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“Say Pan saith: ‘Let this, foreshowing the place, be the pledge!'”
(Gay, the liberal hand held out this herbage I bear
–Fennel,–I grasped it a-tremble with dew–whatever it bode),
“While, as for thee…” But enough! He was gone. If I ran hitherto–
Be sure that the rest of my journey, I ran no longer, but flew.
Parnes to Athens–earth no more, the air was my road;
Here am I back. Praise Pan, we stand no more on the razor’s edge!
Pan for Athens, Pan for me! I too have a guerdon rare!

* * * * *

Then spoke Miltiades. “And thee, best runner of Greece, 89
Whose limbs did duty indeed,–what gift is promised thyself? 90
Tell it us straightway,–Athens the mother demands of her son!”
Rosily blushed the youth: he paused: but, lifting at length
His eyes from the ground, it seemed as he gathered the rest of his
strength
Into the utterance–“Pan spoke thus: ‘For what thou hast done
Count on a worthy reward! Henceforth be allowed thee release
From the racer’s toil, no vulgar reward in praise or in pelf!’

“I am bold to believe, Pan means reward the most to my mind!
Fight I shall, with our foremost, wherever this fennel may grow,–
Pound–Pan helping us–Persia to dust, and, under the deep,
Whelm her away forever; and then,–no Athens to save,– 100
Marry a certain maid, I know keeps faith to the brave,–
Hie to my house and home: and, when my children shall creep
Close to my knees,–recount how the God was awful yet kind,
Promised their sire reward to the full–rewarding him–so!”

* * * * *

Unforeseeing one! Yes, he fought on the Marathon day:
So, when Persia was dust, all cried “To Akropolis! 106
Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!
‘Athens is saved, thank Pan,’ go shout!” He flung down his shield,
Ran like fire once more: and the space ‘twixt the Fennel-field 109
And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through, 110
Till in he broke: “Rejoice, we conquer!” Like wine thro’ clay,
Joy in his blood bursting his heart, he died–the bliss!

So, to this day, when friend meets friend, the word of salute
Is still “Rejoice!”–his word which brought rejoicing indeed.
So is Pheidippides happy forever,–the noble strong man
Who could race like a god, bear the face of a god, whom a god loved
so well,
He saw the land saved he had helped to save, and was suffered to tell
Such tidings, yet never decline, but, gloriously as he began,
So to end gloriously–once to shout, thereafter be mute:
“Athens is saved!”–Pheidippides dies in the shout for his meed. 120

NOTE

The story is from Herodotus, told there in the third person. See Herodotus, VI., 105-106. The final incident and the reward asked by the runner are Browning’s addition.

[Greek: =Chairete, nikomen=]. Rejoice, we conquer.

4. =Zeus=. The chief of the Greek gods (Roman Jupiter). =Her of the aegis and spear=. These were the emblems of Athena (Roman Minerva), the goddess of wisdom and of warfare.

5. =Ye of the bow and the buskin=. Apollo and Diana.

8. =Pan=. The god of nature, of the fields and their fruits.

9. =Archons=. Rulers. =tettix=, the grasshopper, whose image symbolized old age, and was worn by the senators of Athens. See the myth of Tithonus and Tennyson’s poem of that name.

13. =Persia= attempted a conquest of Athens in 490 B.C. and was defeated by the Athenians in the famous battle of Marathon, under Miltiades.

18. To bring earth and water to an invading enemy was a symbol of submission.

19. =Eretria=. A city on the island of Eub[oe]a, twenty-nine miles north of Athens.

20. =Hellas=. The Greek name for Greece.

21. The Greeks of the various provinces long regarded themselves as of one blood and quality, superior to the outer barbarians.

32. =Phoibos=, or Ph[oe]bus. Apollo, god of the sun and the arts. =Artemis= (Roman Diana), goddess of the moon and patroness of hunting.

33. =Olumpos=. Olympus. A mountain of Greece which was the abode of Zeus and the other gods.

52. =Parnes=. A mountain on the ridge between Attica and B[oe]otia, now called Ozia.

62. =Erebos=. The lower world; the place of night and the dead.

80. =Miltiades= (?-489 B.C.). The Greek general who won the victory over the Persians at Marathon in 490 B.C.

106. =Akropolis=. The citadel of Athens, where stood the court of justice and the temple of the goddess Athene.

109. =Fennel-field=. The Greek name for fennel was [Greek: ho Marathon] (Marathon). Hence the prophetic significance of Pan’s gift to the runner.