Melpomene is the (given?) name of a female runner who supposedly tried to in the 1896 Olympic marathon, which was not open to women. She is said to have completed the race in 4.5 hours. Melpomene is mentioned in a few contemporary foreign sources, but while Greek newspapers report on a female entrant, she is never named. By contrast, Stamata Revithi is known to have run the marathon the day after the men’s competition. It is possible that Melpomene - the ancient Greek muse of tragedy - refers to Revithi, but historians have been unable to either confirm or deny this.
Greece