Greek cult holds forbidden ceremony at Zeus temple*

AFP, via the Middle East Times, France
Feb 22, 2007
John Hadoulis

ATHENS — Centuries after it crumbled into disuse, the Roman-era Temple
of Olympian Zeus in Athens Sunday resounded again with ancient Greek
chants as a group of tunic-clad worshipers gathered to pray for a
peaceful hosting of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Flouting a ban from the Greek culture ministry - which forbids
ceremonies of any sort at archaeological sites - some 30 worshipers
chanted odes to Zeus, Aphrodite, and other ancient Greek gods with
dozens of startled tourists watching, and a small number of police
stationed nearby.

“O Athena, may the next Olympics be held as they should be, as the gods
desire,” chanted a tall, long-haired man in a grey cape and sunglasses,
holding a double snake-headed scepter aloft.

The group said that it had initially secured permission to hold the
ceremony, which attracted around 300 spectators, but the culture
ministry subsequently changed its mind.

Accompanied by a lawyer, the practitioners had to negotiate with site
guards for an hour before being allowed to bring their gear inside.

A senior ministry official said that the authorities were prepared to
allow them access to the temple without ancient garb and would allow
them to chant as long as there were no instruments involved.

“We do not intend to repress free speech … but archaeological sites are
nobody’s private theater,” said archaeologist Nikoletta Valakou, head of
the culture ministry department supervising the site.

The worshipers belong to The Holy Association of Greek Ancient Religion
Believers (Ellinais), one of several small groups who closely study and
adopt aspects of ancient Greek religion and culture.

Their activities are nearly unnoticed by most other Greeks.

In a ceremony reminiscent of the lighting of the Olympic flame held
every two years in Olympia, southwestern Greece, the group released two
white doves to fly above the second-century AD temple, poured water on
the ground as an offering to the gods, and held a ritual wedding between
two participants.

“This is a universal wish for the peaceful hosting of the Olympics,”
chanted group leader Doreta Peppa, dressed as a red-robed priestess. “We
worship nature and honor the ancient Greek gods,” she later told
reporters. “Some 3 percent of Greeks share our views, but they’re afraid
to speak out.”

The Ellinais group follows a calendar marking time from the first
ancient Olympics of 776 BC.

It also wants to rebuild all ancient temples and make ancient Greek the
official language of the country.

“We want to be able to hold ceremonies at ancient temples … This
obsession of treating them as mere monuments must stop,” Peppa said.
“The Greek parliament is also a monument, but it continues to function.
So should this temple.”

The group had brought security of their own, of sorts - a handful of men
in archaic armor stood to attention around the participants.

“We belong to an honor guard that assists all such ceremonies, wherever
we are needed,” said Thanassis Agiassas, a 45-year-old fitness
instructor from northern Greece. “We make this armor on our own, using
film props from France and India … It’s a matter of culture for me, I
want to keep this contact with our ancestors,” he added.

“These are not serious people … they’re not so different from fanatical
Orthodox Christians,” said Valakou, the ministry archaeologist.

In a statement issued after the ceremony, the culture ministry said that
members of the group attacked and threatened Valakou and the guards on
their way out of the temple.

Steps would be taken to prevent similar “illegal” events in future, it
added.

Modern Greece has strong links with its classical heritage, but the
country’s Orthodox Christian faith is equally powerful, and the
influential Greek Orthodox Church treats ancient religious practices as
pagan.

Ellinais is a legally-recognized association, but the state has yet to
recognize its right to hold religious practices, Peppa said.

One of Athens’ most imposing archaeological monuments, the Temple of
Zeus was completed on the orders of Roman emperor Hadrian, and once
housed a colossal gold-and-ivory statue honoring the ancient Greek
pantheon’s leading deity.

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Religion Believers