Othryades

Othryades was the last surviving Spartan of the 300 Spartans selected to fight against 300 Argives in the Battle of the 300 Champions. Ashamed by surviving his comrades, he committed suicide on the field following the battle.[1]

Othryades
Othryades by David d'Angers, 1810
AllegianceSparta
Battles/warsBattle of the 300 Champions

Biography

The Spartans and Argives were fighting for possession of Thyrea. Rather than commit their entire armies to the field, the Spartans and Argives agreed that the battle would be fought by 300 soldiers from each side, and whichever side won would possess the land. Othryades was one of 300 Spartan soldiers selected to fight the 300 Argive soldiers. The two main armies withdrew to their own territories before the battle commenced, because if the armies remained their soldiers might lend aid to their comrades if they saw them losing.[2]

Neither side could gain an advantage in the battle and, in the end, only three soldiers of the 600 survived the battle: Orthyades, for the Spartans, and Alcenor and Chromius, for the Argives. After the battle, the two surviving Argives left the field to report their victory. Orthyades, on the other hand, remained and looted the bodies of the fallen Argives (as was customary).

The following day, the Spartan and Argive army returned to see who had been victorious, but each side claimed victory: the Argives because more Argives had survived and the Spartans because the Argives had retreated. The disagreement resulted in general fighting between the armies and in which the Spartans were the victors. Othryades, ashamed to return to Sparta as the sole survivor of the 300, committed suicide on the battlefield.[1]

In art

In literature
gollark: Hmm, it does seem quite a hard problem.
gollark: You would also probably want to display it on a monitor with text scale at 0.5, as CC screens are small.
gollark: Do you already have the train dispatching system written?
gollark: Yes. That appears complexicated.
gollark: Writing an interpreter for Haskell 98 without extensions is, well, not *easy*, but probably pretty doable, but modern Haskell relies on Haskell 2010 with about 1 trillion extensions and sometimes bindings to C libraries.

References
  1. E Elder M.A. -. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Volume 3. J. Murray, 1873. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
  2. Herodotus. Histories. p. Book 1, Chapter 83.
  3. Valérie, Montalbetti. "Orthryades the Spartan Dying". Louvre Museum. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  4. "Dying Othryades (Othryades Mourant)". Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Angers. The Courtauld Institute of Art. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  5. Ovid. "Fasti".
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