300: 10 Quotes That Will Live On In Infamy

The film 300 recounts one of the greatest battles in history, where a force of three hundred Spartan warriors and some of their Greek allies positioned themselves in the narrow pass at Thermopylae and held back the armies of the Persian god-king Xerxes I–armies which historians estimate measured anywhere between two hundred thousand and two million strong.

The movie is directed by Zack Snyder and beautifully adapts the stunning art of Frank Miller’s original graphic novel. 300 is a thrilling spectacle of glory in combat. Of course, the film has quite a few issues, in particular its very problematic depiction of the Persians and their allies. However, with actor Gerard Butler delivering an amazing performance in the role of King Leonidas and having some of the most unforgettable one-liners in history to work with, this movie is truly unforgettable.

10 “Spartans, lay down your weapons.” “Persians, come and get them.”

As the Persian army is about to descend upon the small force of Spartans, one of the Persian commanders shouts the order for the Spartans to disarm. Leonidas responds, punctuating his order with a javelin that impales the Persian officer.

The Roman historian and philosopher Plutarch actually recorded this real-life exchange. Supposedly, Xerxes himself actually gave the order for the Spartans to lay down their weapons (as opposed to one of his vassals). Leonidas responded (in ancient Doric Greek) “Molon labe,” a line of defiance still quoted to this day.

9 “This is Sparta”

Sparta was a utopian warrior society. They were the greatest land army in ancient Greece, fighting with spears and shields and training from the age of six. Spartan women were among the most liberated in all of Greece. Like many utopian martial societies, they also practiced numerous cruelties that are barbaric by modern standards—and which were feared and reviled by their contemporaries.

When Leonidas is told his actions are madness, he responds with a line letting the Persians just what sort of madness they are facing.

8 “Earth and water? You’ll find plenty of both down there.”

According to the ancient Greek chronicler Herodotus, when Persian emissaries traveled through Greece, they asked each city-state to offer “earth and water” as a sign of their submission to King Xerxes.

In response to this request, the Athenians flung the Persians down a gorge, while the Spartans hurled them into a well, suggesting that there would be plenty of earth and water at the bottom. A highly stylized version of this well-tossing scene appears in 300.

7 “Come back with your shield…Or on it.”

This is a great line that, in the movie, is spoken by Queen Gorgo to her husband King Leonidas as he leaves for war. The meaning is straightforward enough. If a man fled from battle, he would drop his heavy shield to run faster. As such, a man returning with his shield must therefore be victorious, while a dead man could be carried back on his shield.

According to Plutarch, this line was actually spoke by numerous Spartan women as the men left for war at Thermopylae.

6 “The thousand nations of the Persian Empire descend on you. Our arrows will blot out the sun.” “Then we will fight in the shade.”

This is another real-life quote, spoken by the Spartan warrior Dienekes. When he was told how Persian archers could quite literally blot out the sun with their arrows, he casually responded with the line about fighting in the shade.

Needless to say, he died at Thermopylae, but thanks to reports of the battle that were later preserved by Herodotus, his words live on to the present.

5 “This is where we hold them. This is where we fight. This is where they die.”

The Spartans may have been the great badasses of ancient Greece, but the reason that a force of three hundred soldiers cold hold off the entire Persian army was that they chose a tight narrow pass where they were protected on both sides by high cliffs, rendering the Persians’ superior numbers meaningless.

With these words, Leonidas rallied his men. They would hold Thermopylae—“the Hot Gates”—marking the land his men spill their enemies’ blood in one of the most epic battles of all time.

4 “Immortals. We put their name to the test.”

The Immortals were an elite unit of Persian warriors chosen from their nobility, and the real-life soldiers were much cooler than the silver-masked ninjato-wielding demons with warped faces and pointy teeth seen in the movie.

These spear-carrying heavy infantrymen formed a single unit 10,000 strong—a force so big that if any of them died, he would be immediately replaced by another, making them seem like an immortal army…at least until they encountered the Spartans.

3 “There is much our cultures could share.” “Haven’t you noticed? We’ve been sharing our culture with you all morning.”

During the wonderful exchange where Xerxes and Leonidas first meet one another in the film, the Persian king tries to win over Leonidas and his Spartans as allies, saying they had much to offer one another.

Leonidas walks among the dead Persians he and his men have just slain, cracking wise all the while. Such grim joy in the face of widespread carnage is admittedly a good representation of Spartan culture.

2 “The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many. And before this battle is over, that even a god king can bleed.”

Xerxes offers to make Leonidas a warlord ruling over all of Greece and much of Europe if the Spartan King will submit to Xerxes’s divine will. Leonidas turns the god king down with a mocking insult.

Furious, Xerxes threatens to not just kill Leonidas and his men, but kill their memories, wiping out all records of Sparta from existence and burning every piece of parchment that mentions them, even swearing he will even cut thumbs from the hands of Greek scribes so no account of Leonidas can ever be written down. But the details do not matter to the Spartan.

1 “Spartans, ready your breakfast and eat hardy, for tonight we dine in Hell!”

This is a great simple line spoken by Leonidas in the film as a way of letting his men—and the audience—know that the end has finally come. No matter how many men the Spartans killed, they would eventually join the dead. But this was something to be celebrated—a glorious death!

Gerard Butler’s performance as Leonidas is wonderful throughout the film, but here he manages to convey a tired but resolute conviction that ominously foretells the end.

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