We almost got banned in Greece!?

[Hoplitesmores]

i ll try.It was the reenactment( "ww.ysee.gr" a pagan group had a ceremony there sometime ago and noone annoyed them so you get the picture) they were annoyed with and i think that slowly as we hit the media that wil slowly change.

[spyros]

:roll: Yes I know what you mean. The Ipatoi can be a bit bothersome some times.

[Anonymous]

Well, you may think they were in the churches care for 1000 years, but the most damage done to ancient monuments in greece was done by the christians........ Then the Ottomans........ :?

Well, the modern Greek gov't is the only western govt to have defeated communism...... something to think about!

Freedom of religion extends to islam too...

Ancient monuments have been damaged by all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons. What figures exist to demonstrate that any one group did more damage to a particular culture's heritage than another? If Christians did great damage to Ancient Greek statues, they, like the Turks, also preserved many buildings by re-cycling them as temples of their own faith. When Christians smashed the noses off statues, they did it, in their own view, in the best interests of their fellow-Greeks, to save them from the demonic influences of the Pagan gods. Alexander's pagan Greeks, by contrast, destroyed Persepolis apparently as a simple act of vandalism. I wouldn't allow that to cloud my view of their achievements.

Actually, the British Government defeated communism in Malaya, in the 1950s.

[Ebusitanus]

Are there any photos of this event?

[Hoplitesmores]

if you mean the one we didnt do go here
http://www.ysee.gr/index.php?type=d&f=olympieion2006

they have pictures and a video.

If you mean us go in my signature links

[hoplite14gr]

Yes Daniel
in this yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/megistias ... TASHMAXON/
but you need yahoo account to see them.
They are here actually:
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/megist ... rowse/b091

Kind regards

[Hoplitesmores]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7245869@N06/412448735/

check this one, i hope the link works

[lupus]

Come on guys... And speaking to the Greek brothers here...
So, why you yelling for? I was TOTALLY sure that this ceremony would be BANNED from the "authorities"!
The "modern Greeks" believes, that "Greek" culture is totally "bound" with ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY, so these "actions" are PAGAN actions and AGAINST "Greek-ism".

[Robert Vermaat]

If enough people will treat them as holy, they will become holy again. After all, a building is a building, it's the use that defines the character. Here in The Netherlands, the number of Christians is dropping, and some large churches are sold (some are turned into houses) because they are too costly to keep for the believers.

So, if there will be enough believers in Zeus, etc., the ruins will become temples again?

But Romilos, is it not true that Greeks and Greek culture have very large ties to Christianity?

[Hoplitesmores]

The subject is why did they "ban" the reenactment and they were not annoyed with the religious part which i demonstrated in my post above.

[lupus]

Don't worry about that issue... Everybody can protest what he wants.

[Peter Raftos]

Themistoklis,
Perhaps the re-enactors looked more like the "real thing" than the neopagans in their "hippy" gear.

[hoplite14gr]

If enough people will treat them as holy, they will become holy again. After all, a building is a building, it's the use that defines the character. Here in The Netherlands, the number of Christians is dropping, and some large churches are sold (some are turned into houses) because they are too costly to keep for the believers.

So, if there will be enough believers in Zeus, etc., the ruins will become temples again?

But Romilos, is it not true that Greeks and Greek culture have very large ties to Christianity?

Yes it is true that certain Cristian priests were in the forefront of National Struggles and Cristian faith instrumental in raising the moral of Greek combatants. But most of these priests were low or middle rank clerics.
And the some times, to hide their own "controversial" attitude, the established Church uses them as a shield. And it is true that from 1870 onwards there was a disproportional(??) influence of the Church in society.

The Church is suspicious of ancient reenactment because they know that they are new religion that substituted the old religion and they realize that the possibility of themselves being substituted is real even if remote.

I am of the opinion that if we try to reenact the Sacred Band who sacrificed themselves at Dragatsani in 1821 they would even be present to bless us.

Kind regards

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Sure they would!
I think they don't so much worry that future or present Christians will become Pagans,they mostly know that if other religions and more so that "new" one become acceptable in society,they will lose their prestiege and authority.To be fair,as far as I can remember,similar ceremonies haven't been done in public even by other religions,lets say Boudists or Mouslims.I think in Athens they only now build a mosque...In New York a hoplite re-enactment group participates in church's seremonies of Holly Trinity.What if the Greek re-enactors tried to participate in similar events?Just,in Greece there is no need to make an event similar to the one in NY.If only the Church offered ceremonies for the heroes fallen in Marathon,for example...After all the Ortodox church claims to be "greek" and the marathonomachoi were Greeks,too.
I wonder,isn't there any Byzantine re-enactment group,and has it come in contact eith the church...

[Hoplitesmores]

We declared in the tv interview and other times that we are not a religious group and that we will appear with pagans or christians alike.