Editing Leonidas I (section)

==Legacy==
A [[hero cult]] of Leonidas survived in Sparta until the [[Antonine dynasty|Antonine era]] (2nd century AD).<ref>''Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics'', Part 12 By James Hastings p. 655. {{ISBN|0-567-09489-8}}</ref> Leonideia (λεωνιδεῖα) were solemnities celebrated every year in Sparta in honour of Leonidas and only Spartans were allowed to take part. The contest was held opposite the theatre at Sparta where there were the two sepulchral monuments of Pausanias and Leonidas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:alphabetic+letter=L:entry+group=2:entry=leonideia-cn|title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), LA´BARUM, LEONIDEIA, LEONIDEIA|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref>

===Modern culture===
{{Further|Battle of Thermopylae in popular culture}}
{{anchor|Leonidas monument}}
{{multiple image|perrow = 2|total_width=200
| image1 = Leonidas.jpg
| image2 = LeonidaSpartaMonumento.jpg
| image3 = 3420 - Milano - Ernesto Bazzaro (1859-1937) - Monumento a Felice Cavallotti (1906) - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto 23-Jun-2007.jpg
| footer = Statues of Leonidas at [[Thermopylae]] (top left), in [[Sparti (municipality)|Sparta]] (top right), and depicted on top of the monument to [[Felice Cavallotti]] in [[Milan]], created by [[Ernesto Bazzaro]] in 1906.
}}
A bronze [[Statue of Leonidas (Thermopylae)|statue of Leonidas]] was erected at Thermopylae in 1955.<ref name="RingWatson2013">{{cite book|last1=Ring|first1=Trudy|last2=Watson|first2=Noelle|last3=Schellinger|first3=Paul|title=Southern Europe: International Dictionary of Historic Places|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qcr9AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA695|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-25958-8|page=695}}</ref> A sign, under the statue, reads simply: "[[Molon labe|ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ]]" ("Come and take them"), which was Leonidas' [[Laconic phrase|laconic reply]] when Xerxes offered to spare the lives of the Spartans if they gave up their arms.<ref>[[Plutarch]], ''Apophthegmata Laconica,'' 225c.</ref> [[Statue of Leonidas (Sparta)|Another statue]], also with the inscription ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ, was erected in [[Sparti (municipality)|Sparta]] in 1969.<ref name="lakonikostypos.gr2023">{{Cite web |url=https://www.lakonikostypos.gr/epikairothta/item/166499-ta-apokalyptiria-tou-agalmatos-tou-leonida-to-1970-sti-sparti |date=30 May 2023 |access-date=5 July 2024 |website=Λακωνικός Τύπος |last=Περγαντής |first=Ηλίας |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240705021112/https://lakonikos.gr/epikairothta/item/166499-ta-apokalyptiria-tou-agalmatos-tou-leonida-to-1970-sti-sparti |archive-date=5 July 2024 |url-status=live |language=el |script-title=el:Τα αποκαλυπτήρια του αγάλματος του Λεωνίδα το 1970 στη Σπάρτη |trans-title=The unveiling of the statue of Leonidas in 1970 in Sparta}}</ref><!-- It was designed in 1966, the inscription on it is dated 1968, it was installed in 1969 and an unveiling ceremony was held in 1970. -->

Another monument to Leonidis was erected in Brunswick, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in November 2009. Brunswick is known as "the suburb of the Spartans" due to an influx of migrants from the Laconian region of Greece during the 1950s and 1960s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=King Leonidas |url=https://www.monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/culture/community/display/96584-king-leonidas- |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240725152104/https://www.monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/culture/community/display/96584-king-leonidas- |archive-date=25 July 2024 |access-date=1 February 2025 |website=Monument Australia}}</ref>

''Leonidas'' was the name of an epic poem written by [[Richard Glover (poet)|Richard Glover]], which originally appeared in 1737. It went on to appear in four other editions, being expanded from 9 books to 12.<ref name="Jung2008">{{cite book|last=Jung|first=Sandro|title=David Mallet, Anglo-Scot: Poetry, Patronage, and Politics in the Age of Union|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GLCmdb9LCxAC&pg=PA94|year=2008|publisher=Associated University Presse|isbn=978-0-87413-005-8|pages=94–95}}</ref> He is a central figure in [[Steven Pressfield]]'s novel ''[[Gates of Fire]]'',<ref name="Pressfield2007">{{cite book|last=Pressfield|first=Steven|title=Gates of Fire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vcxlHkUGf_wC|year= 2007|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-553-90405-5}}</ref> and appears as the [[protagonist]] of [[Frank Miller]]'s 1998 comic book series ''[[300 (comics)|300]]''. It presents a fictionalised version of Leonidas and the Battle of Thermopylae, as does the [[300 (film)|2006 feature film adapted from it]].<ref name="CombeBoyle2013">{{cite book|last1=Combe|first1=K.|last2=Boyle|first2=B.|title=Masculinity and Monstrosity in Contemporary Hollywood Films|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=daNEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA83|year=2013|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-35982-7|pages=83–84}}</ref>

In cinema, Leonidas has been portrayed by: [[Richard Egan (actor)|Richard Egan]] in the 1962 epic ''[[The 300 Spartans]]'';<ref name="Nikoloutsos2013">{{cite book|last=Nikoloutsos|first=Konstantinos P.|title=Ancient Greek Women in Film|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h0cXAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA261|date=2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-967892-1|pages=260–261}}</ref> [[Gerard Butler]] in the 2006 film ''[[300 (film)|300]]'', inspired by the [[graphic novel]] of the [[300 (comics)|same name]] by [[Frank Miller]] and [[Lynn Varley]] ([[Tyler Neitzel]] portrayed Leonidas as a young man);<ref name="Spielvogel2014">{{cite book|last=Spielvogel|first=Jackson J.|title=Western Civilization: Volume A: To 1500|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LceiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT104|year= 2014|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-1-285-98299-1|page=104}}</ref> [[Sean Maguire]] in the 2008 film ''[[Meet the Spartans]]'', a parody of the 2006 film.
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