Did Pheidippides Really Run the First Marathon? The Truth Behind the Legend

Probably not in the way the legend says. The famous story, a messenger running from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens, shouting news of victory and then dying, comes from writers who lived centuries after the battle, and historians consider it likely a romantic invention. The earliest source, the Greek historian Herodotus, tells a different and even more impressive story: before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, a runner named Pheidippides was sent from Athens to Sparta to ask for help and covered about 240 kilometres, around 150 miles, in two days. The modern marathon race was inspired by the legend, not the history, and that is a story in itself.

Athens in danger

In 490 BC a Persian army landed at Marathon, on the coast about 40 kilometres from Athens. The Persian Empire was the superpower of the age, and the Athenians needed allies fast. The obvious ally was Sparta, the strongest military power in Greece.

The real run: Athens to Sparta

According to Herodotus, the Athenians sent Pheidippides, a professional running courier, to Sparta. He reportedly covered about 240 kilometres in two days. The Spartans agreed to help but said they could not march until the full moon, because of a religious festival. The Athenians would have to fight without them.

Herodotus adds a mysterious detail: on his way, Pheidippides said he met the god Pan, who asked why the Athenians did not honour him. After the war, the Athenians built a shrine to Pan.

Because Herodotus wrote within living memory of the events and drew on eyewitness accounts, many historians think Pheidippides was a real person. But Herodotus never mentions any run from Marathon to Athens.

The legendary run: Marathon to Athens

The Athenians won the Battle of Marathon. The story of a runner carrying the news to Athens appears much later. The writer Lucian, living centuries after the battle, tells of Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens, announcing the victory with a word of joy, and then collapsing and dying. The historian Plutarch tells a similar story but names a different messenger, called Thersippus or Eukles.

So we have a real long-distance run to Sparta, recorded early, and a dramatic short run to Athens, recorded late and attributed to different people.

How a poem created a sport

In 1879 the English poet Robert Browning wrote a poem called Pheidippides. He combined the two stories: his hero runs to Sparta and back, fights at Marathon, then runs to Athens with the news of victory and dies. The poem was popular, and its version became the accepted legend.

When the first modern Olympic Games were being planned for Athens in 1896, the French scholar Michel Bréal, inspired by the story, proposed a long-distance race from Marathon to Athens. The race was held, and it was won by a Greek runner, Spyridon Louis, to the delight of the home crowd.

Why 42.195 kilometres?

Early marathons varied in length. The now-standard distance of 42.195 kilometres, or 26.2 miles, traces back to the 1908 London Olympics and was officially fixed in 1921. So the exact number has nothing to do with ancient Greece.

Running the real route

If you want to follow the historical Pheidippides, there is a race for that too. The Spartathlon, a race of about 246 kilometres from Athens to Sparta, has been held every year since 1983. It is one of the toughest ultramarathons in the world, and runners who finish it have done something closer to what Herodotus described than any marathoner.

Learn with Pheidippides: English phrases about effort

Phrase	Meaning	Example
to go the distance	to continue until the end	Learning a language takes time, but she'll go the distance.
it's a marathon, not a sprint	success needs steady effort over time	Fluency is a marathon, not a sprint.
to hit the wall	to suddenly feel unable to continue	I hit the wall after two hours of study.
to spread the word	to tell many people	Please spread the word about our class.
to run out of steam	to lose energy	By Friday, I'd run out of steam.

Try this: Write three English sentences comparing your language learning to a marathon, using "a marathon, not a sprint" and "hit the wall". Then add one sentence about how you keep going.