The Golden One - Spartans, 300, Physique Motivation. Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. Book Review

00:00:00.000 Greetings and salutations, my esteemed Laddingtons. Today I come bearing a book recommendation,

00:00:26.000 from Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. Shout out to my good friend Johan, who borrowed me this book

00:00:33.860 actually a few years back, and I only recently got around to read it. But before I begin to talk

00:00:40.140 about the book, I would just like to encourage you all to follow me on Telegram and the Legu Gloria

00:00:47.400 Instagram account. We will release this fine Hammer of Thor tomorrow, so if you want more information

00:00:54.060 about that, I will post on Instagram and also on the newsletter that you can sign up for on

00:00:59.660 leguogloria.com. Now, anyway, oh, also a second thing I will mention before I begin to talk about

00:01:08.380 this book. I know everyone is always eager to comment something in the beginning of the video,

00:01:13.040 so I might as well throw out a suggestion. Now, let me know if you have read any historic fiction

00:01:21.360 or any history books set in ancient Greece. After all, it's summer and we need to optimize our

00:01:27.220 motivation levels, and I always find that reading something about Greece or Rome in the summer,

00:01:32.360 it's a good fit. So comment down below if you have any book recommendations on ancient Greece.

00:01:39.240 So, true to my word, I've read this fine book, and as you might discern from the title,

00:01:45.460 it's about the Battle of Thermopylae. Now, a note on the film 300. I saw it when I was 17. It made a huge

00:01:54.140 impression on me. You know, it's basically made for, you know, ultimate testosterone motivation,

00:01:59.980 and, you know, I was pumped up and I said to myself, you know, one day I want to look like

00:02:05.820 Gerard Butler, Leonidas, in that film. So it's always been a great motivating factor for me,

00:02:12.420 gym-wise, to just remember how the Spartans look there. So nothing over the top like, you know,

00:02:20.620 Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a lot of guys grew up watching his films. I didn't because, well, I'm not

00:02:26.900 old enough to have grown up with him as a hero, so my physique ideals were never, you know, bodybuilding,

00:02:34.580 but it was more, yeah, how Leonidas look in that film. So anyway, the film is based on a comic that is

00:02:44.180 based on the battle, so it's not super historically accurate, but it's a nice film anyway that you can

00:02:50.080 watch before hitting the gym. This, however, is more historically accurate, so if you want a good,

00:02:56.800 you know, somewhat brief overview of Spartan society, Spartan relationship with the subjugated

00:03:03.280 slave cast of the Helots, how their military structure looked like, this is a good book.

00:03:10.160 The only critique I have in terms of it as a fiction novel, it's a bit gruesome at times,

00:03:15.260 I don't really need to have, you know, any sob stories to make the main character more appealing,

00:03:21.180 but other than that, it's a very good book, very immersive. I read it through quite quickly.

00:03:27.100 It's not overly thick, but it's also very immersive, so you want to read through it in one go.

00:03:33.280 And, uh, basically it follows a guy who's not a Spartan, but he fights as a squire for the Spartans,

00:03:39.720 so you get sort of like a third-person view of Spartan society. Um, and it follows 10 years

00:03:47.540 previous from, and it follows from 10 years before the battle of Thermopylae up until the battle itself.

00:03:53.820 And yeah, as is my custom, I have picked out a few segments which I thought would be good motivating quotes

00:04:00.540 for you to, uh, partake in, so let's delve into the book. So this is a quote on, um, Spartan mentality

00:04:08.540 in terms of individualism, and it's a quote from a man in the book here.

00:04:12.880 Have your instructors taught you why the Spartans excuse without penalty the warrior who loses his

00:04:19.180 helmet or breastplate in battle, but punish with loss of all citizenship rights the man who disregards 0.71

00:04:25.280 his shield? And that is because a warrior carries helmet and breastplate for his own protection,

00:04:32.320 but his shield for the protection of the whole line. So basically it's a good, you know, metaphor

00:04:39.880 also for putting your tribe or putting your mannerbund, putting your military unit, putting

00:04:47.100 your brothers first. You know, you can be careless with your own security, but dropping your shield,

00:04:52.400 dropping the, dropping the defense of your brothers, it's inexcusable. So that is also something to keep

00:04:58.600 in mind in this day and age of, you know, super, um, hyper individualism. So, you know, take care of

00:05:05.320 your brothers, don't be a liability. And this can also be, if you are, you know, in a group of men

00:05:11.440 and you know yourself that you are weak, it's the same thing as dropping your shield. You become a

00:05:15.940 liability to others, so it's not okay. Um, anyway, that was just a nice little quote there, I thought.

00:05:23.200 Moving on to a very interesting term, pseudo-Andrea. And what this means is basically a

00:05:31.320 faked courage. And the example they use here is when the enemy starts banging their shields,

00:05:38.840 starts shouting, start behaving really aggressively. And this is something I've talked about before as

00:05:44.080 well, that it's usually not the most confident guy that needs to, you know, posture up and act all

00:05:49.880 tough. The truly tough guys, they have no need to, you know, posture in that way. They have no need to

00:05:56.440 act tough because they have that calm confidence. The best example I know of this is Fedor Emelianenko.

00:06:03.960 He was the best MMA fighter in the world, um, 15 or 20 years ago. And it was quite fun. I remember one,

00:06:12.300 a classmate I have, when I went to school, he said, uh, because we talked about him and he was like,

00:06:16.980 yeah, this guy looks like he's going out for a grocery shop when he was going into the ring. And, uh,

00:06:22.940 it's completely true. He was completely untouched by any emotion. He just walked into the ring,

00:06:27.380 got the job done, didn't, you know, need to have an intense stare down, etc. Now, of course,

00:06:33.500 I understand certain fighters, they have intense stare downs to, you know, hype the fight and

00:06:37.620 everything. But, uh, Fedor, he has, uh, no pseudo-Andrea at all, calm as could be, walked into the ring,

00:06:44.420 no emotion showing on his face and, um, yeah, got the job done. Same thing with the Spartans,

00:06:49.380 you know, they don't need to hype themselves up overly much. Um, so that is something to keep

00:06:55.900 in mind as well. And a term you can remember, pseudo-Andrea, if I pronounce it correctly,

00:07:01.880 I don't know. But, uh, keep that in mind also. When you see a guy who's posturing really much in,

00:07:07.980 uh, you know, he wishes to appear dangerous, it's one thing to be, you know, posturing in, uh,

00:07:13.300 you know, cocky, funny way, uh, in a charismatic way, uh, that is one thing. But if someone tries

00:07:20.560 to be intimidating by being all, um, obnoxious, you don't have so much to worry about if you know

00:07:27.420 how to fight. So anyway, moving on to a motivating quote if you want to hit the gym. I thought this

00:07:35.700 was, uh, a bit fun. Uh, just, you know, well-written to, uh, explain how, um, aesthetic someone is.

00:07:43.260 So I'm jumping right into a quote here.

00:07:45.880 Polinike's supreme physical beauty. In every aspect of his person, face as well as physique,

00:07:51.780 the knight was formed as flawlessly as a god. Naked in the gymnasium, even alongside scores of

00:07:57.840 youths and warriors blessed in comeliness and elevated by their training to the peak of condition,

00:08:03.480 Polinike's stood out without equal, surpassing all others in symmetry of form and faultlessness of 0.96

00:08:10.920 physical structure. Clothed in white robes for the assembly, he shone like Adonis and armed for war

00:08:18.720 with bronze of his shield burnished, his scarlet cloak across his shoulders and horsehair-crested

00:08:25.460 helmet of a knight pushed back upon his brow, he shone forth, peerless as Achilles. So if you have,

00:08:32.820 uh, need of some extra motivation to push through some reps in the gym, just envision yourself as,

00:08:39.160 um, such a character. And then a last quote also by said beautiful man, and he explains why he hates,

00:08:47.980 uh, younger man and is, um, a bit harsh with the discipline. So, um, so he's asked, why do you hate

00:08:54.520 the young man so much? And he responds, because he does not love glory. It's, uh, good a reason as any

00:09:01.000 to hate someone because they don't love glory. So anyway, that was just some epic quotes I found,

00:09:07.120 but all in all, you know, I've talked about historical fiction as a genre before, and this is a great

00:09:13.500 example of it that you can gain so much wisdom from it by just, uh, reading a good fiction book. Uh, so all in

00:09:20.240 all, I can definitely recommend it. Um, you know, it's not overly long, as I said, it's very immersive,

00:09:26.620 so you'll probably read through it quite quickly. It gives you a good insight into Spartan society and,

00:09:33.060 you know, in reawakening a sense of European identity, uh, Greece, the cradle of civilization,

00:09:39.780 and, um, yeah, why not take the opportunity when it's sunny outside to read about some ancient,

00:09:46.460 glorious Spartans. So anyway, that was just a, uh, book recommendation, and, uh, again,

00:09:52.680 follow me on Telegram and Instagram and all the usual social media, and, uh, I will see you in the

00:09:59.280 next video. So thank you for watching. XOXO. Boom!

The Golden One - June 14, 2020

Spartans, 300, Physique Motivation. Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. Book Review

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript