digg

Join DiggAbout

The Digg Crew wants to hear your thoughts!
Please take our short survey about Digg and potential feature ideas.

See the original image at mentalfloss.com —

10 Things '300' Didn’t Tell You

mentalfloss.com — It was, um, a lot of years ago today (480 B.C., to be exact) that King Leonidas and the Spartans were defeated by Xerxes ’ army at Thermopylae. Well, that’s according to some accounts. Some historians say that we can’t be sure exactly what day in late summer the Battle of Thermopylae happened . . .

show profanity settings
expand all
  • Detry, on 08/11/2008, -4/+49Madness...?
  • SRSco, on 08/11/2008, -12/+109Oh, are you telling me that a cartoon looking movie based on a comic book wasn't historically accurate? Tell me more, Top-Ten-Diggable-List-from-a-*****-Blog! I want to learn some history.
    • nerdherder, on 08/12/2008, -4/+24The article didn't really complain about the movie not being accurate. It was actually somewhat interesting.
    • dkapuchino, on 08/12/2008, -6/+12The title is misleading. This should be - 10 Interesting historical facts about 300, not "10 ways 300 was inaccurate".
      • megaton, on 08/12/2008, -3/+9Inaccurate like your, er, "quote?"

        "10 Things '300 Didn't Tell You" != "10 ways 300 was inaccurate."
  • eggballs, on 08/11/2008, -2/+7611. This is not a documentary.
    • sirber, on 08/12/2008, -4/+2Bried as innacurate. The movie was a documentary.
  • joaob, on 08/12/2008, -5/+8more recycled garbage from this site.
  • Corona85, on 08/12/2008, -15/+10OH NO A MOVIE BASED ON A COMIC DIDNT TELL ME THE TRUTH!

    consider this buried
  • redxninja, on 08/12/2008, -5/+25Time to kick this ***** down the bury hole.
  • gforce051, on 08/12/2008, -3/+93Wait.

    Do you mean to tell me that fat guy with the saw arms may have never existed?
    • markperia, on 08/12/2008, -2/+4Im actually more disappointed by the goat-man.
      • HouseCentipede, on 08/13/2008, -0/+2I'm more disappointed by the amputee-concubines. They had those, right?
  • scoottie, on 08/12/2008, -9/+5pie > cake
  • ISellDrugs, on 08/12/2008, -3/+34People need to stop hating on the inaccuracies of 300. The movie 300 was based on Frank Miller's comic not actual history. A comic book movie isn't meant to inform you about actual history it is to entertain.
    • returnofthemac, on 08/12/2008, -4/+0well it didn't entertain me either, really. I'm gonna go ahead and say 300 was one of the worst movies i saw last year- and last years movies were pretty bad too.
      • Misanthrope, on 08/12/2008, -0/+2I'm going to go ahead and say that you have some of the worst taste in movies I've ever ever come across. And I've come across some people with pretty bad taste in movies too.
      • returnofthemac, on 08/19/2008, -0/+0and this because i didnt like ONE MOVIE that you liked. Well done, friend....well done.
  • iatethecake, on 08/12/2008, -2/+30So no mask wearing ninja's I presume?
  • mellowmonk, on 08/12/2008, -17/+1"Meet the Spartans" was more accurate.
    • Willis3D, on 08/12/2008, -0/+8You should be thrown into the pit of death just for mentioning that abortion of a movie.
  • MadOgre, on 08/12/2008, -5/+5This guy just now picked up a history book? I think we all knew this already...
    And he didn't say "Come and Get them". He said "Molon Labe", which only roughly translated means come and get them. It is the most defiant utterance of any military commander... Rivaled only by the one word response in WWII of an Airborne commander to the Germans when they asked for his surrender... "Nuts!"
    • thedinomeister, on 08/12/2008, -0/+7When the Italians were set to quarter themselves in Greece during WWII (which was an invasion in disguise), the Greeks spent hours coming up with a formal response, as the Italians waited outside the courthouse. After a long wait, all they came up with was a polite "Go [*****] yourselves."
      (ante pidichtite = go jump yourselves)
  • chikuten, on 08/12/2008, -2/+5retitle this to "10 things 300 didn't mean to tell anyone, but we're going to go ahead and waste your time with anyway."

  • 8randon, on 08/12/2008, -1/+5"5. Some of those perfect quotes from the movie are the real thing. If you’ve seen 300, you no doubt remember a Persian warrior telling a Spartan warrior that the Persian arrows would be so numerous they would blot out the sun. “Then we will fight in the shade!” was the Spartan’s response. Supposedly, this is a real quote from a Spartan named Dienekes.

    6. Likewise, Leonidas was thought to have really said “Come and get them!” when the Persians told the Spartans to surrender their weapons."

    So the movie was supposed to tell you that certain events actually happened in history? WTF?
  • TannerC, on 08/12/2008, -2/+13Buried for not being a list of 300 things 300 didn't tell us.
  • lilbugleboy09, on 08/12/2008, -3/+4I can think of a lot more than 10 things 300 didn't tell me...
  • thedinomeister, on 08/12/2008, -4/+29THIS IS CAKE TOWN!!!!!!!!!!
  • oveedrx, on 08/12/2008, -5/+6Open mouth kisses for the guys!
  • rjhomuth, on 08/12/2008, -2/+7Great list. I was expecting a bunch of buzzkill ***** about how unrealistic the movie was, but that was a nice read. Dugg also for 1 page.
  • Etherium, on 08/12/2008, -7/+0I count 14,374,218 things that "300" didn't tell me. 14,374,217 if you count Mylee Cyrus and Hannah Montanna the same person.
  • diaa0111, on 08/12/2008, -3/+1Something interesting: the name Leonidas is where we get the English word for Lion.
    • johnnysaucepn, on 08/12/2008, -0/+3No, it's really not.
    • abdallahk, on 08/12/2008, -0/+0Well a little etymology search shows that lion comes from the Greek 'leōn', so Diaa isn't totally off. I think Leonidas means "Lion's son", and so it is possible that the story influenced our use of the word...
  • BuckCynnie, on 08/12/2008, -2/+5Ten things that may or may not be true, but I got you to my site, so there.
  • PullingTeeth, on 08/12/2008, -0/+7More like 10 things that didn't need to be said in '300'.
  • avrus, on 08/12/2008, -1/+2Based on a graphic novel.

    Also, no historians were there, so STFU.
  • patrickometry, on 08/12/2008, -2/+1Spartans likely took youthful apprentices as lovers. This was a common Greek practice.
  • DuffyDirect, on 08/12/2008, -0/+8300 actually did call them the hot gates, actually did show them being about 30 meters wide, actually did imply that many battles had taken place there. lol, u fail 10 list blogger.
  • Arkonnan, on 08/12/2008, -0/+2>Some historians say that we can’t be sure exactly what day in late summer the Battle of Thermopylae happened

    I wonder if they had to deal with "truthers" back then too. ;p
  • Virgule, on 08/12/2008, -0/+2If I Had A Rocket Launcher, I'd Make Someone Pay for My Own Private Thermopylae. What About Bob? We're Everywhere and Begging For Mercy Makes Me Angry so Come And Take Your Medicine.

    That's Where The Twist Flops so God Will Sort The Dead.

    (I doubt many of you will know what im all about here)
  • armakaryk, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1"From the people who claim 300 is a true story comes the tale of our nations birth ... 1776 it ain't accurate but it'll blow your ***** mind"
  • Willis3D, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1I was pissed when the credits came up without the narrator saying "Oh. By the way in the future, the British Commonwealth will...."

    And it would have been such a better movie if they would have shown Leonidas's grave with big wavy blood red letters saying "OR IS IT?"

    I watch comic book based movies to learn, NOT to be entertained.
  • printerbest, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1Whatever the things 300 did't tell me. i've watch this movie 10 times.
  • hackiavelli, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1You probably don't want real history anywhere near 300. Otherwise the Spartans really aren't the good guys (the Helots pressed into service in the Battle of Thermopylae - even their very existence as a class - kinda destroys the whole "free men" theme).
  • gandhi2, on 08/12/2008, -3/+11There is one missing that is quite obvious.

    11. Most Greek men, especially men in the military, spent virtually all of their time with dudes....a good portion of their time in more than slightly intimate relationships with their male comrades-at-arms. That is, for as many full-of-machismo fools that I've had to suffer about this movie, the Spartans at that particular battle were more likely than not super gay for each other. As much as Spartan women may have had a bit more respect(from other Greeks, not from Spartan men), Greek women in general were basically lower class baby-makers. For recreational sex and close companionship, a more masculine flavor was preferred by the overwhelming majority. It was a common Spartan practice to pair soldiers who were lovers, so that they would fight harder to protect each other. Like Top Gun. We all know Tom Cruise would love to be "wing man.'
  • Vazelos, on 08/12/2008, -1/+2Leonidas was not a king. There was never a 'kingdom' system in Sparta. It was an oligarchy.

    I was born in Sparta, I know my city's history.
  • poopsmcgee, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1DID I JUST GO BACK IN TIME?

    Let's talk about something else
  • Quenlin, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1THIS. IS. BURIED.
  • redstar1949, on 08/12/2008, -0/+0I dugg this before reading it. Can IU have my digg back? This is a stupid article. I thought that it might contain something about reality, not stupid irrelevant mental masturbation.

    Sparta was a disgusting society based on slavery... where Spartan men were all warriors so they could dominate the slaves, and women were considered walking wombs. To hell with Sparta.
    • Yage2006, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1Yes you can have your digg back, Go into your profile and undigg it.
  • DrPh0bius, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1Dammit. Here I thought 300 was a documentary...
  • comptonstomp, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1are we still talking about this overrated piece of garbage?
  • Yage2006, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1I wasn't really expecting that movie to be a 100% accurate documentary.
    Nor do I acquire my knowledge of history from movies.

  • starkistuna, on 08/13/2008, -0/+111. Both Sparta a Greece were involved in sex with men/boys.
  • TheKappa, on 08/18/2008, -0/+1Haha, horribly misplaced ad at the bottom- "Meet Persians online."

    (I'd ***** the bitch, then kick her into a bottomless pit)
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.