Les mystères d'Andania : étude d'épigraphie et d'histoire religieuse

According to Pausanias, Andanian Mysteries were almost as venerable as the Eleusinian ones, even though they were organized in Messene, a lesser-known city. A religious regulation from 91-90 BC describes in great detail how the feast was held. A comparison with the sacred laws’ corpus helps determining in which ways it is typical (or not) of the Hellenistic period. The city of Messene was founded in 370-369 BC when, after Leuctra, Spartans lost control of Messenia. The identity of the new city and its very existence were problematic because part of its citizens were former Helots.

In order to define their identity and legitimise the existence of their city, Messenians thus created a “national legend” which recounted their supposedly age-old fight against the Spartans (during the “Messenian Wars”) and justified the composition of their civic pantheon (with Demeter, Artemis, Castor, Pollux, and Zeus as main deities). In this pseudo-history reported by Pausanias, Andanian Mysteries play an important role, because they are at the heart of mythical Messenian origins as well as the ones of the traditional polis. By the examination of archaeological sources – which were multiplied by the last two decades of discoveries in the site of Messene – and the deconstruction of Pausanias’ text, a global interpretation of Andanian Mysteries appears, not only as a religious celebration but also as the cornerstone of the Messenians’ discourse concerning their identity.