Case file · Apparition / miracle
The phantom of Theseus at Marathon
Plutarch says many Athenians at the battle of Marathon believed they saw the hero Theseus, in armour, charging ahead of them against the Persians.
490 BCE · 38.12, 23.98 · status: legend
The account
Pausanias adds another figure: a man in rustic dress who killed many Persians with a plough and then vanished; the oracle told the Athenians to honour him as the hero Echetlaeus. A painting of the battle in the Stoa Poikile in Athens showed Theseus rising from the earth among the fighters.
The sceptical view
Both accounts were written more than five centuries after the battle and reflect the Athenian hero cult that grew up around the victory.