London Mayor Boris Johnson will read out an Olympic Ode in ancient Greek composed by an Oxford academic to celebrate the athletes and personalities of the London 2012 Games as part of opening ceremonies. The ode is in the style of ancient Greek poet Pindar, whose poems celebrating the victorious Olympic competitors of the ancient world were highly prized.
Oxford classics faculty member Armand D'Angour wrote the ode at the instigation of the loquacious London mayor, who took his degree in Classics at Oxford, and includes references to athletes and personalities such as sprinter Usain Bolt and London Olympic organising committee chairman Sebastian Coe.
"Pindar was the greatest poet of his time, and sponsors paid a great deal of money for athletic victors to be honoured with an Ode by him," D'Angour said in a statement.
"I have aimed to be faithful to ancient style and form, and used alcaic metre. Of course the puns may make people groan, but Pindar's audiences may have done so too!"
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