The followers of the Hellenic group are adamant that they have the right to use the ancient temples in the way they were originally conceived, as places of worship, not as "mere monuments".
This is like bringing a dagger to a tank fight. The Greek Orthodox Church has had a stranglehold on Greek cultural and religious life now for going on seventeen centuries, and these relative handful of upstarts certainly are not going to change things. The fact that they have achieved a degree of official recognition and tolerance should be cause for celebration, but instead, they seem determined to start a war they can't hope to win. This could actually be a public relations debaucle for them.
They have even made such inappropriate statements to the effect that they have been oppressed for sixteen and one half centuries. Well, this of course is ridiculous. For one thing,there have been no Hellenic pagans to speak of for more than a few decades at most, so there have been none to oppress. Or if they did exist in secret, no one was aware of them to offer any form of discrimination.
A minority religious group has a right to exist and to practice their religions within the confines of applicable secular law. This has evidently been held to be true in Greece as in the US and most other western democracies. But they also have certain responsibilities to adhere to accepted norms and standards of conduct.
Acceptance isn't going to happen overnight, nor can it be dictated by law. Tolerance has to be earned. And I sense the ominous first beginnings of a cultural conflict here where none should be necessary, and which could turn back the clock before it ever starts ticking.
So far, the religion has not gained the right to perform marriages, yet they insist they should, in addition to the right to hold public festivals at ancient religious shrines. I agree with them, but they still must work within the law, not because that is the right and proper thing to do, but because quite simply it is to their benefit to do so. They should try to think of the long term good.
Some in their defense have made statements to the effect that these ancient temples should be recognized as places of worship, and to a point I agree with that as well, but allowances must be made for the Greek tourist trade, which amounts to in the billions of dollars annually. A significant portion of that revolves around such ancient shrines as the Parthenon and Acropolis, The Temple of Olympian Zeus, The Shrine of the Delphic Oracle of Apollo, and even the original site of the Olympian games.
I understand the yearning of the pagans to see a return to use of these sites, but certainly they can understand how important these sites are. The money they bring in through tourism adds significantly to the economic vitality of the surrounding cities and townships, translating into jobs and taxes which funds needed social services. This in turn filters throughout the entire Greek economy. The people benefit, as much as the government and the Orthodox Church.
If allowances are made for tourism needs, on the other hand, while allowing some intervals for conducting the ancient festivals, this would actually add a boost to the tourist trade, a significant boost at that. It could possibly double, or more, if handled correctly. What traveller to Greece, regardless of their religion, would pass up the opportunity to attend an honest to the gods and goddesses actual religious festival in honor of Olympian Zeus? Such festivals in ancient times were after all public, and so open to anyone from whatever land they might have happened to be from. They didn't stop visitors at the gates and insist that, for example, Persians were not allowed, so far as I know. True, tourism was not a large part of any nations economies at that time, in fact it was relatively non-existent, but there were travellers from distant lands who conducted trade, and they certainly would have been allowed to participate. Why should this time be any different?
By adopting this approach, the Hellenic religious groups in Greece would go far in promoting acceptance of their beliefs and rights to practice them in a way the Greek Orthodox Church would find it difficult to prevent, more and more so as time went on. Sure, they would make a lot of noise about it, would threaten their adherents with warnings of excommunication if they attended such events or showed any form of tolerance or acceptance, and would even try to strong arm lawmakers. But in time the will of the people must prevail in any kind of democracy where the rule of law is paramount, and this case should be no different in the long run. But as I said, the Hellenic Pagans of modern Greece must work to gain that acceptance within the law. It will be a long journey with many challenges and doubtless some setbacks along the way. But it is still a journey that must be taken. There are seldom any real shortcuts in life.
One rule of thumb the Hellenic Pagans should recognize first and foremost is: the ancient temples and religious shrines of Greece belong to ALL the people of Greece, who are themselves every bit as much the legitimate descendants of the ancient Greeks as are they themselves. Therefore, the temples and other places should be used for the benefit of all the people, not just a few. All the people have a stake in their future, therefore all the people have a say in the matter.
For the Hellenic Pagans of modern Greece to think otherwise, if they do, would be a matter of pure hubris on their part. And to the ancient Greeks, hubris was among the worse of all possible sins.
The Wild Hunt Blog: A modern Pagan perspective
2 comments:
They have even made such inappropriate statements to the effect that they have been oppressed for sixteen and one half centuries.
I don't think it's inappropriate at all. It's a simple truth. Pagans always existed in Europe. They were called heretics, witches, cathars, druids, etc. They were burned at stakes. But they survived the Dark Ages and in the Renaissance era they rehabilitated the great pagan cultures of Antiquity and Europe was never the same since...
Before Christianity came along, pagan religions all respected each other. Romans adopted Greek gods as their own. The more the merrier.
But when the shadow of monotheism descended upon Europe, that great tradition of tolerance was over. Religious oppression replaced spiritual freedom. Temples and statues were destroyed. Still, the church never really managed to establish a totalitarian control over religion. Arians, donatists, bogomils, albigenois, and later protestants all challenged their supremacy and maintained some degree of religious freedom. And after the Renaissance and the Reformation, statues of pagan gods could be worshipped again - in a different way, of course, by tourists in museums - but it's still a form of worship. More people admire Venus of Milo in the Louvre museum than pray in the Notre Dame catedral which is half a mile away...
Sonia-You make some good points, and believe me I am all too well aware of the more oppressive aspects of Christianity, which in fact served to usher in the Dark Ages.
By the same token, it is not quite accurate to state that Christians have oppressed pagans for sixteen centuries.
The Druids were actually all but wiped out in Britain by the pagan Roman Empire, who viewed them as a subversive cult, much as they viewed the early Christians.
The others you mentioned were not exactly pagans either, but were actually heretical sects of Christians that viewed the religion in ways that did not meet Church approved view of doctrine and dogma.
As for the so-called "witches" who were burned at the stake, few if any of these were actually pagans, for the most part they were either, again, Christian heretics, or senile old women or similarly delusional people who just happened to get caught up in the great wave of hysteria which swept over Europe from time to time, the same sort that resulted in the pogroms in Russian, for example. Such occurrences as this were as much political as religious in nature, and had little if anything to do with actual pagans, who, if they existed at all, were very few and very much hidden from public view.
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