Dust and Dreams in Olympia

Nikias doesn't know much about marble pillars or gods. He knows about dust, the smell of olive oil, and the old trails that cut through the groves near his village. That's what he knows. The way the earth feels under his feet, the way the wind carries the scent of orchards after the rain, the way his father used to stand on the hillside at dawn, squinting out over the fields as if he could see past the horizon. Those are the things that have always been real.

But today, in the summer of 776 BC, he's headed somewhere beyond those familiar trails, running toward something he's only heard whispered about in the village—a gathering like no other, the first of the Olympic Games, held at Olympia, the place of Zeus.