closing scene of the lm: It was a stirring example to free people throughout the world of what a few brave men can accomplish once they refuse to submit to tyranny. Subjected to the powers of Hollywood cinema to idealize the past, the clash between the Spartans and the Persians at Thermopylae is resemanticized and projected as a ght for freedom and democracy. In this way, it changes into a tale that can

25 F. Nietzsche, On the Use and Abuse of History for Life, in J. K. Olick, V. Vinitzky-Seroussi, and D. Levy, eds., The Collective Memory Reader (Oxford 2011) 7576, emphasis in the original. 26 Both are iconic events in the history of the modern Greek state and are associated with the last stand at Thermopylae for three reasons: the proximity of the location where they took place to that of the ancient battle; the small number of Greek soldiers involved in them; their key role in the nations revolt against the conquest by an imperial power, the Ottomans and Nazi Germany respectively. Because of its strategic position as a gateway to Athens, Thermopylae was chosen as the site for an encounter between the Greek allies (British, Australians, and New Zealanders) and the Nazi troops, marching south, on April 2425, 1941. The allied forces offered strong resistance, but they were outnumbered by the German infantry and decided to retreat and set another rearguard at Thebes, which in turn failed to stop the advance of the invading army to the Greek capital. 27 Although nearly seven thousand soldiers from various city-states in the Peloponnese, Boeotia, Phocis, and Locris joined the Spartan army at Thermopylae, in keeping with the lms release title, I refer to the force as three hundred to emphasize the partiality with which the event has been registered in Greek consciousness.

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easily transcend spatial and temporal barriers, and hence appeal to crosscultural mental mechanisms of audience attachment and identication. In its attempt, however, to operate as a resource for the construction of collective memory, The 300 Spartans blurs the lines between fact and ction, and becomes popular history. In what follows, I shall investigate two of the strategies whereby the lm seeks to beautify antiquity and inspire a fascination with the images on screen. The rst of these techniques is the glamorization of Spartan society, commonly known for its austerity and simplicity, through the accentuation, in terms of looks and personality, of the royal status of Leonidas, played by American actor Richard Egan, and his wife, Gorgo, played by Greek actress Anna Synodinou. The second method involves the construction of central characters in the lm according to modern stereotypes of gender and sexuality. While the rst mode of historical resurrection aims to enhance the prestige of the Spartan king and queen28 and cause the viewer to feel respect and admiration for their actions, the second aims to create a sense of cultural afnity and thus facilitate the identicatory process. Briey put, to popularize ancient history and iconicize its actors, the lm relies on the interplay between otherness and sameness, individuality and conformity, difference and assimilation.

III. Romanizing the Spartans

Hollywood historical epics produced during the Golden Age of the genre are indebted to, and to a large degree constituted by, the phenomenon of stardom. The 300 Spartans is an exception to this industrial fashion. Apart from the British actor Sir Ralph Richardson who played the Athenian politician and general Themistocles, all the other actors who were cast in lead roles were not big names and lacked international exposure.29 During the prerelease publicity campaign, this lack was
28 The portrayal of Gorgo as a queen was Skouras idea (Synodinou [above, n.5] 183) and is largely due to his friendship with Queen Frederica (below, n.58). This representation is anachronistic. The title is not attested in Sparta before the Hellenistic period. Of course, this does not mean that the woman so titled was equal to the king in terms of power. See E. D. Carney, Whats in a Name? The Emergence of a Title for Royal Women in the Hellenistic Period, in S. B. Pomeroy, ed., Womens History and Ancient History (Chapel Hill 1991) 15472; E. D. Carney, Women and Monarchy in Macedonia (Norman 2000) 22528; S. B. Pomeroy, Spartan Women (Oxford 2002) 7576. 29 Richard Egan was cast in the role of Spartan King Leonidas when the lm was still in Italian hands. Two factors contributed to this choice. First, he was not new to

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counterbalanced with a promotion of the lms veracity and attention to historical details. For example, a four-page illustrated article published in the magazine on December 30, 1960, provides its readers with a detailed report of location shooting and reassures them that every effort has been expended to bring them accurate history:
They all guarantee that every provision has been made in order for the lm to keep with the historical truth, so that the revival of this major Greek momentwhich will cost Twentieth Century-Fox several million dollarswill not counterfeit reality for the sake of prot. Until today, however, apart from an innocent romance that is interpolated in the bloody action of the lm, we did not discover anything else that could bother the historian. The site, the basic heroes, the costumes, the chariots, the weapons are consistently and meticulously selected.30

For publicity reasons, the article advertises the lm as a faithful, impeccably researched version of history, thereby elevating it to a realm of high art that will soon be accessible to the public. This view that the article attempts to impose upon the reader, and potential moviegoer, however, is far from being accurate. For example, Leonidas armor is not that of a Spartan warrior of the fth century B.C.E., but resembles that of a Roman general. Two types of helmets are used in the lm. The anonymous hoplites wear the Corinthian helmet that encases the entire head and leaves only the eyes and mouth uncovered. The visual effect makes them look more like war machines and less like men.31 By contrast, Leonidas, like the rest of the eponymous Spartan warriors (Fig.1), retains his individuality and allows the viewer to have full access to his facial expressions during the battle by wearing a helmet that is reminiscent of the Roman galea of the imperial era. It lacks a noseguard, is completely open-faced,
the genre of sword-and-sandal lms. The year before, he played Persian King Ahasuerus (known as Ataxerxes in Greek) in the biblical epic Esther and the King, which was produced at the Galatea/Appia and Titanus studios in Rome, and was distributed in the United States by Fox. Second, the popularity of the peplum was largely based on the deployment of a non-Italian muscleman in the lead rolethe American bodybuilder Steve Reeves is the most characteristic example of the genres exploitation of the appeal of size does matter. A former judo ghter, Egan had the physique required to play a peplum hero. His career was commonly associated with his muscled chest and arms, as illustrated by a comment in Photoplay: Nobody discovered him until he took off his shirt [in Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954)]. Quoted from S. Cohan, Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies in the Fifties (Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1997) 166. 30 Quoted from p. 45 in my translation. 31 Lillo Redonet (above, n.3) 128.

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Fig. 1. (from left to right): Phylon (Barry Coe), Leonidas (Richard Egan), Myron (Michalis Nikolinakos), and an anonymous Spartan soldier. Image courtesy of Nikos Nikolinakos. Used by permission.

and has cheek aps fastened beneath the chin with leather cords. The foot-long red cape that Spartan soldiers traditionally wore when they marched to war is replaced with the much shorter paludamentum worn by the commanders of the Roman army or the emperor in sculptural representations. In imperial fashion, Leonidas has his cloak draped over the shoulder and clasped with a round bula on the left upper part of his cuirass. Beneath their thrax, Spartan hoplites wore a red sleeveless tunic that reached the middle of the thigh.32 Although of the same length and color, Leonidas tunic has short sleeves and a kilt with wide pleats, and resembles the tunic that Roman emperors wear on cuirassed statues. Whereas Spartan hoplites used no protection for their upper legs, Leonidas thighs are covered with leather, with studded straps hanging from the lower end of his cuirass. The Romanization of Leonidas is complemented by two other details: the cingulum, a cord belt that is wrapped around the waist and tied at the front with a distinctive knot,
32 See P. Cartledge, Thermopylae: The Battle that Changed the World (New York 2006) 144.

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and the balteus, a leather belt that is worn diagonally over the cuirass to hold the sword.33 Although Spartan hoplites protected their legs with bronze greaves, they were trained to ght barefoot.34 This practice is disregarded in the lm: all the Spartans wear sandals. However, as opposed to the anonymous soldiers who wear the caligae, the standard marching shoes of Roman legionaries, Leonidas, as the leader, wears knee-high sandals as a symbol of his authority.35 Absurd as it may be, this blending of Greek and Roman antiquity has a reasonable explanation. When Skouras acquired the rights from Venturini, the lm was already at the preproduction stage. He thus negotiated the purchase of all the preparatory work of the Italians,36 including the costumes.37 The Greek lm industry was at an embryonic stage, producing only a few titles a year, and lacked the means of manufacturing the large number of period costumes required for a historical epic with thousands of extras. Italy, by contrast, had both the experience and the technology. Since the early 1950s, for the nancial reasons discussed above, Cinecitt and other studios had served as lming locations for several Hollywood epic productions, including Quo Vadis (1951), Ulysses (1955), Helen of Troy (1956), and Ben Hur (1959). This foreign artistic activity provided the stimulus for the genesis of the peplum. As noted above, these were mainly low-budget lms.38 As Kim
33 On the cingulum militare and the balteus, see, respectively, R. A. Gergel, Costume as Geographic Indicator: Barbarians and Prisoners on Cuirassed Statue Breastplates, in J. L. Sebesta and L. Bonfante, eds., The World of Roman Costume (Madison 2001) 191, 194; L. Cleland, G. Davies, and L. Llewellyn-Jones, Greek and Roman Dress from A to Z (London 2007) 15, 35. 34 Cartledge (above, n.32) 144. 35 Leonidas sandals bear resemblance to those worn by heroes, deities, and men of rank and power in Roman sculpture and painting. On this type of sandals, see N. Goldman, Roman Footwear, in Sebesta and Bonfante (above, n.33) 12325. 36 See (above n.13) 36; Synodinou (above, n.5) 184. 37 Designed by Ginette Devaud, the costumes were made at Peruzzis Casa darte di Firenze, which made costumes for numerous pepla, including Ercole e la regina di Lidia (U.S. release title Hercules Unchained), La battaglia di Maratona (U.S. release title The Giant of Marathon), Saffo, venere di Lesbo (U.S. release title The Warrior Empress), Il colosso di Rodi (The Colossus of Rhodes), and Il tiranno di Siracusa (U.S. release title Damon and Pythias). See the list at http://www.imdb.com/company/co0055382 (accessed March 1, 2012). 38 There is a difference between the later pepla, which were denitely low-budget, and some of the earlier sword-and-sandals lms (e.g. Last Days of Pompeii, 1959) that appear to have had reasonable budgets. Not all pepla were made just for third-tier theatres. For example, Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) was designed as a mass-market production. I owe this observation to Arthur Pomeroy.

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Shahabudin points out: There was often only enough money available to nance a day or two of shooting.39 As a result, the pepla were made without historical advisors and often recycled sets and props to reduce the production cost.40 Originally a peplum, The 300 Spartans displays this characteristic of the lone, according to which it did not matter if the costumes and settings did not look completely Greek or Roman, as long as they somehow looked ancient. This blending of historical periods and dressing styles is prevalent in the costumes that Gorgo wears in the lm. A basic narrative trait of the pepla is the dichotomization of characters, male and female alike, into good/moral and bad/immoral.41 Thus, as Fernando Lillo Redonet notes, Gorgo and Ellas personify purity and innocence, whereas Artemisia [Queen of Halicarnassus and mistress of Xerxes] is shown as a femme fatale.42 To suit the image of a modest wife-queen, Gorgo has two dresses, both resembling the austere Doric peplos, which envelops the female body like a tube.43 As opposed to the light Ionic chitn that accentuates the breasts, hips, and buttocks, the Doric peplos (which was made of heavier material) conceals physical details, thereby negating a womans sexuality. Its simplicity emphasizes her chastity and moral sternness.44 Gorgos dresses reproduce the basic stylistic features of the peplos. Both are straight, oor-length garments girdled at the waist. Certain elements they bear, however, are incompatible with representations of peploi in Greek visual arts from the archaic and early classical periods. For example, one of her dresses is decorated with wide borders in crimson. This detail is anachronistic. Such stripes, in various hues of purple, were used to adorn the tunics of the Roman elite and served as

Shahabudin (above, n.7) 201. See Dyer (above, n.7) 166; Pomeroy (above, n.6) 58. 41 On this polarity, see, e.g., M. Lagny, Popular Taste: The Peplum, in R. Dyer and G. Vincendeau, eds., Popular European Cinema (New York 1992) 168; Gnsberg (above, n.7) 103; Lillo Redonet (above, n.3) 118, n.6. 42 Lillo Redonet (above, n.3) 119. 43 On tube-like peploi in sculptural representations from ancient Sparta, see G. Kokkorou-Alevras, Laconian Stone Sculpture from the Eighth Century B.C. until the Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, in N. Kaltsas, ed., Athens-Sparta (New York 2006) 90. See also gures 29, 31, 62, 71, and 72 in the same catalogue of the Athens-Sparta exhibition held at the Onassis Cultural Center from Dec. 6, 2006 to May 12, 2007. 44 See M. Lee, Constru(ct)ing Gender in the Feminine Greek Peplos, in L. Cleland, M. Harlow, and L. Llewellyn-Jones, eds., The Clothed Body in the Ancient World (Oxford 2005) 6163; Cleland, Davies, and Llewellyn-Jones (above, n.33) 143.
40

39

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indicators of social status.45 The other dress she wears is held in place with double bulae and braided crossbands that pass over her shoulders and around her breast, and end in a cord belt with its ends hanging along the garment. Crossbands form part of the iconography of the Ionic chitn in Greek antiquity. Similarly, the type of belt that is placed tightly around Gorgos waist is a basic accessory of a married womans tunic in imperial Rome.46 This blending of dressing styles is not without symbolic value. Just as the knot on Gorgos belt signies that her chastity is locked up and she is bound to one man, her husband, so too the crossbands that secure her breast denote that she is constrained and fully aligned with the dress and behavioral codes of patriarchal society. Gorgo wears minimal make-up, no jewelry except for a small diadem as an indication of her royal status, and has her hair tied in a plain high bun. This knot, too, has a symbolic meaning. It underscores her modesty and denotes that she is restrained and held together. Gorgo is cast as a loyal wife. Like Penelope, she stays at home and patiently waits for her husband to return from the emergency meeting of the leaders of Greek city-states at Corinth.47 When Leonidas enters the palace, he is so frustrated that his plan to march to Thermopylae has been met with resistance by the Spartan Council that he forgets to greet his wife. Leonidas returns to Sparta only to depart again. The lm thus aligns masculinity with mobility and femininity with xity. This is a common narrative trope in the peplum lms. As Maggie Gnsberg points out: While domestic femininity depends on the return and presence of its patriarch, heroic masculinity denes itself in diametric opposition to and absence from the private sphere.48 Leonidas apologizes to Gorgo for forgetting to greet her. Like a good, submissive wife, she takes no offense and says to him: And you havent asked about your son. Today he fought with his toy sword against a boy a whole head taller than him and defeated him. Raising a boy to become a soldier who will ght for Sparta
See, e.g., S. Stone, The Toga: From National to Ceremonial Costume, in Sebesta and Bonfante (above, n.33) 15; N. Goldman, Reconstructing Roman Clothing, in Sebesta and Bonfante (above, n.33) 22122; Cleland, Davies, and Llewellyn-Jones (above, n.33) 138; 201. 46 See Cleland, Davies, and Llewellyn-Jones (above, n.33) 19. Ellas also wears crossbands and the same type of belt. On this type of belt, see J. L. Sebesta, Symbolism in the Costume of the Roman Woman, in Sebesta and Bonfante (above, n.33) 48. 47 This detail is anachronistic. The summit took place at Isthmus in 481 B.C.E. See Hdt. 7.172. 48 Gnsberg (above, n.7) 115.
45

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emphasizes Gorgos character as a caring, responsible mother and a patriotic woman.49 At the same time, begetting a son and heir highlights Leonidas hegemonic masculinity. Gorgo refers to the young boy not as our but your son, thereby casting herself as a procreation vessel, a vehicle whereby primogenitary successionthe bedrock of patriarchy in Greek antiquity and Western societiescontinues uninterrupted.

IV. Mother of the Nation and the Army

The portrayal of Leonidas and Gorgo as proponents of family values and marital devotion is in line with Skouras vision of the ancient Spartans as prototypes of morality and icons of mass consumption. When actor Richard Egan asked for the inclusion of more passion in the lm as a counterbalance to its dry historicity, Skouras, who had put the production under his supervision after moving it to Greece, rejected the request by reportedly stating: No romance. Faithful representation of history so that children will also be able to watch [the lm] constructively.50 This statement reects the studios own house-style ideology under Skouras presidency. While Darryl F. Zanuck, Foxs previous president, repeatedly voiced his democratic leanings and was of the opinion that lms should be in accord with the tastes and desires of the viewers,51 Skouras saw cinema as a morally uplifting form of art whose mission was not only to entertain but also to educate audiences. The construction of the Spartan king and queen as vehicles for the perpetuation of gender stereotypes must be also understood within the broader sociopolitical context in which the lm was produced. As I mentioned above, The 300 Spartans has been read as a metaphor for Cold War politics and the rivalry between, on the one hand, the United States and its NATO allies, represented by the united Greek states, and, on the other hand, the USSR and the communist bloc, represented by the wicked Persians. One of the main doctrines promoted in the United States after the end of World War II was that of containment. Coined by American diplomat and political adviser George F. Kennan in 1947, the

49 On the equation of womanhood with motherhood in ancient Sparta, see Pomeroy, Spartan Women (above, n.28) 5762. 50 Quoted from (above, n.10) 2, in my translation. 51 See G. F. Custen, Making History, in M. Landy, ed., The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media (New Brunswick 2001) 75.

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term denoted the efforts of the U.S. government to prevent the spread of communism in noncommunist countries, that is, to contain communism within its borders. The adoption of this foreign policy paralleled the rise of a domestic politics of containment that saw the home as the site in and by which to contain and regulate the desires of American middle-class families.52 Gender hierarchy was disrupted during World War II. With their men absent at war, women were forced to nd employment outside the home to support their families. During the Cold War era, the U.S. government53 and mass media advocated the restoration of traditional gender roles through the reassumption by men of the role of the breadwinner and the return of women to their proper domain, the household. As Thomas Winter explains:
The Cold War raised concerns about both external and internal threats to American strength, social stability, and security, and particularly to material abundance, middle-class lifestyles, and cultural norms about masculinity. Motivated by fears of emasculation, effeminization, and homosexuality, Americans anxiously dened their nation and their way of life in terms culturally associated with masculinity, including power, diplomatic and military assertiveness, economic success, sexual and physical prowess, moral righteousness, and patriotism. . . . The Cold War thus provided powerful impetus for a pronounced cultural emphasis on conventional domesticity as a pillar of American life.54

Leonidas and Gorgo are both fashioned in line with this ideology. Leonidas is depicted as a patriarchal gure and action-oriented leadera combination of physical toughness and strong willwho is involved in a heroic deed, thereby perpetuating the American myth of the self-made man. Gorgo, on the other hand, is domesticated, seen outside the palace
52 See further E. T. May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era (New York 2008). 53 On July 24, 1959, American Vice President Richard Nixon and Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev met at the US Trade and Cultural Fair in Moscow and had an impromptu Kitchen Debate. Leaning on the railing in front of a model General Electric oven, they debated capitalism and communism focusing on nuclear weapons and washing machines. At one point, Khrushchev said: Your capitalistic attitude toward women does not occur under communism. Nixon replied: I think that this attitude towards women is universal. What we want to do is make life more easy for our housewives. On this famous debate, see, e.g., the various essays in R. Oldenziel and K. Zachmann, eds., Cold War Kitchen: Americanization, Technology, and European Users (Cambridge, Mass., 2009). 54 T. Winter, Cold War, in B. E. Carroll, ed., American Masculinities: A Historical Encyclopedia (New York 2003) 99100.

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only once, in a scene where she has mingled with the crowd to watch the parade of the Spartan army. Her connement in the house, however, does not mean that she is totally passive.55 To the contrary, the palace becomes the site of her agency and social action. During the ceremony in which Phylon, Ellas boyfriend, is recognized as a Spartan warrior, Gorgo presents him with the shield and recounts the following (ctitious) Spartan laws:56
You must treasure freedom above life. Shun pleasure for the sake of virtue. Endure pain and hardship in silence. Obey orders implicitly. Seek the enemies of Greece wherever they may be, and ght them fearlessly, until victory or death. Now taking the place of your dead mother, Im giving you this shield. There are but these ve words to remember: .

Drawn from Plutarch (Mor. 241.16), who puts it into the mouth of an anonymous Spartan mother, the famous aphorism (either this or upon this, either come back victorious with your shield or dead upon it) aims to add credibility to this invented scene and to highlight Gorgos role as an agent through whom moral values are transmitted
55 As opposed to their Athenian counterparts, Spartan elite women, including Gorgo, are attributed a considerable amount of autonomy and power over the male members of their family and society at large in ancient literature. Modern scholars are divided among those who allow for greater credibility to Greek sources (B. Zweig, The Only Women Who Give Birth to Men: A Gynocentric, Cross-Cultural View of Women in Ancient Sparta, in M. DeForest, ed., Womans Power, Mans Game: Essays on Classical Antiquity in Honor of Joy K. King [Wauconda 1993] 3253; Pomeroy, Spartan Women [above, n.28] 7393) and those who express skepticism (A. Paradiso, Gorgo, la Spartana, in N. Loraux, ed., Grecia al femminile [Bari 1993] 11114; C. Dewald, Women and Culture in Herodotus Histories, in H. P. Foley, ed., Reections of Women in Antiquity [Philadelphia 1981] 105; E. G. Millender, Athenian Ideology and the Empowered Spartan Woman, in S. Hodkinson and A. Powell, eds., Sparta: New Perspectives [London and Swansea, 1999] 35591; A. Powell, Spartan Women Assertive in Politics? Plutarchs Lives of Agis and Kleomenes, in Hodkinson and Powell [above] 393419; S. Hodkinson, Property and Wealth in Classical Sparta [London 2000] 94103; Female Property Ownership and Empowerment in Classical and Hellenistic Sparta, in T. J. Figueira, ed., Spartan Society [Swansea 2004] 10336; P. Cartledge, Spartan Reections [Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2001] 10626; M. W. Hazewindus, When Women Interfere: Studies in the Role of Women in Herodotus Histories [Amsterdam 2004] 1541, 23743). 56 The scene was included in the original script, but was cut in the second draft, when it was decided not to act out the delivery of the shield, but instead have the exiled Spartan King Demaratus narrate this practice to Xerxes. The scene was added again to the script after Synodinou, who saw her role being diminished, wrote a letter to Skouras threatening to leave the production. See Synodinou (above, n.5) 185.

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across generations. Gorgo displays an awareness of the onus that her position as a queen places upon her and acts as an initiator of young men into the symbolic order and the obligations of manhood. The representation of Gorgo as a caring queen who demonstrates her devotion to her people by handing the shield to a young soldier who is not her son recalls the public image of Queen Frederica as mother of the nation and the army57 that she fashioned for herself during the reign of King Paul of Greece (19471964).58 When the Civil War came to an end in 1949 and the Democratic Army (founded by the Greek Communist Party and backed by Albania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria) was defeated by the National Army (which was supported by British and American forces), Greeces political stability and economic rebirth required the strengthening of the northern borders with its communist neighbors. This task was assigned to special units called Battalions of National Defense. The Greek government, however, lacked the funds to supply these units with basic equipment, such as boots, cloaks, sweaters, socks, and thermal undergarments. The Ministry of Defense thus asked for the support of The Flannel of the Soldier, a charity organization presided over by Frederica since 1940, two years after she married Paul, then heir apparent, and assumed the unofcial title Duchess of Sparta. The Flannel responded to this call for help, just as it had in the rst years of the war against the forces of the Axis, and raised money and in-kind donations to provide all the necessary equipment to soldiers serving on the frontiers known as .59 Adopting the affective title Mother of the Army, a guardian of all Greek soldiers who patrolled the mountains in harsh conditions to protect the nation from the communist enemy, Queen Frederica often traveled to the borders, either with King Paul or by herself, to deliver in
57 See, e.g., the titles of the following propagandistic publications about Frederica: . . [Her R.H. The Queen Frederica Mother of the People and the Army], published by the Library of National Enlightenment (author and year unknown); P. D. Zouvas, [Queen Frederica at the Service of the Nation] (Athens 1956). 58 In the closing credits of the lm, The Producers acknowledge their gratitude to Their Majesties The King and Queen of the Hellenes. . . . Skouras was close to everyone in the royal family, especially Frederica (C. Curti, Skouras: King of Fox Studios [Los Angeles 1967] 241). To satisfy her fascination with American cinema and television (which did not exist in Greece at the time), Skouras introduced Frederica to Foxs upcoming superstar, Marilyn Monroe, when the Greek monarchs paid an ofcial visit to the U.S. in 1953. 59 On the postwar history of The Flannel of the Soldier, see Zouvas (above, n. 57) 4348.

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person the supplies gathered at the local chapters of The Flannel. The image of the queen handing a parcel with supplies or the arms over to individual soldiers was regularly deployed in the propaganda60 through which the royal family tried to re-endear itself to the Greek people after its return from Africa. It had found refuge there during the years of the German occupation, which gave rise to anti-monarchist sentiments because the Greek royal family was originally Bavarian. The symbolic signicance of this depiction of Frederica is analogous to that of Gorgo in The 300 Spartans, in which the Spartan queen presents Phylon with his shield. In both cases, the queen emblematizes the nation. Her maternal gure and the awe and respect that she exerts impose upon the soldier the obligation of being loyal to and defending his motherland with his life.

V. Conclusion
This paper has aimed to show what is at stake in reviving ancient history on the big screen. I have argued that cinematic antiquity is far from being faithful to the historical record and that the reason for this distorted, falsied version of history offered on lm must be sought in the mediums use of the past as a vehicle whereby to consolidate, and propagate, modern ideological divisions along national, gendered, and political lines. For a variety of reasons (e.g., budget constraints, narrative economy, the sociocultural environment in which they are produced, and above all the lmmakers view of antiquity), lms anchored in ancient history change, omit, condense, conate, invent, and emphasize events and details, which they enmesh in a symbolic web. The goal of a historical epic like The 300 Spartans is to resurrect the past not through a script that is grounded in the same rigorous research that academics perform, but through a story that can engage audiences and bring money back to the
60 On handing over the arms in staged rituals, see the pictures in Zouvas ([above, n.57] unnumbered pages), as well as the documentary on the tour of the Greek monarchs in the region of Epirus in December 1951 on the website of the National Audiovisual Archive (http://mam.avarchive.gr/portal/digitalview.jsp?get_ac_id=3951, accessed April 1, 2012). M. O. Williams (War-torn Greece Looks Ahead, The National Geographic Magazine 96.6 [1949] 712) also includes a picture of Frederica being carried on the shoulders of the redeemed soldiers and leftists of Makronisos who welcomed her with the slogan Give us arms! (to go ght with the National Army while the Civil War was still raging on the mainland). I wish to thank Gonda Van Steen for drawing my attention to this illustration.

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producers. As a result, ancient Greek history on lm is divested of its complexity, and events and individuals are portrayed in ways that t the production of a moral lesson. This way of reconstructing classical antiquity means that ancient history on lm must be judged not in terms of how well it corresponds to existing sources, but according to the variety of ways in which the classical past is appropriated to suit the concerns and anxieties of the present. As Maria Wyke points out, classicists should try to understand not whether a particular cinematic account of history is true or disinterested, but what the logic of this account may be, asking why it emphasizes this question, that event, rather than others.61 Trying to understand why the classical past is captured on lm in an eclectic fashion and through what process it is made to reect the present is indeed a classicists job. If we nd ancient history on lm problematic, then it is up to us to offer a corrective to this pseudo-historical representation of antiquity and point out ways in which cinema distorts, compresses, contests, and revises the historical record. It is up to us to develop a critical idiom with which to read lms and decode the discursive practices pertaining to the revival of classical antiquity on the screen and to the reduction of history from real to reel.62
Saint Josephs University Konstantinos.Nikoloutsos@sju.edu

61 M. Wyke, Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema, and History (New York 1997) 13. See also S. R. Joshel, M. Malamud, and M. Wyke, Introduction, in S. R. Joshel, M. Malamud, and D. McGuire, Jr., eds., Imperial Projections: Ancient Rome in Modern Popular Culture (Baltimore 2001) 2. 62 Drafts of this paper were delivered at the XVIII National Convention of the Brazilian Society of Classical Studies on October 19, 2011, and at Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton) on April 4, 2012. I would like to thank Henrique Cairus and Brian McConnell for the respective invitations and the audience for their stimulating comments and questions. I also wish to thank the editor and anonymous referees of CW, as well as the following readers for their suggestions and criticism that helped me sharpen the focus of the paper: Paul Cartledge, David Levene, Maria Marsilio, Arthur Pomeroy, Gonda Van Steen, and Martin Winkler. A very special debt of gratitude is due to Nikos Nikolinakos for granting me access to the archive of his father, actor Michalis Nikolinakos, and to the personnel at the National Library of Athens for facilitating my research.