the opening ceremony
Greek pride recovered with a vengeance today, after a spectacular Olympics homecoming ceremony eclipsed the glare of a drugs investigation involving Greece's top two athletes - both Sydney Olympic medal winners.
Last night's opening ceremony was "magical", a "triumph" and a "dream" Greek newspapers declared on their front pages about the three-hour pageant which went off without a glitch.
"Athens is lighting up the world, it was a magical hour," Games chief Ms Gianna Angelopoulos told reporters after the ceremony.
"We are Greek and tonight the world understood that we have not only heritage, but also potential".
For Greeks, the breathtaking display celebrating life, love and their ancient civilisation beamed to four billion viewers across the world was just the shot in the arm they needed, even if doubts linger over the saga of sprinters Costas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, who are at the centre of a dope probe.
"We are a country with history, the ceremony showed all our history and the whole world saw it," said Ms Roxanni Ermi, an Athenian woman in her thirties. "Early on we had been criticised for so many things, but now they can't say we are useless".
Others said the ceremony made them forget even for a while that Kenteris and Thanou face suspension from the Games after failing to show up for a mandatory drugs test on Thursday.
The duo were later involved in a motorcycle accident and are in hospital with slight injuries, rendering their participation in any event far from certain.
"I did feel they should have been there, but the ceremony went so well it made me hope their case has an equally good ending -- but really, today I am not thinking about them much, I am just happy," said 24-year old Ms Mina Zafeiropoulou.
Greek newspapers today pumped the feel-good factor for all it was worth.
"It was a dream which erases the nightmare," said Ta Nea newspaper in an full front page picture of a young performer from the ceremony.
"The triumph put sorrow aside," said the daily Eleftherotypia.
Employing some graveyard humour, a cartoon on its front page showed two characters carrying a Greek flag and looking for Phevos and Athena, the two mascots of the Athens Olympics.
"They've disappeared and they are needed for an anti-doping test," the cartoon said.
But Greeks served notice they would not forget the saga with the two sprinters easily.
"Stop the hide and seek. These are the two heroes who hurt us," declared the Espresso tabloid on its front page under pictures of Kenderis and Thanou.