marathon (n.)

1896, in marathon race, "long-distance foot-race of 26 miles, 385 yards," named for the town of Marathōn, in Attica, site of a famous battle in antiquity. The place-name is literally "fennel-field, fennel" (Greek marathon), probably so called because the herb grew nearby. It is a word of uncertain etymology; Beekes writes, "For a plant name, foreign origin is suspected."

The race was introduced as an athletic event in the 1896 revival of the Olympic Games. It is based on the story of the Greek hero Pheidippides, who in 490 B.C.E. ran to Athens from the Plains of Marathon to tell of the allied Greek victory there over Persian army.

The oldest form of the story (Herodotus) tells that he ran from Athens to Sparta to seek aid, which arrived too late to participate in the battle (but approved the tactics). The 1896 Olympics chose a later story, less likely but more dramatic, that Pheidippides ran to Athens from the battlefield with the good news.

The 1896 course began in the town of Marathon and finished in Athens' Panathenaic Stadium; the precise distance of the race fluctuated until after 1924.

From the distance-race, the word was extended generally to mean "any very long event or activity." Related: Marathoner (by 1912); Marathonian.