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Pagan ‘prayer’ to Zeus, Apollo offered at 2024 Olympics torch lighting ceremony
LifeSite News ^ | April 23, 2024 | Stephen Kokx

Posted on 04/23/2024 8:15:40 PM PDT by ebb tide

Pagan ‘prayer’ to Zeus, Apollo offered at 2024 Olympics torch lighting ceremony

A ‘high priestess’ prayed to Zeus and Apollo at a Greek pagan temple during the Paris Olympics’ torch lighting ceremony earlier this month, prompting backlash from Christians online.

OLYMPIA, Greece (LifeSiteNews) — In less than 100 days, the summer Olympics will kick off in Paris, which, like every leading global city, a growing number of non-Christian foreigners now call home. God forbid there should be a terrorist attack or a Catholic church that goes up in flames. 

Earlier this month, the games’ first ceremony, the torch lighting ritual, was held in Olympia, Greece, at the ancient temple of Hera, the wife of Zeus, king of the Greek gods.  

Flanked by a non-diverse harem of all white women, Greek actress Mary Mina played the role of “high priestess.” Her function, among other things, was to offer a “prayer” on behalf of mankind. 

“Apollo, god of sun and the idea of light, send your rays and light the sacred torch for the hospitable city of [Paris]. And you, Zeus, give peace to all peoples on earth and wreath the winners of the sacred race,” she remarked.  

The Hellenic Olympic Committee organizes the 30-minute event and lists on its website the rest of the “Invocation to Apollo.” The group explains that the first torch lighting ceremony took place in 1936 as part of the Berlin Games and that it has more or less taken place ahead of every Olympics since then.  

Female choreographer Artemis Ignatiou has directed the performance since 2008. A native of Greece, she previously played the role of “high priestess” and has been involved in the production since the 1990s. 

Christians on X excoriated the event for its obvious paganism. “Christ is King,” several of them remarked. Catholic author Chris Stefanick said, “There are reasons that, without much sadness, literally everyone stopped worshipping Zeus and company a looooooong time ago.” 

The Olympic website recalls that the games were started in 776 B.C. and continued until 393 A.D. when Christian Emperor Theodosius I abolished them. While some may dispute the reasons why he did so, as well as whether or not he even canceled them in the first place, what is undeniable is the Olympics today has become part of a worldwide bread and circus industry that exalts the human body and athletics beyond all reasonable measure. Its opening ceremonies almost always seem to incorporate some sort of Masonic or globalist themes.  

This year’s games have been billed as the first “gender equal” Olympics. What that means is that men and women will have 50-50 representation in competition. Said another way, there will be the same number of male athletes as there are female athletes. This has been billed as a major sign of “progress.”  

At the torch lighting ceremony, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach remarked that this year’s games will be “younger, more inclusive, more urban, more sustainable.” He was referring to the fact that a pro-LGBT “Pride House” will be set up for “LGBTI+ supporters, athletes and allies.” 

”The Games are a celebration of diversity,” the Olympics’ official website says. “To mark the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, Paris 2024 is once again setting out its commitment to combating all forms of discrimination,” euphemistically referring to any opposition to homosexuality or transgenderism.

It added that the “Pride House” is intended to “celebrate” LGBT “minorities” and their “pride.” 

Like previous Olympic Games, Paris 2024 will likely be a cesspool of impurity. As previously documented by LifeSite, fornication is rampant and free contraceptives are given out at the Olympic Village where the athletes stay. Like their pagan forebears, today’s athletes, like those who organized the Olympic torch lighting ceremony, seem to care very little about the teachings of Christianity.  


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: olympics; paganism; perverts
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To: Nervous Tick

I always enjoy Jamestown 1630’s posts. Not.


21 posted on 04/23/2024 8:56:11 PM PDT by Right Brother (Pray for God's intervention to stop UMCRevMom's invasion of Free Republic.)
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To: All

P - People
A - Against
G - Goodness
A - And
N - Normalcy

Can anyone name the movie this came from?


22 posted on 04/23/2024 9:00:32 PM PDT by MplsSteve
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To: Right Brother; Jamestown1630

HeSheIt vanished with a puff of smoke.

Wonder why...


23 posted on 04/23/2024 9:01:25 PM PDT by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: MplsSteve

24 posted on 04/23/2024 9:02:06 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Jim Noble

>> Third, what are they prepared to do? Nothing? Thought so.

You think yourself wise... but you don’t really know sh!t about what Christians are preparing to do, and ARE doing, led by Christ.

“Thought so”, you say. Go on “thinking”, soul man. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools...”


25 posted on 04/23/2024 9:30:34 PM PDT by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: ebb tide

26 posted on 04/23/2024 10:15:14 PM PDT by grundle
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To: Nervous Tick
I may be wrong.

No, I'm pretty sure that's right. The Greeks try to claim they invented everything. Aristotle, Aristotle, was a bugger for the bottle...

27 posted on 04/23/2024 10:26:45 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: grundle

Lol.


28 posted on 04/23/2024 10:52:15 PM PDT by rdl6989 ( )
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To: ebb tide
This year’s games have been billed as the first “gender equal” Olympics. What that means is that men and women will have 50-50 representation in competition. Said another way, there will be the same number of male athletes as there are female athletes. This has been billed as a major sign of “progress.”

Wait..... What????

They got away with saying there's only TWO genders?

What about recognizing all 57 varieties?

29 posted on 04/23/2024 11:13:40 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: Jamestown1630

“Who invented the Olympics?”

It was probably the greeks, but the modern pageantry that is on display and has been since the 30s it was largkey put in place by the Nazi’s. Hitler loved pageantry...

[WWW] “When the idea of a symbolic fire was introduced during the 1928 Summer Olympics, an employee of the Electric Utility of Amsterdam lit the first symbolic flame in the Marathon Tower of the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam.”

After Mexico City... when it all became a political catastrophe I quit watching all that garbage.


30 posted on 04/24/2024 3:13:00 AM PDT by Clutch Martin ("The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." )
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To: dfwgator
Ahh. The Puritans. Burning a poor woman at the stake. Maybe they could recreate that for the Christians at the Paris Olympics.
Ya know. Fair is fair. LOL! Don't wanna leave anybody out.
31 posted on 04/24/2024 5:12:41 AM PDT by MotorCityBuck (Keep the change, you are filthy animal! )
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To: ebb tide
fact that a pro-LGBT “Pride House”

Is that the venue for competition in buggery?

32 posted on 04/24/2024 5:17:58 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: ebb tide

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for Zeus and Apollo, but those gods and all the rest ran out of gas many centuries ago. Offerings and prayers are not going to bring them back. They now reside on other planets where they get proper respect. See https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708488/


33 posted on 04/24/2024 5:42:23 AM PDT by Captain Jack Aubrey (There's not a moment to lose.)
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To: Captain Jack Aubrey; AnotherUnixGeek
Have either of you heard of the First Commandment?

I AM THE LORD THY GOD: THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.

34 posted on 04/24/2024 7:04:13 AM PDT by ebb tide
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To: Jamestown1630

At your request. But I’ll miss you.


35 posted on 04/24/2024 10:49:17 AM PDT by reasonisfaith (What are the personal implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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