You are on page 1of 2

What is hellenism?

It is a modern pluralistic religion practiced in Greece and around the world.


PLuralistic basically means, that its based on more than belief. Most of Their
beliefs are based on greek mythology. It is about the worship of hellenic
deities, the twelve Olympians. The twelve olympians are:
Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Ap
hrodite, Hermes and Dyonusus. They are also called olympians, because they
lived on Mount Olympus.
Based on ethinicity, we can distinguish different groups. Fistly, the greek
believers are called ethnic hellenes. Non-greek believers are called Hellenists.
There are also people who worship greek gods, but they may not agree with
every aspect of hellenism. they are refferd to as "Hellenic" polytheist. However,
when talkin about them, avoid using the term pagan, because they consider it
offensive. THis is mainly because (Olympianism)(Neopaganism)" are used by
the Greek Orthodox Church in a derogatory manner.
Hellenism started becaming popular in the 1990’s with the goal
of reconstructing ancient Greek religious practices. I couldn’t find how many
followers it has today, but in 2005 it had approximtely 2000. In Greece there
are two main organizations with the names Hellenic Ethnic
Religion[b] and Ancient Hellenic Religion[c].[3] In the USA, the religion has
manifested itself through the organizations such as Hellenion.

Beliefs
Their beliefs range between polytheism, animism and monism. Polytheism
means believeng in more than one god. Animism is the belief that everything
has a spiritual essence, monism means that reality only consits of one
substance.
To hellenes animal and polytheistic worship is really important. Other than the
greek gods they also worship the spirits of nature, underworld deites and
heroes. Both physical and spiritual ancestors are greatly honored. And their
gods both have universal and local charactheristics.
I looked up their website, where you can find their opinion on several subjects,
including christianity. „We believe in Gods co-existing with the Nature, it
believes in an extra-terrestrial god who hates Nature. We bring love, peace and
wisdom, it brought hatred, slaughter and evil.”
In 2004, why planning the olympic games, there were multiple events that
made hellenes extremely upset. during preparations some  ancient
archaeological sites such as the Parthenon and Acropolis suffered destruction
which caused public outrage. Some vandalists also destroyed books in a
bookstore, which was promoting hellenism. "A contrast in this place where the
Olympic Games were created to honour Zeus - now those praying to the ancient
gods are criticized for putting too much faith in the past."
And lastly, people found the game’s mascots culturally insensitive and mocking
the greek gods AThena and Phobeus. People stated that they mock the spiritual
values of the Hellenic Civilization, and they also pressed charges
on 22 January 2007, the Hellenist group Ellinais held a ceremony at the historic
Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, which was importan tbc these rituals have
been banned for decades. PArticipiants dressed up as ancient warriors,
however several orthodox greek priests thought this was dangerous, and were
upset with people wanting to practice this old religion.
A modern Hellenic temple in Athens is still in the planning stages,
 2017, the Greek government finally recognised Hellenism as an official religion,
over 1600 years after the Ancient Hellenic religion was banned by Emperor
Theodosius I.

You might also like