GREECE:  Civil Disobediance!
Pagans dare to pray in public
as hundreds of riot police protect Christian Orthodoxy.

Christa Landon
March 28, 2007

For the first time since Emperor Theodosius outlawed the Olympic Games in 394 c.e., Pagans dared to worship publicly at the Temple of Olympian Zeus, across from the Acropolis in Athens.  The outlaws had applied for a permit to worship, which was issued by the cultural ministry but later revoked because the Orthodox Greek church condemns all non-Christian worship.

What did the Greek Orthodox Church so fear that they needed a small army?

Thirty white-robed members of Ellinais came to pray to the Twelve Olympian Gods. Several ceremonially lay down Spartan armor as a symbol of the peace bond which blessed Pagan Greece every four years in honor of Olympian Zeus.  A tunic-clad priestess, Doretta Pepa recited a hymn to Apollo,  'Kleithii meth efhomenou... Listen to me Apollo, god of the sun, I who pray to you with an open heart in favor of the all the people."

They prayed to for world peace and that the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be unmarred by terrorism. Then they released a pair of doves.

Who are these dangerous people?
Ellinais is a group mostly made up of highly educated Greeks who have reclaimed the religion of their ancestors and follow a calendar making time from the first Olympiad in 776 BC.  Like the English speaking Hellenismos organization, Ellinais is a scholarly reconstructionist group. [Greek-speaking Pagans in late antiquity called themselves "Hellenists," meaning those who respected traditional Greek religious values.]  They estimate about 1,000 worshippers of the Twelve Olympians in the country.

Re-enactment has been done every 4 years for the last century at the lighting of the Olympian torch. That's tolerated in Greece as an antiquarian and theatrical matter, and good for the tourist business. While the Ancient Olympics were profoundly religious rituals, the modern ones are not regarded as a religious ceremony, except by the Greek Orthodox Church. Their representatives of the church do not attended the lighting of the Olympic flame ceremony at the Shrine of Olympian Zeus because of the reference is made to Apollo, the ancient God of the healing and music.

The Greek Ministry of Culture sent out the riot police because the scholars of Ellinais AREN'T JUST SCHOLARS; the Orthodox Church has condemned Ellinais' activities as "pagan." And so the cultural ministry revoked their permit at last moment, by declaring all ancient monuments off limits to any kind of organized activity.

In 2003, Ellinais had attempted to perform an unauthorized ceremony at the Temple of Hephaestus, God of the forge and volcanic activity. Ministry of Culture staff chased them off.

The priestess Pepa argues, "The government says these are monuments, but they are actually our temples, and they should be used by the followers of our religion because it is within our civic rights to do so.

Ellinais then went to court, where a decision was made in 2006, officially recognizing the Ancient Greek religion. They argued, 'We are perhaps the only religion in Europe that is not allowed to function - we want the Greek government to recognize our faith as an official religion. But for years these requests have been ignored in violation of European Union human rights laws."

Greece:    Orthodox religious mob drives out Iowa Rockers

Greek protestors, accused the 9 masked Iowa rockers of Slipknot of Satanism, and prevented them  from performing.  As proof, the religious zealots cited these lyrics from Slipknot's song, "I Am Hated":

      "The whole world is my enemy and I'm a walking target /
       Two times the devil with all the significance /
       Dragged and raped for the love of a mob /
       I can't stay because I can't be stopped."

Arguably, the Orthodox mob just made the band's point.

Hellenic Greeks Speak Out
By Lowell McFarland 

In the run up to the Pagan-rooted Olympics, in the shadows of magnificent Pagan temples, among the
inscriptions of Pagan thinkers like Aristotle, Hippocrates, Plato, Socrates and Solon, among the sculptures * of Pagan sculptors Myron (discuss-thrower), Praxiteles (Aphrodite of Knidos), the Greek/Hellenic Pagans apparently continue to be harassed by the Greek government and the official
Christian Church. However, against many odds, Greek Hellenics are speaking out publicly and conducting crucial open air religious ceremonies.

* Note: These are usually Roman copies of the Greek works as most Greek statuary, no matter how incredible (Pagan Polyleitos of Sikyon sculpted male nudes which became Doryphoros or the Canon that all sculptors use, down to and including today. Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Knidos is also an everlasting standard.). The originals were assumed to have been officially destroyed as Christians attained hegemony - much as the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues - the largest in the world.

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/Doryphoros.htm

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0301-04.htm

On June 2004, the World Council of Ethnic Religions (WCER) had its 7th Congress in Greece and was hosted by the Greek Pagan umbrella group Ypato Symboulio Hellinon Ethnikon (YSEE).
It included Flemish Celts and French Druids.

http://it.geocities.com/collegiodeisalii/ritoingrecia.html

----------------------------------------------------------

First Press Release from The Supreme Council of the Gentile Hellenes
http://www.ysee.gr/html/eng/index.html

For years, we the Gentile Hellenes, i.e. contemporary Greeks who still respect and honour the rites and beliefs of our ancestors the Hellenes, remained stoically patient when faced with the systematic (and not at all coincidental), negligence and degradation of our monumental and living ethnic heR.ge by a "Greek" State, which is obviously enslaved
by an economic-religious giant whose cultural and logical interests promote the open scorn for our real (i.e. pre-Christian) ethnic Tradition.

Lately however, probably as a counter-effect of a few small attempts to have our word made public and spread inside modern Greek society, we realised we could not afford the luxury to remain silent in front of this open but "quiet" war against real (pre-Christian)
Hellenism.

This was due to the fact that our adversary seems, for the first time since the Middle Ages, to resort to intolerant and aggressive acts, which cannot be openly committed in a supposedly democratic society.

We have experienced threats against the life of individuals who act and speak in public as members of the ethnic pagan community. We have had one of our bookshops burned down. We also had waterfalls of slanders against our Tradition from Church-preachers and from the Church-controlled mass media. We have also (and this is the most outrageous!) seen
destruction of pre-Christian monuments and remains of Temples.

Under this new and terrifying reality that we all see being formed against real Hellenism, and as none of the State Officials supposedly responsible for its protection seem sensitive enough, personalities from the community of the Gentile Hellenes have decided to found the SUPREME COUNCIL OF THE GENTILE HELLENES, which shall aim at the protection and restoration of the real (pre-Christian) Hellenic Tradition. We shall work by all legal means necessary towards awakening the Greek people and securing respect, survival, natural and moral protection, restoration and honour of our monuments, symbols, ideas and living forms of ancient Hellenic Tradition in the forms of cosmoperception, philosophical thought, political perception, ethnic religion, arts, morals and customs, language, mythology, symbols etc.

The present announcement / press release is our first one sent to the mass media and other responsible and interested parts. We hope that it, plus all the others that follow, will be fairly treated and published as is required by the principle of free speech for all citizens.

Honour and Glory to Our Ancestral Gods
S.C.G.H

The YSEE (SCGH) was founded in June "1997", its aim being to defend and restore the Ethnic, Polytheistic, Hellenic Tradition, Religion and Way in contemporary Greek society, which is heavily dominated by the Christian Orthodox Church and the dark Byzantine ethos.

Up till today, the YSEE has sent more than 140 protests through letters to the Press and the Authorities, and have organised some open, public rituals in ancestral holy sites throughout Greece, despite the intolerance of the Church.
 
http://it.geocities.com/collegiodeisalii/ritoingrecia.html

YSEE is a founding member of the World Congress Of Ethnic Religions (W.C.E.R.)

The group can be contacted at the following address:
Y.S.E.E.
PO Box 1398, Larissa, GR-41110 Hellas (Greece)
http://www.ysee.gr/html/eng/index.html
or <info@ysee.gr>

© Copyright 1997, 2002 Supreme Council of the Gentile Hellenes
(Ypato Symboulio Hellinon Ethnikon)

YSEE PRESS RELEASE # 012 / 21. 8. 1997

In August of 1997, YSEE sent the below correspondence to the Olympic Committee, in which we declare not only our total objection to the Athens application for the pseudo-Olympic games, but also to the general insult of a custom that was sacred to our ancestors, the true Hellenes.

http://ethnikoi.org/thieves.html

To all Members of The International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
Sports Department, Candidate City Relations
Chateau de Vidy, 1007 Lausanne, Switzerland
 

Dear Sirs,

With our present correspondence we inform you of our total objection to the granting of the so-called "Olympic" Games of 2004 to our economically and ecologically destroyed country.

It may be known to you that the candidacy of Athens is in the interests not of the Greek people but for the monetary and political gain of certain interested organisations who use the former (i.e. the Greek people) as a servile flock of telemorons and in turn lie when they claim that the approval-rating of such a hosting, which will be catastrophic for our nation, is at a ludicrous 96% (!!)

What you may not yet be aware of, is that as well as the expressions of objection by sections of the Greek populace regarding the ecological and economic destruction that will befall our plundered land, views to which we also subscribe to as Hellenic Pagans, we are also directly opposed to the hosting of these Games by the city of Athens, for the reason that they falsely represent and have absolutely no relationship to the authentic competitive and vital spirit of our ancestors, the true Hellenes.  The games as they stand are a far cry from the initial romanticism, which led to their creation during the last century.  It may be that we can reservedly justify their "resurrection" by non-Greeks, the majority of whom are monotheists who are totally deprived of their genuine essence (namely their religious nature), but as they are comprised of today with their vulgar commercialization, they are deeply offensive to the symbols and beliefs of our ancestors, who paid homage through their theology to the Sublime, the True and the Beautiful.  You have managed to convert even the name of our religion (Olympian, Olympic) to a destructive commercial trademark.

We remind you that the genuine Olympic Games were abolished by the Byzantine-Roman invaders 16 centuries ago, as the dominant symbol-custom of the native worldview and if they are ever re-instituted again they will be returned in all their splendor, together with the rebirth of our, for 22 centuries, culturally enslaved Hellenic Nation.  All other "reinstitutions" are and will be either comical or sacrilegious.

In the name therefore of our native (Olympian) Gods and the wronged souls of our ancestors, we invite you not to undertake in the insult of the name of our native religion (Olympism) AND ESPECIALLY not within the sacred lands of the Hellenes.

In the inverse circumstances, we inform you that we reserve the right to resort to all legal action to restore respect towards our native traditions and restrict the falsely named Games.
 

We thank you in anticipation of your rejection of the "Athens Application".

SUPREME COUNCIL OF GENTILE HELLENES / Athens Secretariat

RELATED MATERIAL:  SEE  http://istillworshipzeus.com/ for photos, brief videos, and more on the efforts of Greek Pagans to gain the legal right to build a Pagan Temple for the first time in over 16 centuries.