Trachis in the context of "Spercheios"

Thermopylae (/θərˈmɒpɪliː/; Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: Θερμοπύλαι, romanized: Thermopylai; Ancient: [tʰermopýlai], Katharevousa: [θermoˈpile̞]; Demotic Greek (Greek): Θερμοπύλες, romanized: Thermopyles [θermoˈpiles]; "hot gates") is a narrow pass and modern town in Lamia, Phthiotis, Greece. It derives its name from its hot sulphur springs. In Greek mythology the Hot Gates is one of the entrances to Hades.

Thermopylae is the site of the Battle of Thermopylae between the Greek forces (including Spartans, Thebans and Thespians) and the invading Persian forces, commemorated by Simonides of Ceos in the epitaph, "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, That here we lie, having answered our common oaths." Thermopylae is the only land route large enough to bear any significant traffic between Lokris and Thessaly. To go from north to south along the east coast of the Balkans requires use of the pass.In ancient times it was called Malis, named after the Malians (Ancient Greek: Μαλιεῖς), a Greek tribe that lived near present-day Lamia at the delta of the river Spercheios in Greece. The Malian Gulf is also named after them. In the western valley of the Spercheios their land was adjacent to the Aenianes. Their main town was named Trachis. In the town of Anthela, the Malians had an important Temple of Demeter Amphictyonis, an early center of the Anthelan Amphictyony.

The Malians (Ancient Greek: Μαλιεῖς, Malieis) were a Greek tribe that resided at the mouth of the river Spercheios in Greece. The Malian Gulf is named after them. In the western valley of the Spercheios, their land was adjacent to the Aenianes. Their main town was Trachis. In the town of Anthele, the Malians had an important temple of Demeter; an early centre of the Delphinian Amphictiony. According to Herodotus, the Malian Ephialtes of Trachis betrayed the Spartans and their allies in the Battle of Thermopylae, helping the Persians surround the Greek army. In 426 BCE, the Malians asked Sparta for help in their war against the Oetaeans. The Spartans then founded the town Heraclea Trachis in place of Trachis.

In the following decades, the Malians were under the hegemony of Sparta, until they revolted against it in the Corinthian War. In this war, they lost their land south of the Spercheios, Herakleia Trachis was given to the Oitaians, and Lamia became the new capital of the Malians.

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. His efforts allowed the Persian army to overrun the Greeks' defensive formation and thereby win the Battle of Thermopylae in September 480 BC. Ephialtes had hoped that he would be rewarded by the Persian king Xerxes I, but no such reward was bestowed upon him and he was instead forced to go into hiding when a bounty was placed on his head by the allied Greeks in their pursuit of punishing his act of treason. According to Herodotus, this bounty was collected by Athenades (Ἀθηνάδης) of Trachis approximately a decade after the second Persian invasion of Greece was repelled; the Spartans paid Athenades although his motivation for carrying out the killing apparently had nothing to do with Ephialtes' status as an outlaw.

In Greek mythology, Hippasus or Hippasos (Ancient Greek: Ἴππασος) is the name of fourteen characters.

• Hippasus, son of King Eurytus of Oechalia and one of the hunters of the Calydonian Boar.
• Hippasus from the Pellene district of the Peloponnese, father of Actor, Iphitus, Asterion, Amphion, and Naubolus. The latter four are otherwise ascribed different parentage.
• Hippasus, a Centaur. Killed by Theseus at the wedding of Pirithous and Hippodamia.
• Hippasus, a Trojan prince as one of the sons of Priam.
• Hippasus, a Thessalian killed by Agenor in the Trojan War.
• Hippasus, son of King Ceyx of Trachis and possibly, Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus, and thus, brother to Hylas, favorite of Heracles and Themistonoe, wife of Cycnus. Hippasus was killed in battle whilst fighting alongside Heracles against King Eurytus of Oechalia.
• Hippasus, son of Leucippe, one of the Minyades. He was killed by his mother and her sisters.
• Hippasus from Phlius opposed his fellow citizens, who wished to accede to the wishes of the Dorian Rhegnidas and make him their king. He and his fellow supporters fled to Samos. Hippasus is the ancestor of the philosopher Pythagoras, Pythagoras being the son of Mnesarchus, the son of Euphranor, the son of Hippasus.
• Hippasus, name shared by fathers of several heroes of the Trojan War:
  • of Hippomedon by the nymph Ocyrrhoe
  • of Charops and Socus
  • of Agelaus the Milesian
  • of Coeranus the Lycian
  • of Hypsenor
  • of Demoleon the Lacedaemonian
  • of Apisaon the Paeonian
  • of two nameless - only known by the patronymic Hippasides – charioteers:
    • the charioteer of Pammon (the son of Priam)
    • a Greek charioteer killed by Deiphobus.