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Persian myth tans sent their famed hoplite infantry to meet the advance of the Persians at the pass of Thermopylae They withstood the continual Persian onslaught, aided by the narrow ground, which limited the number of Persian troops able to attack at one time However, the Spartans were eventually defeated, according to legend because of a traitor who enabled the Persians to outflank the position and attack from behind Realizing that defeat was inevitable, King Leonidas of Sparta sent most of the 7,000 Greek troops south to safety but remained to the bitter end with his Spartan troops and their Thespian allies This is the battle that prompted Simonides to compose the monumental text “go tell the Spartans, passer by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie.” At the same time that Leonidas was resisting the Persian army, the Athenian navy and their allies, under Themistocles, were facing the Persian navy It is recorded that Themistocles commanded 271 ships The Persians dispatched 200 ships to try to lure the Athenians into battle, unsuccessfully Instead, the Athenian ships retired to their harbor while the Persians waited outside and were largely destroyed by a powerful storm Many Persian ships remained, and the Athenians were persuaded to abandon their city and take refuge further inland The Persians burned Athens but, desiring to achieve a decisive victory over the Athenian army, Xerxes allowed himself to be outmaneuvered by Themistocles in deploying his fleet in the Straits of Salamis, where the more skillful Athenian sailors managed to destroy the Persian fleet at close quarters The remnants of the Persian fleet returned to Asia Minor The Battle of Salamis represented the end of the second Persian invasion, with the army unsupplied and demoralized A final victory at the Battle of Plataea ensured that the Greek mainland would be free of colonization However, military operations continued for several decades as the Athenian-led Delian League undertook naval actions throughout the Aegean with a view to liberating Persian-held Greek colonies These actions achieved some success and persuaded the Persians to agree to the Peace of Callias in 449 b.c.e The Persian invasions represented genuinely significant attempts to conquer and annex Greece and to convert Greece into a satrapy of the Persian Empire See also Greek city-states; Marathon, Battle of Further reading: Boardman, John, Jasper Griffin, and Oswyn Murray, eds The Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002; Herodotus The Histories Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt New York: Penguin Classics, 2003; Kitto, H D F The Greeks 347 New York: Penguin Books, 1950; Strauss, Barry The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece—and Western Civilization New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004 John Walsh Persian myth Iranian myths not belong to just one era but many epochs over the 12,000-year chronology The history of myth in Iran is divided into four eras, each covering three millennia The first quarter refers to creation as a spiritual essence in which no place or time could be felt, and the world was far from any substance or movement However, the spiritual world manifested itself in two types of existence: one belonging to Ahura Mazda (Ormazd), the knowledgeable master, good and truthful spirit; and the other belonging to the evil spirit, Ahriman The conflict between good and evil is prevalent in Iranian myth Zorwan is a god who prays to have a son with Ormazd’s characteristics to create the world At the end of the 1,000th year Zorwan doubts his prayers are working Because of this doubt, Ormazd and Ahriman simultaneously arise in him The former represents his patience, while the latter signifies his doubt Zorwan promises to make the elder ruler and lord of the world Ahriman is born first, and Zorwan, because of his promise, appoints Ahriman as the ruler for a finite part of the 9,000 remaining years Zorwan is sure that Ormazd will triumph over Ahriman and successfully rule over the world for eternity In the second quarter the world turns to a material one, and the first emblems of the world’s prototypes are created Ormazd creates the six major prototypes of creation: sky, water, earth, plants, animals, and human beings The human prototype, Kiumarth, is mortal He is created to help god and is called Ahlav (the holy man) The third quarter presents a mixture of good and evil, light and darkness, and a blending between Ormazd and Ahriman’s wills Ahriman moves toward the borders of light, leaving darkness behind and becoming aware of many good creatures that Ahura Mazda has created In competing with him he destroys his creatures and invades every prototype created by Ormazd and spoils the mundane world This period is referred to as gumizishn in Pahlavi writing and signifies that both Ahriman and Ormazd are triumphant Ormazd seeks god’s help and assistance Ormazd, employing good forces, is able to reproduce each one of
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