The Spartans at Thermopylae were betrayed by Ephialtes of Trachis, a local Greek shepherd who revealed the secret Anopaia mountain path to the invading Persians in exchange for a reward, allowing them to outflank King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans in 480 BC. Ephialtes's name became synonymous with treachery in Greek, meaning "nightmare," and his betrayal led to the heroic last stand and defeat of the Greek forces at the pass.
role at Thermopylae
pass by the Greek traitor Ephialtes, outflanked them. Sending the majority of his troops to safety, Leonidas remained to delay the Persians with 300 Spartans, their helots, and 1,100 Boeotians, all of whom died in battle.
Ephialtes (/ˌɛfiˈæltiːz/; Greek: Ἐφιάλτης Ephialtēs) was a Greek renegade during the Greco-Persian Wars. Born to Eurydemus (Εὐρύδημος) of Malis, he betrayed his homeland and people to the Achaemenid Empire by revealing the existence of a path around the Greek coalition's position at Thermopylae.
Sparta's defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BCE ended Sparta's prominent role in Greece, but it maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BCE. Sparta functioned under an oligarchy of two hereditary kings.
This Epialtes afterwards fled into Thessaly, for fear of the Lacedaemonians; and he being so banished a price was put on his head by the Pylagori when the Amphictyons sat together in their council at Thermopylae [ed: Malis was a member of the Amphictyonic league]; and a long time after that, having returned to Anticyra ...
When Leonidas was killed, the Spartans retrieved his body after driving back the Persians four times. Herodotus says that Xerxes' orders were to have Leonidas' head cut off and put on a stake and his body crucified. This was considered sacrilegious.
An elite corps of male lovers was unique in Greek history, but homosexual relationships were commonplace. In many cities, it was a rite of passage for elite males in their late teens to enter into a pederastic relationship with an older man.
Modern-day Sparta, the capital of the prefecture of Lakonia, lies on the eastern foothills of Mount Taygetos in the Evrotas River valley. The city has been built upon the site of ancient Sparta, whose Acropolis lies north of the modern city.
Yes, the 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE were real, but they were only a small part of a larger Greek force of around 7,000 soldiers, not the entire army fighting the massive Persian Empire, as the famous story and movie suggest. While the Spartans did make a heroic last stand, dying to the last man, they were joined by other Greeks, and the Persian army was also significantly smaller than the millions depicted.
During the events of God of War II, Zeus destroyed Sparta in petty revenge against Kratos for his perceived sacrilege during his dying moments. This lead the Last Spartan to the Island of Creation to seek the Sisters of Fate and change Sparta's fate.
In the end, Greece did defeat Xerxes. Although Xerxes defeated them soundly at Thermopylae, they overcame the Persians at the Battle of Salamis. Greece was able to defeat Xerxes and regain control of its lands.
As a result of the imbalance coupled with seeing their husbands sporadically, it was not uncommon for wives to be shared amongst Spartan men. In a process known as wife sharing (or husband doubling), a married man could allow another man to father his wife's offspring.
Ephialtes, whose name means “nightmare” in Greek, is regarded as one of the most notorious traitors in the history of Greece. He played a significant role in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC by leading the Persian forces through a mountain pass that bypassed the Greek defenses.
Owing to their own numerical inferiority, the Spartans were always preoccupied with the fear of a helot revolt. The ephors (Spartan magistrates) of each year on entering office declared war on the helots so that they might be murdered at any time without violating religious scruples.
Leonidas Death
King Leonidas' death, along with 300 other Spartan soldiers, came from the bows and arrows of Persian archers, who fought the Spartan army for his body. The Persian army brought Leonidas' body to Xerxes, who had him first beheaded and mounted his head on a stake and then crucified the rest of his body.
Later that day, however, as Xerxes was pondering what to do next, he received a windfall; a Trachinian named Ephialtes informed him of the mountain path around Thermopylae and offered to guide the Persian army. Ephialtes was motivated by the desire for a reward.
Xerxes is identified with the king Ahasuerus in the biblical Book of Esther, which some scholars, including Eduard Schwartz, William Rainey Harper, and Michael V. Fox, consider to be historical romance.
The Trojans were people that lived in the city-state of Troy on the coast of Turkey by the Aegean Sea, around the 12th or 13th Century B.C. We think they were of Greek or Indo-European origin, but no one knows for sure.
The helots were treated poorly, often being beaten and subject to being killed by the Spartans. In one incident, they may have even been ritualistically slaughtered by the Krypteia, or Spartan secret police. The helots were a much larger population than the Spartans and were often seen as a threat.
Sparta's famous militarism was inseparable from the all-consuming fear the Spartans had of their oppressed neighbors. Unlike other Greeks, who only took up the spear when their city went to war, the Spartans trained as soldiers full time.
Sparta Today
Today, the ruins of ancient Sparta exist on the outskirts of the modern city of Sparti – founded by King Otto of Greece in 1834. A good proportion of the remains you see today are actually from the Roman period and few are well preserved.
Which Country Has the Largest LGBTQI+ Population? 2026
Although environmental factors are known to affect human homosexual (HS) preference, sibling concordances and population patterns related to HS indicate that genetic components are also influencing this trait in humans.
The myths and legends show that honored gods and heroes were believed to have taken part in homosexual acts, which may indicate that pre-Christian Viking Scandinavia was more tolerant of homosexuality, and history is altogether silent as to the practice of lesbianism in the Viking Age.