jasonxx wrote:Its quite clear that even the classical Grreks who we accept as great thinkers were also with great symbolic ideas and fantasy. Many Including you Andrew with great respect I know hate 300. But if one digs deep down the whole ethos and thoughts about warefare are spot on in the movie. Rolling Eyes
Some argue its Racist undertones. Well if the idea of slaughtering another army aint in someway racist then we fool ourselves. Cool
War is propoganda. Saying to your foes. Your a bunch of wealthy freaks. Pussies etc etc.
Ahh... Kenny... You agitator you.
Yes, of course Greeks had their war propaganda against those "effiminate" Persians. It's intersting that Persian nobles would carry parasols around but when this fashion was introduced into Athens, only wealthy
women would use them. Greek males were not ashamed to be naked in public (during athletics at least), but for a female to expose herself in public would've been an extremely shameful act. Persians, culturally speaking, would've found it a shameful and humiliating act to be stripped of one's clothes in Public too. The point for mentioning all this is that, anti-Persian propaganda focused a lot on the "effiminacy" of the Persians. This could be symbolized in art.
Amyntoros makes a good point about Trojans being depicted as Persians. That's been discussed in the forum with regard to Alexander and Xerxes' Homeric theatrics before their respective invasions also.
However, based on that,
I'm not sure you can call Greek propaganda against Persians "racist". The parts I might label "racist" in '300' were
all inventions of the creators.
I can see how the one-eyed Delios would describe his Persian enemy as a bunch of girly men in girly trousers... Not a single one man enough to wear a skirt even. But he wouldn't say "Oh! And the messenger Leonidas threw down the well didn't look Persian. He looked like an Aethiop. As did the guy who bribed our Ephors! As did the messenger we chopped the arms off after he got lilppy!" Because this wouldn't serve to further demonise the enemy to his Greek compatriots. So, what I'm saying is - sure a Greek guy might've hated all Persians at the height of some war. But he didn't hate the Persians by imagining them to be black-skinned.
Greeks did not associate dark skin or African features with a "evil", "slavishness" or "weakened sexual restraint". It's the movie that seems to associate both deformity and dark skin with the "decrepid soul" of the "threatening Other".
A couple of months ago, I finished reading a book by an author called 'Frank Snowden' with the title of
Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience. Throughout his career Snowden had done a great job of cataloguing ancient Greek and Roman art including paintingg, statues, reliefs etc. showing black and part-black people. Snowden also goes through recorded mentions of "Aethiops" (ie. "burnt-faced") and other black-skinned Africans during different historical periods of these cultures.
Much of the Greek art of black or part-black people was lovingly done, with apparent appreciation for the beauty of their subjects. He quotes Herodotus as describing the Aethiops as "the talles and handsomest men on Earth". Later Greek travellers were to assign the astronomical and spiritual learnings of Egypt as borrowings from her Nubian neighbours. A degree of achievement many colonial-era scientists would've been horrified to even contemplate.
Overall, Snowden draws a convincing picture that ancient Greeks and Romans weren't burdened with what he calls "colour prejudice" the way some modern societies are. "Modern" for the book is 1960s. Although in black and white, the book is worth checking out for the pictures alone. Having been written in the 60s, one doesn't come across the post-colonial theories that have been developed since then. A shortcoming the author can't be held reponsible for.
So, Delios' "vision" in '300' shouldn't be blamed on the ancient Greeks. It seems this type of belief has more currency in our world than it would've in theirs. Sure, the nude statues might justify the idea that perfectly chiselled abs and pecs should be the vehicles to display the Spartan triumph of will. But nothing in
ancient Greek history justifies the skin-colour obsession of '300'.
Check out this review of the movie. I liked it. The reviewer is not to be confused with the Micheal Wood who wrote "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great"
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n08/wood01_.html
Take care