Ephialtes
- The son of Aloeus and brother of Otus, one of the stormers of heaven, killed by Apollo, Hyg. Fab. 28; Claud. B. Get. 75; Verg. Cul. 234.—
- II The betrayer of the Spartans at Thermopylae, Front. Strat. 2, 2, 13.
(Ἐφιάλτης), one of the giants, who in the war against the gods was deprived of his left eye by Apollo, and of the right by Heracles. (Apollod. 1.6.2.) Respecting another personage of this name see Aloeidae. [L.S]
(Ἐφιάλτης).
1. A Malian, who, in B. C. 480, when Leonidas was defending the pass of Thermopylae, guided the body of Persians called the Immortals over the mountain path (the Anopaea), and thus enabled them to fall on the rear of the Greeks. Fearing after this the vengeance of the Spartans, he fled into Thessaly, and a price was set on his head by the Amphictyonic council. He ultimately returned to his country, and was put to death by one Athenades, a Trachinian, for some cause unconnected with his treason, but not further mentioned by Herodotus. (Her. 7.213, &c.; Paus. 1.4; Strab. i. p.20; Polyaen. 7.15.)
2. An Athenian statesman and general, son of Sophonides, or, according to Diodorus, of Simonides, was a friend and partizan of Pericles, who is said by Plutarch to have often put him forward as the main ostensible agent in carrying political measures when he did not choose to appear prominently himself. (Ael. VH 2.43, 3.17; Plut. Per. 7, Reip. Gerend. Praec. 15; Diod. 11.77.) Thus, when the Spartans sent to ask the assistance of the Athenians against Ithome in B. C. 461, he endeavoured to prevent the people from granting the request, urging them not to raise a fallen rival, but to leave the spirit of Sparta to be trodden down ; and we find him mentioned in particular as chiefly instrumental in that abridgment of the power of the Areiopagus, which inflicted such a blow on the oligarchical party, and against which the " Eumenides" of Aeschylus was directed. (Arist. Polit. 2.12, ed. Bekk.; Diod. l.c. ; Plut. Cim. 10, 15, 16, Pericl. 7, 9; Cic. de Rep. 1.27.) By this measure Plutarch tells us that he introduced an unmixed democracy, and made the city drunk with liberty; but he does not state clearly the precise powers of which the Areiopagus was deprived, nor is it easy to decide this point, or to settle whether it was the authority of the court or the council that Pericles and Ephialtes assailed. (For a full discussion of the question the reader is referred to Müller, Eumen. §§ 35-37; Wachsmuth, Hist. Ant. vol. ii. p. 75, &c. Eng. transl.; Hermann, Opusc. vol. iv. pp. 299-302, where the passages of Demosthenes [c. Arist. p. 641] and of Lysias [de Caed. Erat. p. 94] are ably and satisfactorily reconciled ; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. iii. pp. 23, 24 ; Dict. of Ant. s. v. Areiopagus ; and the authors mentioned by C. F. Hermann, Pol. Ant. § 109, note 6.) The services of Ephialtes to the democratic cause excited the rancorous enmity of some of the oligarchs, and led to his assassination during the night, probably in B. C. 456. It appears that in the time of Antiphon (see de Caed. Her. p. 137) the murderers had not been discovered; but we learn, on the authority of Aristotle (apud Plut. Pericl. 10), that the deed was perpetrated by one Aristodicus of Tanagra. The character of Ephialtes, as given by ancient writers, is a high land honourable one, insomuch that he is even classed with Aristeides for his inflexible integrity. Heracleides Ponticus tells us that he was in the habit of throwing open his grounds to the people, and giving entertainments to large numbers of them,--a statement which seems inconsistent with Aelian's account, possibly more rhetorical than true, of his poverty. (Plut. Cim. 10, Dem. 14; Ael. VH 2.43, 11.9, 13.39; V. Max. 3.8. Ext. 4; Heracl. Pont. 1.)
3. One of the Athenian orators whose surrender was required by Alexander in B. C. 335, after the destruction of Thebes, though Demades prevailed on the king not to press the demand against any but Charidemus. (Arr. Anab. 1.10; Plut. Dem. 23, Phoc. 17; Diod. 17.15; Suid. s. v. Ἀντίπατρος.)
4. Plutarch (Plut. Alex. 41) mentions Ephialtes and Cissus as those who brought to Alexander the intelligence of the treachery and flight of Harpalus in B. C. 324, and were thrown into prison by the king as guilty of calumny. The play of the comic poet Phrynichus, called " Ephialtes," does not seem to have had reference to any of the above persons, but rather to the Nightmare. (Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 152-154.) [E.E]
(Ἐφιάλτης). (1) One of the Aloadae (Il. v. 385). See Aloeus.
(2) A Malian, who in B.C. 480, when Leonidas was defending the pass of Thermopylae, guided a body of Persians over the mountain path, and thus enabled them to fall on the rear of the Greeks.
(3) An Athenian statesman, a friend and partisan of Pericles, whom he assisted in carrying his political measures. He was instrumental in abridging the powers of the Areopagus—a measure assailed by Aeschylus in his Eumenides. Ephialtes thus made himself so obnoxious to the aristocratic party that his enemies had him assassinated, probably in the year B.C. 456.
- shot by Apollo and Herakles: Apollod. 1.6.1
- son of Poseidon by Iphimedia, woos Hera: Apollod. 1.7.4
- Ephialtes and Otus
- Paus. 1.29.15
- guides the Medes over Mount Oeta: Paus. 1.4.2