The Brave 300 - This Is Sparta!

Don't know about brave but it takes a certain bravado to post 300 images in 300 days and expect people to look at them. :)

I haven't seen the film 300 and I don't think I want to, however I know a bit about Sparta, it's where the word spartan came from of course. The Spartans used to throw discus as one of disciplines in their rigourous training regime, hence my pic. This discobolus is a tiny logo on a circular padlock on our front gate.

I have been to Sparta. Mr Q and I sailed a yacht from Gythium, the seaport of Sparta, to Elaphonisos and Kythira, the supposed site of the birth of Venus as depicted by Botticelli. We had fun recreating it, I took the role of Venus. :)

The Southern Peloponnese is wilder and harsher than other areas of Greece where we have sailed, the sailing conditions trickier but it is very beautiful. King Leonidas and the brave three hundred Spartans, who took on thousands of Persians at the battle of Thermopylae, all perished. I have read many poems about the conflict at the Hot Gates.

We created a terra-cotta theme for my daughter's wedding and used a beautiful rose of that colour called Leonidas.