The incipit:

If Monday’s famed 26.2-mile Boston Marathon seems brutal, consider the true plight of Pheidippides, the legendary messenger whose reputed exploits and legacy have been traced from the plains of Greece to Hopkinton’s Town Common.

Entering the popular imagination centuries afterward through a series of accounts, Pheidippides supposedly ran roughly 25 miles to spread word of a historic and decisive Athenian upset of Persian forces in 490 B.C., collapsing and dying in the fledgling city-state after delivering his message.

But drawing on the work of the chronicler Herodotus, who interviewed surviving Battle of Marathon soldiers and their sons and never mentioned the messenger run, Columbia University professor Richard Billows believes Pheidippides really ran 140 miles over two days to request pre-battle Spartan help, then ran back.

“He was not the kind of guy who would keel over after a mere 26 miles,” said Billows, who straightens students out each fall in his class on ancient Greece. “What actually happened is much more impressive.”

But for whatever reason an inadvertent conflation of events, a deliberate romanticizing of history the image of Pheidippides’ noble victory run has become inextricably intertwined with marathoning and with a battle that had nothing less at stake than the future of Western civilization.

Still outmatched two-to-one after Persian leaders split their forces, the bronze-clad Greeks used a combination of superior equipment, timing and strategy to defeat their foes.

After the Athenians won at Marathon, they quickly marched 25 miles to protect Athens itself from a separate Persian invasion from the sea. The Persians took one look and never bothered to land.

The Persians had not suffered a serious loss leading up to the fight, emptying villages of vanquished enemies and resettling them within the empire. In his coming book, “Marathon: How One Battle Changed Western Civilization,” Billows describes the consequences had that record remained intact. […]

via The original marathon and its connection to Hopkinton | The MetroWest Daily News.

For those of you wondering, there is definitely some confusion of sources going on, it seems … ages ago we had a discussion on the Classics list on this very matter …

The incipit of an item in the Courier Mail:

FACEBOOK and Twitter may have a healing power once harnessed by ancient Greek philosophers, according to a new Queensland study.

PhD student Theresa Sauter, from the Queensland University of Technology, is examining how social-networking websites help people form their own identity.

“Social-networking sites, blogs, online discussion forums and online journals represent modern arenas for individuals to write themselves into being,” Ms Sauter said.

“A lot of people see social networking as a new way for people to interact but I’m interested in examining it as a way to form an identity and understand ourselves.”

Ms Sauter’s research will focus on the history and benefits of writing about oneself.

“The ancient Greek philosophers used a reflective notebook to write down what they had read and their thoughts on it,” she said.

via Facebook a new-age take on ancient lore | Courier Mail.

Really? Can’t recall a mention of a ‘reflective notebook’ myself …

As far as I’m aware, this item has only appeared in a Greek newspaper and only came to my attention via a post on the Classics list by Lampros Kallenos. I find it interesting on a couple of levels, not least of which is the fact that the discovery of cemetery in which this young victim of Athens’ plague was found is what basically launched most of my online activities in regards to disseminating news coverage of things of interest to Classicists and Classical archaeologists.

I won’t lay claim to being able to read modern Greek with any suitable degree of authority, but the Google translate feature gives a reasonable gist … essentially the skull of an 11-year-old girl, dubbed ‘Myrtis’ (because of the stage her teeth were at when she died), was found back in 1994 with suitable preservation for a facial reconstruction. Microsoft funded the research of Manolis J. Papagrigorakis et al and the results were revealed last week (why did it take so long?). There will be an associated exhibition at the Museum of Natural History in Athens and it will be going ‘on the road’ later …

• Ενα πρόσωπο 2.500 ετών πάλι στο φως

The Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World was recently awarded an $180,000 grant from the Getty Foundation to begin work on an international project titled “The Arts of Rome’s Provinces.”

The grant is intended to develop an “international conversation about art history,” said Natalie Kampen, visiting professor of Roman archaeology and art, who will lead the project with Susan Alcock, professor of classics and director of the Joukowsky Institute.

But Kampen said she and Alcock are “not teachers in any way.” They will be “facilitators” who will bring together groups of professionals that may not have encountered each other otherwise, she said.

Twenty people with terminal degrees will be chosen to be a part of the project, Kampen said. “There is a wide spectrum of people who could conceivably be involved in this.”

She and Alcock will send invitations to experts in the discipline of art history and related fields — to scholars at universities, museums and professional organizations throughout the world — to apply to participate. Alcock, Kampen and a small international committee will choose the fellows.

Because art history is studied differently in each part of the world, the project will aim to “figure out how these different kinds of art histories can benefit each other,” Kampen said.

Local traditions will lend a new perspective to the subject, she added.

“What we’re proposing is to do our project in two separate countries and in each country at several different sites,” Kampen said. She called the project a “movable feast” because the fellows will study Roman art history and archaeology in both Greece and England.

The foundation approached Kampen and Alcock several years ago and asked if they would form a project to internationalize art history and apply for the grant. “As a 1976 Ph.D. from Brown, I knew I wanted to bring the grant back to Brown to say thank you,” said Kampen, who is a professor of women’s studies and art history at Barnard College.

She and Alcock planned a project that “nobody had ever done before,” Kampen said.

Though she is excited for the work to begin, she said she is nervous about organizing such a large project.

Kampen said she has been asking the question, “Why is art produced in different parts of the Roman empire different?,” for her entire career. Now, with tools and insights that the other fellows will contribute, she said she hopes not only to “find answers” but also to “figure out interesting ways to ask questions.”

Being able to work on the project is “one of these great opportunities that you never think you’ll get,” Kampen said.

via – Art historians dig into ‘movable feast’ | The Brown Daily Herald.