ATHENS, Greece - It’s going to be a long time before last call hits the party that Greece began Sunday night, and a longer time still before it wakes up to the kind of hangover that only a $13-billion price tag can induce.

But unless you have a political agenda or take delight in telling people how miserable they ought to be, it should be hard for the average Greek — or anyone else — to say it wasn’t worth it.

The host of the 2004 Olympic Summer Games went out with none of the solemnity and allegory that marked the Opening Ceremony. From the first of a dozen local performers who lent their voices and music to the celebration to the last impromptu infield boogie performed by as happy a crowd of athletes as we’ve seen since the last time one of these 17-day festivals of sweat and tears and glory ended, the message was one of joy and life.

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Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, didn’t call these the best Games ever. That put Athens, the city that hosted the first Modern Olympics in 1896 in the same category with Atlanta, the only other city that didn’t get the "best-ever" tag.

But if that was a blow to the Greeks, Rogge softened it eloquently when he said, "These Games were held in peace and brotherhood. These were the Games where it became increasingly difficult to cheat, and where clean athletes were better protected.

"These were the Games where you, the athletes, have touched our hearts by your performances, you joys, and your tears.

"These Games were unforgettable dream Games."

Even a gymnastics judge had to give Rogge a perfect 10 for the perfect description of what Athens gave the world.

These weren’t the best Games. The 2000 Sydney Games retain that designation. But Athens wasn’t far behind, and the only thing that kept Athens from assuming the title was the lack of attendance at many events, especially during the first week of the Games. It also would have helped if the Olympic Stadium were surrounded by something other than a dust bowl, the only visible reminder that Greece procrastinated on getting the show together until it was almost too late.

But, as the president of the Athens Olympic Committee, Gianna Angelopoulos Daskalaki, told the packed stadium and the viewers in more than 200 homelands: "We’ve shown the world the great things Greeks can do. The world discovered a new Greece. These Games broke records: most athletes in history; most women in history; most national teams in history; first global torch relay; first women to compete in Olympia. Athens was great for the athletes and Greece was great for the Games."

Angelopoulos Daskalaki knew this was neither the time nor place to be humble. There have been and would be no end of people more than willing to point out the warts on the face of the show, but not tonight. This night was for those who worked for the Games, played in the Games, watched the Games, loved the Games.

While Rogge mentioned anti-doping, no one mentioned controversies, particularly of the judging variety. Nor did anyone say anything about the $1.5-billion security tab, a chunk of which was spent on the two blimps loaded with high-tech detection equipment and cameras that hovered anxiously over the stadium.

Someone will point out that the security was excessive and use as proof the fact that no one was hurt or even threatened until the final afternoon, when an Irish loony hopped a street barrier and took the lead runner in the marathon out of bounds and into the crowd. Even if you doubled the amount spent on security, no one was going to stop that without banning spectators from the marathon route, which kind of destroys the purpose of the show.

But that’s an observation drawn from hindsight. Before the Games began, many news organizations brought in security experts to tell journalists coming to the Games how to protect themselves. This was serious stuff. The writers from at least one newspaper were given body armor and gas masks and told to keep the items with them at all times. They also were told not to wear jeans or Nike shoes.

After a day or two, the armor and masks were left in the hotel room. It was clear from the start that terrorism was not going to be a problem. The organizers can credit the money they spent. Others can say that nothing good can come to any group that attacks an event attended and now honored by virtually every nation on earth.

But future Olympics might look at Athens and decide that the Games can be secured at a lesser cost.

And the best way to avoid civil disorder is to simply keep all the politicians at home, something that Colin Powell and the U.S. government realized just in time to avoid filling Athens with demonstrations on a night that was meant for partying.

The night started with Greeks dressed in every kind of costume they have ever worn — and with 3,000-4,000 years of history, that covers a lot of costumes — dancing into a stadium whose floor was decorated with a golden spiral of ripe wheat. Opening night was about ancient Greece, the Greece of myth and legend.

This night was about the Greece of people and life, and it was played to a seamless background of native music, from folk to pop to that famous tune that you can never hear without seeing Anthony Quinn dancing as Zorba the Greek.

And as one singer and one set of dancers flowed into another, peasants endlessly bent to the task of harvesting the spiral of wheat, oblivious to what was going on around them.

Greece makes no apologies for seeing life as a sensual experience, something to be lived rather than controlled, and so bare-chested young men and sinuous young women took their turns on the long stage that stretched to the middle of the stadium.

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At the end of it all, before the athletes piled into the stadium, not in neat formation according to country but all mixed together in happy disorder, Greece had some fun with itself, bringing in a crowd of tourists — they had to be tourists; no one else would wear clothes that ugly — to come and join the fun.

And that’s this country’s hope — that the Games and the publicity they generated and the images of this wonderful and ancient country that reached billions of people will bring new waves of visitors — and their euros and dollars — to see live what they’d watched on television.

This isn’t a big country, just 10 to 11 million people, with half of them living in Athens. And it’s been a long time catching up to the rest of the world.

The Games were to be the vehicle that brought Greece fully back into Europe and the world. Billions were spent, and in return the country has new roads and public-transit systems, shining new athletic facilities that will be the sites of future international competitions, and a new appreciation for the aesthetic benefits of keeping the streets clean.

So, forget what Rogge didn’t say about these being the best Games ever. Athens sent a whole lot of visitors home to every nook and cranny of the planet with stories of what a swell place this is to visit; a country full of friendly people, nearly all of whom speak English, with plumbing that isn’t that much different than what you’re used to at home; a country with more quaint and gorgeous islands than you can shake an oar at, with a national cuisine that goes down as easy as the ouzo chaser.

In closing, let’s return to Angelopoulos Daskalaki, the mother of the Games.

"We loved having you here," she told the crowd. "You waved your national flags. You stood for every anthem. You danced to our music.

"Let us all thank the athletes. You came here as competitors. You performed here as Olympians. You made our hearts bound with joy. When you cried on the medal stands, we cried with you.

"Because of you, the Olympics are the most powerful source of inspiration and hope to humanity."

A bit over the top perhaps, but, if you had been here, you wouldn’t have disputed a word — at least not until you finally woke up, and the hangover set in.