Sword shortage cuts to the quickWith film 300 comes big demand, but there are few to be had in Sparta[/b]
By A. CRAIG COPETAS
Bloomberg News
The Houston Chronicle
May 21, 2007
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4823778.htmlCostas Menegakis, a 42-year-old Greek-Canadian blacksmith who specializes in horseshoes, holds a new Spartan sword in his forge in Sparta, Greece. Photo: Yannis Kontos/Bloomberg NewsThere's a shortage of swords in Sparta. Greek merchants from Athens to Thermopylae are also concerned about a scarcity of spears as they prepare for summer visitors obsessed with 300, the gory story of the 480 B.C. clash between Spartan King Leonidas and his archenemy, King Xerxes of Persia.
"My Spartan sword maker died a few weeks before the movie opened," laments Theodoros Tzamalas, whose Greek Souvenirs has been the main retail outlet for Spartan battle gear in Athens since 1940.
"Until 300, there was no rush for Spartan swords," Tzamalas says from behind a counter cluttered with strap-on sandals and miniature-soap Parthenons. "Our Leonidas sword was lightweight steel, cost 15 euros and was archeologically correct. Now hundreds of people are specifically asking for them, and I don't have any."
Greek Deputy Finance Minister Petros Doukas, the highest-ranking Spartan in the government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, says he's aware of the 300 weaponry crisis and its effect on Greece's economy.
"The movie's lesson is: Fight for your country, even if it's a losing battle, and have enough swords and hotel rooms on hand for tourists," Doukas says.
Diplomacy dictates Doukas remain a noncombatant in the war of words between 300 fans and Iranian hard-liners who argue the film is part of a wider Western campaign smearing Iran's Persian heritage.
"The Greek government takes no position and offers no official criticisms of the film," Doukas says.
"It's not like the old days. Until the late 1950s, Spartans acted exactly like the ancients: laconic, aristocratic, with a class structure that didn't care about money. Pedigree was everything."
As was widespread public support for sword ownership.
"That's now gone, too," frets historian Despoina Stratigis, owner of Synergies, a Sparta-based cultural tour company. "Last season, I put visitors in touch with Spartan cheese makers. Now everyone wants a sword maker. We don't even have an original sword in our museum, and there's only one sword maker left in Sparta."
That would be Costas Menegakis, a 42-year-old Greek-Canadian blacksmith who specializes in horseshoes and hasn't made a sword since 2005.
"It was a Viking sword," Menegakis says. "I'm ready to make Spartan swords, 80 euros. I pound swords and spear tips from steel, but if someone wants an original poured in bronze, I can do that."
Sparta is refurbishing its crumbling tourist sites.
"Our big attractions are the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia and the olive-oil museum," Papapostolou says. "We're staging ancient Greek plays in the ruins of the outdoor theater.
"Trouble is, Spartans weren't theater-goers; the Athenians went to plays. We Spartans did things for real, and many other Greek cities are jealous about what the movie's popularity has brought us."