Gates of Fire

“Our city no longer existed. Not alone the physical site, the citizens, the walls and farms. But the very spirit of our nation, the polis itself…Our city, my city. Now it was effaced utterly. We who called ourself Astakiots were effaced with it. Without a city, who were we? What were we?” 

This passage interrogates the nature of citizenship and belonging, a topic upon which Bruxieus, Elephantinos, and Xeones each expound at various points in the novel. Finding himself shorn of the protection of his polis, Xeones feels stripped of his identity and must set about finding a way to grow into manhood.

“‘See how numb we are?’ the man continued. ‘We glide about in a daze, disconnected from our reason. You’ll never see Spartans in such a state. This’–he gestured to the blackened landscape–‘is their element. They move through these horrors with clear eyes and unshaken limbs. And they hate the Argives. They are their bitterest enemies.’” 

With this diatribe, a half-crazed survivor of Astakos impresses upon Xeones the almost mystical martial capabilities of the Spartans. From this description of the Spartans, Xeones determines that he will best be able to take revenge on the Argives by traveling to Sparta and attempting to enter their training program.

“Their own fear defeats our enemies...Never forget, Alexandros, that this flesh, this body, does not belong to us. Thank God it doesn’t. If I thought this stuff was mine, I could not advance a pace into the face of the enemy. But it is not ours, my friend. It belongs to the gods and to our children, our fathers and mothers and those of Lakedaemon a hundred, a thousand years yet unborn. It belongs to the city which gives us all we have and demands no less in requital.” 

Dienekes is attempting to impress upon Alexandros that mastery at arms means nothing without the bravery to stand and fight. He is teaching his pupil that it is loyalty to one’s city and one’s comrades that enables a warrior to ignore his own well-being and find courage.