Editing Pheidippides (section)

== Name ==
The name Philippides is reported by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], [[Plutarch]], and [[Lucian]], writers who had read this name in their versions of [[Herodotus]], while in most of Herodotus's manuscripts the form appears Pheidippides.<ref>Lazenby, John Francis. The Defence of Greece 490-479 BC, Aris & Phillips Ltd, 1993, p. 52, ISBN 0-85668-591-7.</ref>

Other than Herodotus's manuscripts, the form Pheidippides is only attested in [[Aristophanes]]'s ''[[The Clouds]]'' (423 BC). Many historians argue that Aristophanes willfully distorted the actual name so as not to use the name of the hero of Marathon in his play or as a play on words meaning "save horses". However, given that the name Pheidippo is attested in the ''[[Iliad]]'', the existence of a Pheidippides cannot be excluded. Still, according to many, this form remains an error of the copyists of the manuscripts.<ref>Dennis L. Fink, The Battle of Marathon in Scholarship, McFarland, 2014, p. 138, ISBN 978-0-7864-7973-3.</ref>