The History of the Marathon: Pheidippides Ran to Sparta, Not Athens

01What Herodotus really says

In 490 BC, the Persians threaten Athens. Before the battle of Marathon, the city sends a messenger to ask Sparta for help. Herodotus calls him Pheidippides; Lucian, much later, will write Philippides. He is a “hemerodrome,” a long-day runner, and that is his job. He reaches Sparta, Herodotus writes, the day after leaving Athens. The modern route is about 245 km, according to the organizers of the Spartathlon. That is very far from 42 km.

02The god Pan and the full moon

On the road, on Mount Parthenion above Tegea, Pheidippides claims to have met the god Pan. The god asks why the Athenians neglect him, though he wishes them well, has often helped them and will help them again. Later the Athenians build him a shrine beneath the Acropolis, with annual sacrifices and a torch race. The Spartans, for their part, say yes, but not right away: their law forbids them to march before the full moon, and it is only the ninth day of the month. They will arrive after the battle. Athens will fight without Sparta, with only the Plataeans.

03Six centuries later, a glorious death

And after the victory? Herodotus does not say a word about a run from Marathon to Athens. The Athenian army hurries home to protect the city. No exhausted runner, no last breath.

The messenger who dies on arrival appears in Plutarch, around AD 100, nearly six centuries after the battle. In “On the Glory of the Athenians,” he reports that Thersippus brought the news, according to Heraclides of Pontus, but that most historians name Eucles. Running in full armor, still hot from the battle, Eucles supposedly told the magistrates only “Hail! we are victorious!” before falling dead. That is not Pheidippides.

04Lucian gives the messenger a name

In the 2nd century, the satirist Lucian of Samosata tells the scene in his turn. In his version, it is the runner Philippides who, “they say,” comes to announce the victory to the archons, cries “Chairete, nikômen” (“Rejoice, we are victorious!”) and expires on those words. The name of Herodotus's messenger has just stuck to the Marathon run. The legend sets: a famous name, a run, a cry, a death.

05Browning, then Bréal

In 1879, the British poet Robert Browning published “Pheidippides” and blended the two stories: his hero runs to Sparta, meets Pan, fights at Marathon, then carries the victory news to Athens and dies of joy. Fifteen years later, on September 15, 1894, the linguist Michel Bréal wrote to Pierre de Coubertin: why not organize a race from Marathon to the Pnyx in Athens? He even offered the winner's cup. The event was born at the 1896 Games. What followed, with Spiridon Louis, is told elsewhere in the journal.

06The Spartathlon puts Herodotus to the test

In 1982, John Foden, a Royal Air Force officer, wondered whether a modern man could repeat Pheidippides's run. On October 8, he set off from Athens with other airmen. Three reached Sparta. Foden took about 36 hours according to the Spartathlon organizers, 37 hr 37 min according to the site Ultrarunning History. It can be done. The first official Spartathlon took place in 1983. The race comes back every September, over about 245 km.