the battle of marathon (exhibition, athens, 2010)
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THE BATTLE OF MARATHON: History and LegendHellenic Parliament Foundation for Parliamentarism and DemocracyHellenic Parliament Foundation Exhibition Hall14, Amalias Avenue Athens, SyntagmaFrom the exhibition "The Battle of Marathon: History and Legend" (June 17 to November 30, 2010)TRANSCRIPT
History and legend
~Ύ~ he. Battle of Marathon: History and Legend is an exhib i -
I t ion in c o m m e m o r a t i o n o f t he significant batt le that
t ook place 2,500 years ago, w h e n ten thousand Athenians
and Plataeans managed t o resist the attack o f t he Persian
Empire, wh ich had already conquered the w o r l d o f the East
w i t h their vast mi l i tary and economic p o w e r
T h e Persian Empire, w i t h its swift expansion and t w o cen
tur ies o f political dominance in the N e a r and Middle East,
marked an intersect ion in tne h istory o f antiquity. It per
manent ly eradicated all t he pet ty k ingdoms o f the area and
created a new, unified w o r l d . U n d e r Darius I (522-486 BC),
the state achieved stability and its ident i ty as t h e first t ru ly
mukinat ional empi re .The King was the absolute mas te r t he
agent o f the supreme god Ahura-Mazda.
The Greek w o r l d , on t h e o t h e r hand, in t h e late Archaic
per iod , was polit ically f ragmented. The mos t representa
t ive poli t ical uni t was the city-state. City-states w e r e self-
conta ined, independent and highly compe t i t i ve w i t h o n e
a n o t h e r T h e polit ical f ragmentat ion w i t h i n t he Greek w o r l d
was h o w e v e r counterba lanced by its c o m m o n religious and
cultural identi ty,The main means o f preserv ing the f r eedom
o f t he Greek city-states was the phalanx o f hoplkes - t h e
f ree, se l f -support ing citizens w h o fought on foo t , in f o rma
t ion , fully discipl ined and coord ina ted .
A t the t ime, the Peloponnesian
League was the strongest
unified political and mil i tary
power; the only one ap
pearing capable o f oppos
ing the Persian menace, f l
H o w e v e r a rising power,
Athens, managed t o re
pulse the Spartan interven
tions, t o finally r id herself o f
the tyranny o f the Peisistratid
1. Dane, end of 5th c. - 375 BC. Athens, Numismatic Museum, inv. no. NM 64646 © Hellenic Ministry of Culture
2. Tetradrachm of Athens, 520/10-480 BC. Athens, Numismatic Museum, inv. no. NM 1910/11 Ν 105 © Hellenic Ministry of Culture
family, and, under Cleisthenes in 508/7 BC, t o proceed w i t h
the forging o f a n e w system o f government - democracy
This novel, radical political system o f the Athenians was t o be
sorely tested and w o u l d be vindicated eighteen years later, at
t he Battle o f Marathon.
The number o f t r oops o f t he Persian expedi t ionary force
under Datis' leadership that landed and encamped on the
shores o f Mara thon in early September 490 BC is est imated
t o have been be tween 12,000 t o 25,000 infantry and 200 t o
1,000 cavalry. 9,000 Athenian hopli ies and 1,000 Plataean allies
rushed t o Marathon and encamped on the heights that cut
o f f t he plain f r o m the southwest. Heading the Greek force
was the Commander - in -Ch ie f (polemarchos) Callimachus, bu t
t he actual command was in t he hands o f Miltiades, one o f the
ten generals (strategoi), w h o happened t o be familiar w i t h
Persian batt le tactics.
The Persian army's presence in Marathon was actually meant
as a diversion. So, once the Persian plan became apparent, Mil
tiades ordered the at tackThe phalanx moved quickly, breaking
into a run for the last meters t o keep casualties f r o m the
enemy's arrows at a min imum. To compensate fo r
t he Persians' supenority in numbers, the Athenians
had lengthened their line, thinning the centre, but
reinforcing the wings. The t w o wings, w i th the
Persian cavalry absent, scattered the weaker t(
Persian units before them.They then tu rned t o
wards the Persian centre, surrounding i t The latter
broke and retreated in disarray towards the i r ships.
It was then when the last and bloodiest phase o f the
battle t o o k place.The Persian fleet managed t o set sail for
Phaliron. only t o find there the Athenian army arrayed on
the beach after an exhausting and desperate forced march.
The Persians sailed away, frustrated,
The epic character o f t he batt le no t only gave rise t o tales
o f heroic deaths, like those o f Callimachus and Kinegirus, but
3. Red-figured amphora with Greek warrior attacking a Persian, ca. 480-470 BC. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. ME07527 © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Art Resource/Scala, Florence
also t o those o f o the r personal teats, such as that o f Pheidip-
pides, and o f the runner announcing v ic tory t o t h e Athenians
w i t h his dying breath after having run t o t h e city f r o m the dis
tant battlefield. Another ; mythic, d imension has gods and he-
r oes suppor t ing the Athenians' Pan fi 01 i i r e At cad an i o u n
t i is Theseus f r o m the under
along w i t h goddess Athena, t he local hero Marathon, and the
farmer Echetlos.
The pictorial represet ' ' 1 a n t I
19th-century travellers' Grand Tour Marathon was perceived
as a condui t o f remembrance / the manifestation o f the g lory
ot t he batt le and its protagonists.The tounda+ion fo r this in
tellectual approach t o t he site had been laid in s
4. Attic red-figured bell-krater, attributed to the Altamura Painter, depicting warriors leaving home, 470-460 BC. London, The British Museum, inv. no. 1961,0710.1
5. Part of the Frieze of Archers, ca. S10 BC. Paris, Musee du Louvre, inv. no. 97-024173 © RMN/Apeiron Photos
6. Carl Rottmann, Marathon, 1848, oil on canvas, 161.5 χ 205 cm Munchen, Bayerischen Staats-gemaldesammlungen, Neu Pinakothek, Inv. Nr. 860
7. Fragment of the trophy of the battle. Marathon Archaeological Museum © Hellenic Ministry of Culture
Cover: Attic red-figured kylix depicting a duel between an Athenian and a Persian, 480 BC, attributed to the Triptolemos Painter. Edinburgh, The Royal Scottish Museum, inv. no. 1887.213 © The Trustees of the National Museum of Scotland
enment and the French Revolution, which restored ancient
Greek democracy t o t he ideological landscape.
Memor ia l t o the victory and the landmark o f this area is the
renownedTornb o f the Marathon wa rn jt the 11 n l t r.oi ind'
- which according t o prevailing opinion - - covers Li ·,ε & nalns
o f the Athenian dead. It was first excavated by Heinrich Schli-
emann in 1884, w h o claimed that the t o m b dates earlier than
the battie. In 1890-1891 the archaeologist Vaierios Sta'is discov
ered at the same site a thick layer o f charcoal and ash as well
as charred skeletal remains, Accord ing t o Pausanias, a second
t o m b existed next t o that o f t he Atheni ans tor the burial of the
Plataeans and the slaves. Spyros Marinatos at t r ibuted to the
Plataeans a tomb, some 3 km nor thwes t o f the l o m b o f the
Athenians. Many have quest ioned the identification o f the t w o
tombs.As a rule, though, it is generally accepted that t he larger
t o m b , t he "burial m o u n d " does indeed contain t he remains o f
t he 192 Athenians w h o fell in the battle.
The exhibit ion aims at explor ing the different aspects o f the
Battle o f Marathon. Topics are explored through an educa
t ional perspective and due attent ion has been paid t o the ac-
HELLENIC PARLIAMENT FOUNDATION FOR PARLIAMENTARISM \ND D t M O C R A S Y
HELLENIC PARLIAMENT F O U N D A T I O N EXHIBITION HALL 14, Amalias Avenue Athens, Syntagma
Tel.: +30 210 3735109 Opening hours: daily 10:00-18:00 • Saturday - Sunday 10:00-15:00