Greek court rules worship of ancient Greek deities is legal

March 27, 2006

Greek court has ruled that worshippers of the ancient Greek religion may now formally associate and worship at archeological sites.

Prior to the ruling, the religion was banned from conducting public worship at archeological sites by the Greek Ministry of Culture. Due to that, the religion was relatively secretive.

The Greek Orthodox Church, a Christian denomination, is extremely critical of worshippers of the ancient deities.

Today, about 100,000 Greeks worship the ancient gods, such as Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Aphrodite, and Athena. The Greek Orthodox Church estimates that number is closer to 40,000.

Many neo-pagan religions, such as Wicca, use aspects of ancient Greek religions in their practice; Hellenic polytheism instead focuses exclusively on the ancient religions, as far as the fragmentary nature of the surviving source material allows.