I. SUBJECT The Gates of Fire is a novel about the Battle of Thermopylae set in ancient Greece. The novel begins by focusing on its protagonist, Xeones, who died in the Battle of Thermopylae. The Greek god Apollo resurrected him from the dead so he could tell the Persian king Xerxes the story of his life. Xeon's story began when he was just a little boy. His city was betrayed and conquered by one of their allies. He avoided being killed by fleeing into the mountains with his cousin, Diomache, and his family's slave, Bruxieus. The three lived in the mountains for two or three years before Bruxieus became seriously ill and died. For this reason Diomache and Xeones decided to go to Athens. Xeones then decided to leave Athens and go to Sparta while Diomache decided to stay. In Sparta, Xeones became a helot and was given to a Spartan soldier named Dienekes. Xeones was trained to fight like a Spartan and later became Dienekes' battle squire. When Xeon was in his early twenties, the Spartan king Leonidas announced that three hundred Spartan men would be sent on a suicide mission to Thermopylae to hold off the invading Persian army. Dienekes was chosen to go. On the first and second day of battle many Persians were killed, but only a few Greeks. At the end of the second day, Xerxes found a secret path through which part of his army could cross and completely surround the Greeks the next day. Leonidas was informed of this and sent a group of Spartans, including Xeones and Dienekes, on an unsuccessful mission to kill Xerxes. On the third day, the Persians surrounded the Spartans and they were all killed. Xeones died immediately after finishing his story. His body was taken to Diomache in Athens. He cremated his body and... in the center of the paper... the whole story of the Battle of Thermopylae. This makes it historical fiction. The subgenre of Gates of Fire is the adventure story. An adventure story is “A story in which action – often external, usually physical, and often violent – ​​is the predominant material, emphasized above characterization, motivation, or theme. Suspense is generated by the question “What will happen next?” rather than "Why?" or “To whom?”” (6). Since this novel was mostly about war, it would be considered an adventure. I wondered what exactly the quote stated: “What happens next?” Works Cited Harmon, William, William Flint Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman. A literature manual. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.Pressfield, Steven. Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel about the Battle of Thermopylae. New York: Bantam, 1998. Print