The Olympic flame spluttered into life on Thursday in a ceremony in the olive groves of ancient Olympia amid unprecedented levels of security.
A Greek actor dressed as a high priestess invoked Apollo, the god of light, to ignite the torch over a concave mirror.
Almost immediately, the dark clouds that had hung over the ruins parted and a ray of sun lit up the cauldron before thousands of cheering people. It was seen by Greeks as a good omen for the homecoming of the games.
”Every time is different,” Maria Hors, a dancer who has long overseen the ritual, said. ”For the Sydney games we couldn’t get the torch to light at all and had to use a back-up. This time the ceremony is earlier than usual and I was really worried it was going to rain.”
As the flame began a round-the-world journey, officials put a brave face on the security risks faced by the 16-day event.
”The Olympic Games are returning to their country of origin for the second time in the modern era. It was in Olympia that everything began and today that everything is going to begin for Athens 2004,” the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, said. ”Whether we live in a rich or disadvantaged country, the flame will unite us all.”
The flame will cross all five continents, with unprecedented stops in Africa and Latin America.
It arrives in London on June 26 after visiting each of the 33 cities that have hosted the games since they were revived in Athens in 1896. Among the torchbearers will be the Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie, who will carry the flame when it returns to Greece a month before the games start on August 13. – Guardian Unlimited