Gates of Fire

Alexandros is the Spartan youth in training to whose service Xeones is assigned. The friendship between Alexandros and Xeones constitutes a major thread of the novel. Their closeness is solidified when Alexandros, eager to overcome his reputation as a weakling, absconds from the agoge and follows the army to Antirhion. During their journey, the two boys share their personal histories, hopes, and dreams.

Alexandros is better known for his beauty and singing voice than for his skill at arms. Despite his tremendous efforts, he struggles to keep up with his peers in the agoge. Though he is described as slighter in build than most of the other Spartan boys, it is his bouts of asthma that most severely restrict his ability to reach his full potential as a warrior.

Dienekes serves as Alexandros’s mentor and enjoys taking the boy on walks to discuss philosophy. Alexandros often attracts the negative attention of Polynikes, who taunts Alexandros for his “unmanly” beauty and high singing voice. In one instance, Polynikes permanently disfigures Alexandros by breaking his nose.

Despite his physical disadvantages, Alexandros manages to win the respect of both Rooster and Polynikes. He wins Rooster’s respect by acknowledging the helot as a better fighter than he is and wins Polynikes’ by fighting bravely at Thermopylae, even though it is his first battle.

Dienekes is a respected veteran of the Spartan army. His wife is Arete, and his brother was Iatrokles. Dienekes is Alexandros’s mentor and frequently engages the boy in pedagogical dialogue. Since Xeones usually accompanies Alexandros, he also looks to Dienekes as a mentor. He is not particularly handsome and has a large scar on his forehead, which is normally covered by his hair. Damage to his ankle from an old wound causes him to limp at times.

As shown in his instruction of Alexandros, Dienekes is considerably more introspective and philosophical than the other senior warriors in the novel. His dialogues with Alexandros provide a platform for the major themes of the story to be highlighted.

Dienekes, unlike many of his peers, is not particularly interested in gaining individual combat. Although he would doubtlessly be selected as one of the king’s companions to fight in the royal battalion, Dienekes prefers the role of a platoon commander in one of the standard line regiments. Dienekes represents the ideal of the mid-level officer who prefers to share his experience and strengthen his fellows, rather than seek individual glory.

Arete is Dienekes’s wife. She was formerly married to his brother, Iatrokles, but marries Dienekes when Iatrokles is slain in battle. She is described as tall and beautiful, with a regal bearing and commanding presence. She is exceptionally intelligent and brave.

Her brother, Idotychtides, is Rooster’s illegitimate father, making him her nephew. Idotychtides has died in battle, and Arete wishes to see him live on in Rooster. She intervenes several times to protect Rooster and his family.

She and Dienekes have four girls but no boys. Arete believes that the gods have denied them a son because of their secret love during her marriage to his brother.

Dekton is a helot (Spartan slave) and illegitimate son of Idotychtides. He is physically imposing and a ferocious fighter who seethes with resentment at his status. Dekton meets Xeones when the latter first arrives in Sparta and is put to work in the fields. Despite teasing Xeones often, Dekton is friendly towards him. He serves as Olympieus’s squire for several years.

Dekton is openly treasonous, and Xeones often serves a sounding board for his more seditious sentiments. His resentment at being a slave gives him an intense dislike for Alexandros, whom Dekton considers his lesser in strength and bravery. Dekton is offered the chance to become a mothax (half-citizen soldier) several times but refuses. He will only accept the full citizenship that he considers his due. He wins full citizenship for himself and his family from his service at Thermopylae.

Polynikes is the best single warrior among the Spartans. He is a two-time Olympic victor and renowned for his flawless physique. Polynikes is also arrogant, condescending, and vain. He believes that his courage comes from his selfish desire for personal glory, rather than duty or need to protect his fellows. He seems to consider Dienekes a rival, and his own self-aggrandizement contrasts with Dienekes’s patient instruction of the less skilled.

Leonidas is one of Sparta’s two kings during the story and is the senior. Though nearly 60, he still fights on the front lines and remains an elite warrior. Leonidas leads by example, joining the men in their eight-night drills and not disdaining even the meanest soldier’s work. He is very skilled as an orator. It seems that mass desertions at Thermopylae are only prevented by his speeches.

Bruxieus was the slave of Xeones’s family in Astakos. He had been captured in war decades earlier, then blinded with pitch and given a slave-brand on his forehead. He is Xeones’s earliest mentor.

When Astakos is plundered, Bruxieus takes Xeones and Diomache into the hills and helps them survive through his knowledge of plants and animals. Bruxieus’s health declines precipitously in the second year in the hills, and he dies. Xeones and Diomache cremate him on a pyre.

Diomache is Xeones’s cousin. She is two years older than Xeones, and he follows her around like a puppy as a young child. She is confident, and often tells Xeones that he’s wrong. She and Xeones separate when he wishes to go to Sparta to become a warrior, and she wishes to go to Athens and find a husband. 

Olympieus is the polemarch, or battle-leader, of the Spartan army. His son is Alexandros, and Paraleia is his wife. He is one of the oldest Spartan warriors, roughly the same age as Leonidas, and serves as one of the king’s closest advisors. He is universally acknowledged to be a noble, intelligent, and brave leader.

Orontes is the captain of the Ten Thousand Immortals, the household guard of the Persian Emperor. After Xeones is recovered from the battlefield at Thermopylae, Orontes is responsible for him. He is fair and generous and develops a strong liking for Xeones, whom he tries to save at the end of the novel.

Elephantinos is a merchant from the Greek colonies in Asia Minor. His cart has broken down less than a day’s march from Thermopylae, so he decides to join the Spartans when they march past him. During the battle, he serves as an informal morale officer, telling jokes to the scared men huddled around their campfires. His affability and oddly-accented Greek endear him to the soldiers. He takes arms and fights alongside the Spartans on the third day of the battle.

Dithyrambos is the captain of the Thespaian troops at Thermopylae. Although not a lifelong military commander like Leonidas, Dithyrambos shows himself to be a great leader of men and a ferocious fighter. He and a portion of his troops join the Spartans in the battle’s third day of fighting.

Ptammitechus—who is called Tommie by the Greeks because they find the name unpronounceable—is a captain of the marines manning the Persian fleet. He is from Egypt and repeatedly urges the Greeks to accept vassalage under Xerxes. He is very tall, strikingly handsome, and impeccably polite. His foreign dress and armament excite comment among the Spartans.

Gobartes is the official historian of Xerxes’s campaign in Greece. In a series of interviews, he records Xeones’s story. He is eager to please Xerxes by recording as much of Xeones’s information about the Spartans as he is able. He appears to develop a sincere affection for Xeones, as shown by his efforts to ensure that the Greek’s corpse is returned to Diomache.

Suicide is an old Scythian warrior who is Dienekes’s squire before Xeones. He was exiled from his homeland for murder and came to Sparta, begging to be killed. From his request, he earned his nickname. He is a berserker who fights in a frothing rage. His personal weapons are javelins cut down to half-length, which he calls his “darning needles.”

Xerxes is the Emperor of Persia and son of Darius. He intends to accomplish what his father swore to do and conquer Greece. He is mercurial, prone to changing his mind on a whim and executing those who carried out his earlier orders. He is not a fighter and observes the battle at Thermopylae from a platform.

Mardonius is Xerxes’s senior military commander. He is proud and vain and averse to accepting information that contradicts one of his positions. He repeatedly underestimates the Greeks.

Iatrokles is Dienekes’s older brother and Arete’s first wife. He is an Olympic champion who achieved incredible renown before his early death in battle.

Idotychtides is a famous warrior who has died by the time the story begins. Rooster is his illegitimate son, and Arete is his sister. Rooster resembles him in bravery and physical ability.