Athens, 25 March 1896. According to the Julian calendar, which was still in force in Greece, on that day was commemorated the beginning of the Greek war of independence of 1821. That anniversary was celebrated in such a splendid way, for the first time since it had been instituted in 1838, not simply because it coincided with the day after Easter, but also because on that day it had been decided that the official opening of the first modern Olympic Games would take place in the reconstructed Panathenaic Stadium.
It was then that the Olympic Anthem, an opus created by the poet Kostis Palamas and the composer Spyros Samaras, was heard for the first time, 60 years before the International Olympic Committee would adopt it officially:

"Ancient immortal spirit, pure father
of beauty, of greatness and of truth..."

The history of the modern Olympic Games had just begun, although no-one could be aware at that time of the significance that this new sports institution would assume in the modern world.

 

The Olympic Games in Antiquity:
From ancient Olympia to Athens of 1896