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Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Thermopylae

narrow land passage along the Malian Gulf in ancient Greece, from Greek thermos "hot" (see thermal) + pylai, plural of pyle "gate; mountain pass, entrance into a region" (see pylon). In reference to nearby hot sulfur springs. Often simply hai pylai "the gates." Figurative of heroic resistance against overwhelming numbers since the battle fought there between the Greeks and Persians in 480 B.C.E.

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Thermopylae

Thermopylae (; Ancient and Katharevousa Greek: , Demotic: Θερμοπύλες : "hot gates") is a place in Greece where a narrow coastal passage existed in antiquity. It derives its name from its hot sulphur springs. The Hot Gates is "the place of hot springs" and in Greek mythology it is the cavernous entrances to Hades".

Thermopylae is world-famous for the battle that took place there between the Greek forces including the Spartans and the Persian forces, commemorated by Simonides in the famous epitaph, "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,/That here obedient to their laws we lie." Thermopylae is the only land route large enough to bear any significant traffic between Lokris and Thessaly. This passage from north to south along the east coast of the Balkan peninsula requires use of the pass and for this reason Thermopylae has been the site of several battles.

In ancient times it was called Malis which was named after the Malians , a Greek tribe that lived near present-day Lamia at the delta of the river, Spercheios in Greece. The Malian Gulf is also named after them. In the western valley of the Spercheios their land was adjacent to the Aenianes. Their main town was named Trachis. In the town of Anthela, the Malians had an important temple of Demeter, an early center of the Anthelan Amphictiony.

The land is dominated by the coastal floodplain of the Spercheios River and is surrounded by sloping forested limestone mountains. There is continuous deposition of sediment from the river and travertine deposits from the hot springs which has substantially altered the landscape during the past few thousand years. The land surface on which the famous Battle of Thermopylae was fought in 480 BC is now buried under of soil. The shoreline has also advanced over the centuries because of the sedimentary deposition. The level of the Malian Gulf was also significantly higher during prehistoric times and the Spercheios River was significantly shorter. Its shoreline advanced by up to 2 kilometers between 2500 BC and 480 BC but still has left several extremely narrow passages between the sea and the mountains. The narrowest point on the plain, where the Battle of Thermopylae was probably fought, would have been less than wide. Between 480 BC and the 21st century, the shoreline advanced by as much as in places, eliminating the narrowest points of the pass and considerably increasing the size of the plain around the outlet of the Spercheios.

A main highway now splits the pass, with a modern-day monument to King Leonidas I of Sparta on the east side of the highway. It is directly across the road from the hill where Simonides of Ceos's epitaph to the fallen is engraved in stone at the top. Thermopylae is part of the infamous "horseshoe of Maliakos" also known as the "horseshoe of death": it is the narrowest part of the highway connecting the north and the south of Greece. It has many turns and has been the site of many vehicular accidents.

The hot springs from which the pass derives its name still exist close to the foot of the hill.

Thermopylae (disambiguation)

Thermopylae is a mountain passage in central Greece.

Thermopylae may also refer to:

  • Thermopylae (clipper), an extreme composite clipper ship built 1868
  • Thermopylae (poem), a poem written by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy
  • , Royal Navy submarine launched in 1945

  • Thermopylae, North Carolina, the fictional setting of Michael Malone's novel, Handling Sin

Usage examples of "thermopylae".

Another party, which seemed a multitude in the eyes of the Romans, penetrated, without opposition, from the Straits of Thermopylae to the Isthmus of Corinth.

From here, less than a century before, the legendary Sword King had set off for the Pass of Thermopylae with 300 warriors and 700 helots.

Why did the King slain at Thermopylae appear on the monument to Plataea?

He died more than a century ago, defending the pass of Thermopylae against the Persian invaders.

The men with him are the heroes who died at Thermopylae and they are risking eternity for you, Parmenion.

Leonidas and his Three Hundred had marched to Thermopylae to the sound of flutes.

Running up and down Thermopylae Point with hand-weights fifteen times every morning, then back home through the streets before the traffic started.

Plataia was the site of a major Spartan victory over Persia, the place where Thermopylae was avenged, but it was also a city: an Athenian ally, under the protection of Athens.

That was why Thermopylae called for them to center their defense on GeneCorp's facility, where he couldn't use heavy weapons to support his ground elements without destroying the very data he'd come to steal.

They will be given orders to hold on like the Spartans at Thermopylae and, by and large, much the same fate will befall them.

The remaining Thermopylae began to point skyward as the five-inch turrets followed.

The Boeotians and the States in the interior of Greece reported that the Aetolians had closed the pass of Thermopylae at its narrowest part with a fosse and rampart to prevent him from carrying succour to the cities of his allies.

For the Euripus is the key to Greece by sea as the pass of Thermopylae is by land.

To one approaching Thaumaci from the south by Thermopylae and round the Malian Gulf and through the country of Lamia, the place stands out on a height overlooking what they call Thessalia Coele.