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30-802: The marathon race and course is inspired by the Ancient Athenian army run from Marathon to Athens after the Battle of Marathon . Taking from the tradition of the Olympic Torch , the race features the Marathon Flame, which is lit at the Tomb of the Battle of Marathon and carried to the stadium in Marathon before the beginning of each race. In addition, an international marathon symposium

60-515: A combination of the original Demotic and the traditional Katharevousa as stressed in the 19th century, also with institutional input from Koine Greek. Among Katharevousa's later contributions are the promotion of classically based compounds to describe items and concepts that did not exist in earlier times, such as "newspaper", "police", "automobile", "aeroplane" and "television", rather than borrowing new words directly from other languages. Katharevousa (Greek: Καθαρεύουσα ) means 'cleansing, purifying',

90-477: A site for athletics competitions in ancient times and the finishing point for both the 1896 and 2004 Olympic marathons. Key:     Course record    Greek championship race Marathon, Greece Marathon ( Demotic Greek : Μαραθώνας, Marathónas ; Attic / Katharevousa : Μαραθών , Marathṓn ) is a town in Greece and the site of the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, in which

120-527: Is a conservative form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the late 18th century as both a literary language and a compromise between Ancient Greek and the contemporary vernacular, Demotic Greek . Originally, it was widely used for both literary and official purposes, though sparingly in daily language. In the 20th century, it was increasingly adopted for official and formal purposes, until minister of education Georgios Rallis made Demotic Greek

150-434: Is also the starting point for the annual Athens Classic Marathon . The area is susceptible to flash flooding , because of forest fires having denuded parts of the eastern slopes of Mount Penteli especially in 2006. The municipality Marathon was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 4 former municipalities, that became municipal units: The municipality has an area of 222.747 km ,

180-455: Is held the day before the race. Greek competitors have traditionally been strong in the men's and women's competitions. However, East Africans and Japanese runners have increasingly become the dominant runners from 1999 onwards. The current course records are 2:10:34 hours for men, set by Edwin Kiptoo in 2023, while Rasa Drazdauskaitė 's run of 2:31:06 in 2010 is the quickest by a woman on

210-492: Is in a work by the Greek polymath Nikephoros Theotokis , in 1796. Katharevousa was widely used in public documents and whatever was conceived as work of formal activity by Greek scholars. The name Katharevousa implies a pure form of Greek as it might hypothetically have evolved from ancient Greek without external influences, while in its modern connotation the word has come to mean "formal language". In later years, Katharevousa

240-469: The Byzantine Empire were almost always written in conservative literary Greek. Examples of texts written in vernacular Greek prior to the 13th century are very rare. It can be argued that the establishment of Katharevousa was an official declaration and standardization of the conservative form of Greek, which had already existed in one way or another. The first known use of the term Katharevousa

270-673: The IAAF . The 1983 event was known as the Athens Peace Marathon and both a popular and elite level race featured for the first time that year. Since 1990, the Athens Classic Marathon has often served as the Greek national championships for the marathon event. Since 2007 the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races has organised an annual International Marathon Symposium in Marathon town

300-580: The Tetrapolis , one of the 12 districts into which Attica was divided before the time of Theseus . Here Xuthus , who married the daughter of Erechtheus , is said to have reigned; and here the Heracleidae took refuge when driven out of Peloponnesus , and defeated Eurystheus . The Marathonii claimed to be the first people in Greece who paid divine honours to Heracles , who possessed a sanctuary in

330-551: The herb fennel , called márathon ( μάραθον ) or márathos ( μάραθος ) in Ancient Greek, so Marathon literally means "a place full of fennel". It is believed that the town was originally named so because of an abundance of fennel plants in the area. In ancient times, Marathon ( Ancient Greek : Μαραθών ) occupied a small plain in the northeast of ancient Attica , which contained four places, Marathon, Probalinthus , Tricorythus , and Oenoe , which originally formed

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360-552: The 31 km mark – the toughest uphill climb of any major marathon. The course begins in the town of Marathon , where it passes the tomb of the Athenian soldiers, and it traces a path near the coast through Nea Makri . Following the steep rise, the course goes lightly downhill towards the city of Athens. It passes a statue of a runner ( Ο Δρομέας ) in the city centre before finishing up at the Panathinaiko Stadium ;

390-536: The Greek forces) defeated Darius ' Persian forces, the Persians decided to sail from Marathon to Athens in order to sack the unprotected city. Miltiades ordered all his hoplite forces to march "double time" back to Athens, so that by the time Darius' troops arrived they saw the same Greek force waiting for them. Although the name Marathon had a positive resonance in Europe in the nineteenth century, for some time that

420-493: The Greek tourist board and athletics association. In 1982, the organisers dedicated the race to Grigoris Lambrakis , an athlete and Member of the Greek Parliament , whose murder in the 1960s has become an inspirational cause for advocates of human rights . The race came under the auspices of the current organisers and SEGAS in 1983 and has since become a major race, being awarded Gold Label Road Race status by

450-594: The course. The provenance of the competitive race is traced back to the Marathon race at the 1896 Olympics . A separate race from the town of Marathon to Athens was regularly held in April from 1955 to at least 1989. This unrelated race, known as the Athens Marathon, frequently served as the Greek championship race but it is now discontinued. The Athens Classic Marathon began in 1972 as a joint venture between

480-478: The cruelty of his father Plutarch calls him an Arcadian , who accompanied the Dioscuri in their expedition into Attica, and voluntarily devoted himself to death before the battle. After Theseus united the 12 independent districts of Attica into one state, the name of Tetrapolis gradually fell into disuse; and the four places of which it consisted became Attic demi, Marathon, Tricorythus, and Oenoë belonging to

510-444: The day prior to the race. The 2010 edition of the event was combined with the celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon. As the 2500 anniversary was actually in 2011, this year was also celebrated as the anniversary run. In 2016, a refugee team competed in the concurrent 5 kilometre road race. The 2020 in-person edition of the race was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic , with all registrants given

540-595: The feminine present participle of the verb katharévo (Greek: καθαρεύω , pronounced [kaθaˈrevo] ). (The term is thus cognate with English catharsis .) The Church of Greece and other churches of the Greek Orthodox tradition still use Katharevousa in official communications. This is a text sample of Katharevousa from the Great Greek Encyclopedia , published in 1930. The text relates to Adamantios Korais 's relations with

570-595: The foundations of Modern Greek literature and a major figure in the Greek Enlightenment , he was repelled by the Byzantine and subsequent influence on Greek society, and was a fierce critic of the clergy and their alleged subservience to the Ottoman Empire . He held that education was a prerequisite to Greek liberation . Part of Katharevousa's purpose was to serve as a compromise solution for

600-498: The heavily outnumbered Athenian army defeated the Persians . Legend has it that Pheidippides , a Greek herald at the battle, was sent running from Marathon to Athens to announce the victory, which is how the marathon running race was conceived in modern times. Today it is part of East Attica regional unit, in the outskirts of Athens and a popular resort town and center of agriculture. The name "Marathon" ( Μαραθών ) comes from

630-536: The municipal unit 97.062 km . The other settlements in the municipal unit are Agios Panteleimonas, Kato Souli, Vranas, Avra, Vothon, Ano Souli and Schinias. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Smith, William , ed. (1854–1857). "Marathon". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography . London: John Murray. Katharevousa Katharevousa ( Greek : Καθαρεύουσα , pronounced [kaθaˈrevusa] , literally "purifying [language]")

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660-542: The official language of Greece in 1976, and in 1982 Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou abolished the polytonic system of writing for both Demotic and Katharevousa. Katharevousa was conceived by the intellectual and revolutionary leader Adamantios Korais (1748–1833). A graduate of the University of Montpellier , Korais spent most of his life as an expatriate in Paris. As a classical scholar credited with both laying

690-503: The official language, and in 1982 Andreas Papandreou abolished the polytonic system of writing; by the end of the 20th century full Katharevousa in its earlier form had become obsolete. Much of the vocabulary of Katharevousa and its grammatical and syntactical rules have influenced the Demotic language, so that the project's emphasis has made an observable contribution to the language as it is used today. Modern Greek might be argued to be

720-525: The option of transferring their entry to 2021 or obtaining a full refund. The marathon course is based on the legend from which the race gained its name: Pheidippides , a messenger in Ancient Greece , ran from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to announce the Greeks' victory over the Persians . It is perhaps the most difficult major marathon race: the course is uphill from the 10 km mark to

750-478: The plain. Marathon is also celebrated in the legends of Theseus, who conquered the ferocious bull, which used to devastate the plain. Marathon is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey in a way that implies that it was then a place of importance. In mythology, its name was derived from an eponymous hero Marathon , who is described by Pausanias as a son of Epopeus , king of Sicyon , who fled into Attica in consequence of

780-555: The struggle between the "archaists" demanding full reversion to archaic Greek, and the "modernists". Although Katharevousa was introduced relatively recently, the concept of a conservative literary version of Greek had been present since the times of Koine Greek . There had always existed a tendency towards a state of diglossia between the Attic literary language and the constantly developing spoken Koine, which eventually evolved into Demotic Greek . Medieval Greek texts and documents of

810-541: The tribe Aeantis , and Probalinthus to the tribe Pandionis ; but Marathon was so superior to the other three, that its name was applied to the whole district down to the latest times. Hence Lucian speaks of "the parts of Marathon about Oenoë". Few places have obtained such celebrity in the history of the world as Marathon, on account of the victory which the Athenians here gained over the Persians in 490 BCE ( Battle of Marathon ). After Miltiades (the general of

840-511: Was completed in 1929. About 10 km of forested land were flooded to form Lake Marathon . The beach of Schinias is located southeast of the town. The beach is popular as a spot for windsurfing and the Olympic Rowing Center used for the 2004 Summer Olympics is also located there. At the 1896 and 2004 Summer Olympics , Marathon was the starting point of the marathon races (for both women and men in 2004). Marathon

870-575: Was sullied by the Dilessi murders , which happened nearby in 1870. In the 19th century and beginning of twentieth century the village was inhabited by an Arvanite population. The sophist and magnate Herodes Atticus was born in Marathon. In 1926, the American company ULEN began construction on the Marathon Dam in a valley above Marathon, in order to ensure water supply for Athens . It

900-406: Was used for official and formal purposes (such as politics, letters, official documents, and newscasting), while Demotic Greek ( δημοτική , dimotikí ), or popular Greek, was the daily language. This created a diglossic situation whereby most of the Greek population was excluded from the public sphere and advancement in education unless they conformed to Katharevousa. In 1976, Demotic was made

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