the greek gods today

This is a forum for off topic discussions, including testing if you are unsure how to post.

Moderator: pothos moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
spitamenes
Hetairos (companion)
Posts: 329
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:51 pm
Location: St.Louis, U.S.

the greek gods today

Post by spitamenes »

Does anyone know if there are any modern religions today who still worship the gods of ancient greece? I know the Kalash of Afghanistan are supposedly decended from local Afghans who hooked up with some of Alexanders Macedonian army. That is why they are the one tribe with blue eyes apperently. And they have some form of broken greek religion from what I understand. But are there any actual established religions who still practice the ways of the ancient Greeks and the like? Just curious.
User avatar
marcus
Somatophylax
Posts: 4785
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2002 7:27 am
Location: Nottingham, England

Re: the greek gods today

Post by marcus »

Not as far as I am aware.

There might, of course, be some groups of people who profess to do so, in a sort of cultish, rather geek-y way. Perhaps the sort of people who would say they were Jedi, but choose the Greek pantheon because they think it makes them look more intellectual! :D

ATB
Marcus
Sine doctrina vita est quasi mortis imago
At Amazon US
At Amazon UK
User avatar
spitamenes
Hetairos (companion)
Posts: 329
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:51 pm
Location: St.Louis, U.S.

Re: the greek gods today

Post by spitamenes »

Ha! That's what I thought. But a marble Yoda standing in the panthion as a thirteenth god IS strangely appealing. Nevermind, no it is not.
User avatar
marcus
Somatophylax
Posts: 4785
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2002 7:27 am
Location: Nottingham, England

Re: the greek gods today

Post by marcus »

spitamenes wrote:Ha! That's what I thought. But a marble Yoda standing in the panthion as a thirteenth god IS strangely appealing. Nevermind, no it is not.
:D :D

That's the only response I can think of! :D

ATB
Marcus
Sine doctrina vita est quasi mortis imago
At Amazon US
At Amazon UK
dues

Re: the greek gods today

Post by dues »

spitamenes wrote:Does anyone know if there are any modern religions today who still worship the gods of ancient greece? I know the Kalash of Afghanistan are supposedly decended from local Afghans who hooked up with some of Alexanders Macedonian army. That is why they are the one tribe with blue eyes apperently. And they have some form of broken greek religion from what I understand. But are there any actual established religions who still practice the ways of the ancient Greeks and the like? Just curious.
Not the Grecian Gods but there is a pagan underground here that worships the Roman Gods. Same jobs different names. :wink:
User avatar
Efstathios
Hetairos (companion)
Posts: 759
Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2005 8:08 pm
Location: Athens,Greece

Re: the greek gods today

Post by Efstathios »

Yes, there are religions today that worship the ancient Greek gods, here in Greece in fact. One of them managed to be recognised officially. It's actually more of a blend of a tribute to the ancient gods and to the ancient Greek world, philosophy, literature, arts, e.t.c. They hold ceremonies at the same spots were they used to be held. I will get back on this later, as we have a celebration here today, the 1821 Rebellion. Stay tuned.
"Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks."
Sir Winston Churchill, 1941.
User avatar
spitamenes
Hetairos (companion)
Posts: 329
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:51 pm
Location: St.Louis, U.S.

Re: the greek gods today

Post by spitamenes »

Efstathios wrote: It's actually more of a blend of a tribute to the ancient gods and to the ancient Greek world, philosophy, literature, arts, e.t.c.
Efstathios, thanks you for the reply, it definately sounds interesting, so if you can elaborate a bit on what you know I'd love to hear all about it.
User avatar
Efstathios
Hetairos (companion)
Posts: 759
Joined: Wed Jun 15, 2005 8:08 pm
Location: Athens,Greece

Re: the greek gods today

Post by Efstathios »

So, as i said there are people here that believe in the ancient gods, but it's a bit more complicated than that. first of all, the official name of these religions is dodekatheism (from the word dodeka which is the greek number twelve, hence the twelve gods), and the followers are often called "dodekatheistes". It has to do more with the culture though, rather than the ancient gods. I think that most of the people do not actually believe in the 12 gods, but maybe in Zeus as the one god, as it was the case sometimes in ancient Greece too. Other than that, they hold the ancient rituals as by the book as they can, with the preserved knowledge that we have today.

The worship of dodekatheon has re-emerged nowdays, meaning that there was probably no continuation throughout the centuries. The ancient religion dissapeared during the Byzantine empire, and in particular from the second half and on, around at 500 A.D and later, when Christianity became the religion of the empire. That of course did not happen without bloodshed. It was one of the dark events of the Byzantine empire, when Emperor Theodosios issued a ban of the ancient religion, and not only that, but a manhunt, and the destruction of many things that represented the dodekatheon. These events are always the main argument at flaming debates nowdays between the dodekatheistes and the Orthodox church, and other people.

But the question is what drove thousands of people to become followers of the ancient ethnic religion. Well, that is complicated. It is about the same as in Scandinavia where many people have returned to the worship of Odin and the Scandinavian gods. Dissapointment from the Christian church, from the priests, and many other things. In Greece it also has to do with "ancient worship". Some people that love the ancient Greek history and are in the same time dissapointed by the Orthodox church and the priests, turn to the ancient religion. And then the conversations go like this: You banned us our ethnic religion centuries ago, Christianity forced it's way through Greece, e.t.c, so we now go back to our ancestral religion.

One of these cults-religions became officially recognised, and now they can build their own temple, and generally worship the twelve gods and perform the rituals officially, of course always under the laws of Greece. The thing is that there are also professors, and other educated people that believe in the dodekatheon. They have written books covering the inner philosophies of the ancient religion that are very interesting, because the ancient Greek religion was very deep in ideas and philosophy, with the Eleusinean mysteries being at the top.

Kind of sad is that Christianity is in some ways a continuation of the ancient religion, having many things in common, and especially being at the same page with Socrates teachings. Of course there are differences, but some of the philosophies are the same. But many people tend to look only at black and white at these matters. You cannot argue about this with someone that has been dissapointed by the priests, blames Christianity for the destruction of the ancient religion-culture, and based his cosmotheory on that. Many people deny Christianity because of what Theodosius or the Crusades have done, or even of what some dirty priests are doing today, and this is wrong, a religion is not to be blamed cause of what some people have done. And this goes for a lot of things too, outside of religion matters.

So that is the situation with the ancient Greek religion today. There are thousands of followers, and it is more of a blend of culture and religion, than pure worship of the twelve gods. There is something else though. Many people have a hate towards Jews, because they think that they hate Greece and have caused destructions and plots throughout the Greek history, so believing in a religion that has partly came from the Hebrews is unacceptable to them. usually many of these people will include this in their arguments of why they believe in the old ethnic religion.

Here are some videos that you may find interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=617qc8gmta8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PliyUFrH ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHaNPYmF ... re=related
"Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks."
Sir Winston Churchill, 1941.
Iberia

Re: the greek gods today

Post by Iberia »

Efstathios thanks for your post it was very interesting to read. I thought that there are no pagans nowadays in the world but I guess I was kinda wrong
Post Reply