Turin
2007-01-25 18:58:11 UTC
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/16515483.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_world
Posted on Mon, Jan. 22, 2007
Ancient Greek religion is resurrected
A group of modern pagans, campaigning to revive the ancient
Greek religion and bearing a message of peace, honored Zeus
with a ceremony in Athens.
BY PARIS AYIOMAMITIS
Associated Press
ATHENS - A group of modern pagans honored Zeus at a nearly
2,000-year-old temple in the heart of Athens on Sunday --
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, 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 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, worshipers 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 love and 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 wine and incense burned on a tiny
copper tripod while a choir chanted hymns.
''Our hymns stress the brotherhood of man and do not single
out nations,'' priest Giorgos Alexelis said.
For the organizers, who follow a calendar marking time from
the first Olympiad in 776 B.C., the ceremony was far more
than a simple recreation.
''We are Greeks and we demand from the government the right
to use our temples,'' high priestess Doreta Peppa said.
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.
Emperor Theodosius wiped out the last vestige of the
Olympian gods when he abolished the Olympic Games in A.D.
394. Several pockets of pagan worship lingered as late as
the 9th century.
''The Christians shut down our schools and destroyed our
temples,'' said Yiannis Panagidis, a 36-year-old accountant
at the ceremony.
Most Greeks are baptized Orthodox Christians, and the church
rejects ancient religious practices as pagan.
''We do not believe in dogmas and decrees, as the other
religions do. We believe in freedom of thought,''
Stathopoulos said.
- - -
"This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye
him":
Turin
I have such sites to show you...
------------------------
http://members.fortunecity.com/turinturambar/
http://groups.google.com/group/Men_First/ ♂
------------------------
"He who changeth, altereth, misconstrueth, argueth with,
deleteth, or maketh a lie about these words or causeth them
to not be known shall burn in hell forever and ever...."
-----
Posted on Mon, Jan. 22, 2007
Ancient Greek religion is resurrected
A group of modern pagans, campaigning to revive the ancient
Greek religion and bearing a message of peace, honored Zeus
with a ceremony in Athens.
BY PARIS AYIOMAMITIS
Associated Press
ATHENS - A group of modern pagans honored Zeus at a nearly
2,000-year-old temple in the heart of Athens on Sunday --
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, 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 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, worshipers 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 love and 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 wine and incense burned on a tiny
copper tripod while a choir chanted hymns.
''Our hymns stress the brotherhood of man and do not single
out nations,'' priest Giorgos Alexelis said.
For the organizers, who follow a calendar marking time from
the first Olympiad in 776 B.C., the ceremony was far more
than a simple recreation.
''We are Greeks and we demand from the government the right
to use our temples,'' high priestess Doreta Peppa said.
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.
Emperor Theodosius wiped out the last vestige of the
Olympian gods when he abolished the Olympic Games in A.D.
394. Several pockets of pagan worship lingered as late as
the 9th century.
''The Christians shut down our schools and destroyed our
temples,'' said Yiannis Panagidis, a 36-year-old accountant
at the ceremony.
Most Greeks are baptized Orthodox Christians, and the church
rejects ancient religious practices as pagan.
''We do not believe in dogmas and decrees, as the other
religions do. We believe in freedom of thought,''
Stathopoulos said.
- - -
"This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye
him":
Turin
I have such sites to show you...
------------------------
http://members.fortunecity.com/turinturambar/
http://groups.google.com/group/Men_First/ ♂
------------------------
"He who changeth, altereth, misconstrueth, argueth with,
deleteth, or maketh a lie about these words or causeth them
to not be known shall burn in hell forever and ever...."
-----