With the five Olympic rings ablaze in the middle of a manmade sea, the Summer Games returned to their birthplace Friday in an epic homecoming that joined the gods of ancient Greece and modern sport.
The biggest parade of nations in the games' history began with an announcer's cry of "Welcome back to Greece!" and culminated with a Greek windsurfing champion lighting the cauldron at the end of a slender 31m arm that rose slowly over one end of the Olympic Stadium.
It was a moment many doubted Greek organizers could pull off, after years of worrisome delays and constant pressure to bolster the most expensive security network ever at an Olympics.
The opening ceremony also closed an important circle in sports, from the games' innocent rebirth in 1896 to the latest Olympic gathering of the world's greatest athletes under 202 flags in an age beset by terrorism and instability.
"Greece is standing before you. We are ready. ... We have waited long for this moment," said the games' chief organizer, Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, under a model of an olive tree alongside International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge.
Rogge said: "We need peace, we need tolerance, we need brotherhood." He urged athletes to "show us that sport unites by overriding national, political, religious and language barriers."
At dusk, a countdown video filled a huge screen at the stadium -- whose weblike canopy was bolted into place only last month. The numbers clicked down from 28: one second for each of the games scheduled since the first modern Olympiad in an all-marble arena in central Athens.
Then, with a blast of fireworks, the ceremony was fully under way. Minutes later, the five Olympic rings were ablaze.
A round-the-clock work blitz -- under broiling sun and blinding spotlights -- managed to pull together the vast network of venues, transport links, villages and security needed for the athletes and heads of state at the first Summer Games since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
A sign of the security measures floated overhead -- a blimp with supersensitive spyware. Outside sat symbols of the delays -- dirt expanses instead of landscaped paths, idle cranes and trees planted just last week.
Earlier, an IOC member who helped oversee the preparations noted what was at stake if the Greeks had failed.
"I think you have saved Greece and saved the IOC from great humiliation," Alex Gilady told Athens organizers.
The ceremony's spectacle -- tradition mixed with Las Vegas-style fanfare -- celebrated Greek history, culture and civilization.
After the burning Olympic flames subsided, a boy on a replica of a ship sailed into the arena, waving a small Greek flag.
Then the centaur -- the mythological half-man, half-horse -- waded into the water and tossed a spear of light representing a javelin. From the center of the stadium rose a statue representing an ancient form from Greece's Cyclades islands. The form broke apart to reveal other figures from Greek history.
The ancient god of love, Eros, flew above two lovers dancing and playing in the water. Then Eros hovered over a procession of figures from Greek history -- from ancient vase paintings to a tribute to the Greek shepherd, Spiros Louis, who won the first Olympic marathon.
"The great moment has come!" cried the announcer in the stadium. Moments later, the parade of athletes began with the appearance of Greek weightlifter Pyrros Dimas, who is seeking his fourth consecutive gold medal. Behind him, more than 10,500 athletes streamed into the stadium.
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