: The titular ship is named, not for it's long journey to Tau Ceti, but,
: surprise surprise, after a city where a historical battle of Greeks
: fighting off the invading Persians took place.
Ha, I think that the UESC named it for the former reason and Bungie the latter, though it's worth mentioning that Alexander Seropian himself was(is?) a running enthusiast, so the truth is that it's probably a bit of both.
The Greeks were outnumbered though still won, but their initial beating of the Persians wasn't enough to keep them from returning and sacking Athens as the Pfhor did Tau Ceti.
Historically though the original Battle of Marathon could be considered a watershed moment for the Greeks in their history and formative for Western/European identity in that it proved that the seemingly unstoppable Persians could be beaten in the field and that the Greeks could hope to win the war, as they eventually did. This perhaps allowed for the flourishing of the ancient Greek culture which still underlies many of our notions, language, and sensibilities to this day. In this sense the Battle of Tau Ceti/Marathon would be similar in heralding the rise of a new human civilization, which happened with the collapse of the Pfhor Empire.
So yes I think the Pfhor would definitely have to be the Persians in that allegory, but Alexander the Great was born about 150 years after the Battle of Marathon. I suppose he could be analogous to Durandal in a symbolic sense but whether or not Bungie intended as much I don't know. I think he's such an interesting character though that he's symbolically analogous to a lot of historical figures and fictional characters and *that* I think was intentional if you look at all the references strewn through the games...
