However, after the second day of battle, a local resident named
Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks by revealing a small goat's path that led behind the Greek lines.
Scholars fit the flourishing of tragoidia into the context of Athens' relatively rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented transition to democracy that began in 510 BCE with the overthrow of the Peisistratid tyranny, took decisive impetus shortly thereafter from the democratic reforms of Cleisthenes (which included reorganization of the tribal bases of Athenian identity), proceeded with
Ephialtes' demotion of the aristocratic Court of Areopagus (462/1) and culminated in Pericles' lowering of the property requirement for the highest political office (458/7) and his institution of paid jury service (around 454).
These Greeks held off the Persian king, Xerxes, and his far larger army for two days at the pass of Thermopylae, until finally being betrayed on the third day by
Ephialtes and being overcome.
The impression left in viewers' minds is that were it not for the failure of Spartan eugenics to catch
Ephialtes at birth, King Leonidas might very well have led his outmanned and overmatched army to victory.
He plays the traitor
Ephialtes with a deformed face, terrible teeth and huge hunchback.
Dione's recollection of the binding of Ares at the hands of Otus and
Ephialtes is of particular interest.
Leonidas Gerard Butler Gorgo Lena Headey Theron Dominic West Dilios David Wenham Captain Vincent Regan Stelios Michael Fassbender Astinos Tom Wisdom Daxos Andrew Pleavin
Ephialtes Andrew Tiernan Xerxes Rodrigo Santoro Messenger Peter Mensah Loyalist Stephen McHattie BERLIN