ANDANIA, MYSTERIES OF. - The existence of mysteries celebrated in Andania, a small city in northern Messenia, is attested by various passages in Pausanias and by a long and intact inscription from 91 BC, discovered at Konstantini, near the site of the ancient city.
In these mysteries, Demeter, Kore (under the epithet ἀγνά, i.e., the Holy One), the Great Gods (probably the Cabiri), Hermes, and Apollo Carneius were venerated; the latter’s sacred grove served for the celebration of the rite. According to Pausanias, the reformer of the cult was a certain Methapos, the same figure who is said to have introduced the Samothracian cult of the Cabiri to Thebes. Of him, Pausanias states that he was an organizer of initiations and all kinds of mysteries, which suggests that he may have been responsible for associating the ancient local cult with the mysteries of Samothrace. The mysteries of A. were also connected with the Eleusinian mysteries; indeed, not only Demeter and Kore appear among the deities worshipped, but also the Great Goddesses of Eleusis.
Pausanias provides no insight into the inner nature of the mysteries of A., explicitly hiding behind the prohibition against revealing what was forbidden to disclose. The long inscription from Konstantini likewise offers no such information. From the inscription, however, we learn about the cult that a liturgical drama was performed in A., as at Eleusis, and that the festival culminated in a procession; moreover, the mysteries were open to all, without distinction of sex or even of slaves. The inscription is nonetheless valuable for the vivid picture it provides of the external aspects of the festival.
The primitive cult, predating the Spartan conquest (c. 700 BC), was centered on Hermes, Apollo Carneius (a Dorian deity, not confined to Sparta), Demeter, and the spring Haghna—naturalistic deities linked not only to life but also to death. It is not unlikely that at least part of this cult dates back to an era prior to the conquest of the region by the Messenians, thus to a period shortly before the Dorian invasion itself.
ANCOLA - Tomb slab with a cruciform a. (4th century). Rome, Catacomb of Domitilla.