PROUD TO BE GREEK...
My Current Mood:




Beautiful Olive-Skinned Women in Togas... now, that's a way to start an Olympic event...

"ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece - The flame that will burn at the Athens Games was lighted Thursday amid the ruins of the ancient sanctuary where the Olympics were born 2,780 years ago.

In a ceremony held at an altar to Hera, a Greek goddess worshipped in Olympia during the original games, the torch was lit by a Greek actress playing the role of a high priestess.

Thalia Prokopiou, one of two dozen women that took part in the ceremony, placed a silver torch inside a burnished-steel concave mirror. The sun's rays then ignited the torch.

"Today the Olympic flame will be reborn yet again to enfold the whole world in its light. This is the day that all of us have been waiting for so eagerly," Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, president of the Athens organizing committee said.

During the ceremony, Prokopiou intoned a prayer to the ancient Greek god Apollo for the sun to shine.

"Apollo god of the sun and the idea of light send your rays and light the sacred torch for the hospitable city of Athens."