The first marathon was the four-hour opening ceremony. Did it really have to go for so long? Much of it was wonderful; parts of it were dull; other parts were wilful and ridiculous. The ending was extraordinary.

There I have said it. It is possible to have mixed feelings about the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. To turn the whole of the centre of the world’s most beautiful city into a live television set was an act of extreme daring.

Despite the worst rain ever to fall in Paris in late July, the creators and organisers triumphed, up to a point.

But the script needed an editor. It needed to be shorter. It needed to be sown together better. Why did the mystery torch bearer, who seemed to be the main thread of the narrative, simply vanish at the end?

 Some of the set-piece scenes – such as the duet between the band of the Republican Guard and the Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura – were a tour de force. Others were limp and obscure.

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The creators wanted a ceremony that was inclusive and represented to the world the many tribes of 21st century France. Much of the ceremony did that well.

At times it spilled into a self-regarding, anti-establishment and Paris-centric vision of France which meant little to people outside the Boulevard Périphérique, let alone the rest of the world.

The second pre-Olympics marathon – the controversy started by one section of the opening ceremony – is still going on five days later. Some Christians, and especially the Performative Political Christians of the United States, were offended by a tableau of the Last Supper which portrayed Christ’s disciples as drag queens and Jesus as a female disc-jockey.

The Catholic church in France objected. The French traditional Right and parts of the Far Right objected. So did Vladimir Putin. So did the Iranian mullahs. The pro-Donald Trump, Christian Right in the United States said that the tableau was not just “woke” but “evil” – an example of devil-worship.

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I would say that evangelical Christian support for Donald Trump is a more disturbing act of devil-worship than anything remotely attempted by the Paris Olympics ceremony.

It took two days for the facts to be established. The tableau did NOT represent the last supper. The artistic director of the ceremony Thomas Jolly said that his intention was to show a Bacchanalian orgy, part of the Greek pagan rites from which the original Olympic games emerged.

The facts are on Jolly’s side. There were 13 characters sitting behind the feast table, rather than eleven (ie ten disciples and Jesus). No artistic representation of the Last Supper includes – as the Olympics’ tableau did – a man painted blue and dressed marginally in fruit. He was the singer Philippe Katerine, playing Dionysus, aka Bacchus, the Greek-Roman God of wine-making, fruit, festivity, ritual ecstasy and fun generally.

N'empêche j'aurais aimé être à la réunion ou le gars a proposé ça et voir la tête des gens autour de la table. pic.twitter.com/fF357JMtV9

— Decimaitre (@Decimaitre) July 26, 2024

Two problems remain, however. Firstly, many classic representations of Bacchanalian feasts resemble Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper. It took two days for Thomas Jolly to set the record straight.

By that time, the Olympic organisers had “apologised for any offence caused” without pointing out that the scene did NOT represent Jesus and his disciples. Thomas Jolly insisted that he meant no offence but he must have been aware that the tableau would remind more viewers of the Last Supper than the rites of Dionysus.

How many people in a global audience of billions said: “oh yes, the naked blue man must be Dionysus and the drag queens represent, er, ancient Greek rituals”.

The similarity was, I believe, intended to be part of the joke. The tableau of the Last Supper was NOT the last supper but, in a sense, it was the Last Supper.  

Was that a mistake? Leonardo’s portrait of Jesus and disciples has been parodied a thousand time, including by The Simpsons and by Trump supporters portraying Trump as Jesus.

I see nothing very wrong in the Bacchanalian tableau. But I can understand why some people were offended. It was a clever, or clumsy, attempt to be make a complex joke in a complex world that does not take easily to complexity.  

Real anger abates eventually. Synthetic, political anger lasts forever. American Christian Conservatives – few of whom probably saw the opening ceremony – cherish their fury. They won’t let go easily.

Most of the rest of the world has moved on. The beauty of the Paris Olympics, the first to be held in the centre of a city, has taken gold, silver and bronze.

READ ALSO Are the Paris Olympics doing the unthinkable and making the French happy?

Grinches and naysayers, myself included, doubted whether the concept of a city-stadium could work. The British media mocked the plans to hold the swimming part of the triathlon in the river Seine until the day that it happened.

Le parcours du #triathlon, quelle beauté 😍 pic.twitter.com/rfhw3ZuTKw

— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) July 31, 2024

The images were breath-taking. The memory of swimmers, cyclists and runners – but also volley-ball players, trick-cyclists and basketballers – competing in the heart of the world’s most beautiful capital  will be the lasting legacy of these games, not the faux Last Supper.

How can Los Angeles 2028 compete with that?