Olympics

[Quintus Aurelius Orcus]

Posted on Thu, Aug. 12, 2004


Olympic organizers, church at odds on mythology's role at games

BY ANGELA COULOUMBIS

Knight Ridder Newspapers


ATHENS, Greece - (KRT) - First out will be the drummers, playing to the rhythm of a beating heart. Then a meteorite will streak across the night sky. Later, a centaur will gallop to center stage with a javelin, followed by the ancient Greek demigod Hercules and his multiheaded nemesis, Hydra.

It's all happening Friday night at the opening ceremonies of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where organizers are promising to mount an unforgettable show that will tell the story of Greece from ancient to modern times.

Around the world, billions of people will be watching - perhaps none more closely than leaders of the Greek Orthodox Church, who are anxiously waiting to see just how prominently Olympic organizers will showcase the pagan rituals of classical Greece and the 12 gods, headed by Zeus, who were the basis of an ancient faith the Greek church abhors.

Church leaders say they have no details about the ceremony and hope it will emphasize the mythology, the stories of the gods, and not the spiritual beliefs of Greece's antiquity.

But their guard is up, having already butted heads with organizers over more mundane matters, such as seating arrangements.

While the church's archbishop, as well as the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople in Istanbul, will be seated with heads of state at Friday night's ceremonies, two other prominent patriarchs have been relegated to seats several rows back - which the church considers amn insult. So much so, a church spokesman said, they will not be attending.

It's unusual for the church to find itself not an important participant in an event of such consequence for Greece. It has played a major role in shaping the nation's identity over the centuries, and the Orthodox faith is practiced by more than 90 percent of the population.

Since the 1998 elevation of colorful and controversial Christodoulos Paraskevaides to the post of archbishop of Athens and all Greece, the church has taken on an activist role in public life, at times even wading into the realm of politics.

"Christodoulos is fairly unique in that sense," said Thanos Veremis, director of the Hellenic Center for European Studies. "The traditional prelates of the church didn't make themselves conspicuous, especially in politics. ... I think Christodoulos is somewhat of a maverick in that sense."

"He is educated and ambitious," said Ioannis Koliopoulos, professor of modern history at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki. "He wants to change the role of the church. He wants it to play a decisive part in shaping Greece's national life."

The church has long been a unifying force, helping to preserve Greek language and religion through 400 years of Ottoman occupation. After independence in 1830, it stood by a succession of governments as they struggled to reclaim territories considered traditionally Greek, while at the same time developing the country's cultural and political life.

But since Christodoulos' elevation, the church has sought a more direct role in defining Greece's foreign and domestic policies - at times, making more headlines than the state - on such issues as immigration, terrorism and, most recently, the location of Greece's first mosque.

On the Games, however, it has muted its voice - as many Greeks believe it should. After all, they say, the Games predate the rise of Christianity, dating back to 776 B.C. Still, church officials cannot help worrying that paganism will make too big a splash Friday night.

"If it is just mythology, then it is going to be OK," said Father Apostolos Mihail, 64, a parish priest at Church of the Prophet Elias, one of Athens' larger churches. "But we don't believe in the 12 gods. Of course it would bother us if they showcased that. They do not exist here."

Jamil Said, 27, is an American filmmaker who just completed a documentary titled "I Still Worship Zeus," about a small community of Greeks who want to revive the ancient faith in the 12 gods. He said the priests he interviewed for his film summed up their sentiments about that in two words: "Forget it."

Christian opposition to the ancient games and the gods they honored grew more and more fierce until, in A.D. 393, they were banned by Byzantine state authorities.

The modern games were revived in Athens in 1896 - sans any religious component.

"Ultimately, it's up to the organizers how they will depict the past," Father Epifanios Economou, spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Church, said of the opening ceremonies. "From what we know, it's going to be a theatrical performance, nothing more, because the religion of the ancient Greeks died 2,000 years ago.

"And it died on its own, starting with the philosophers Plato and Socrates, who denounced it, because they were searching for the real truth. They were searching for seriousness in their religious faith. And the answer was found eventually in the face of Jesus Christ."

Economou said that aside from attending opening and closing ceremonies as Greece's spiritual leader, Christodoulos would bless athletes from Greece's national team.

The church has also set up several kiosks around Athens and stocked them with booklets about Greece, its history and its religion. And the archbishop has asked priests across the country to extend church hours and be available to tourists who want to tour churches. Multilingual priests will be on hand to answer questions.

Economou said all these efforts were the church's way of supporting the Olympic Games. In return, there is hope that Zeus won't have a starring role at the opening ceremonies.

"There is no question that Greece is predominantly Greek Orthodox," he said. "The religion is part of the country's tradition. It is part of the country's history. And it should be a part of what people see when they come to Greece."

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