Queen Gorgo of Sparta tells her men about the Battle of Marathon, in which King Darius of Persia was killed by Themistocles of Athens. Darius’s son, Xerxes, witnesses his father’s death and is advised to never wage war against the Greeks. Darius’s naval commander, Artemisia, persuades Xerxes to become a god and sends Xerxes on a journey through the desert. Xerxes reaches a cave and bathes in an otherworldly liquid, emerging as a “God-King”. He returns to Persia and declares war on Greece to avenge his father.
As Xerxes’s forces advance towards Thermopylae, Themistocles meets with the council and convinces them to provide him with a fleet to engage the Persians at sea. Themistocles travels to Sparta to ask King Leonidas for help but is informed by Dilios that Leonidas is consulting the Oracle, and Gorgo is reluctant to side with Athens. Themistocles reunites with his old friend Scyllias, who infiltrated the Persian troops and reveals Artemisia was born Greek, but defected to Persia after her family was raped and murdered by Greek hoplites. Rescued and adopted by a Persian emissary, she was trained and eventually rose up to become a naval commander. Themistocles also learns that Leonidas has marched to fight the Persians with only 300 men.
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