Pagans honor Zeus at Athens temple
ATHENS -- A clutch of modern pagans honored Zeus at a 1,800-year-old temple in the heart of Athens yesterday -- the first known ceremony of its kind held there since the ancient Greek religion was outlawed by the Roman empire in the late fourth century.
Watched by curious onlookers, some 20 worshipers gathered next to the ruins of the temple for a celebration organized by Ellinais, a year-old Athens-based group that is campaigning to revive old religious practices from the era when Greece was a fount of education and philosophy.
The group ignored a ban by the Culture Ministry, which declared the site off-limits to any kind of organized activity to protect the monument. But participants did not try to enter the temple itself, which is closed to everyone, and no officials sought to stop the ceremony.
Dressed in ancient costumes, worship ers standing near the temple's imposing Corinthian columns recited hymns calling on the Olympian Zeus, "king of the gods and the mover of things," to bring peace to the world.
"Our message is world peace and an ecological way of life in which everyone has the right to education," said Kostas Stathopoulos, one of three "high priests" overseeing the event, which celebrated the nuptials of Zeus and Hera, the goddess of marriage. To the Greeks, ecological awareness was fundamental, Stathopoulos said after a priestess, with arms raised to the sky, called on Zeus "to bring rain to the planet."
A herald holding a metal staff topped with two snake heads proclaimed the beginning of the ceremony before priests in blue and red robes released two white doves as symbols of peace. A priest poured libations of wine and incense burned on a tiny copper tripod while a choir of men and women chanted hymns.
"Our hymns stress the brotherhood of man and do not single out nations," said priest Giorgos Alexelis.
For the organizers, who follow a calendar marking time from the first Olympiad in 776 BC, the ceremony was far more than a simple recreation.
"We are Greeks and we demand from the government the right to use our temples," said high priestess Doreta Peppa.
Ellinais was founded last year and has 34 official members, mainly academics, lawyers, and other professionals. It won a court battle for state recognition of the ancient Greek religion and is demanding the government register its offices as a place of worship, a move that could allow the group to perform weddings and other rites.
Christianity rose to prominence in Greece in the fourth century after Roman Emperor Constantine's conversion.
Several isolated pockets of pagan worship lingered as late as the ninth century.
