They were venerated specifically in Naxos and Boeotian Ascra,[13] two cities they founded. Ephialtes (lit. "he who jumps upon") is also the Greek word for "nightmare",[14] and Ephialtes was sometimes considered the daimon of nightmares. In the Inferno of Dante's Divine Comedy Ephialtes is one of six giants placed in the great pit that separates the eighth and ninth circles of Hell, Fraud and Cocytus, respectively.