SIGNS & SYMBOLS: The Torch & the Truce

During the Olympic Games of antiquity, the bellicose cities of ancient Greece invariably observed a "sacred truce." This week Greek guerrillas had cut the relay route of the Olympic torch. Runners by day and night were to have borne the fiery symbol the entire length of Greece on its way from Olympia to the opening of the games at London on July 29. Instead, the torch could be carried a mere 20 miles to the nearest port, whence a British destroyer would take it to Bari, Italy, for the long relay through five countries to the English Channel.

The last Olympic...