The opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, 2024 has invoked a lot of flak and controversy.
Many viewers were particularly offended by a performance during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony which they contended depicts Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Last Supper”, a painting featuring Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles.
What is “Feast Of The Gods”?
However, many historians and the OIC have debunked these claims and negated the views that the tableau depicts the ‘Last Supper’ scene.
The scene depicts the ‘Feast of The Gods’ and the Greek God Dionysus.
Thomas Jolly, the opening ceremony artistic director has clarified that the tableau was based on Greek Mythology.
The tableau itself was titled Festivity and depicts the arrival of the Greek God Dionysus to the dining table.
Dionysus is also the God of wine which is closely linked to France which produces some of the finest wines in the world.
Jolly also said that Dionysus is the father of Sequana who is the Goddess of the river Seine.
Jolly said the tableau aimed to showcase everything representative of France ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’
Auke Hoekstra, a social media user who roughly translated the original post by Dutch historian Walther Schoonenberg said,
“It was never the ‘Last Supper’ but rather a depiction of heathen gods gathered on Mount Olympus for a feast. Sun god Apollo is recognizable by his halo, Bacchus (Dionysus) by the grapes, Neptune (Poseidon) by his trident, Diana (Artemis) by the moon, and Venus (Aphrodite) by Cupid.”
As per the historian, the scene is inspired by “Feast Of the God”painting by by Jan van Bijlert from 1635,
Hoekstra also felt that the scene was depicting the ‘Feast Of the Gods celebrating Olympics’, not a religious scene and the director never meant to mock any religion.
He also added that there was no need for the IOC to apologize which they eventually did for causing a fuss.
During one of the acts, a scene was enacted by an almost nude French singer Katerine singing in French, with dancers and drag queens around her.
This scene attracted a lot of criticism but Philippe Katerine told Le Parisien newspaper that he was “proud” of the performance.
Philippe Katerine revealed that he spent more than two hours in the makeup of the Greek God Dionysus and was coated with “gallons” of waterproof paint in a shade of sky blue and sprinkled with yellow glitter.
The act was widely criticized by conservative critics who felt the scene, featuring Katerine lounging on a table surrounded by drag queens, was mocking the Last Supper.
Also Read: Paris Olympics 2024: ‘Satanic Symbolism’ Irks Radical Christians; IOC Accused of Committing Blasphemy, Mocking ‘The Last Supper’ of Jesus Christ
