Thermopylae
Thermopylae - thur'MAH-puh-lee', thuhr-MOP-uh-lee' (Ancient & Katharevousa Greek Θερμοπύλαι, Demotic Θερμοπύλες) is a mountain pass in Greece. The name, roughly translated means, "hot gateway", named for several natural hot water springs there.
The pass runs from Locris into Thessaly between Mount Oeta and the sea (Maliac Gulf). The location is primarily known for the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC in which an overmatched Greek force held off advancing Persians, and the term since has been used to reference heroic resistance against a more powerful enemy[1]. Two other famous battles took place at the pass. In 279 BC Brennus and the Gauls were checked for several months by a Greek army under the Athenian Calippus, and in 191 BC Antiochus III the Great of Syria attempted in vain to hold the pass against the Romans under Manius Acilius Glabrio.
In the time of Leonidas in 480 BC the pass was a narrow track (probably about 14 yards wide) under the cliff. In modern times the deposits of the Spercheius have widened it to a breadth of 1 to 3 miles broad. A main highway now splits the pass, with a modern-day monument of Leonidas on the east side of the highway. It is directly across the road from the hill where Simonides' epitaph is engraved in stone at the top.
The hot springs from which the pass derived its name still exist close to the foot of the hill.
See also
Note
^ OED entry for Thermopylae.
