Another Spurious Suffix to Run by You

A couple of weeks ago, this column mentioned workaholic as an example of our habit of taking parts of words and making them into suffixes. We took “-oholic” from alcoholic, changed it to “-aholic,” and made it a suffix meaning “addict,” as in “workaholic” and “chocaholic.”

Of the spurious suffixes we’ve developed, one of the more outrageous is “-athon,” as in walkathon, talkathon, telethon and a slew of other words indicating great distances or long stretches of time. I’ve actually heard of a rockathon--an endurance contest for rocking-chair jockeys.

In the original Greek “-athon” had no more to do with long distances or long times than “-oholic” in its original use had to do with “addicted to.” “-Athon” is just the last part of marathon, from the marathon race.

“-Athon” is sometimes confused with “-athlon,” as in pentathlon and decathlon. But, whereas “-athon” is an illegitimate suffix, “-athlon” is not. The root is the Greek athlos , meaning contest, the source also of athlete.

The marathon race was named after the site of an ancient battle between Greeks and Persians--the Plain of Marathon, about 20 miles from Athens.

I was sure I knew how marathon came to mean a long foot race, but in checking, I found that the story has more than one version. That’s not surprising, because it’s almost 2,500 years old, and those ancient tales do have a way of getting retold with ever new twists and turns.

Darius the Great, who had vastly expanded the Persian Empire during his tenure, decided in 490 BC to add Greece to his holdings. Consequently, a force of anywhere from 100,000 to 600,000 Persians encamped at Marathon.

The fastest runner in Greece, a young man named Pheidippides, was dispatched to Sparta to get help to drive off the Persians. Pheidippides made it to Sparta, 150 miles away, in two days. The Spartans refused to help, saying they were waiting for a full moon.

That prodigious 150-mile sprint is said to be the origin of the marathon race. But wait.

An Athenian general named Miltiades led a force of 10,000 Greeks to Marathon to drive out the 100,000 to 600,000 Persians, and, as one of my sources says, laconically, “his strategy won the battle.” It is said by some authorities who seem never to have heard of the 150-mile dash that Pheidippides took off like a shot to take the news of victory to Athens, and that it is that 20-mile run that is the origin of the marathon race.

Could be; but my favorite version of the origin has it that after the Persians had been beaten from the field at Marathon, presumably leaving their dead and dying scattered about, they sailed for Athens, certain that the Athenian troops, dog-tired from battle, would be far from the city. The Persians would sack the undefended city, and Darius would have Greece.

Miltiades evidently guessed what they were up to and led his exhausted men, encumbered with the armor of warriors, carrying swords and shields, on a fast jog 20 miles back to Athens. They got there ahead of the Persians, and, supposedly, clobbered them again.

I suspect that Pheidippides’ two-day, 150-mile run still stands as a record. But it seems that the run by those overladen Marathon veterans who had no sooner caught their breath than they had to go at it again with what remained of 100,000 to 600,000 Persians, is even more awesome, an inspiring prototype for the thousands of skivvy-clad athletes who grind through the modern marathons of 26 miles, 385 yards.

I can’t help wondering what Miltiades and his stalwarts would make of a rockathon.