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Now, as the king was in great strait, and knew not how he should deal
with the emergency, Ephialtes, the son of Eurydemus, a man of
Malis, came to him and was admitted to a conference. Stirred by the
hope of receiving a rich reward at the king's hands, he had come to
tell him of the pathway which led across the mountain to Thermopylae;
by which disclosure he brought destruction on the band of Greeks who
had there withstood the barbarians. This Ephialtes afterwards, from
fear of the Lacedaemonians, fled into Thessaly; and during his
exile, in an assembly of the Amphictyons held at Pylae, a price was
set upon his head by the Pylagorae. When some time had gone by, he
returned from exile, and went to Anticyra, where he was slain by
Athenades, a native of Trachis. Athenades did not slay him for his
treachery, but for another reason, which I shall mention in a later
part of my history: yet still the Lacedaemonians honoured him none the
less. Thus then did Ephialtes perish a long time afterwards.
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