elves with gymnastic exercises,
and others combing their long hair. In great perplexity, he sent for
the exiled Spartan king Demaratus, who had accompanied him from Persia,
and asked him the meaning of such madness. Demaratus replied, that the
Spartans would defend the pass to the death, and that it was their
practice to dress their heads with peculiar care when they were going
to battle. Later writers relate that Xerxes sent to them to deliver up
their arms. Leonidas desired him "to come and take them." One of the
Spartans being told that "the Persian host was so prodigious that their
arrows would conceal the sun:"--"So much the better" (he replied), "we
shall then fight in the shade."

At length, upon the fifth day, Xerxes ordered a chosen body of Medes to
advance against the presumptuous foes and bring them into his presence.
But their superior numbers were of no avail in such a narrow space, and
they were kept at bay by the long spears and steady ranks of the
Greeks. After the combat had lasted a long time with heavy loss to the
Medes, Xerxes ordered his ten thousand "Immortals," the flower of the
Persian army, to advance. But they were as unsuccessful as the Medes.
Xerxes beheld the repulse of his troops from a lofty throne which had
been provided for him, and was seen to leap thrice from his seat in an
agony of fear or rage.

On the following day the attack was renewed, but with no better
success: and Xerxes was beginning to despair of forcing his way
through the pass, when a Malian, of the name of Ephialtes, betrayed to
the Persian king that there was an unfrequented path across Mount OEta,
ascending on the northern side of the mountain and descending on the
southern side near the termination of the pass. Overjoyed at this
discovery, a strong detachment of Persians was ordered to follow the
traitor. Meantime Leonidas and his troops had received ample notice of
the impending danger. During the night deserters from the enemy had
brought him the news; and their intelligence was confirmed by his own
scouts on the hills. His resolution was at once taken. As a Spartan
he was bound to conquer or to die in the post assigned to him; and he
was the more ready to sacrifice his life, since an oracle had declared
that either Sparta itself or a Spartan king must perish by the Persian
arms. His three hundred comrades were fully equal to the same heroism
which actuated their King; and the seven hundred Thespians re