Greek gods no longer illegal in Greece

A very interesting story from the Guardian today. For centuries, worshipping the Greek gods has been illegal in Greece. It looks like that will now change. It's strange to think anyone would still worship the Olympians seriously, but it's also bizarre to think anyone would bother outlawing this. It is, after all, part of their national heritage in Greece.

Greek gods prepare for comeback
Helena Smith in Athens
Friday
May 5, 2006
The Guardian

It has taken almost 2,000 years, but those who worship the 12 gods of ancient Greece have finally triumphed. An Athens court has ordered that the adulation of Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Athena and co is to be unbanned, paving the way for a comeback of pagans on Mount Olympus.
The followers, who say they "defend the genuine traditions, religion and ethos" of the ancients by adhering to a pre-Christian polytheistic culture, are poised to take their battle to the temples of Greece.

"What we want, now, is for the government to fully recognise our religion," Vasillis Tsantilas told the Guardian. "We will petition the Greek parliament, and the EU if that fails, for access to worship in places like the Acropolis, for permission to have our own cemeteries and, where necessary, to re-bury the [ancient] bones of the dead.

About 98% of Greeks are Orthodox Christian, and all other religions except Judaism and Islam had been banned.

Yet the pagans say as many as 2,000 Greeks have signed up to their movement. Mr Tsantilas, 42, a computer scientist who came to paganism after toying with Buddhism, Taoism and Islam, said worshippers perceived the ancient gods as the "personification of the divine".

But Greece's powerful Orthodox Church takes a less charitable view, accusing the worshippers of idolatry and "poisonous New Age practices".

Father Eustathios Kollas, who presides over the community of Greek priests, said: "They are a handful of miserable resuscitators of a degenerate dead religion who wish to return to the monstrous dark delusions of the past."

Rick's Report from BEA

I just got back from Washington, D.C. and a great, exhausting weekend at Book Expo America. Highlights from the trip:

I got to meet with Riley Ellis from Fox for a bit of news on the Lightning Thief movie project. The option on the book has been renewed for another 18 months, which is good, and Fox is taking a "Do it right or don't do it at all" approach, which I applaud. Right now, they are completely redoing the script with a different writer, which will of course take more time, but I think it's a wise move. Once they are happy with the script, they will then attach a director, let me put in my two cents on the script (hooray!), and only then move on to casting. We are still talking about years of work, so don't hold your breath! But the signs right now are promising. In the meantime, the studio is watching the progress of the series, so the best way to ensure the movie gets made is to tell all your friends to buy the books! For all those who have sent me "Can I Be in the Movie" emails (and I've gotten several hundred of them), I don't have anything to do with the casting, nor am I sure when or how that will work exactly, but if I find out any more information on the progress of the movie, I will post it here.

I met a huge number of booksellers at Thursday's ABC dinner (and they actually knew who I was this year, which I still can't get over!) I didn't bid on anything at the silent auction, but I did learn that Mo Willems occasionally takes pity on his low bidders by giving out pigeon and knufflebunny tattooes. This started many scurrilous rumors about the location of said tattooes upon several prominent members of the publishing community, which I will not go into.

I survived Friday, in spite of three "banquet food" meals in a row, which is normally fatal. This year, I even managed to score half a dried poppyseed bagel at the children's booksellers' breakfast, although I did have to wrestle several buyers from Borders to get it. Hopefully this will not affect Percy Jackson's placement on their summer reading table.

I had a great signing for Sea of Monsters later in the afternoon, but certainly the high point of the day was the Hyperion dinner. When I heard who the other speakers would be (Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Eoin Colfer, Lane Smith and Avi, just to name a few) I was ready to send up the white flag before the event even started. As long as I didn't fall on my face in the halibut porcupine (don't ask) I was going to be satisfied. It went quite well, however. Among the valuable facts I learned: Never ask Mike Ploog to tell the muskrat story, and if Dave Barry asks you to donate a vital organ for a worthy cause, say no.

Percy Jackson Placemats!

One of the cool things about visiting schools is seeing all the great artwork students do based on the Percy Jackson books. Recently, I got to have a pizza lunch with some of the kids at the John Cooper School in The Woodlands, Texas. We ate on student-created laminated placemats which showed different scenes from the books. I can't share the pizza on-line, but at least I can share the placemat artwork! Click this link to see more examples: http://www.rickriordan.com/placemat_art_project.htm.