In the Greek mythology of Hesiod, women are portrayed as evil beings sent by Zeus to punish man. This is a common trope of paternalistic societies, that women are portrayed as temptresses who can lure men into evil. Hesiod describes how the original woman, Pandora, opened a box which released evil and sin into the previously peaceful world of man. This idea was caused by the paternal nature of ancient Greek society, but also continued to reinforce and justify this paternalism.

In the Greek mythology of Hesiod, Pandora is the first human woman. She is created by Zeus to punish mankind. Pandora opens the so-called “Pandora’s box,” which releases sin and evil into the world. You may notice how markedly similar this story is to the story of Adam and Eve, something worth thinking about.

The Battle of Marathon caused the First Persian Invasion to come to a close, so that would be the best choice. The Battle of Thermopylae was a last stand from the Second Persian Invasion and had no ties to the First Invasion, so it would not be a good answer. The Punic Wars were a series of wars fought between Rome and Carthage and they did not involve the Greeks or the Persians, so it would not be a good answer. The Battle of the Bulge was a famous battle from World War I, so that would not be a good answer here. Lastly the Battle of Waterloo was one of Napoleon's most famous defeats, so it would not be a good choice here either. 

The First Messenian War was fought between Messenia and Sparta in eighth century BCE. It ended in victory for the growing Spartan state and the subjugation of the Messenian people as slaves in Spartan society.

Athens was ruled by a series of tyrants for much of the sixth century. Beginning with the rule of Pisistratus and continuing with his son Hippias and his brother Hipparchus. Hippias became paranoid and oppressive as a result and lost the support of the Athenian people. In 508 BCE the Athenian nobility encouraged the Spartans to invade and overthrow Hippias. The Spartans, following the direction of the Oracle at Delphi, duly obliged.  

Hoplites were infantrymen in Archaic and Classical Era Greek armies. They fought in tight-knit formations, called phalanxes. They were armed with full metal body armor, a helmet, a long bronze or iron spear, and a sword.

Leonidas is perhaps the most famous of Sparta’s many kings and military leaders. Leonidas led the famous Spartan stand at Thermopylae - where three hundred Spartans faced off against a Persian army numbering in the tens of (possibly hundreds of) thousands.

Darius landed an invasion force on mainland Attica (near the village of Marathon) during the first assault of the Persian Wars. The Athenians, with their allies the Plataeans, made a heroic stand against a much larger force and forced the Persians to withdraw. This was a source of great pride for the Athenians who never let the Spartans forget that they had been absent.

The Battle of Thermopylae is the famous “last stand of the 300” whereby a small group of Spartan soldiers held off the massive Persian army by forcing them to fight in a very tight space. The Battle of Salamis was an important naval victory for the Greek city-states against the Persian navy. Although the Persian navy was much larger, the Greeks were able to neutralize this advantage by forcing the Persians to fight in the narrow straits off the coast of the island of Salamis.

The Second Messenian War was fought in the second-half of the seventh century BCE. It was fought between Sparta and Messenia and ended in total victory for the Spartans. The Messenians were enslaved in large numbers and brought to Sparta to live and work as helots (communally owned slaves) in Spartan society.