Hetaireia Panhellenika Theokolia (HPhT) strongly believes that the current mascots of the Athens 2004 Olympiad are illsuited for commercial and promotional purposes for the Athens Olympic Committee. While having Gods represent cities ie. ancient Greek coinage, is acceptable practice we believe the gross trivilisation, animation and commercialisation of such sacred deities goes beyond good taste. We would therefore argue that a noncontroversial symbol should be adopted for the Athens Games. The owl is traditionally associated with the city\'s patron goddess Athena and importantly, the city of Athens. A recurrent theme on generations of currency, it is now stamped on the Greek 1 euro coin. The use of a single owl will in noway be a repeat of the four owlets used in the 1998 Nagano Winter Games. Importantly we also believe the owl would be less offensive to practitioners of Hellenic polytheism. As the living religion of the Dodekatheon (the 12 Gods) we feel that the Athena and Phoibos (Apollon) dolls are blasphemous and insulting. They look more like a B-grade childrens cartoon than reflecting the light of cultural achievement. These mascot figures are as offensive as the portrayal of Gods on the TV series Xena. We hereby ask concerned individuals to support this petition and force the Athens Olympic Committee to reconsider its decision and adopts its runnerup finalist, the owl, as the games mascot. This petition will be mailed (in snail and e format) to the Athens Olympic Committee by 1 Hekatombaion (23rd June 2002). If you support our efforts to replace the Athens 2004 mascots, please add your signature below.

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