Editing Andocides (section)

=== [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Andoc.+1+1 On the Mysteries] ({{lang|grc|Περὶ τῶν μυστηρίων}} "''De Mysteriis''"). ===
Andocides made the speech "On the Mysteries" as a defense against the accusations made against him by Athens for attending the Eleusinian Mysteries without permission, as he was prohibited under Isotimides' order. The case's prosecutors had insisted that Andocides be put to death. His attendance at the Eleusinian Mysteries in Eleusis around 400 BCE was the main accusation made against him. Additionally, he was charged with unlawfully placing an olive branch on the altar of the Eleusinium at Athens during the Mysteries.<ref name=":1">Gagarin & MacDowell, Antiphon and Andocides, University of Texas Press, 1998. p.99</ref>

The speech can be split into two parts. In the first, Andocides asserted that the decree of Isotimides had no power to prevent him from attending the Eleusinian Mysteries because he was innocent of impiety and had not confessed to it. He would go on to declare that because of alterations made to the law in 403 BCE, the decree altogether was no longer legitimate.<ref name=":0" />

In the second part of the speech, he would move on to claim that his prosecutors, namely Cephisius, Meletus, Epichares and Agyrrhius, were not legitimate by making allegations against them.<ref name=":2">Gagarin & MacDowell, Antiphon and Andocides, University of Texas Press, 1998. p.100</ref> Andocides asserted that Cephisius, Meletus, and Epichares had also committed crimes prior to the legal revisions, exposing their hypocrisy in bringing charges against him since they would also be at risk of being prosecuted. Andocides asserts that Agyrrhius is ineligible to prosecute them for their private conflicts.<ref name=":2"/>

This speech was successful in persuading the jury, as Andocides was sentenced to be innocent. Gagarin and MacDowell commented on the oration, saying that while the speech itself is rather rough on its wording, it is a genuine speech of Andocides fighting for his life and was “sufficiently clear and logical”.<ref name=":0">Gagarin & MacDowell, Antiphon and Andocides, University of Texas Press, 1998. p.101</ref>