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The Times & The Sunday Times
The Times & The Sunday Times
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In honour of Zeus

The ancient games were part of a festival in honour of Olympian Zeus held at his sanctuary at Olympia
The Times
The Times

Sir, Mount Olympus was not the source of the Olympic flame (“Torch relay goes on tour to light your way to Games”, Mar 20).

As Boris Johnson, a classicist, will know, the reputed home of the gods would hardly be a suitable place to hold an athletics contest.

The ancient games were part of a festival in honour of Olympian Zeus held at his sanctuary at Olympia, in the west of the Peloponnese.

The site is in the wide valley of the River Alpheios where there was room for running and chariot races close to the huge temple for the god.

The modern Olympic torch procession is of course a piece of flummery devised to advertise the Berlin Olympics in 1936.

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Debby Cadwallader
Princes Risborough, Bucks