Tryphon Olympios leads many of the ceremonies |
The summer
solstice, 21 June, is one of the most important dates in the calendar for many
followers of ancient religions, and it's a special time for people in Greece
who worship the country's pre-Christian gods.
"I love the
energy this place has," says Exsekias Trivoulides who has pitched his tent
on what he considers to be the holy site of Mount Olympus.
Trivoulides is a
sculptor who studied art history and classics, and these days, he is living his
passion.
Along with a few
thousand others he is taking part in the Prometheia festival, which celebrates
the ancient Greek hero Prometheus, who helped humans by stealing fire from the
gods.
It's 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.
These people consider Greece to be a
country under Christian occupation.
"People
want to identify with something in the past - where they came from - so as to
know where they are going," says Trivoulides. "If you don't know your
past, you don't have a future.
"It's going
back to the roots. It makes me feel the continuation through the millennia."
The festival
begins with six runners - in full Greek battle gear - racing the six miles (10
km) up Mount Olympus, home of the gods, their shields and long spears clanking
as they go.
But as they set
out from the small village of Dion at the base of the mountain, passersby
hardly seem to notice - they are used to them
It's a telling sign of how far they have
come already, in a nation where 98% of the public are said to identify
themselves as Orthodox Christian.
In 2007, an
official of the Orthodox Church described them as, "a handful of miserable
resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion".
These days,
relations have improved, according to Tryphon Olympios, the philosophy
professor who founded the Return of the Hellenes movement in 1996.
"They have
understood that we are not dangerous and we are not pagans and Satanists,"
he says.
"We are peaceful people and come
with ideas that are useful for society."
The economic
crisis in Greece should be a time of reflection about the values that should
govern a society, he says.
The Return of
the Hellenes focus on the 12 main gods of ancient Greece - the dodecatheon.
They don't
actually pray to Zeus, Hera and the others. They see them as symbols of values
such as beauty, health or wisdom.
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.
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, and a few sport a
wreath.
Over the course
of the three-day event, there are public prayers, two marriages, and a naming
ceremony, where followers choose an ancient name - like Calisto, Hermis or
Orpheus - and "cleanse" themselves of their modern Christian ones.
None of these rituals is officially
recognised by the Greek state. The biggest bone of contention for those
involved is that they are prevented from praying at ancient temples, and
struggle to get permission to build their own churches, which in Greece
requires the approval of the local Orthodox bishop.
In an attempt to
formalise their status, the umbrella group the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi
Hellenes is campaigning to get their form of ancient worship classed as an
"ethnic religion" of Greece.
But it's an idea
few Greeks would support, says Victor Roudometof, a professor of sociology at
the University of Cyprus, and an expert on religion in Greece.
Although many Greeks only actually
attend church a few times a year, the Orthodox religion is a
"cornerstone" of Greek identity, he says.
Those who
worship the ancient Greek gods are widely regarded as no more than
"interesting curiosities", he adds.
Experts in the
study of the ancient world also tend to be dismissive.
"I don't
think you can roll the clock back," says Robert Parker, a professor of
ancient history at the University of Oxford.
"You can't
import an ancient religion into a completely different environment and social
system."
He has two words
to describe those who attempt to do so - the first is "kooky", the
second, "ridiculous".
Parker points to
historical inconsistencies. Prometheus, for example, was only a relatively
minor figure in ancient Greek religion, he says, and never had a major festival
dedicated to him.
Other historians
say these groups are idealising an ancient religion that had little to do with
ethics or morality.
"The whole point of it is that you
keep the gods sweet - you scratch their back, they will scratch yours,"
says Peter Jones, co-founder of Friends of the Classics.
"You establish a quid pro quo
relationship... It is simply an acknowledgement of the gods, in the hope that
the gods will help you," he says. "Values and virtues are entirely
meaningless in ancient terms."
Animal sacrifice
was by far the most important part of any ancient Greek religious ritual, with
the throat of a live bull slit with a knife at the altar outside the temple.
But most of the
revivalists make simple offerings of flowers, fruit, milk and honey.
The ancient
Greeks were also famed for drama and tragedy, and a night-time torch-lit
theatrical production Prometheia is the main event at the Mount Olympus
festival.
The performance
combines classic drama with lessons about what the ancients have to teach us,
all these centuries later.
Followers are
all too aware they are seen as outsiders by some in society, but insist that
attitudes in Greece are changing.
In the beginning, they were making
jokes, then they were ignoring us, now they are interested," says tax
manager Persis Argyros, who has been involved since the start of the movement.
"We became too big to ignore."
No-one has
accurate figures for the number of followers, but numbers have swelled since
their first gathering on the mountain 17 years ago, and the movement claims to
have hundreds of thousands of supporters.
It's clear they
are in their element here on Olympus. After the show closes, the Hellenes dance
and frolic under the moonlight.
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