Right wing Christians played the victim card in response to a float at the Paris Olympics they said mocked the Last Supper. The French Bishops’ Conference called it “mockery and derision of Christianity.” House Speaker Mike Johnson said it “was shocking and insulting to Christian people around the world.” An American Bishop called it “gross mockery” of “a very central moment in Christianity.”
Except it was never about the Last Supper. The Olympics is a tradition that draws on Greek history going back almost 800 years before Jesus. The float depicted a Dionysian feast, drawing on that same Greek tradition. Turns out Jesus isn’t the only person to have ever thrown a dinner party, nor to have it painted.
Per Thomas Jolly, the creative director: “I think it was pretty clear. There’s Dionysus who arrives at the table … Why is he there? Because he’s the god of feasting, of wine, and the father of Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine.”
Jolly goes on: The idea was “to have a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus, Olympian, Olympianism … You’ll never find in me any kind of wish to mock, to denigrate anything at all. I wanted a ceremony that repairs and reconciles.”
Art historian Walther Schoonenberg identified the specific painting that inspired the scene: The Feast of the Gods, by Jan van Bijlert, 1635.
I would love to think that the world would take this as a reminder that our initial assumptions aren’t always right; that our outrage isn’t always warranted; that we are prone to interpret things through our own biases, and that inclination can lead us astray. But I doubt that will be the takeaway for most.
Question:
Am I overly pessimistic about the lessons we will draw?