Serpent of Hellas

Artemisium. Its name is all but lost now, dwarfed by the juggernaut of glory that is Thermopylae—that narrow pass in northern Greece where King Leonidas and his three hundred Spartans faced the invading hordes of Persia to a standstill. In the end, they gave their lives so that other Greeks might know the true meaning of courage, their stand the greatest in military history. And yet, the defenders of Thermopylae, for all their unparalleled heroism, could not have survived an hour—much less three days—had the sons of Athens and her allies not held the Persian fleet at bay in the straits forty miles to the east.