Essential to Zach Snyder’s 300 is how he chooses to portray the Spartans. Not only in how they act, but how he contrasts them with everyone else in the film. These depictions are not only historically inaccurate but also go so far to create an image of the Other that it is offensive.
The most clear case of Othering is the inclusion of multiple monsters in the Persian army, such as a mutant large giant with blades for arms (“300”, 2007). Also, the Persian immortals, only called so because they always had the same number of soldiers in the group, are depicted as having deformed faces in 300 (Herodotus, 7:83). In addition to the soldiers, the entire Persian culture was attacked by Snyder. The portrayal of the Persians as the Other and its effect on some viewers can be seen as Farshad Farahat writes that “I began to resist the movie’s depiction of Iranian women as deviant sexual teasers pimped out by their King Xerxes” (Farahat 2010, 3). His emotions were so strong in response to the depiction of his own people that “When a ‘300’ protagonist yelled, ‘Persians, you motherless whores,’ I yelled back, ‘My mother is Neda!'” (Farahat 2010, 3). Neda refers to a young Iranian woman that was killed while peacefully protesting for liberty. Snyder is choosing to show an entire cultural region as grotesque and monstrous, meanwhile those descended from ancient Persians are more accurately represented by Neda. While Zach Snyder’s goal may have been too simply present a villainous antagonist, the degree with which he depicted Persian culture in a poor light cannot be understated.
Not only did Snyder go out of his way to demonize the Persians, but he contrasted them with a Spartan group that is depicted as much more honorable than material history suggests. 300 claims that the Spartans were the only Greeks fighting by the end and shows the other Greeks as cowards who fled, as seen in the clip below.
While the scene shows a glorious speech before a heroic last stand, the truth, according to Herodotus, of the final days is much different.
When learning that Xerxes had discovered the mountain path, king Leonidas sent away the other Greek groups (Herodotus, 7:220). While most left, some stayed behind; the Thespians refused to abandon Leonidas, and the Thebans were held back, “The Thebans did not want to be there, but Leonidas held them back, treating them as hostages and keeping them there against there will” (Herodotus, 7:222). So, 300 portrays the Spartans as their own heroic insulate group for the most part, when in reality, the situation was much more Panhellenic than depicted in the film. Also, in 300 slavery is used to show Persian culture as the Other and barbaric, but in reality, the Spartans were also holding people against their will and sending them to death as well. The clip of Leonida’s speech and the movie as a whole inspire the audience to connect with Sparta as a people fighting for righteous freedom and equality. However, in reality the Spartans engaged in many of the same barbaric actions as the Persians.
The last example of Othering in 300 can be seen in the Greek’s ability to cast many different groups into the Other category. The movie opens with a dramatic telling of how Spartans cast deformed or unperfected children out of society; the hunched man seen in the following clip was one of these children.
The scene shows Ephialtes attempting to join the Spartan fighting force, but Leonidas turns him away due to him being unable to maintain the phalanx formation. Herodotus’s Histories Book Seven makes no mention of Ephialtes being hunched, rather it seems Snyder made an active choice to venture even farther from historical facts for this character. Snyder does all that he can to depict the Spartans as the superior and most honorable group, from showing Spartans in superior arms compared to the Arcadians or to reproducing the Persians as monstrous and immoral.
Zach Snyder is using the “Western gaze” (Burney 2012, 26). Shehla Burney explains, “This Western gaze, not unlike the deadly ‘male gaze’ in feminist theory, subjectifies and objectifies all that it sees in its own image, through its own colored lenses, and from its own position of power” (Burney 2012, 26). Snyder is operating with an extremely Western perspective in his directing. How the Persians and Spartans are shown in 300 clearly demonstrates the use of a Western lens and orientalist mindset to characterize the Persians as the Other and Spartans as a culture much more honorable than they likely were.
Works Cited
“300.” https://youtu.be/J3trMDuL56M.
“300.” YouTube, YouTube, 14 May 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qubItQjdSHA. Accessed 1 Nov. 2021.
Burney, Shehla. “CHAPTER ONE: Orientalism: The Making of the Other.” Counterpoints, vol. 417, Peter Lang AG, 2012, pp. 23–39, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42981698.
Farahat, Farshad. “GUEST ESSAY: One Iranian American Wrestles with ‘Xerxes’ and ’300′.” Los Angeles Times, 28 Sept. 2010.
Herodotus. “Book Seven.” Histories.
UR Ancient World In Cinema 
I couldn’t agree more with your post. 300 is a movie I loved as a kid, and to this day I still enjoy it, but when I put on a more critical lens it’s not nearly as fun. It cannot possibly be a mistake that a movie released so close to 9/11 has such clear and obvious anti-eastern themes. The ‘harem’ stereotype that you touched on briefly is one I find particularly interesting. When Leonidas does die, it is with his wife’s name on his lips whereas the Persians are never depicted as monogamous. I’ve always wondered what that was meant to say.
I like how you touched on the fact that the Spartans are from a military based society that promotes violence, aggression and fascism but how the film depicts them as honorable and that their society is a free, equal democracy. You could have simply written about how Snyder presents the Persians as the “Other”, but contrasting them with the Spartans strengthens your argument. The homophobia against the Persians contrasted with the “ideal” sexuality shown between Leonidas and Gorgo shows the othering, as well as how the Spartans are all physically strong and “perfect” contrasted with the mutant creatures fighting in the Perisan army. This is a great post calling out the historical inaccuracies and problematic nature of the film 300.
Couldn’t agree more! the fact that Synder had them portrayed this way is terrible. Not that I don’t love the movie but just realizing the circumstances and the contemporary times, I feel a little upset. After reading Herodotus’s “Book Seven” Histories, I could understand why he would portray them (Persians) like this but that does not mean he should have. I mean the people of the east disliked this film, like you said, and so as a movie director why would you construct a film like this. I’m betting that there would be many people willing to watch a movie on Ancient Rome, so why destroy the popularity of a movie. I felt that he could have kept the large animals but just had regular people and it could’ve had the same effect.