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 12-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
When Xeones learns that the corpse of Leonidas has been desecrated, he refuses to tell any more of his story until Demaratos, the deposed king of Sparta residing in the Persian court, changes his mind. Demaratos explains to Orontes that he reminded Xeones that it would be impious not to continue since it was the mission Apollo had given him.
Polynikes is awarded his second prize of valor and renowned as the finest warrior in Greece. On the return march, Xeones is forced to march at the rear of the train, with the helots. Dekton has been given a new nickname, Rooster, after nearly throttling the sacrificial roosters in his excitement during the battle.
There are rumors that Rooster is the illegitimate son of a helot mother and Idotychtides, a Spartan citizen. Despite his illustrious father, Rooster has no chance to rise to the status of citizen himself and is extremely resentful of the Spartans, often discussing his desire for the helots to rebel.
Rooster tells Xeones that he is a fool not to have not run away. Xeones asks him why he appeared so eager to fight in the battle, given his hatred of Sparta. Rooster expresses his anger and says that he can fight as well as any Spartan but is consigned to servitude.
At Sparta, Polynikes and others interrogate Alexandros, asking him what he thinks of his first taste of war. Polynikes is contemptuous of Alexandros and badgers him. Polynikes’s dislike of Alexandros may be partly fueled by his feeling that the boy’s mentor is his rival in the city. Dienekes comforts his charge after this ordeal, reminding Alexandros that Polynikes would die to protect him in battle.
Chapter 13 Summary
Following Alexandros’s interrogation, Dienekes sends Xeones to his house. There, he is questioned by Paraleia, Alexandros’s mother, who wishes to know how her son has acquitted himself during his recent adventure.
After Paraleia departs, Arete questions Xeones in private. She tells Xeones that Rooster has attracted the attention of the krypteia and asks Xeones to keep Rooster from spreading his traitorous sentiments.
As his audience with Arete lengthens, Xeones tells her about his mother and the sack of Astakos. Arete remarks that he has a sad life and asks him why he has such loyalty for Sparta, even though he can never be a full citizen. Xeones replies, “My tutor instructed me that a boy must have a city or he cannot grow to be fully a man. Since I no longer possessed a city of my own, I felt free to choose any I liked” (216). When pressed as to why, if he was free to choose, he had chosen Sparta, he explains that, “other cities produce monuments and poetry, Sparta produces men” (217).
Arete confirms that Rooster is the son of Idotychtides, her brother, and that Rooster has twice been offered sponsorship into the ranks of the mothax, the non-citizen members of the Spartan army. She asks Xeones to report to her about Rooster and ensure that he lives to distinguish himself in the coming war with the Persians.
At the conclusion of the interview, Xeones tells Arete that a “friend” believes that a god appeared to him when he was at the point of death and asks her if she thinks such a thing is possible. Arete clearly intuits that Xeones’s “friend” is actually himself and tells him that “[h]is vision indeed was of the god” (221).
Chapter 14 Summary
The day following his interview with Arete, both Xeones and Alexandros are beaten for following the army to Antirhion. Alexandros sneaks Xeones a piece of myrrh to use on his welts.
The next morning, Rooster and Xeones are called out by Suicide, the Scythian berserker who serves as squire to Dienekes. Suicide brings them to Dienekes, who tells Xeones that he considers him to be a bad influence on Alexandros. He assigns Suicide to Alexandros and takes Xeones on as his own second squire, returning his bow. Rooster is made the squire of Olympieus.
Chapters 12-14 Analysis
Duty and piety are foregrounded in these chapters right from the start, when Xeones is convinced to continue his story since it would be impious not to. These chapters primarily flesh out the character of Rooster, and he serves as a foil to Xeones’s idolization of the Spartans. As a slave from birth, despite his Spartan father, Rooster is resentful of his exclusion from citizenship and expresses the desire that Sparta be conquered. The Spartan concept of freedom is repeatedly brought up in the novel, but Rooster’s position complicates the straightforward view put forward by Dienekes, Leonidas, and other Spartan citizens.
This tension is brought fully into view during Arete’s interview of Xeones, particularly when she asks Xeones:
Have you noticed […] that among the slaves the meanest seem to bear their lot without excessive distress, while the noblest, those at the brink of freed, chafe most bitterly? It’s as if the more one in service feels himself worthy of honor, yet denied the means to achieve it, the more excruciating is the experience of subjugation (212-13).
