{"id":5657,"date":"2013-06-19T21:51:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T03:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5657"},"modified":"2013-06-19T21:58:06","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T03:58:06","slug":"a-country-under-christian-occupation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5657","title":{"rendered":"A Country “Under Christian Occupation”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC profiles some Hellenes \u2014 modern Greek Pagans<\/a> \u2014 with minimal snark.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Tryphon Olympios leads many of the ceremonies (BBC).<\/p><\/div>\n

[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 16 centuries after it was replaced by Christianity<\/p>\n

These people consider Greece to be a country under Christian occupation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Not to mention nearly four hundred years of Muslim occupation as well.)<\/p>\n

The followers are an odd mix. There are New Age types who revere ancient traditions, leftists who resent the power of the Orthodox Church, and Greek nationalists who see Christianity as having destroyed everything that was truly Greek.<\/p>\n

As the modern-day ancients relax in their camp at the base of the mountain, a few sell philosophy books, CDs, food and jewellery. Some wear modern clothes, others togas [sic<\/em>], and a few sport a wreath.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, Matthew Brunwasser, every ancient garment is not a “toga<\/a>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 16 centuries after it was […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[24,33,15,5],"class_list":["post-5657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christianity","tag-greece","tag-islam","tag-paganism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1tf","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1046,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1046","url_meta":{"origin":5657,"position":0},"title":"Seeing the World with Greek Eyes","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"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 HellenesBorn in a Greek\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1183,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1183","url_meta":{"origin":5657,"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":222,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=222","url_meta":{"origin":5657,"position":2},"title":"Greek Pagans rile church Followers\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Greek Pagans rile church Followers of revived Greek Pagan (or Ethnic) religion are indeed able to gain more publicity, thanks to this summer's Olympic Games in Greece. On a green meadow at the foot of Mt Olympus, famous in mythical literature as the home of the Zeus and the Hellenic\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1432,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1432","url_meta":{"origin":5657,"position":3},"title":"Who Was Hypatia?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"With the build-up among Pagan moviegoers for a North American release of Alelejandro Amenabar's Agora, here is a quick biography of the philosopher Hypatia herself and the religious conflicts that led to her murder by a Christian mob. (She was a bit older at her death than is Rachel Weisz.)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"On the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, a mob led by Peter the Lector brutally murdered Hypatia, one of the last great thinkers of ancient Alexandria. Mary Evans Picture Library \/ Alamy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.smithsonianmag.com\/images\/Hypatia-murdered-388.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":796,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=796","url_meta":{"origin":5657,"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":797,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=797","url_meta":{"origin":5657,"position":5},"title":"Greek Pagans Worship Publicly","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Members of a Greek Pagan group were able to perform a ritual at the temple of Zeus in Athens yesterday.One of its leaders, Doretta Peppa, a writer who calls herself a high priestess [sic], told the BBC the temples were built to respect the gods and now they were going\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\/5657","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=5657"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5662,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5657\/revisions\/5662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}