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Modern pagans honor Zeus in rite seeking world peace

A priestess holds an olive branch in a rare ceremony honoring Zeus, the king of the ancient Greek gods, at the temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens on Sunday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Paris Ayiomamitis Associated Press
A priestess holds an olive branch in a rare ceremony honoring Zeus, the king of the ancient Greek gods, at the temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens on Sunday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

ATHENS, Greece – A clutch of modern pagans honored Zeus at a 1,800-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 4th century.

Watched by onlookers, about 20 worshippers 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 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 in an effort to protect the monument. But participants did not enter the temple itself, which is closed to everyone, and no officials sought to stop the ceremony.

Dressed in ancient-style costumes, worshippers 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.”

For the organizers, who follow a calendar marking time from the first Olympiad in 776 B.C., the ceremony was far more than 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 that the government register its offices as a place of worship, a move that could allow the group to perform weddings and other rites.