Run, Melos!
Japanese short story by Osamu Dazai
"Run, Melos!" (走れメロス, Hashire Merosu) is a Japanese short story by Osamu Dazai. It was first published in 1940 and is a widely read classic in Japanese schools. It was first used as teaching material for Japanese middle high schoolers in 1956.
The story is a reworking of Friedrich Schiller's ballad Die Bürgschaft, which tells the story of Melos and Selinuntius, originally Damon and Pythias. Schiller's version revolves around the ancient Greek legend of Damon and Pythias recorded by the Roman author Gaius Julius Hyginus.
The most prominent theme of "Run, Melos!" is unwavering friendship. Despite hardships, the protagonist succeeds in saving his friend's life.
Story
Melos is a naive young shepherd with a sense of justice. He lives in a land ruled by Dionysius, a tyrant king who has killed many people, including his family members, due to his solitude and distrust of people. When Melos hears about the King's deeds, he is outraged, and he decides to assassinate the King.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Run, Melos!” as japanese short story by Osamu Dazai. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q194551. VIAF identifies the subject as 13166532338812611532. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940 and 1956.
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This entry incorporates text from “Run, Melos!” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.