Leonidas was the most famous king of Sparta. Besides being a king of the most war-renown nation (there’s a famous saying for soldiers, people of strict discipline and people who’re known for their sacrifices: “…like a Spartan”) he is most famous for his final deed of his life – facing the overpowering Persian army of king Xerxes, with his personal guard of 300 Spartans. Spartans believed that they were direct descendants of Hercules, and not only was king Leonidas insanely brave, he had superior war tactics and wisdom under his belt by the time when he reached the fated Battle of Thermopylae. Ten years after the defeat of the Persian army at the Marathon, Xerxes assembled a colossal army and marched onto Greece. Xerxes sent emissaries throughout Greece to demanded submission from the Greeks to his rulership by asking for their land and water, and in return they would be spared. After Xerxes’s emissaries came to Sparta and they said what they had to say, Spartans threw them into the pit and said that they could have as much water as they wanted from down there. The Athenians used their power fleet to fight the Persians by the sea. Whereas Leonidas led the land troops and held the Persians at the Gates of Fire at Thermopylae. But the city of Sparta was celebrating Carneia – the sacred festival which forbade war activities. Leonidas consulted the oracle of Delphi which told him that only a sacrifice of the legitimate heir to the throne of Hercules could detain the fury of the son of Perseus. As the descendants of Hercules rules over Sparta for centuries, he realized that it was his fate to march against the armies of Xerxes. Unable to take his whole army with him, Leonidas handpicked 300 elite soldiers as his personal guard, on the way to the Fire Gates he managed to assemble around 7,000 soldiers from all over Greece. Spartans positioned themselves at the Gates of Fire – a passage so narrow that Persian overwhelming numbers actually meant a disadvantage. Persian army that marched on the Gates of Fire had more than 300,000 soldiers. Xerxes sent an emissary to meet the Spartan king, and he proposed to Leonidas the unification of Persian and Spartans under the Persian flag so that they could rule over whole Greece. King Leonidas rejected his proposal and his emissary threatened him with the words “our arrows are so numerous that they will cover the whole sky” to which Leonidas replied: “even better, we will fight in the shadows.” The battle commenced and the Persian cavalry was border ground useless due to the wall of spear of the Greek phalanxes; the pouring of arrows was intense, but the Greek shields made the attack ineffective. The Persians were forced to send their one-on-one combat infantry, amongst whom were their elite soldiers called ‘the Immortals’, but to no avail. Xerxes was being humiliated by ‘a couple’ of Greeks. The Greek strategy was working amazingly, but the Greeks were betrayed by a fellow Greek who showed the Persians a hidden paths used by shepherds which gave them the chance to bypass Greek’s defenses. Realizing that they would end up surrounded, Leonidas freed the remaining Greek soldiers to retreat in order to prevent a massacre. And on the 5th day Leonidas, his loyal Spartan soldiers and about 1,000 Greeks readied themselves for the final battle. Leonidas was among the first ones to fall during the battle, and Spartans fought like beasts to keep his body from the Persians. They made a shield wall around his body and they fought until they had nothing to fight with except their bare hands and their teeth. Greeks fought bravely, but could not prevent the massacre that followed, after the end of the battle Xerxes cut off Leonidas’s head and impaled it. King Leonidas made his final stand, his finals sacrifice along with his brave soldiers and thus gave the allies seven days to prepare for the upcoming Battle of Plataea where 10,000 Spartans stood with allied forces and put a stop to Persian army, throwing them out of Greece once and for all. Leonida’s energy awakes bravery, discipline and the courage to do extraordinary deeds. His wisdom gives the understanding of self-sacrifice, doing what must be done, and secures the strength that is needed to do what must be done. If you seek discipline, valor, strength and courage – King Leonidas’s energy is for you