A Greek's Take on Women's Courage...from "Gates of Fire"

I've been on leave this week, so besides knocking out relocation business, I've had a fair amount of time to read. I'd seen "Gates of Fire," by Steven Pressfield, on the Marine Corps reading list, knew that it covered the Battle of Thermopylae (of "300" fame), so I thought I'd give it a look. I half-expected to merely find Greeks and Persians slugging it out at the Hot Gates for page after page, but what I found was much more...A commentary on the warrior ethos, to be sure, but Pressfield goes way beyond what I expected....If you have time, I wanted to share a little bit about what he writes regarding the women of Sparta. At the end, I'll try to explain why...
Dienekes, an older, heroic platoon leader of Spartans, is sitting around a fire with a few of the younger warriors, days before the Battle of Thermopylae, discussing courage, virtue, etc...
Ariston said,"I was thinking of women's courage, I believe it is different from men's." Dienekes pressed him..."Different, how?" "Man's courage, to give his life for his country, is great but unextraordinary. Is it not intrinsic to the nature of the male, beasts as well as men, to fight and to contend? It's what we were born to do, it's in our blood. Watch any boy. Before he can even speak, he reaches, impelled by instinct, for the staff and the sword--while his sisters unprompted shun these implements of contention and instead cuddle to their bosom the kitten and the doll.
"What is more natural to a man than to fight, or a woman to love? Is this not the imperative of a mother's blood, to give and to nurture, above all the produce of her own womb, the children she has borne in pain? We know that a lioness or a she-wolf will cast away her life without hesitation to preserve her cubs or pups. Women the same. Now consider, friends, that which we call women's courage:
"What could be more contrary to female nature, to motherhood, than to stand unmoved and unmoving as her sons march off to death? Must not every sinew of the mother's flesh call out in agony and affront at such an outrage? Must not her heart seek to cry out in its passion, 'No! Not my son! Spare him!' That women, from some source unknown to us, summon the will to conquer this their own deepest nature is, I believe, the reason we stand in awe of our mothers and sisters and wives. This, I believe, Dienekes, is the essence of women's courage and why it, as you suggested, is superior to men's.
"What you say is true, Ariston. I had never thought of it in that way before. Yet something must be added. If women's victory were simply to stand dry-eyed as their sons march off to death, this would not alone by unnatural, but inhuman, grotesque and even monstrous. What elevates an act to the stature of nobility is, I believe, that it is performed in the service of a higher and more selfless cause.
"These women of whom we stand in awe donate their sons' lives to their country, to the people as a whole, that the nation may survive even as their own dear children perish. Like the mother whose story we have heard from childhood who, on learning that all five of her sons had been killed in the same battle, asked only, 'Was our nation victorious?' and, being told that it was, turned for home without a tear, saying only, 'Then I am happy.' Is it not this element--the nobility of setting the whole above the part--that moves us about women's sacrifice?"
--"Gates of Fire," p268-269
So why in the world did I just waste minutes of my life retyping all of that? Do I really think my wife a Spartan wife? Nope, because then that'd make me a Spartan--and I only think myself Spartan-like after a few beers, when I'm not only a Spartan, but Superman, Chesney, and Santana on air guitar, all rolled into one.
That passage from "Gates of Fire" struck me because, the more I'm around my wife--as I have been for this whole Navy/PCS transition--the more I recognize her brand of courage. I'm not marching off to war, at least not yet, but there's been times when I've just watched her, looking to see how she handles different situations, because I know the day will come when I do have to leave, and she'll be alone, and how will she handle it then?
For example, the other day, when I had to tell her that I'll likely only be able to be with her for a day or two when she has the baby, she was disappointed but only said, "It's what we expected; at least you're not deployed." Or when the occassional hardship with the Navy arises, I chalk it up to Navy business and just part of the job, and she understands...Natalie's already moved us across the country without me, and could've easily done so this time, had I again been away...
Courage to me has always been hot-blooded, high-octane testosterone; it's been somewhat of a revelation to see it in its 'female' form as shown by Natalie--a cooler heat, a calm self-sufficiency, a simmering strength underneath the surface. When that day comes for me to be away, I know she'll endure as countless military wives have before her. Because she's Spartan. And I'm Superman. =)