Vlassis G. Rassias ( el, Βλάσης Γ. Ρασσιάς; 22 April 1959 – 7 July 2019) was a Greek writer, publisher, leader, and activist.
Biography
Rassias was born in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
in 1959 and received a degree from the
Athens University of Economics and Business
Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB; el, Οικονομικό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Oikonomiko Panepistimio Athinon'', abbrev. ΟΠΑ, OPA) was founded in 1920 in Athens, Greece and is the oldest university in Gre ...
. He became involved in
alternative culture
Alternative culture is a type of culture that exists outside or on the fringes of mainstream or popular culture, usually under the domain of one or more subcultures. These subcultures may have little or nothing in common besides their relative ...
and founded the magazines ''Speak Out'' (1979), ''Anoichtí Póli'' (''Open City''; 1980 – 1993) and ''Diipetés'' (''Sent by Zeus''; 1991 – 2012), and published the mail art magazine ''Eínai Ávrio'' (''It's Tomorrow'') from 1983 to 1986.
From the late 1970s and onwards he was engaged in advocacy for
indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
and their ambition to retain their traditions and national dignity. He initially focused on
indigenous peoples of the Americas
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...
, but eventually on the heritage from
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
. According to Rassias, he had become critical of Orthodoxy as a teenager in 1976, during an incident where a Greek Orthodox monk used a sledgehammer to destroy the genitals of a replica of an ancient statue of
Poseidon
Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ch ...
Hellenic ethnic religion
Hellenism (Ἑλληνισμός) in a religious context refers to the modern pluralistic religion practiced in Greece and around the world by several communities derived from the beliefs, mythology and rituals from antiquity through and up t ...
in contemporary Greek society. He led the organisation as its secretary general for the remainder of his life. In 2017 it was officially recognised by the Greek government, which granted Hellenic believers the right to openly worship, build temples, perform marriages and funerals, and write their religious beliefs on birth certificates. In 1998 he also participated in the founding of the
World Congress of Ethnic Religions
The European Congress of Ethnic Religions (ECER) is an organisation for cooperation among associations that promote the ethnic religions of Europe.
He wrote 21 books of history and essays of which 17 are about ancient Greece. He also wrote a philosophical dictionary and two poetry collections. A central theme in his books is that modern societies need to go through a new enlightenment, similar to the
Enlightenment
Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to:
Age of Enlightenment
* Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...
in Europe in the 18th century, which should allow every nation to express itself through its own traditions. He considered the ancient Greek outlook to be timeless, and thought that rediscovering it was the best way to uphold self-determination in a society. He placed the ancient Greek outlook in complete opposition to Greek Orthodoxy and the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
. He also showed a particular affinity for the philosophical school of the
Stoics
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that th ...