We almost got banned in Greece!?

[Idomeneas]

I'm all for reenactors having access to monuments. But this "religious" group's ostentatious efforts to gain entry smacks of a political agenda, in my view.

My prediction: minor friction will happen until people get used to the idea
that ancient religion is alive and well and it exists.

The people will probably roll over. As for ancient religion being "alive and well", a couple hundred aging hippies who apostatized from chrisitanity doesn't even sound like a firm base. So what if the law recognizes them ? "The law is a ass", to quote Dickens. The only real pagans I know of that continue to practice their faith from classical times are the few Zoroastrians that are persecuted in and around modern Iran.

Back to the monuments : as was said earlier, a better case can be made for the Church to have a legitimate claim over them since they were in its care for at least 1,000 years until the Turkish conquest. The Greek government is a twentieth century fabrication originally propped up by the British. Why should they get dibs on the monuments ? If I ran the Greek Church I'd press for full ownership over the sites. Of course, tourism is the the state's golden goose so they'll never relinquish it. As for the "all-powerful" Greek Church, what a joke. They couldn't even stop this little group from gaining access to the site. And a mosque is going to be built right in Athens. All-powerful ? If only it were true.

If the group was sincere about simply wanting to worship, they'd build their own temples, imo.

Theo

If somebody wishes to believe in a religion he is free to do so. The issue if the neo-olympians really practice ancient greek relligion or something that is a mixture of original and made up stuff is another thing. If they want to believe it they are free but im also free to form an opinion.

About church running the archaeological sites, this is totally wrong. These were not in their care, they were seized, leveled, turned to churches and absolutelly not protected by anyone who wanted to wreack or steal. The sites belongs to the Greek people and in extend to the woldwide culture not the church.

The Greek state was reestated again after long struggles and British had dark roles most time in its history so we better leave that out. The church for sure has some power but its not all-power at all. Spyros made some good points.