| LEONIDAS | King of Sparta who fought the Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC); depicted by Gerard Butler in the 2006 film 300 (8) |
| XERXES | Victor at Thermopylae, 480 B.C. |
| MENELAUS | In Greek mythology, a king of Sparta who was married to Helen of Troy (8) |
| LEDA | In Greek mythology, a queen of Sparta who was the mother of Helen and Pollux by Zeus, who visited her in the form of a swan |
| SALAMIS | Island in the Saronic Gulf that was the scene of a naval battle in 480 BC in which the Greeks defeated the Persians |
| THEFEW | Name for the Allied airmen of the Royal Air Force who fought the Battle of Britain in the Second Wor |
| PERSIA | Foe of Sparta at the Battle of Thermopylae (6) |
| HELEN | Wife of King Menelaus of Sparta who fled from him, starting a war (5) |
| LASTSTAND | The Battle of Thermopylae, for the Spartans |
| SPARTA | Belligerent at the battle of Thermopylae |
| SPARTANS | Ancient people once led by Leonidas l in the Battle of Thermopylae (8) |
| ISSUS | Ancient town in Asia Minor; scene of a 333 BC battle at which Alexander the Great defeated the Persians (5) |
| TYNDAREUS | Mythological king of Sparta and stepfather of Helen of Troy who instigated an oath that was a key aspect in the Trojan War (9) |
| THERMOPYLAE | Scene of a famous 480 BC battle in which a greatly outnumbered Greek force under Leonidas held off a force of Persians under Xerxes (11) |
| MARATHON | Plain in Attica which was the site of victory by the Athenians and Plataeans over the Persians in 490 B.C. (8) |
| HERMIONE | In Greek mythology, the only child of Menelaus, king of Sparta, and his wife Queen Helen (8) |
| THRONE | Jewelled seat of the Mughal emperors, studded with the Koh-i-Noor diamond and other precious items, looted in 1739 by the Persians (7,6) |
| PEACOCK | Jewelled seat of the Mughal emperors, studded with the Koh-i-Noor diamond and other precious items, looted in 1739 by the Persians (7,6) |
| HELOT | Member of sub-class in ancient Sparta who mainly worked on the land (5) |
| OMAN | Oldest independent state in the Arab world, dating from the expulsion of the Persians in 1749 (4) |
