Remarkable achievements have often been recorded in the history of Greece,
especially feats of endurance and stamina.
The Greeks particularly admired indefatigability in runners, and there were even professional runners who were able to cover long distances in a short time to send or receive messages.
We all know of the man (usually referred to with the name Pheidippides) who ran from Athens to Sparta and back, before the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) to ask for the assistance of the Spartans. He covered a distance of 150 miles or 240 kilometers in two days. And then after the Battle of Marathon a runner with the same name (it could most probably have been the same runner) ran back to Athens to report the news that the Athenians were victorious. This man who was in the battle, fiercely fighting against the Persians that day and already exhausted, took off at full speed for Athens covering a distance of 25 miles (40 km). He managed to say “Νενικήκαμεν” we have won, before collapsing and dying.
There is, however, another even more outstanding exploit recorded by Plutarch 1 which occurred after the Battle of Plataea (around August 1, 479 BC). After this combined Greek victory, an emissary was sent to the oracle of Delphi to ask to whom they should sacrifice. They received an answer from the Pythian god informing them that an altar should be set up to Zeus the Liberator. However, as the barbarians had “polluted” the interminable holy fires which burnt throughout Greece, they must all be extinguished and rekindled again from the fire at the public altar at Delphi before a sacrifice could be made. Therefore, all fires burning around the countryside of Plataea were put out.
A man called Euchidas offered to run to Delphi and fetch the fire for the altar. He left Plataea running at full speed and reached Delphi where he promptly purified his body with holy water. Wearing a laurel crown he received the sacred fire from the altar at Delphi and in all haste returned to Plataea before sunset that same day. He had covered an unbelievable distance of 125 miles
(about 201 km). Upon arriving he was
embraced by his comrades to whom he gave the sacred fire, and then he fell exhausted. Shortly after, he died. At Plataea he was buried in the sanctuary of Artemis Eucleia in admiration for his accomplishment. On his tomb these words were carved:
Εὐχίδας Πυθῶδε θρέξας ἦλθε τᾷδ αὐθημερόν.
Euchidas, who ran to Delphi and returned the same day.
1 Plutarch, “Aristides” The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives (Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd 1960) p. 132.