Dancing on Olympus

by Diane Duane

Mount Olympus
Looks like something a little unusual was going on recently up on the slopes of one of Europe’s highest mountains.

Last week, like a thunderbolt from Zeus himself, an unexpectedly large horde of pre-Christian devotees descended on Mount Olympus for the annual Prometheus festival.

Many wore white robes although a minority, it is true, came wearing little more than their love for the 12 ancient gods. But a bit of near-nudity notwithstanding, their arrival might have gone unnoticed had it not been for the fact that there were 4 000 of them dancing in the wood-encircled meadow halfway up the mountainside.

Apparently, though, this has really, really annoyed some people.

This year, despite fierce protests from the Orthodox Church, pagans were allowed to set up a cultural association. Now they want to take their battle to the ancient temples of Greece in the hopes of one day having the religion officially recognised.

…”What their worshippers symbolise, and clearly want, is a return to the monstrous dark delusions of the past,” hissed Father Eustathios Kollas, who presides over the community of Greek priests. “They should be stopped.”

This should be interesting to watch. I have strange visions of this issue winding up in front of the European Court of Justice at some point, if some involved EU citizen feels his or her right to worship freely is being infringed…

[tags]Greece, religion, paganism, pagan, Greek Orthodox, Olympus[/tags]

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