Good Guy Euchidas volunteers to fetch ‘unpolluted’ fire from the Oracle at Delphi and reignite all the fires of Plataea, does so in record time, dies. TA DA.

>On their consulting the oracle about offering sacrifice, Apollo answered that they should dedicate an altar to Jupiter of freedom, but should not sacrifice til they had extinguished the fires throughout the country, as having been defiled by the barbarians [**Persians**], and had kindled unpolluted fire at the common altar at Delphi. >The magistrates of Greece, therefore, went forthwith and compelled such as had fire to put it out; and Euchidas, a Plataean, promising to fetch fire, with all possible speed, from the altar of the god, went to Delphi, and having sprinkled and purified his body crowned himself with laurel; and taking the fire from the altar ran back to Plataea, and got back there before sunset, performing in one day a journey of a thousand furlongs; and saluting his fellow-citizens and delivering them the fire, he immediately fell down, and in a short time after expired. _____________________________ **Note:** 1,000 furlongs = approx. 125 miles / 201.17 kilometers _____________________________ **Source:** Plutarch, John Dryden, and Arthur Hugh Clough. "Aristides." *Plutarch's Lives*. New York: Modern Library, 2001. 451. Print. _____________________________ **Further Reading:** [Πῡθίᾱ (Pythia) / Oracle of Delphi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythia)