Nowadays, history can look dull to kids when approached trough books; printed words on a page, even if embellished with pictures, remain flat and static. Keen on developing a formula that would inspire students to connect with history, the Foundation of the Hellenic World, a non-profit cultural organisation, presents The Olympic Hero.

Enter a multimedia-enhanced educational programme delving into the history of the Olympics through a combination of video documentary, Internet presentations, various exhibits and a virtual reality trip back to the ancient world of Olympia. The Olympic Hero programme is aimed at school children aged between 10 and 18, though adults are more than welcome.

It is the Foundation's aim to bridge the gap between the past and present and to make history a living memory relevant to the lives of children today. The programme unfolds in Hellenic Cosmos, the Foundation's cultural centre, which is aptly dubbed a 'living museum' for in it history comes to life not through traditional exhibitions but via state-of-the-art technology.

Greek students can certainly head down to ancient Olympia and stroll through the site's present-day ruins. But having the entire ancient town come alive just as it was in its heyday must be the ultimate history lesson. According to museum educator Marianthi Mika it is indeed the virtual reality room, the Kivotos (or Ark), which thrills students most. "It is a unique thing for students," she says, "as most of them are experiencing a virtual reality environment for the first time."

As the Kivotos' walls and floor are projection screens, visitors - wearing stereoscopic glasses and holding a special navigational device - experience the landscape, architecture and culture of ancient Greece in an extraordinary new way. During the trip, one can 'fly' over the area to take in architectural details of Zeus' temple or step inside to see the god's golden statue.

With the help of advanced 3D-technology, "the stunning virtual reality installations let visitors take virtual tours through detailed reconstruction of heritage sites, enabling them to explore in a way never achieved before," notes the cultural centres brochure. In effect, the world-famous scenes from the ancient world's Olympic Games adorning unearthed pottery come alive before the visitor's very eyes.

A web-stroll through the Games
Following the virtual visit students can scan through an informative and rich Internet presentation entitled Olympics Through Time. This easy-to-follow presentation outlines everything one would want to know about the Olympic Games: the types of competitions held in antiquity plus all the rules and the Olympic heroes of the ancient times. A panel of experts answer questions on the ancient games and the ancient world at large. Anyone can access this from their home or school or even from the cultural centre's specially designed Cyber Hall fitted with numerous computers.

All sorts of Olympic trivia have made it to these pages: Hippias of Elis, for example, a sophist of the 5th century BC, was the first to compile the initial victor list of the Olympic Games. From him we learn that the first athletic contest, the foot race, was held at the sacred site of Olympia, in western Peloponnese, for the first time in 776 BC, in honour of the Olympian Zeus. We also get to learn about the Minoans who were known for their bull-leaping and tumbling or the Mycenaeans and their chariot and track racing. For their part, Homeric descriptions offer insight to various athletic competitions throughout the Greek world while the history of the ancient Games of Olympia is reconstructed through archaeological excavations in the area.

There follows the documentary Olympic Games in Ancient Greece, which is screened at Hellenic Cosmos and aims to highlight similarities between the ancient and contemporary Olympic Games. Complementing the documentary, an exhibit entitled Every Year On This Day: National Events and Historical Memory, links modern-day Olympic victors and heroes with their ancient counterparts.

On this all-important and millennia-straddling point, the Foundation stresses that, "students will approach the notion of the contemporary hero in order to understand that every age creates its own heroes and to discover that the heroes of the past through the contemporary heroes".

On philosophy and numbers
The exhibit takes a modern approach to the issue of national events and heroes enabling children to form a historical memory. Stressing that history is not just what is written in history books the exhibition presents history as a record found in social, cultural and folkloric aspects of life: "it is the heroes on posters, in the cinema, photos and monuments, on the names of city streets [that] narrate history and leave their mark".

The success of the programme can be gauged by the numbers it attracts: about 800 to 1,000 schoolkids visit Hellenic Cosmos each week. And according to Mika, the Olympic Hero programme won't end in mid-June, as initially planned, but rather continue through to next year.