We must consult the oracle.


Trust the gods, Leonidas.


I'd prefer you trusted your reason.


Your blasphemies...


...have cost us quite enough already.


Don't compound them.


We will consult the oracle.


Diseased old mystics.


Worthless remnants of a time
before Sparta's ascent from darkness.


Remnants of a senseless tradition.


Tradition even Leonidas cannot defy...


... for he must respect
the word of the ephors.


That is the law.


And no Spartan, subject or citizen,
man or woman...


... slave or king, is above the law.


The ephors choose only
the most beautiful Spartan girls...


... to live among them as oracles.


Their beauty is their curse...


... for the old wretches
have the needs of men...


... and souls as black as hell.


"Pray to the winds...


...Sparta will fall.


All Greece will fall.


Trust not in men...


...honor the gods.


Honor the Carneia."


The king's climb down is harder.


Pompous, inbred swine.


Worthless, diseased, rotten...


... corrupt.


Truly, you're in the god-king's
favor now...


...O wise and holy men.....