Marathon, Greece Marathon, Greece Marathon (Demotic Greek: Μαραθώνας, "Marathónas"; Attic/Katharevousa: , "Marathṓn") is a town in Greece and the site of the battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, in which 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. The name "Marathon" () comes from the herb fennel, called "marathon" () or "marathos" () in Ancient Greek, so "Marathon" literally means "a place full of fennels". It is believed
Optative (Ancient Greek) Optative (Ancient Greek) The optative mood ( or ; Ancient Greek , , "[inflection] for wishing", Latin "[mode] for wishing") is a grammatical mood of the Ancient Greek verb, named for its use as a way to express wishes. The optative mood in Greek is found in four different tenses (present, aorist, perfect and future) and in all three voices (active, middle and passive). It has five main uses: Together, the optative and the subjunctive cover most of the areas for which the Latin subjunctive is used; however, for counterfactual situations in the present or the past ("it would be