51 pages • 1 hour read
Steven PressfieldGates of Fire
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 15-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 15 Summary
Over the next five years, the Spartans continuously campaign to force new cities into the alliance. In the meanwhile, Darius, the Persian emperor, dies. Contrary to the hopes of the Greeks, Xerxes, the new emperor, does not disperse the invasion force. Phobos, or fear, spreads throughout Greece, making people desperate and causing smaller Greek cities to submit to Persia. Among the greater city-states, only Sparta, Athens, and Corinth remain committed to the alliance.
Dienekes is dispatched on numerous embassies to try and convince the smaller cities to reconsider, but he is unsuccessful. The Persian invasion force crosses into Europe. A counterforce is dispatched to meet them but returns when the chosen spot proves indefensible.
After the allied Greeks have dithered for a while, word comes that Thermopylae has been chosen as the field of battle. It is soon learned that only 300 Spartan Peers—full citizens with male offspring—will be sent to hold the pass at Thermopylae. It is immediately understood that this is a suicide mission. Dienekes, who has no sons, is not eligible to join the Peers.
Chapter 16 Summary
Xeones now moves his narrative back several years, to a battle at Oenophyta that occurred one year after Antirhion. It is a hard battle, and Olympieus takes a crippling blow through his foot. Rooster, now serving as Olympieus’s squire, manages to protect his fallen master. Rooster’s courage is widely praised, and he is offered the chance to become a mothax for a second time. He declines and is nearly taken by the krypteia.
Several years later, as the 300 Peers prepare to depart, questions about Rooster’s loyalty reemerge: “Could this treasonous youth be trusted? With a blade in his fist and himself a handbreath from the polemarch’s back?” (245).
The night before the 300 Peers are selected, Rooster is offered the chance to become a mothax one final time. After he refuses, Xeones finds him arguing with Alexandros. Alexandros is trying to change Rooster’s mind, but the helot states his intention to find sanctuary at a temple. Xeones refuses to desert with Rooster. Alexandros offers Rooster some coins, and Rooster is dumbstruck. Alexandros says that he knows Rooster doesn’t respect him and that he is not nearly as good a fighter as the helot. Rooster responds that it is Alexandros who is the brave one, since he must “manufacture it out of a tender heart” (248).
At this instant, Polynikes and others of the krypteia appear in the doorway of Rooster’s hut. Rooster is bound, and the entire part is brought to the tribunal.
Chapter 17 Summary
The party is brought to a butcher’s yard, where older members of the krypteia wait. Rooster is to be executed, but he tries to protect Alexandros by insisting that Alexandros had come to capture him, rather than aid him. No one believes this, and Polynikes condemns Alexandros’s actions as treasonous. Dienekes, arguing on Alexandros’s behalf, asserts that Alexandros was trying to convince Rooster to accept a position as a mothax and that this demonstrates Alexandros’ care for the city, since Rooster is a good fighter who will be needed in the coming war.
Arete suddenly appears and refuses to leave, despite the insistence of Dienekes and the other men. She insists that Dienekes is the biological father of Messenieus, Rooster’s son. None of the men believe this, but they are forced to accept Arete’s claim once Dienekes swears that it is true.
Dienekes formally accepts the baby as his. Rooster is furious but can say nothing without risking his son’s life. Alexandros saves Rooster by warning the krypteia that making Rooster a martyr will increase the likelihood of a slave revolt. He instead proposes that Rooster be released and allowed to join the Persians, since “it will prevent him from being viewed by his fellows in our midst as a martyr and a hero. He will be seen by them for what he is, an ingrate who was offered a chance to wear the scarlet of Lakedaemon and who spurned it out of pride and vainglory” (260). This is done, but as the krypteia breaks up, one of its members notes to Dienekes that he now has a son and may be chosen for Thermopylae.
Chapters 15-17 Analysis
Within these chapters, Xeones relates the persistent attempts by the Spartans to bring others into their alliance during the five years between Antirhion and Thermopylae. Xeones, Alexandros, and Rooster all marry and have at least one child by the time of Thermopylae.
Despite having been made Olympieus’s squire and distinguishing himself in battle, Roosters stubborn defiance of Spartan society sets the scene for Arete’s dangerous intervention on his behalf and a demonstration of women’s courage, a major theme of the novel. Arete intrudes upon a male-only setting–not for the first time–and coerces her husband into protecting her nephew’s child.
