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 18-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 18 Summary
The narrative returns to the aftermath of Thermopylae, and this chapter and the next are told from the perspective of Gobartes’s record. Xerxes is having recurring nightmares caused, he believes, by his guilt at defiling the corpse of Leonidas. His advisors assure him that the proper steps have been taken to ensure that he is not stained by “blood guilt.” When Xerxes tells his two closest advisors, Mardonius and Artemisia, about his nightmares, Artemisia insists that the dream is meaningless. The two advisors then disagree about whether Xerxes should stay in Greece to oversee the invasion or return home. Artemisia’s arguments that it would seem weak to fail to finish the conquest and that he must be present to take credit for the victory convince the emperor.
Chapter 19 Summary
Xerxes is unable to sleep and has Xeones brought to him. Mardonius asserts that Xeones is just telling lies, but Xerxes disagrees. Xerxes points out that, as a ruler, he can never be sure of anyone’s candor. Xeones, however, wants nothing from Xerxes, merely to tell the story he was sent back from death to tell.
Xeones is brought in, and his eyes are unbound. He tells Xerxes that he has seen him before when the Spartans sent a force into Xerxes’s tent to assassinate him. The Persians do not believe Xeones at first, but he eventually convinces Xerxes that he’s telling the truth.
Chapters 18-19 Analysis
The two different pieces of advice given by Mardonius and Artemisia involve different perspectives on the role of a king.
Mardonius’s advice allows that Xerxes is royal and magnificent by virtue of his station and his mighty empire. As king he is too valuable to fight alongside his men, and, besides, Greece is a poor country, barely worth even conquering, so there is no shame in not completing the invasion.
Artemisia’s advice is based on the opposite assumption, namely that nobility and kingly nature are proven and reinforced through deeds, and so she advises Xerxes that he must remain and complete the conquest if he wishes to maintain his honor and dignity. Her view of kingship is much closer to that of the Greeks.
