Constantine P. Cavafy poems that deal with other situations such as closure (for example, "The walls"), debt (for example, "Thermopylae"), and human dignity (for example, "The God Abandons Antony"). The poem "Thermopylae" reminds us of the famous battle of Thermopylae where the 300 Spartans and their allies fought against the greater numbers of Persians, although they knew that they would be defeated. There are some principles in our lives that we should live by, and Thermopylae is the ground of duty. We stay there fighting although we know that there is the potential for failure. (At the end the traitor Ephialtes will appear,
Leonidas at Thermopylae needed a hero to sacrifice himself for the greater good of his country, and the story of Leonidas and the Battle of Thermopylae inspired him. This was all taking place during the French Revolution where enemy soldiers were closing in on the French borders; these events are similar to how the Spartans felt during the Battle at Thermopylae, the core theme of David’s painting. When Napoleon Bonaparte saw the exhibit of David’s latest paintings in 1799, “he criticized the lack of action and the fixed poses of the warriors in "The Sabine Women".” This critique by one of David’s heroes