Zeus devotees worship in Athens

hairyheretic

A news story I came across this morning, and thought I'd post here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6283907.stm

Worshippers who believe in the 12 gods of ancient Greece have held a ceremony at the Temple of Zeus in Athens.

This is a landmark event to celebrate official recognition of their religion by a court last year.

The Greek Orthodox Church has said they are miserable resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion.

But the ceremony went ahead, with crowds watching priests and priestesses, who said the event was a symbol of their civic rights.

In 2003, white-clad worshippers performed an illicit ceremony at the Temple of Hephaestus, just below the Acropolis.

At that time they were chased off the site by ministry of culture staff.

Despite vigorous opposition from the highly conservative Greek Orthodox Church, a court last year officially recognised the revived ancient Greek religion.

One of its leaders, Doretta Peppa, a writer who calls herself a high priestess, told the BBC the temples were built to respect the gods and now they were going to be put to their proper use.

Ms Peppa said she had been given official permission to use the temple, but there were fears that the culture ministry, which administers the site, might give way to pressure from the church.

The president of the Association of Greek Clergymen, Father Efstathios Kollas, has described the followers of the Olympic gods as a handful of miserable resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion who wish to return to the monstrous dark delusions of the past.

Ms Peppa and her followers aspire to have the rights afforded to Britain's druids who worship at Stonehenge, and Danish believers in Thor and the Nordic gods who are allowed to perform marriages, baptisms and funerals.

Nice to see the Greek Orthodox church being so supportive of the beliefs of others

amazingemmet

Its funny the way the ortohdox church say its a dead religion as i've been living with a greek guy for the past while and we've been talking about this topic and according to him the old gods are still worshipped and held in esteem in rural areas.

lostexpectation

this is interesting story, it good to see the temple been re-used rather then just being musuem/tourist pieces, similar to whats happening here and stonehenge, its conincides with that story of the druids wanting in on this famous religious/ and non dialogue the Taoiseach is supposed to be having.