After the torch was lit, the priestess handed it to the first runner. As she told the story, she gave her listeners, and herself, goose bumps. The ancient Olympic reality is keenly felt by many, from Olympia and the International Olympic Committee to the Games host cities. But further up the mountains, behind the shopping strip of the town and the quiet ruins of the site, the view is a little different. According to one of the inhabitants of the little villages which cling precariously to the tops of the mountains and where farming has been hard, relentless work since before the Games began, there is little or no interest in the torch-lighting ceremony.
Life goes on then, as it does in the present, a cycle of seasons and the sun.
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