Marathon

In 490 BC, the Persians invaded Greece. A runner named Pheidippides was dispatched from Athens to Sparta (about 150 miles away) to ask for help. Covering the distance in a day and a night, Pheidippides was told the Spartans would come help as soon as they concluded an important religious festival. Pheidippides ran back to Attica [these are the real 'Marathon runs'] and related the grim news. Meanwhile, the Athenians had fortified a position at Marathon, a coastal plain about 25 miles from Athens.

Herodotus reports that the daring and innovative Miltiades orchestrated a plan to attack the Persians rather than await an organized assault. Running the 1600 yards (nearly a mile!) in full armor, the outnumbered Athenians and a few hundred Plataean allies attacked the mighty Persian force (it's unclear how many Persians there were - but surely more than the Greek forces). As I'm sure you all know, the Persians were routed (6400 killed, according to Herodotus, as opposed to 192 Athenians) and Athens won a resounding victory, a moment which Athenians throughout history have consistently considered their zenith of heroic courage, valor, and Athenian supremacy.

Tradition relates that a runner (unnamed) ran back to Athens to announce the victory - and to warn them that the Persians who had escaped to their ships were sailing their way. So exhausted from the day's exertions of fighting and running, the runner related his message and then collapsed and died.

The first modern marathon was run in 1896, as part of the first modern Olympic Games. Since the exact location of the battle site was unclear, race officials measured the distance from the church in the modern town of Marathon to the Panathenaic stadium in Athens - a distance of about 25 miles. Later, in 1908 (so I've been told), the marathon race was extended 1.2 miles so that the Queen of England could watch the runners go by Buckingham Palace during the London Olympics. Since that last mile is so tough, it's a good reminder of why America got rid of its tyrannical monarchs. Incidentally, it took us an hour and a half to drive to Marathon from Athens - the world record for a runner is 2:04:55. Traffic is a bummer.


The remnants of the Athenian trophy at Marathon. This Ionic column was probably set up 40 or 50 years after the victory to replace an earlier version (trophies were usually a set of captured armor attached to a tree or post).









Lord Byron wrote:

The mountains look on Marathon --
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dream'd that Greece might still be free;
For standing on the Persians' grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.

-- Don Juan Canto 3, Stanza L 3






The large mound is the soros, or tomb of the 192 Athenians who died in the battle of Marathon.











In the 1970s, this mound was identified as the 'Tomb of the Plataeans,' where the 20 killed Athenian allies were buried after the battle. Although this probably isn't the tomb of the Plataeans since there are only 11 bodies inside, and one of them is a 10 year-old, it's an interesting site nonetheless. It's a kilometer or two from the Athenian soros.








A Plataean burial (perhaps).














A much earlier (Early Helladic / Early Cycladic) cemetary nearby at which we stopped. Archaeologists have concluded that the inhabitants of the area began using large stones to cover the graves of the dead after the Great Zombie Uprising of 1437 BC.