The Tango of Efialtis

Who doesn’t know Efialtis?

Efialtis was the first traitor!

Then treachery was still a sin!

Gods and men punished the traitor severely.

Who doesn’t know Efialtis?

Later treachery became a profession!

The traitors would go to work,

like the shop-keepers to their stores.

They sold their merchandise

and took their wages every month.

They married amongst each other

so as not to betray the lineage of the race!

And yet the whole world remembered

for so many years the story of Efialtis.

To the point where treachery became a virtue!

It became a duty

an honorable citation was decreed;

“In testimony to the great treachery

of the modest traitor, the fatherland

expresses its gratitude.”

Who remembers Efialtis any more?