Modern pagans honor Zeus at ancient temple

ATHENS, Greece — A clutch of modern pagans honored Zeus outside an 1,800-year-old temple in the heart of Athens on Sunday — the first known ceremony of its kind held here since the ancient Greek religion was outlawed by the Roman empire in the late 4th century.

Watched by curious onlookers, 20 worshippers gathered next to the ruins of the temple for a celebration organized by Ellinais, a year-old Athens-based group that is campaigning to revive old religious practices from the era when Greece was a fount of education and philosophy.

The group ignored a ban by the Culture Ministry, which, to protect the monument, declared the site off limits to any kind of organized activity.

Dressed in ancient costumes, worshippers standing near the temple's Corinthian columns recited hymns calling on the Olympian Zeus, "King of the gods and the mover of things," to bring peace to the world.

"Our message is world peace and an ecological way of life in which everyone has the right to education," said Kostas Stathopoulos, one of three "high priests" overseeing the event, which celebrated the nuptials of Zeus and Hera, the goddess of love and marriage.

To the Greeks, ecological awareness was fundamental, Stathopoulos said after a priestess, with arms raised to the sky, called on Zeus "to bring rain to the planet."

A herald holding a metal staff topped with two snake heads proclaimed the beginning of the ceremony before priests released two white doves as symbols of peace. A priest poured wine. Incense burned on a copper tripod while a choir chanted hymns.