Last modified: 2002-10-19 by ivan sache
Keywords: ellinon epistrofi | return of the hellens (the) | circle (purple) |
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![[Flag of Ellinon Epistrofi]](../images/g/gr}ellep.gif)
by Ivan Sache
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Courrier International #569 (27 September 2001) gives the French translation of a paper by Dina Daskalopoulou originally published in the Greek daily newspaper Eleftherotypia. Three colour pictures from the original article are also shown.
The paper deals with the Greek movement Ellinon Epistrofi
(The Return of the Hellenes). The movement was founded in 1987 by
Tryphon Olympios, who changed his official name from Kostopoulos to
Olympios, and launched the movement with his à
l'antique marriage on the Mont Olympus.
Members of the movement gather for festivals during which they wear
chlamydia, drink kykeon, call themselves with classical
Greek names and speak an archaistic Greek language deliberately
bristling with mistakes. They claim a return to the antique Greek
traditions, decorate their houses with antique furniture, give their
children antique surnames, cook after antique recipes and study
Aesculapian medicine. Their heroes are the Roman Emperor Julian the
Apostate (331-363), who attempted to restore paganism in the Roman
Empire, and the Greek philosoph Gemistes Pletho (1355-1450). They
revere the twelve gods of Olympus.
They are opposed to most if not all political and religious
movements, especially the governing party PASOK, which suppressed the
mandatory teaching of Ancient Greek, and the
Greek Orthodox Church. They promote the
separation of State and Church, a currently hot topic in Greece.
Such movements, which prone the return to pure antique traditions, are triggered by the New Age ideas and the decline of dominant ideologies. They have been increasing and organizing in Greece for about five years. The Greek Society of the Attic Friends claim 40,000 members in Attic and another 40,000 in the rest of the country. The Society asked to be recognized as a legal religion and to be allowed to build a temple in the center of Athens. Anyway, most of the Greeks consider their members as gentle loonies if not idolaters or even satanists.
Ivan Sache, 6 October 2001
The emblem of Ellinon Epistrofi is made of two mirrored E letters, for the initials of the movement name, linked by an horizontal dash. The aforementioned paper says that the movement uses red, yellow and green flags. On one of the colour picture can be seen yellow flags with the emblem surrounded by a thin circle. The emblem and the circle are purple. Purple flags can also be seen but it is impossible to state if they bear an emblem or not.
Ivan Sache, 6 October 2001
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