I'm not sure if Xerxes was a super-tall transvestite-type of a King.
No he wasn't but I just left that part out because I assumed that it was common knowlege for history buffs.
I thought the Spartans actually fought in the nude--although, I haven't verified that.
No they were actually very concerned about their appearence and they usually had plate armor that covered their lower legs, chest/back, and head. Then they usually had large hoplite shield, and very long spears. They also often spent large amounts of time gooming themselves, before battle, paying special attention to their long hair.
In a recent interview I heard the creaters of the movie talk about the changes in the soldiers uniforms that they chose to make. Instead of going with the more accuarte Bronze Age plate armor they choose to make the actors bodies the costums because they thought it make it eaier for the audience to distinguish the actors, therefore creating a better movie, and fitting more in line with the comic book feel they were going for.
Also, I was told that the Spartans also had homosexual tendencies, not just the Athenians, as implied in the movie.
That's almost laughable, the Spartan military was very much a homosexual society. Spartan military law dictated that every older soldier must take a younger/new soldier for a mentor/mentee relationship, but it was also a sexual relationship. Their thinking behind was that it created stronger bonds, and that a soldier was more likely to fight harder, and fight to the death if the men they were fighting next to was also a lover.
But it didn't stop there, they even took it a step further. A young newlywed couple was not allowed to see each other in daylight. The husband had to sneak in through the window after dark, and the wife was forced to cut her hair very short because they were afraid that if a young husband was allowed to have normal contact with his wife then he wouldn't have any desire to contine the forced military homosexual relationship.
Needless to say the Spartans were pretty wierd people. They also didn't have any kind of currency system, and they actually tried to perfect the first type of communistic society.
