In the Pass at Thermopylae

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 902, 16 November 1956, Page 30

In the Pass at Thermopylae

BBC dramatisation based on Heredotus’s history of the Persian war, with Donald Wolfit as Xerxes and David King-Wood as Themistocles, will be heard this week from all YC stations. The Tragedy of Thermopylae was written and produced by Colin Shaw, and the incidental music was composed by Kenneth Leighton, and is played by the BBC Northern Orchestra conducted by Vilem Tausky. Xerxes, the King of Persia, was the son of Darius, whose troops had been defeated by _ the Athenians at Marathon in 490 B.C. When, five years later, Xerxes succeeded to the throne, his counsellors urged him to avenge the defeat of Marathon. If Athens could be conquered the rest of Greece would follow, they argued, and eventually all Europe might fall into the hands of Persia. It was such a dream of power that Xerxes succumbed to their

promptings, gathered a vast army and marched northwards to cross the Hellespont into Eurape. When news of his coming reacheg the Greeks they held a congress to discuss what action should be taken. They were bitterly divided and ambassadors were dispatched to enlist help from the Greek colonies over-

seas, but in the end the mainland Greeks were obliged to rely on their own resources.

It was decided to send an army to Thermopylae while the combined navies of the Greek States took up station at Artemesium, not far away. One of the two Spartan kings, Leonidas, led the

allied army, but unwilling to give up the idea of a defence of the Isthmus altogether, they sent only a token force of 300 men. Reinforcements never came, the position at Thermopylae was betrayed, Leonidas was killed, and the road was open for Xerxes to enter Athens. ©