Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/376

 858 mSTORY OF GREECE. be the same. 1 The inhabitants of the deme of Marathon wor- shipped these slain warriors as heroes, along with their own eponymus and with HeraklSs. So splendid a victory had not been achieved, in the belief of the Athenians, without marked supernatural aid. The god Pan had met tb.3 courier Pheidippides on his hasty route from Athens to Sparta, and had told him that he was much hurt that the Athe- nians had as yet neglected to worship him ; 2 in spite of which neglect, however, he promised them effective aid at Marathon. The promise was faithfully executed, and the Athenians repaid it by a temple with annual worship and sacrifice. Moreover, the hero Theseus was seen strenuously ass*, iing in the battle ; and an unknown warrior, in rustic garb and armed only with a plough- share, dealt destruction among the Persian ranks : after the bat- tle he could not be found ; and the Athenians, on asking at Delphi who he was, were directed to worship the hero Echetlus. 3 Even in the time of Pausanias, this memorable battle-field was heard to resound every night with the noise of combatants and the snorting of horses. "It is dangerous (observes that pious author) to go to the spot with the express purpose of seeing Avhat is passing ; but if a man finds himself there by accident, without having heard anything about the matter, the gods will not be angry with him." Tlie gods, it seems, could not pardon the inquisitive mortal who deliberately pried into their secrets. Amidst the ornaments with which Athens was decorated during the free working of her democracy, the glories of Marathon of course occupied a conspicuous place. The battle was painted on one of the compartments of the portico called Pcekile, wherein, amidst several figures of gods and heroes, Athene, Herakles, Theseus, Echetlus, and the local patron of Marathon, were seen honored and prominent the polemarch Kallimachus and the gen- eral Miltiades, while the Plataeans were distinguished by their Boeotian leather casques. 4 And the sixth of the month Boedrc- 1 The tumulus now existing is about thirty feet high, and two hundred yards in circumference. (Leake, on the Demi of Attica Transactions of Boyal Soc. of Literal, ii, p. 171.) 1 Herodot. vi, 105; Pausan. i, 28, 4. 3 Plutarch, Theseus, c. 24 ; Pausan. i, 32, 4. 1 Pausan. i, 15, 4 ; Demosthen. confe. Neaer. c. 25*