Abaris the Hyperborean - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

7/28/2019 Abaris the Hyperborean - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

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Abaris the Hyperborean

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Abaris redirects here. For the Baroque opera see Les Borades

Abaris the Hyperborean (Greek: , Abaris Hyperboreios), son ofSeuthes, was a legendary sage, healer, and priest of Apollo known to the Ancient Greeks. He was supposed to have learned his skills in his homeland of Hyperborea,near the Caucasus,[1] which he fled during a plague. He was said to be endowedwith the gift of prophecy, and by this as well as by his Scythian dress andsimplicity and honesty he created great sensation in Greece, and was held inhigh esteem.[2]Contents [hide]

1 Legend

1.1 Phalaris

2 Modern impact

3 In popular culture

4 Notes

5 Other sources

Legend [edit]

According to Herodotus he was said to have traveled around the world with anarrow[3] symbolizing Apollo, eating no food.[4] Heraclides Ponticus wrote thatAbaris flew on it. Plato (Charmides 158C) classes him amongst the "Thracianphysicians" who practice medicine upon the soul as well as the body by means of

"incantations" (epodai). A temple to Persephone at Sparta was attributed toAbaris by Pausanias (9.10). Alan H. Griffiths compares Abaris to Aristeas interms of being a "shamanistic missionary and savior-figure" and notes Pindarplaces Abaris during the time of Croesus.[5]

Phalaris [edit]

A particularly rich trove of anecdotes is found in Iamblichus's Vita Pythagorica.Here, Abaris is said to have purified Sparta and Knossos, among other cities,from plagues (VP 9293). Abaris also appears in a climactic scene alongsidePythagoras at the court of the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris. The two sages discussdivine matters, and urge the obstinate tyrant towards virtue (ibid. 215221).

Iamblicus also attributes to Abaris a special expertise at extispicy, the art of predicting future events through the examination of anomalies in the entrails of animals.[6] The Suda attributes a number of books to Abaris, including a volumeof Scythian Oracles in dactylic hexameter, a prose theogony, a poem on themarriage of the river Hebrus, a work on purifications, and an account of Apollo'svisit to the Hyperboreans. But such works, if they were really current inancient times, were no more genuine than his reputed correspondence with


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Phalaris the tyrant.[7]

A more securely historical Greco-Scythian philosopher, who travelled among theHellenes in the early sixth century, was Anacharsis.

Modern impact [edit]

A Senior Society at Dartmouth College is named Abaris after this figure; it isone of eight Senior Societies among Dartmouth College student groups.

Abaris is featured in Therion songs "An Arrow From The Sun", "The Wand of Abaris",and "The Falling Stone".

In popular culture [edit]

A modern interpretation of Abaris the Hyperborean features prominently inepisodes 92-120 of 2-Love Magical Plus! where he serves as the agent of anunknown force of evil by employing his magical talent and ruthless cunning.[citation needed]

Abaris is referred to in Star Trek 4 when Bones and Scotty are trying to barterwith a man who runs a polymer factory.

Notes [edit]1. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses v. 86

2. ^ Strabo, Geographica 7.3.8.

3. ^ "Hence the dart of Abaris" (Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable)

4. ^ Herodotus, Histories 4.36

5. ^ Griffiths, Alan H. (2003), "Abaris", in Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth,Anthony, The Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed.), Oxford: OxfordUP, p. 1, ISBN

978-0-19-860641-36. ^ "... and instead of divining by the entrails of beasts, he [Pythagoras]

revealed to him the art of prognosticating by numbers conceiving this to be amethod purer, more divine and more kindred to the celestial numbers of the Gods."from Iamblichus' Vita Pythagorica (trans. K. S. Guthrie).

7. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Abaris". In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greekand Roman Biography and Mythology 1. p. 1.

Other sources [edit]

Plato's Charmides in the most famous passage concerning .

History of Herodotus, in the classic translation of George Rawlinson (ed. and tr.,vol. 3, Book 4, Chapters 2-36, 46-82. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1885.)

Plato, Platonis Opera, ed. John Burnet. Oxford University Press. 1903.

Entry for Abaris from the Suda, courtesy of the Suda online.


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Ancient Library

Kingsley, Peter - A Story Waiting To Pierce You - Mongolia, Tibet And TheDestiny Of The Western World, ( The Golden Sufi Center, 2010) ISBN 978-1-890350-20-8.

Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Abaris". Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.).Cambridge University Press.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). CambridgeUniversity Press.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:Smith, William, ed. (1867). "article name needed". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

Categories: Classical oraclesGreek mythologyAncient Greek shamans

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Abaris the Hyperborean - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia