Mesenia: Una identidad creada mediante la alteridad

Resum

The Messenians had an own identity associated with their polis but just after the independence of Messenia in the 4 th century B.C. In previous centuries the Messenian ethnicity is developed because of various elements that promote it. Spartans traditions regarding the Messenians play an important role in the creation of a Messenian identity because the Spartans identified the Messenians as an element of otherness, sometimes identifying them with helots and sometimes as the enemy. Also, the exiled Messenians in Naupakthos and Regio were essential in constructing ethnic traditions from the outside and, along with those of Naupaktos, Athens used ethnicity as a way to encourage anti-Spartan propaganda during the Peloponnesian War. I also propose that Messenia could be an ethnos before the Spartan conquest.