Athena, Phevos and Proteas

An international competition for the design of the Olympic mascots was launched by the Athens Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (ATHOC) on 26 February 2001: on 18 May 2001, ATHOC shortlisted seven proposals out of the 127 entries that met the initial requirements. The winning proposal, submitted by Spyros Gogos of Paragraph Design Limited, was announced on 26 October 2001. Athena and Phevos was unveiled to the public on 4 April 2002, followed by Proteas on 17 September 2003. ==Design==

'' at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The mascots were named after the Greek gods Athena and Apollo, Phevos being a transcription of the modern Greek pronunciation of Phoebus, an epithet of Apollo. They were loosely modeled after an archaic Greek terra cotta daidala from the 7th century BC, which was recommended by curators at the National Archaeological Museum. Reception was mostly positive, though there were some negative reviews including one that compared them to "melted Bart Simpson dolls". ==Controversy==

Prior to the Games, a group affiliated with the Societas Hellenica Antiquariorum called the Greek Society of the Friends of the Ancients and a Hellenic polytheistic group called the Committee for the Greek Religion Dodecatheon, devoted to the preservation of ancient Greek culture, sued over the mascots, claiming that they "savagely insult" Classical Greek culture. In a BBC Radio interview on June 26, 2004, Dr. Pan. Marinis, President of the Societas Hellenica Antiquariorum, said that the mascots "mock the spiritual values of the Hellenic Civilization by degrading these same holy personalities that were revered during the ancient Olympic Games. For these reasons we have proceeded to legal action demanding the punishment of those responsible." The fact that the organizing committee referred to the daidala as dolls has been the cause of some controversy among scholars of Ancient Greek culture, as the daidala were religious artifacts. ==See also ==