Pheidippedes

Professional runner who is said to have run from Marathon to Athens to inform the Athenians that they had won the battle against the Persians, thus running the first Marathon race. He uttered the world "Chairete nikomen" ("Greetings, we have won") and then dropped down dead. Pheidippedes is also said to have run from Athens to Sparta to ask for help when the Persians were approaching.

When the Persians attacked Athens in 480 BC the messenger met Pan in Arcadia. Pan asked him why the Athenians did not worship him and said he would gladly help them against their enemy. So, he appeared on the side of the Athenians at the battle of Marathon, and a cult was founded to his honour in a cave on the northern side of the Acropolis.