Ryanne Molinari

I didn’t watch the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. Instead, I’ve kept an eye on something even more interesting and chaotic: the internet’s reaction to the opening ceremony. Having waited for the waves of outrage to calm, I’d like to wade in with a few thoughts…

The Debate

Social media arguments can be boiled down more or less to “Bacchus or Jesus?” Was the now-infamous tableau at the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony mocking Christianity or referencing Greek mythology?

Many have denounced the supposed mockery of Christianity in the tableau resembling Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.” While Jolly denies that he intentionally imitated the painting, intellectual honesty compels us to recognize two points.

First, the image of Jesus flanked by his disciples, all sitting on the same side of the table, is familiar even to those with a limited knowledge of Western art. “The Last Supper” is prominent in our collective imagination.

Second, the opening ceremony did not evolve in an artistic vacuum. Working on the world’s largest stage in one of the world’s most artistically rich cities, it is laughable to think Jolly had no idea of the parallels he was drawing.

At the same time, we must acknowledge that other cultural elements were at play. Jolly acknowledged that the tableau was meant to portray a bacchanal—a drunken revelry celebrating the Greek god Bacchus. (“Revelry” is the G-rated term, by the way.) This makes sense. The Olympics, after all, find their origin in ancient Greece.

The Deeper Issue

I’ve said nothing so far that couldn’t be gleaned from social media comments, but stick with me.

In defense of his tableau, Jolly said the following:

“We wanted to include everyone, as simple as that,” he said. “In France, we have freedom of creation, artistic freedom. We are lucky in France to live in a free country. I didn’t have any specific messages that I wanted to deliver. In France, we are republic, we have the right to love whom we want, we have the right not to be worshippers, we have a lot of rights in France, and this is what I wanted to convey.” – Thomas Jolly (https://www.today.com/news/paris-olympics/olympics-opening-ceremony-last-supper-controversy-rcna163929)

Read this line again: “We have the right not to be worshippers.”

I shared one definition of bacchanal earlier: “an occasion of wild, drunken revelry.” However, there is a second definition: “a priest, worshiper, or follower of Bacchus.”

So, let me get this straight: Jolly has a right not to worship, but he modeled part of the opening ceremony after a pagan worship service. This irony is telling. As a Frenchman, Jolly claims his right to not be a worshiper. He forgets that, as a human being, he does not have this freedom.

We are worshiping creatures. It’s what we are. We can’t help it. Whether it’s our careers, platforms, sexuality, family, politics, comfort, homes, celebrities, appearance, fitness, degrees, youth—in the end, we all worship something. We all fixate on something, shaping our lives and beliefs around it. Writers far more eloquent than I have written at length about this phenomenon, from David Foster Wallace to James K. A. Smith. Whether you believe we were intelligently designed this way or randomly evolved this way, you can’t get around it: man is hardwired to worship.

Thomas Jolly cast himself as a priest of Bacchus, putting on the ultimate worship service in honor of the good-time god. Think I’m making a leap? Consider this: Bacchus worship often involved transvestism and promiscuity, for Bacchus himself is often described as ambiguously gendered. Additionally, Bacchus is the god of madness. His devotees, like those portrayed in Euripides’ The Bacchae, honor him by driving themselves into murderous, devastating frenzies.

Confusion and chaos. Those are the hallmarks of bacchanal worship. Sound familiar?

With all this in mind, the resemblance of Jolly’s tableau to Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” becomes troubling not because it seems to mock Christianity, but because it seeks to replace it. Culture, believing itself to be progressing, is regressing, returning to the ancient pantheon.

Jesus or Bacchus?

Bacchus is alive and well, folks. True to the myths, though, he comes in disguise. And if there’s one thing I learned from reading a lot of Greco-Roman mythology, it’s this: beware the god in disguise. What we perceive as freedom from worship is really a consuming devotion to Bacchus—our own unchecked appetites. Thinking ourselves free from the need to worship, we are enslaving ourselves to the lesser gods of our own wayward desires.

If there’s anything you take away from the controversy over the Paris 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremony, I hope it is not simply whether Jolly was mocking your faith or promoting your ideology. Instead, I hope you will face this all-important, life-and-death reality head-on:

The choice has never been between worshiping the God of the Bible and worshiping nothing. It has always been a matter of worshiping the true God or worshiping an idol.

So…Jesus or Bacchus?

The choice has never been between worshiping the God of the Bible and worshiping nothing. It has always been a matter of worshiping the true God or worshiping an idol.

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