Teaser Art - The Spartan Myth

Our next video will be on the Spartan Myth! (Note that the Cleopatra video will follow) We will be diving into the real story of the Spartans and see how they actually matched up to their reputation. I plan on releasing the episode this week. Here is the current draft of the opening:

Misunderstood Moments in History - The Spartan Myth

The Spartans; A group practically worshipped by popular culture and military institutions for producing the ultimate warrior. Badass super soldiers trained from childhood with unmatched strength, discipline, and courage battling against tyranny and oppression. Yet this narrative is a lie. A vast, millenia long distortion of the truth built up by propaganda, biased sources, and politicization. Today we will unmask the truth behind the Spartan Myth. 

This is (not) Sparta

Let us first begin by confronting the elephant in the room. The story that everyone knows. The last stand of bold Leonidas and his 300 against an army of a million Persians. This is the heart of the Spartan legend. A scene immortalized in painting, poem, song, book, comic, and film. Each retelling further embellishing an alternate history.

However the very foundations of the myth are challenged when we learn that the battle was never intended as a suicide mission. That there were more than twenty times as many allied Greeks at the start of the fight, and almost four times as many allied Greeks there at the end. That the last stand was an anomaly in Spartan history. That 50 years later they would be fighting fellow Greeks while being paid by the Persians. That the Spartans were not bred for war. That their oppressive society was built on the back of slavery. That for much of history they were admired for their political rather than military achievements. That their image over the years has been cherry picked and twisted to fit countless narratives.

This is the confused mess in which we find ourselves. It is only recently that scholars have been able to turn a critical eye on much of what we think we know about the Spartans. Armed with these findings we will now rewind the clock before the emergence of the myth and rebuild our understanding of the Spartans from the ground up.

(To be continued...)