the human trunk, the goat-thighs grand I saw.
"Halt, Pheidippides!"--halt I did, my brain of a whirl. 70
"Hither to me! Why pale in my presence?" he gracious began;
"How is it--Athens, only in Hellas, holds me aloof?

"Athens, she only, rears me no fane, makes me no feast!
Wherefore? Than I what godship to Athens more helpful of old?
Aye, and still, and forever her friend! Test Pan, trust me! 75
Go, bid Athens take heart, laugh Persia to scorn, have faith
In the temples and tombs! Go, say to Athens, 'The Goat-God saith:
When Persia--so much as strews not the soil--is cast in the sea,
Then praise Pan who fought in the ranks with your most and least,
Goat-thigh to greaved-thigh, made one cause with the free and 80
the bold!'

"Say Pan saith: 'Let this, foreshowing the place, be the pledge!'"
(Gay, the liberal hand held out this herbage I bear
--Fennel--I grasped it a-tremble with dew--whatever it bode)
"While, as for thee" ... But enough! He was gone. If I ran hitherto--
Be sure that, the rest of my journey, I ran no longer, but 85
flew.
Parnes to Athens--earth no more, the air was my road;
Here am I back. Praise Pan, we stand no more on the razor's edge!
Pan for Athens, Pan for me! I too have a guerdon rare!

* * * * *

Then spoke Miltiades. "And thee, best runner of Greece,
Whose limbs did duty indeed--what gift is promised thyself? 90
Tell it us straightway--Athens the mother demands of her son!"
Rosily blushed the youth; he paused; but, lifting at length
His eyes from the ground, it seemed as he gathered the rest of his
strength
Into the utterance--"Pan spoke thus: 'For what thou hast done
Count on a worthy reward! Henceforth be allowed thee release 95
From the racer's toil, no vulgar reward in praise or in pelf!'

"I am bold to believe, Pan means reward the most to my mind!
Fight I shall, with our foremost, wherever this fennel may grow--
Pound--Pan helping us--Persia to dust, and, under the deep,
Whelm her away forever; and then--no Athens to save-- 100
Marry a certain maid, I know keeps faith to the brave--
Hie to my house and home; and, when my children shall creep
Close to my knees--recount how the God was awful yet kind,
Promised their sire reward to the full--rewarding him--so!"