Editing Ephialtes of Trachis (section)

==Role in the Greco-Persian Wars==

=== Betraying the Greeks to the Persian army ===
The allied Greek land forces, which [[Herodotus]] states numbered no more than 4,200 men, had chosen Thermopylae to block the advance of the much larger Persian army. Although this gap between the Trachinian Cliffs and the [[Malian Gulf]] was only "wide enough for a single carriage",<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'', 7.200</ref> it could be bypassed by a trail that led over the mountains south of Thermopylae and joined the main road behind the Greek position. Herodotus notes that this trail was well known to the locals, who had used it in the past for raiding the neighboring [[Phocians]].<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'', 7.215</ref>

The Persians used the trail to outflank the defenders. The [[Sparta]]n king, [[Leonidas I|Leonidas]], sent away most of the Greeks, but he himself remained behind with a rear guard composed of 300 of his men, the [[Thespiae|Thespian]] contingent, comprising 700 Thespians, and a [[Thebes, Greece|Theban]] detachment, composed of 400 men.

Ephialtes expected to be rewarded by the Persians, but this came to nothing when they were defeated at the [[Battle of Salamis]]. He then fled to [[Thessaly]]; the [[Amphictyons]] at [[Thermopylae|Pylae]] had offered a reward for his death. According to Herodotus, he was killed for an apparently unrelated reason by Athenades ({{langx|el|Ἀθηνάδης}}) of [[Trachis]], around 470 BC, but the Spartans rewarded Athenades all the same.<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'', 7.213</ref>

==== Accomplices ====
Herodotus notes that two other men were accused of betraying this trail to the Persians: Onetas, a native of [[Carystus]] and son of Phanagoras; and Corydallus, a native of [[Anticyra]]. Nevertheless, he argues Ephialtes was the one who revealed this trail because "the deputies of the Greeks, the [[Amphictyonic league|Pylagorae]], who must have had the best means for ascertaining the truth, did not offer the reward on the heads of Onetas and Corydallus, but for that of Ephialtes."<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'', 7.214</ref>