Didn't the Persians Poison the Well when they fell in?

[ILikeYourCoat]

Leonidas threw the Persian messenger and his attendants into the well. Wouldn't that poison the well with their dead decaying bodies? People drank water from that well, didn't they? Even if they fished out the bodies after they were dead, wouldn't that still have added disease to the well?

 

[xwolverine2]

who cares.... lol

 

[C. Lee]

I haven't seen the movie yet....so let me ask.....were they diseased before they were thrown in the well? Because otherwise....all they had to do was pull them out after they drowned.

 

[herakles]

That did happen! They told the Persians to climb or dig themselves out. I don't recall if that well was a dead one or if it had water?

 

[Webhead7]

For some reason this thread reminds me of "It puts the lotion in the basket"

I don't think this actually took place did it? I know it did in the graphic novel but I never read anything about it historically.

 

[ILikeYourCoat]

According to Wikipedia, it actually did happen:

"After the expedition to Greece had got under way, Xerxes sent messengers to all Greek cities offering blandishments if they would submit, and asking for "earth and water" from their soil as a token of their submission. Many smaller states submitted. However, the Athenians threw their envoys into a pit and the Spartans threw theirs into a well, taunting them with the retort, "Dig it out for yourselves" (referring to the 'earth and water' demand)."

 

[Webhead7]

Thanks for pointing that out I must have missed it in Wikipedia. Spartans were just crazy!

 

[ILikeYourCoat]

What is the hedgehog's one good trick?