Flame ceremony and 2nd Delphic Hymn to Apollo

When, in 1894, Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) convened an international athletic conference at the Sorbonne, his intention was to promote among the participants the idea of reviving the Olympic Games. Moreover, it was not by chance that at the conclusion of the first day (16 June) of the conference, de Coubertin chose to have the first Delphic Hymn to Apollo.

The hymn had been discovered at Delphi only a year before by the French School of Archeology. Knowing of the importance of this discovery, the organizers took the best advantage of it. It offered an opportunity to combine athletics and the theme of the conference with Ancient Greece and with the central concepts of the Olympic Games, i.e., the ideals of friendship and the noble competition among nations.


Εἲς ̓Απόλλωνα

φοι̂βε, σὲ μὲν καὶ κύκνος ὑπὸ πτερύγων λίγ' ἀείδει, ὄχθῃ ἐπιθρώσκων ποταμὸν πάρα δινήεντα, Πηνειόν: σὲ δ' ἀοιδὸς ἔχων φόρμιγγα λίγειαν ἡδυεπὴς πρω̂τόν τε καὶ ὕστατον αἰὲν ἀείδει.

καὶ σὺ μὲν οὕτω χαι̂ρε, ἄναξ, ἵλαμαι δέ σ' ἀοιδῃ̂.