The Olympic Flame

Jennifer

Reading — Advanced Level
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The idea for the Olympic flame was derived from ancient Greece, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics on the altar of the sanctuary of Hestia. In Ancient Greek mythology, fire had divine connotations – it was thought to have been stolen from the gods by Prometheus. Sacred fires were present at many ancient Greek sanctuaries, including those at Olympia. Every four years, when Zeus was honored at the Olympic Games, additional fires were lit at his temple and that of his wife, Hera. The modern Olympic flame is ignited at the site where the temple of Hera used to stand.

The Olympic fire is ignited several months before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games at the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece. Eleven women, representing the Vestal Virgins, perform a celebration at the Temple of Hera in which the first torch of the Olympic Torch Relay is kindled by the light of the Sun. Its rays concentrated by a parabolic mirror.

After the ceremony at Olympia, the Olympic flame first travels around Greece, and is then transferred during a ceremony in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens from the prior Olympic city to the current year's host city. At the end of the first Olympic torch relay, the Olympic flame arrives in Berlin, 1936. By contrast to the Olympic flame, the Olympic torch relay, which transports the flame from Olympia, Greece to the various designated sites of the Games, had no ancient precedent and was introduced by Carl Diem at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin which were organized by the Nazis under the guidance of Joseph Goebbels.

During the opening ceremony, the final bearer of the torch runs towards the cauldron, often placed at the top of a grand staircase, and then uses the torch to start the flame in the stadium. The climactic transfer of the Olympic flame from the final torch to the cauldron at the central host stadium marks the symbolic commencement of the Games.
Source: Wikipedia
  1. The Olympic flame is symbolically   .
  2. The Greeks believe that the Olympic fire is  
  3. An Olympic game is also an event of paying tribute to Greece ( to) where it all   .
  4. The first Olympic torch was lighted   .
  5. The different flags being raised during the Olympic games represent   .
  6. The Olympic games officially begin   .
  7. It can be inferred that   .
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Discussion

Practice your writing skills by discussing the questions below

  1. What does the Olympic flame symbolize?
  2. Have you seen any Olympic event? if yes, which one?
  3. How do you personally view the Olympics? Why do you say that?
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