It's rare that the 2500th anniversary of a momentous event can be commemorated. In September of 480BC the fate of what would grow to be western civilisation hung in the balance as the forces of the Median Empire sought to conquer Hellas (Greece). Had they succeeded, the golden age of Greece, where philosophy, history, tragedy, democracy and so much more were either invented or bought to fruition, would not have occurred. No Herodotus, Thucydides, Socrates (followed by Plato and Aristotle), Phidias, Aristophanes or Sophocles.

The ‘western’ experiment was just getting started in the early part of the 5th century BC when two great invasions from Asia almost extinguished it. The first was turned back at Marathon in 490BC. The second, led by the Median king Xerxes at the head of an invasion force larger than any ever mustered (an army of 200000 -300000 and a navy of over 1000 vessels) arrived in Greece proper early in September of 480BC.

They were initially opposed at the pass of Thermopylae by a small Greek force led by Leonidas and 300 Spartan soldiers. The story of that battle has become immortalised as the 300 Spartans (and 700 Thespians) fought to the death to defend the pass.

After victory at Thermopylae, Xerxes moved on to take Athens which was one of his main aims in the invasion and then moved his army toward Corinth with the aim of over-running the rest of Greece. His navy also moved into the harbours of Athens. On or about 26 September the pivotal Battle of Salamis took place between about 700 Median vessels and 370 allied Greek vessels the majority of which came from Athens. It was the largest naval battle in history to that time and remains one of the largest of all time.

The result of that battle was total defeat for the invader. So complete was the Greek victory that Xerxes immediately departed and returned to Media. He did leave a land force of approximately 70000 which was in turn wiped out a year later but effectively the victory at Salamis had saved Greece

mhaze,

It would indeed have been a shame had Greece been
conquered and that the Ancient Greek culture that
lies at the basis of Western Civilization may have
never developed.

I studied the History of The Theatre
decades ago - including Greek Tragedies like "Medea"
by Euripides. "Oedipus Rex" (The King) by Sophocles,
and others.

When The National Theatre of Greece came to Melbourne
and Karofyllis Karabeti - one of Greece's leading actresses
at the time performed "Medea" at Her Majesty's Theatre
to a full house - it was dynamic.

I remember the first time our lecturer took us to see
Greek tragedy on film at the ABC Studios in Sydney.
Our class had not been prepared for what was coming. We
were not yet aware of the masks the actors wore for each
emotion or the stylized way of acting - so our immediate
reaction was one of laughter which infuriated our lecturer.

He went to great lengths to explain the technique to us.
It took a while, but that's how our love for Greek
drama developed.

That was just a snippet of our appreciation for things
Greek.

Again - Thank You for reminding us of this event of
major significance in European history - and how much we
owe to the Greeks.

Thanks mhaze- Lessons here for the modern era. Not sure if it makes us better than other cultures- but it's mine. Perhaps the Spartans would throw our leaders in the pit- a sign we've become too soft. What would the Spartans do with communists and China, wokism, political correctness, feminism, (homo)sexual politics? Freedom not free- be strong to be free! The power of the phalus relies on defending the next man- choose the best men of similar stature for the army- strong soldiers rely on strong families. Sharing makes difficulties better. A self reinforcing net.

We can learn how to rule with an iron fist
from the accounts of the stories. From the
all powerful Zeus, hot-headed Poseidon, and
much more.

But there's also Narcissus - and
the tragedy of vanity. There's Icarus who
did not listen to advice that was meant to
protect him. There are the Epic Poems of Homer -
The Odyssey, The Illiad. They all contain valuable
lessons on how to live, how to cope with
difficulties and even prevent them from happening in
the first place.

There's many lessons that we can learn from these
ancient sagas and apply to our modern age.
We can learn that - even the best of us have weaknesses.

Following the victory, the Greek homeland was safe from external threat for 150 years and in that time the foundations of western civilisation were laid. Athens carried the war to Asia and liberated the Greek cities on the east Aegean coast. During the Periclean golden age, art, literature, philosophy and architecture flourished. The notion of written history was invented by Herodotus and perfected by Thucydides.

This new Greek culture came to dominate the west Mediterranean and was carried first into Macedon and then, through the conquests of Alexander, into and throughout Asia and finally into Rome where it melded with Rome culture to refine western civilisation.

The importance of the events of September 480 BC can hardly be overstated.

Foxy,

I once saw a production of Lysistrata in a reconstructed Greek outdoor theatre in Thessalonica. It was written by Aristophanes around 411BC and is a comedy about women withdrawing all sex until the men achieve peace - the Peloponnesian war was raging at the time. Aristophanes was part of that extraordinary flowering of the arts in 5th century Athens. He virtually invented the staged comedy form.

The play as I saw it and the original was quite bawdy. The men, due to enforce celibacy, spend a good part of the play walking around with enormous erections - by enormous I mean 2 or 3 foot long. Benny Hill on steroids. But at the same time, highly political and critical of the Athenian leaders of the time - particularly Cleon.

He also did a play called "Acharnians" in which a destitute Megaran tries to sell his daughter by disguising her as a pig. In Athenian slang pig had roughly the same meaning as our 'pussy'. Imagine a man trying to sell his daughter disguised as a pussy. Hilarity and multiple double entendre ensues.

Fifth century Athens was one of the most productive and enduring times in all of human history. We would be a very different people without it and it was only possible because of the events of 480BC