Featured Image Credit: BBC
Topics: News, World News, Olympics, Art, History
Kit Roberts
The actor who played the Greek god Dionysus in a performance during the Paris Olympics opening ceremony has spoken out following controversy online.
In the scene, 18 performers including drag artists created a tableau which depicted a bacchanalian scene centred around the Greek god of wine Dionysus.
It quickly provoked outrage online, after many thought it was intended as a mockery of Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper.
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Piers Morgan was among those who called out the skit, writing: "What the f**k was all this about? A drag queen mockery of the Last Supper at the Olympics? Would they have mocked any other religion like this? Appalling decision."
Others called the sketch 'FULL BLOWN SATANIC' and 'spiritual warfare', while others compared Dionysus' look to a 'blue scrotum'.
Meanwhile, Mississippi tech company C Spire pulled all of their advertising for the Olympics over the skit.
They wrote on X: "We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics."
Now actor Philippe Katerine, who played Dionysus in the performance, has spoken out.
And it appears that the actor has embraced the controversy around the performance.
Katerine told French outlet BFM TV: "It wouldn't be fun if there were no controversy. Wouldn't it be boring if everyone agreed on this planet?"
The events organisers have since spoken out to clarify that the performance was not actually anything whatsoever to do with Christianity, but an homage to Ancient Greek mythology and the Olympics' Ancient Greek origins.
Eagle-eyed viewers may also have spotted that there were actually 17 attendees behind the table at this event, not counting Dionysus.
Those who know their Christian theology may recall that the Last Supper famously only had 13 attendees - Jesus and his 12 disciples - and not 17.
Thomas Jolly, the ceremony's artistic director, told BFM: "The idea was to do a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus.
"You'll never find in my work any desire to mock or denigrate anyone. I wanted a ceremony that brings people together, that reconciles, but also a ceremony that affirms our Republican values of liberty, equality and fraternity."
Paris 2024 spokeswoman Anne Descamps reaffirmed that there had been no intent to offend anyone with the performance.
She told reporters: "Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group.
"On the contrary, I think Thomas Jolly did try to intend to celebrate community tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offence, we of course are really sorry."
Da Vinci's Last Supper has been parodied innumerable times.
It has been used to promote TV shows like The Sopranos or South Park to others that feature Jesus and the Apostles replaced with Star Wars characters.
Presumably the complaints about those actual parodies of Da Vinci's Renaissance reimagining of Jesus' Last Supper are in the post.