Gorgo at the Limits of Liberation in Zack Snyder’s 300 (2007)

The ancient Greek city-state of Sparta has been and continues to be notorious for the position of women in its society.1 Ancient accounts state that Spartan women were treated and acted differently than Greek women in neighboring areas. In Athens, for instance, women were expected to stay in their homes, away from the public sphere their husbands would encounter daily.2 By contrast, young Spartan women had to be outdoors, since they were required to be educated in dancing, music, and athletics, among other pursuits.3 The modern West has often regarded Spartan women as protofeminists, unusual in the ancient world for their “freedom” and shining exceptions to wide-spread Greek misogyny. Zack Snyder’s 300 (2007), a film that depicts the battle of Thermopylae and the Spartans’ role in it, is no exception to this, but it portrays Gorgo, the Spartan queen, in ways that make her liberation problematic.