The Greek plan was to force a sea battle to destroy the Persian fleet which was threatining their cities, which kept their armies at home in self defence, and thus could be picked off one at a time by the Persian army. By blocking the passto the Persian army, this forced the Persian navy to try to bypass it by sea, and so confront the Greek navyies lying in wait in the nearby strait at Artemesion.
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Unfortunately for the Greeks, after three days of sea battle they lost, so the land force at the pass was withdrawn, having no further use. The Spartans and Thespians sacrificed themselves to cover the withdrawal and were eliminated. The others got away, and the fleet reassembled to try again in the strait at Salamis and this time won. The sea-nvasion threat gone, this enabled the Greek city armies to come out and concentrate the following spring and repel the invasion at Plataia.
