Premiers agriculteurs de Thessalie : mythe des origines à la lumière de la philologie, de l'archéologie et de la linguistique

For the ancient Thessaliens, a myth permitted them to account for the genesis of the Thessalian plain, of its fertility which was well-known to the Greeks, and of a particular feast, probably the harvest feast, in which all the inhabitants of the region participated. The interest accorded to this myth today, as in late antiquity, lies in its three elements and in the legendary Pelasgians, who are the principal actors of the story. One must meanwhile go farther in the analysis, establishing that the myth presents a very explicit organisation in the chronology of events: in an « original » time the creation of a space of which the revelation is given to the first occupants, the Pelasgians, by a divine messenger, then the taking possession of the domain and the agricultural exploitation by these same Pelasgians, and finally the transmission of the tradition to the Thessalians, who took it over for themselves. This chronological structure in successive historical layers is also found in the analyses which one can make based upon historical geography, archaeology and linguistics. If one takes for example some characteristic terms in Thessalian toponymy one finds in fact concepts of space characteristic of agricultural peoples of the prehistoric/protohistoric era, and the different modes of socialisation of this space, relating to the peoples of each of these two periods. One which succeed each other in the Thessalian plain: the most ancient, that of the Thessalian Neolithic, the culture of the first inhabitants, who may be called Pelasgians, then that of the principalities of « Mycenean » type, probably created by Greeks of oriental origin, and finally the result of a mixture of these ancient groups with the new arrivals, the culture of the Thessalians who were founders of archaic and classical cities.Helly Bruno. Premiers agriculteurs de Thessalie : mythe des origines à la lumière de la philologie, de l'archéologie et de la linguistique. In: Rites et rythmes agraires. Séminaire de recherche sous la direction de Marie-Claire Cauvin. Lyon : Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux, 1991. pp. 135-147. (Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient, 20