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“Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.” — Simonides epitaph, quoted in Gates of Fire
Steven Pressfield's The War of Art is one of the most impactful books I've ever read—a battlecry and battle plan against that ever-present, invisible obstacle that creative types face daily. This month I was happy to pick up one of his novels, Gates of Fire. It depicts the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, in which three hundred Spartan warriors held off hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Persian invaders. Their ultimate act of sacrifice gave the rival Greek city states to muster their armies and unite against the east. Told through a series of flashbacks of different Spartan characters, Gates of Fire captures the historic moment with a brutal, caustic style.
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