By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS Associated Press
ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (AP) — A priestess prays to a dead sun god in front of a fallen Greek temple. When the sky is evident, there may be a flame that may burn in Paris in the course of the world's best sporting event. Speeches follow.
On Tuesday the flame for this summer Olympic Games in Paris was lit in a fastidiously choreographed ceremony on the birthplace of the traditional Olympic Games in southern Greece.
It will then be transported greater than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) across Greece before being handed over to French organizers at the positioning of the primary modern Olympic Games in Athens.
Here's a have a look at the mechanics and significance of the frilly ceremony held before every modern Olympiad within the ruins of ancient Olympia.
Couldn't the French just set it on fire in Paris?
Couldn't the Oscars just be announced on a conference call?
The pageantry on the Olympics has been a vital a part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years for the reason that Games in Berlin. It goals to create an unmissable connection between the trendy event and the traditional Greek original on which it was originally based.
Once it was carried there by any means possible Host city – it was beamed down by satellite, towed up Mount Everest and dragged underwater – the flame ignited a cauldron that burned within the host Olympic stadium until the tip of the Games. Then it’s used for the Paralympic Games.
So how is it lit?
An actor playing an ancient Greek priestess holds a silver torch containing highly flammable materials over a concave mirror. The sun's rays bounce off every inch of the burnished metal hemisphere and converge at an especially hot point that ignites the torch.
This occurs throughout the archaeological site of Olympia, in front of the traditional temple of Hera – wife of Zeus, king of the Greek gods, whose own ruined temple lies nearby.
The flame will eventually be used to light the primary runner's torch – this 12 months in champagne color for France – and a protracted relay race through Greece results in the handover on April 26 on the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.
Does it should be so complicated?
Flames and sandals make for a formidable spectacle, and while the priestess' largely tongue-in-cheek prayer to Apollo is probably not answered, the parabolic mirror works well.
The idea was the results of Greek-German cooperation within the run-up to the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, which saw much fanfare and swastikas. It was based on a mechanism mentioned by ancient writers in a non-Olympic context and served the will to mix the games of antiquity with the trendy revival.
The innovations of 1936 included a torch relay to Berlin and have continued with modifications since then. An original idea to create the relay flame in hole plant stems – a reference to the Greek myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods – was rejected as impractical.
Did this occur in the traditional games?
No. But modern athletes don't compete naked, or, in the event that they're victorious, Received olive wreaths and the appropriate to a marble statue in her name – and, for three-time winners, in her actual likeness.
Furthermore, there is no such thing as a temporary pause in warfare to permit the trendy Games to happen, women not only participate but additionally compete, and wealthy sponsors – or heads of state – don’t reap the glory for his or her chariot teams' victories.
According to ancient Greek tradition, the traditional games, held every 4 years in honor of Zeus, began in 776 BC. They were a very powerful of the most important Greek sporting festivals, which included running, wrestling and horse racing. Up to 40,000 spectators could possibly be there.
As in most pre-industrial societies, life in ancient Greece was deeply physical and a well-toned body was considered an indication of a gentleman.
The games continued with minor outbursts until the brand new Christian authorities in Greece banned them in 393 AD as a part of the reprehensible pagan past.
Could anything spoil the show?
Rain. Heavy cloud cover. Then the mirror doesn't work. But the organizers of the ceremony in Olympia are conducting several rehearsals in the times before the official lighting, which is able to ensure a backup flame in case the massive day is canceled without sun. This is the result takes place on Tuesdaywhen the sky was cloudy.
With its wide TV coverage – although the official stream shies away from any type of protest – the flameout is a magnet for activists seeking to make headlines. And even when ancient Olympia can, not less than in theory, be guarded efficiently, the route of the torch relay through Greece is simply too long to be protest-proof.
Incidents on the Olympics and abroad in 2008 led to the suspension of the torch relay outside Greece and the host country.
Further along the road, the torches are designed to burn, but there have been disruptions previously. During the relay race for the 2014 Sochi Games, the wind blew out the torch, which was secretly relit with a lighter. The same quick fix was utilized in Montreal in 1976 when rain worn out the Olympic cauldron.
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