{"id":1046,"date":"2008-07-28T15:01:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-28T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1046"},"modified":"2008-07-28T15:01:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-28T15:01:00","slug":"seeing-the-world-with-greek-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1046","title":{"rendered":"Seeing the World with Greek Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I am a Greek born 2,381 years after my ancestors built and dedicated the Parthenon . . . . I am telling Greek history outside the conventional Christian worldview,” writes Eaggelos G. Vallianatos, author of The Passion of the Greeks: Christianity and the Rape of the Hellenes<\/a><\/p>\n

Born in a Greek village, Vallianatos came to the United States as a young man and earned a doctorate in history at Wisconsin. He has written three other books on globalization and agriculture.<\/p>\n

A little bit like Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick’s A History Of Pagan Europe<\/a>, his book moves from a general discussion of Greek religion through the conquest of a disunited Greece by imperial Rome to the fall of the empire as seen by Greek historians, lingering on the late Christian emperors’ persecution of the Pagan “Hellenes,” those who saw Greek literature, culture, and religion as intertwined.<\/p>\n

One appendix discusses and rates works by many noted classicists. Vallianatos likes Robin Lane Fox<\/a> and Ramsay MacMullen<\/a>, who “[makes] some difference to our understanding of the dreadful record of Christianity in the Mediterranean,” but has no use for Polymnia Athanassiadi: “Her Christian bias shines through in everything she says about Julian<\/a>.” And so on.<\/p>\n

As its title suggests, the book is passionate. I have read only as far as Chapter 4, “The Treason of Christianity,” because I can take it only in small doses. But I will continue all the way to the end, believe me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I am a Greek born 2,381 years after my ancestors built and dedicated the Parthenon . . . . I am telling Greek history outside the conventional Christian worldview,” writes Eaggelos G. Vallianatos, author of The Passion of the Greeks: Christianity and the Rape of the Hellenes Born in a Greek village, Vallianatos came to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[57,24,33,5,4],"class_list":["post-1046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-books","tag-christianity","tag-greece","tag-paganism","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-gS","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5657,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5657","url_meta":{"origin":1046,"position":0},"title":"A Country “Under Christian Occupation”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The BBC profiles some Hellenes \u2014 modern Greek Pagans \u2014 with minimal snark. [The summer solstice is] the most important annual festival for followers of The Return of the Hellenes - a movement trying to bring back the religion, values, philosophy and way of life of ancient Greece, more than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/68270000\/jpg\/_68270161_dsc_0476%281%29credit_eranlivni.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1183,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1183","url_meta":{"origin":1046,"position":1},"title":"Greek Orthodox Cover-up of Parthenon Defacing","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Via Richard Bartholomew: Orthodox clergy in Greece demanded -- and got -- removal of a film segment in the Parthenon visitor center that showed their predecessors smashing Pagan statuary, etc., centuries ago.UPDATE: (Via Jason) The museum backed down and is restoring the original film.","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":254,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=254","url_meta":{"origin":1046,"position":2},"title":"Greek Pagans in the Sun\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Greek Pagans in the Sun The Web site of the Supreme Council of the Gentile Hellenes, a Greek Reconstructionist Pagan group in Greece, has posted video clips of a NBC news feature about Greek Pagans--tied to the Olympics coverage, of course. (The compressed clips total about 30 megabytes.) Coverage includes\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14218,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14218","url_meta":{"origin":1046,"position":3},"title":"Upcoming Zoom with Robin Douglas, Sasha Chaitow","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Two leading scholars of contemporary Paganism will be live on Zoom this weekend: Robin Douglas has a book in press with the Equinox series on Pagan studies: The Pagan Revival A Documentary History of Modern Paganism, 1700-1950. Sasha Chaitow is also widely published, including in The Pomegranate: The International Journal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/robin-sasha.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":796,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=796","url_meta":{"origin":1046,"position":4},"title":"Greek Pagans Press for Temple Access","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"After a long struggle and some victories in their quest for religious freedom, contemporary Greek Pagans continue to seek the right to worship the old gods in the temples that were built for them.Now it is the turn of the Temple of Zeus in Athens.\"These are our temples and they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1027,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1027","url_meta":{"origin":1046,"position":5},"title":"The Theoi Project","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Theoi Project is a site for \"exploring Greek mythology and the gods in classical literature and art. The aim of the project is to provide a comprehensive, free reference guide to the gods (theoi), spirits (daimones), fabulous creatures (theres) and heroes of ancient Greek mythology and religion.\"Want a family\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}