A priestess prays to a lifeless solar god in entrance of a fallen Greek temple. If the sky is evident, a flame spurts that may burn in Paris all through the world’s prime sporting occasion. Speeches ensue.
On Tuesday, the flame for this summer time’s Paris Olympics was lit on the birthplace of the traditional Olympic Video games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony.
It would then be carried by way of Greece for greater than 3,100 miles earlier than being handed over to French organizers on the Athens venue used for the primary trendy Olympics in 1896.
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Right here’s a have a look at the workings and which means of the flowery ceremony held among the many ruins of Historic Olympia forward of every trendy Olympiad.
COULDN’T THE FRENCH JUST LIGHT IT IN PARIS?
Could not the Academy Awards simply be introduced in a convention name?
The pageantry at Olympia has been a vital a part of each Olympics for practically 90 years for the reason that Video games in Berlin. It is meant to supply an ineluctable hyperlink between the fashionable occasion and the traditional Greek unique on which it was initially modeled.
Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou, enjoying the position of the Excessive Priestess, lights the torch in the course of the lighting of the Olympic flame at Historic Olympia, birthplace of the traditional Olympics, in southwestern Greece on Oct. 18, 2021. On April 16, 2024, the flame for this summer time’s Paris Olympics was lit and carried by way of Greece for greater than 3,100 miles earlier than being handed over to French organizers on the Athens web site of the primary trendy Olympics. (AP Picture/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)
As soon as it has been carried by any means possible to the host metropolis — it has been beamed down by satellite tv for pc, lugged up Mount Everest and towed underwater — the flame kindles a cauldron that burns within the host Olympic stadium till the top of the video games. Then it is used for the Paralympics.
SO HOW’S IT LIT?
An actor enjoying an historic Greek priestess holds a silver torch containing extremely flamable supplies over a concave mirror. The solar’s rays bounce off each inch of the burnished steel half-globe and are available collectively at one extraordinarily sizzling level, which ignites the torch.
This occurs contained in the archaeological web site at Olympia, earlier than the traditional temple of Hera — spouse of Zeus, king of the Greek gods, whose personal ruined temple lies shut by.
The flame is finally used to gentle the primary runner’s torch — champagne-colored this yr for France — and an extended relay by way of Greece results in the April 26 handover on the Panathenaic stadium in Athens.
NEED IT BE SO COMPLICATED?
Flames and sandals make for a powerful spectacle, and whereas the priestess’ largely tongue-in-cheek prayer to Apollo may not be answered, the parabolic mirror works effectively.
The thought was the results of Greek-German cooperation forward of the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, which had been heavy on fanfare — and swastikas. It was primarily based on a mechanism talked about by historic writers in a non-Olympic context, and served the will to mix the video games of antiquity with the fashionable revival.
The 1936 improvements included a torch relay all the way in which to Berlin, and have been adopted, with modifications, ever since. An preliminary thought to do the relay flame in hole plant stalks — a nod to the Greek fantasy of Prometheus who stole fireplace from the gods — was ditched as impractical.
DID THIS HAPPEN AT THE ANCIENT GAMES?
No. However then trendy athletes do not compete bare, or, when victorious, obtain olive wreaths and the proper to a marble statue of their title — and, for three-times winners, of their precise likeness.
Additionally, there isn’t any temporary cessation of warfare to permit the fashionable video games to go forward, girls not solely attend however compete as effectively, and wealthy sponsors — or heads of state — do not reap the glory for his or her chariot groups’ wins.
Based on historic Greek custom, the video games of antiquity, held each 4 years in honor of Zeus, began in 776 B.C. They had been crucial of the main Greek sporting festivals, the place occasions included operating, wrestling and horse racing. As much as 40,000 spectators may attend.
Like in most preindustrial societies, life in historic Greece was deeply bodily and a well-exercised physique was seen because the mark of a gentleman.
The video games continued, with minor blips, till the brand new Christian authorities in Greece banned them as a part of the reprehensible pagan previous, in A.D. 393.
COULD ANYTHING SPOIL THE SHOW?
Rain. Heavy cloud cowl. Then the mirror does not work. However ceremony organizers in Olympia maintain a number of rehearsals within the days main as much as the official lighting, which offer a backup flame ought to the massive day show sunless. That is what ended up occurring on Tuesday, when the skies had been cloudy.
Potential protests are a worse headache. Twice this century — in the course of the lighting ceremonies for the Beijing Summer season and Winter Video games — human-rights activists disrupted the ceremony contained in the fenced and closely guarded archaeological web site. Even after the embarrassment of the primary incident in 2008, Greek police had been unable to anticipate and forestall the second, 14 years later. There was no incident Tuesday.
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The flame-lighting, with its broad TV protection — though the official stream shies from displaying any type of protest — is a magnet for activists who wish to seize headlines. And even when historic Olympia can, in idea a minimum of, be effectively guarded, the route of the torch relay by way of Greece is simply too lengthy to be protest-proof.
The 2008 incidents at Olympia and overseas led to the scrapping of torch relays outdoors Greece and the host nation.
Additional alongside the street, whereas the torches are designed to remain lit, there have been hitches prior to now. In the course of the relay for the 2014 Sochi Video games, wind blew out the torch, which was sneakily rekindled with a lighter. The identical fast repair was used at Montreal in 1976, when rain extinguished the Olympic cauldron.
