The last moments of street lighting illuminates the pavement and road as dawn breaks over the shoreline on the untidy and empty seafront in Nea Makri, a coastal town near Athens on the Marathon road. This town is the original route that the Athenian messenger Pheidippides ran in 490BC to deliver news of the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of (Marathonas) Marathon. Nowadays, this is a rather unattractive town with few echoes of Greece's ancient glories although the 29th modern Olympic circus came home in 2004. The modern games share many characteristics with its ancient counterpart. Corruption, politics and cheating interfered then as it does now and the 2004 Athens Olympiad echoed both what was great and horrid about the past.
Add to Cart Add to Lightbox Download