(please correct me) PHEIDIPPIDES, THE RUNNER OF MARATHON While the Athenians leaded to Marathon, Pheidippides, an hemerodrome or professional messenger, went to Sparta, 250km away, to ask for help. He reached there in one and half a day, but the Spartans argued that they could not help until the end of the Carneia festival in honor to Apollo, given that shedding blood then would have been sacrilege. Pheidippides left for Athens to deliver the answer. During the journey, he met the God Pan, possibly an delusion provoked by ehaustation. Following a late version, after the Athenian victory, Pheidippides ran the 42km-distance between Marathon and Athens, exclaimed "We have won!", and died.