Women’s character-or at least men’s idealization of women’s character-motivates the warriors’ fighting and sets the tone for the nation as a whole. Though affronted by her intrusion, this squad of assassins listens to Arete, admires her principle, and follows her advice-showing women’s courageous ability to influence the course of battle on a more personal level, too. Because of Spartan laws about who was permitted to go into battle (in this case, only those with male offspring), “it was this infant whose life would mean Dienekes’ death,” and the deaths of others associated with his household. She persuades the men to release her nephew Rooster and to recognize his son as her husband Dienekes’s offspring, though this revelation brings shame on both Dienekes and herself. When the krypteia (a secret squad that eliminates troublemakers) hunts down Rooster and is about to summarily execute him as a conspirator, the lady Arete intervenes at the last moment.

The rulers answer it by initiating war, showing just how consequential women’s voices could be. It also suggests an ambivalence in the Spartans’ attitudes toward their women-both that they desire the women’s respect and that being shown up by women (who were considered inferior to men) is a deep insult that can’t go unanswered. “A delegation of wives and mothers presented itself to the ephors, insisting that they themselves be sent out next time, armed with hairpins and distaffs, since surely the women of Sparta could disgrace themselves no more egregiously nor accomplish less than the vaunted Ten Thousand.” This savage insult finally prompts King Leonidas and his advisers to send 300 warriors on a suicidal mission against the Persians at Thermopylae. After the Spartans skulk home in shame from Tempe, having expected to clash with the Persians but never actually drawing blood, the wives of Sparta mock their husbands’ inaction as disgraceful and even blasphemous. Women’s decisions set the course of the war, on both governmental and personal levels. Speaking of what prompted the monumental battle at Thermopylae, Xeo readily acknowledges that “In the end it was their women who galvanized the Spartans into action.” Though female characters are largely viewed through the eyes of male characters in the novel, Pressfield argues that women were the major inspiration for Spartan actions and character in war and beyond. Though Gates of Fire is very much dominated by male characters, women play a surprisingly prominent role throughout.

Gates of fire book