Pheidippides

Pheidippides or Philippides was a 5th-century-BC Athenian running courier who was the central figure in the story that inspired the marathon race.
The best-known version of this story is the 1879 poem Pheidippides by Robert Browning, in which Pheidippides is said to have run approximately from Athens to Sparta before the Battle of Marathon, in order to seek Spartan help against the Persians in the upcoming battle. Pheidippides then fought at the Battle of Marathon, and after the Athenian victory, he ran approximately from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news. He died immediately after announcing the Athenian victory.
Browning's poem is a composite of two earlier versions of Pheidippides's story. According to the earliest-known version of the story by the historian Herodotus, Pheidippides is said to have made an Athens-to-Sparta run before the battle, but Herodotus does not mention Pheidippides fighting at Marathon, a subsequent Marathon–Athens run, or his death. A much-later version of the story by the satirist Lucian mentions only a Marathon–Athens run and Pheidippides's death; this version has been called a " romantic invention".
Pheidippides's legendary Marathon–Athens run was the inspiration for the modern marathon race. Pheidippides's Athens–Sparta run inspired two ultramarathon races, the Spartathlon and Authentic Pheidippides Run.

Name

The name Philippides is reported by Pausanias, Plutarch, and Lucian, writers who had read this name in their versions of Herodotus, while in most of Herodotus's manuscripts the form appears Pheidippides.
Other than Herodotus's manuscripts, the form Pheidippides is only attested in Aristophanes's The Clouds. Many historians argue that Aristophanes willfully distorted the actual name so as not to use the name of the hero of Marathon in his play or as a play on words meaning "save horses". However, given that the name Pheidippo is attested in the Iliad, the existence of a Pheidippides cannot be excluded. Still, according to many, this form remains an error of the copyists of the manuscripts.

Accounts

The original story by Herodotus relates that Pheidippides, an Athenian runner, or, was sent to Sparta to request help before the Battle of Marathon against Persia in 490 BC. He ran about in two days, and then ran back. His account is as follows:
However, according to the version of the story written much later by Lucian, Pheidippides was only claimed to have run from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon. After announcing "Joy, we win!", he collapsed and died.
In 1879, Robert Browning wrote the poem Pheidippides. Browning's poem is a composite story, combining the Athens–Sparta–Athens run of Herodotus and the Marathon–Athens run of Lucian. Browning's poem became part of late 19th-century popular culture and was accepted as a historical legend.

Historicity

According to Miller, Herodotus, only 30–40 years removed from the events in question, based his account on eyewitnesses, so it seems altogether likely that Pheidippides was an actual historical figure. However, Miller also asserts that Herodotus did not ever mention a Marathon-to-Athens runner in any of his writings. Herodotus's silence on the evidently dramatic incident of a herald running from Marathon to Athens suggests that no such event occurred.
The first-known written account of a run from Marathon to Athens occurs in the works of the Greek writer Plutarch, in his essay "On the Glory of Athens". Plutarch attributes the run to a herald called either or. Lucian, a century later, credits one "Philippides". It seems likely that in the 500 years between Herodotus's time and Plutarch's, the story of Pheidippides had become muddled with that of the Battle of Marathon, and some fanciful writer had invented the story of the run from Marathon to Athens.
Magill and Moose suggest that the story of the Marathon–Athens run and Pheidippides's death is likely a "romantic invention". They point out that Lucian is the only classical source with all the elements of the story known in modern culture as the "Marathon story of Pheidippides": a messenger running from the fields of Marathon to announce victory, then dying on completion of his mission.

Modern influence

The idea of the modern marathon race came from Michel Bréal, who wanted the event to feature in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. Bréal was inspired by Robert Browning's poem Pheidippides. The idea of a marathon race was strongly supported by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, and by the Greeks.
Based on Herodotus's account, British RAF Wing Commander John Foden and four other RAF officers travelled to Greece in 1982 on an official expedition to test whether it was possible to cover the nearly 250 kilometres in a day and a half. Three runners were successful in completing the distance: John Scholtens, John Foden, and John McCarthy. Since 1983, it has been an annual footrace from Athens to Sparta, known as the Spartathlon, celebrating Pheidippides's run across of the Greek countryside.
Another run inspired by Herodotus's account, the Authentic Pheidippides Run, makes a round trip from Athens to Sparta and back.