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Herodotus · Histories §7.213.1-7.213.3

Ephialtes's Treachery and the Secret Mountain Path

Passage 1276 of 1577 · Greek

Summary

Ephialtes the Malian visits the Persian king seeking a reward and reveals the mountain path to Thermopylae. He later flees in fear of the Spartans and is killed due to a separate grievance, though he is still rewarded by the Spartans.

§7.213.1ἀπορέοντος δὲ βασιλέος ὅ τι χρήσηται τῷ παρεόντι πρήγματι, Ἐπιάλτης ὁ Εὐρυδήμου ἀνὴρ Μηλιεὺς ἦλθέ οἱ ἐς λόγους·
While the king was at a loss as to how to deal with the present situation, Ephialtes, son of Eurydemus, a Malian, came to speak with him.
ὃς μέγα τι παρὰ βασιλέος δοκέων οἴσεσθαι ἔφρασέ τε τὴν ἀτραπὸν τὴν διὰ τοῦ ὄρεος φέρουσαν ἐς Θερμοπύλας, καὶ διέφθειρε τοὺς ταύτῃ ὑπομείναντας Ἑλλήνων.
Expecting to win a great reward from the king, he revealed the path that led through the mountain to Thermopylae, and brought ruin upon those of the Greeks who held their ground there.
§7.213.2ὕστερον δὲ δείσας Λακεδαιμονίους ἔφυγε ἐς Θεσσαλίην, καί οἱ φυγόντι ὑπὸ τῶν Πυλαγόρων τῶν Ἀμφικτυόνων ἐς τὴν Πυλαίην συλλεγομένων ἀργύριον ἐπεκηρύχθη.
Later, fearing the Lacedaemonians, he fled to Thessaly, and while he was in exile, a price was put on his head by the Amphictyonic deputies (Pylagori) assembled at Pylae.
χρόνῳ δὲ ὕστερον, κατῆλθε γὰρ ἐς Ἀντικύρην, ἀπέθανε ὑπὸ Ἀθηνάδεω ἀνδρὸς Τρηχινίου.
Some time afterwards, for he had returned to Anticyra, he was killed by Athenades, a man of Trachis.
§7.213.3ὁ δὲ Ἀθηνάδης οὗτος ἀπέκτεινε μὲν Ἐπιάλτεα διʼ ἄλλην αἰτίην, τὴν ἐγὼ ἐν τοῖσι ὄπισθε λόγοισι σημανέω, ἐτιμήθη μέντοι ὑπὸ Λακεδαιμονίων οὐδὲν ἧσσον.
This Athenades killed Ephialtes for another reason, which I shall declare in the later part of my history, but he was honored by the Lacedaemonians no less on that account.

Notes

  1. §7.213.1ὅ τι χρήσηται — Deliberative subjunctive (third-person singular) in an indirect question. The verb χράομαι ("to deal with, use") governs the dative τῷ παρεόντι πρήγματι.
  2. §7.213.1οἴσεσθαι — Future middle infinitive of φέρω ("to win, carry off"). It is dependent on the participle δοκέων ("expecting"), and since its subject is identical with the subject of the clause (ὃς), no subject accusative is expressed.
  3. §7.213.2οἱ φυγόντι — Dative third-person singular pronoun οἱ combined with the aorist active participle dative φυγόντι of φεύγω ("to flee, go into exile"). It functions as a dative of disadvantage with the passive verb ἐπεκηρύχθη ("was proclaimed").

Cite this passage

Herodotus, Histories §7.213.1-7.213.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:7.213.1-7.213.3

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