MENTAL NOTE #33 I’M ALWAYS IMPRESSED BY Philippides’ 150 MILES RUN, done IN 2 DAYS, AND WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF I WERE THAT RUNNER IN ANOTHER DIMENSIONAL REALITY, and please keep in mind, I’m not a runner
Herodotus, however, relates that a trained runner, Pheidippides (also spelled Phidippides, or Philippides), was sent from Athens to Sparta before the battle in order to request assistance from the Spartans; he is said to have covered about 150 miles (240 km) in about two days. ( https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Marathon )
It’s 490 BCE….
The Athenians and Plataeans (DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE ONLY ALLY WHO SHOWED UP TO SUPPORT THE Athenians) are about to face an enemy with superior numbers of troops. Miltiades needs more help. He chooses a good runner, Philippides, to go ask help from their on-again, off-again, frienemies, the Spartans. So, off he goes, on a 150 miles run for help.
☆ Remember that this is before the Age of NIKE, PUMA, BROOKS, ADIDAS, and other computer-designed running shoes — Philippides probably had some sort of leather sandals, or something.
Well, Philippides run….That is certainly impressive, especially when knowing that Sparta basically says, “Hey kid! We may, or may not show up in time, but thanks anyway for the invite, but it’s not the full moon yet — You understand, right!” He of course, would have to run back to give Miltiades the bad news. Could you imagine the letdown and fear of that run back to Miltiades. It’s like, for 150 miles, “OK, so how to tell Miltiades?….I know, “Miltiades, My General, I have some Good News, and I have some Bad News……””
After the Athenians and Plataeans, Kicked Ass and Took Names, Philippides was sent on his “Marathon – 25 Miles Run” to Athans. And when he reached Athens, He Shouted, “We kicked Persian Ass!”
No, actually as Lucian tells us about Philippides, he said this when reaching his destination,
“νικῶμεν (nikomen “We win!”), as stated by Lucian “chairete, nikomen” (“Hail, we are the winners”) and then collapsed and died.”
☆ No freaking wonder! He just ran to Sparta and back in probably 4 days. And then, is told to go another 25 miles back to Athens!
What IF, HOWEVER, in another Galactical Reality, ANOTHER DIMENSION OF TIME-SPACE, Miltiades picked me to run to Sparta that day!
After a couple of miles, I’d be saying,
“I’mmmmmmmm die’en!
Am I there yet?
This ain’t work’en!”
And then, a thought hits me, “Maybe, I just hang out in the local pub for a few days, do some sightseeing, and then head back to Miltiades and say,
“Hey,….Miltiades, my dude, my General, those Spartans, there’re a bunch of dicks! They said, ‘Start without us! Lots of luck! But….We’re not coming!”
That story could work,….. that is,
Until after the battle, when the Spartans did show up, and they were so TOTALLY Impressed with the blood and gore they saw, which the Athenians and Plataeans had unleashed upon the Persians.
☆ I’d definitely need to be running really fast at that point….ANYWHERE!
Anyway, that is an alternate multiverse historical plot for “the Marathon runner”, where I am chosen as the runner by Miltiades, that is, in that other multiverse dimension.
Obviously, in that OTHER reality, Miltiades had never seen me run, but just pulls names out of a hat or something.
☆ That means, that our Miltiades in our History, and our dimension of reality, is way better than that one in the other dimension, by a long, long, shot!
☆Yeah, this is a Mental, Mental Note! Just Daydreaming.
How About This! It is debated by Historians still, if there was ever a real Marathon run to Athens:
“Herodotus, writing about 30 to 40 years after the events he describes, did, according to Miller (2006) in fact base his version of the battle on eyewitness accounts, so it seems altogether likely that Pheidippides was an actual historical figure, although the same source claims the classical author did not ever, in fact, mention a Marathon-Athens runner in any of his writings. Whether the story is true or not, it has no connection with the Battle of Marathon itself, and Herodotus’s silence on the subject of a herald running from Marathon to Athens suggests strongly 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 (46–120), in his essay On the Glory of Athens. Plutarch attributes the run to a herald called either Thersippus or Eukles. 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 (particularly the story of the Athenian forces making the march from Marathon to Athens in order to intercept the Persian ships headed there), and some fanciful writer had invented the story of the run from Marathon to Athens.” ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pheidippides )
With that in mind, what is true, what is half-true, and what is legend, it is difficult to say, especially if the most highly regarded primary, secondary, and tertiary sources cannot agree.
It seems very likely that a runner would have been sent to announce the victory. That just seems logical, since the leaders of Athens would have wanted word immediately, of a victory. And, if it were a loss, a runner to Athens to give bad news would have been more gravely needed. Perhaps a definitive consensus will be agreed upon one day, for the story of the Marathon Runner.
Ahhhhhhhh….Probably not. Historians love to argue about this stuff too much.
Behind the Lens 