noon
Ten of them died gladly , if their deaths bought that of a single foe . But few as were Leonidas 's numbers , they were not so few as to fail to relieve one another at the front of the press , -- which front was fearfully narrow . And three times , as his men drifted back in defeat , Xerxes the king `` leaped from the throne whereon he sat , in anguish for his army . '' At noon new contingents from the rear took the place of the exhausted attackers . The sun beat down with unpitying heat . The wounded lay sweltering in their agony whilst the battle roared over them . Mardonius never stopped to count his dead .