Editing Hyperborea

{{Short description|Mythical northern region in Greek mythology}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
[[File:Mercator Septentrionalium Terrarum descriptio.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|An arctic continent on the [[Gerardus Mercator]] map of 1595.]]In [[Greek mythology]], the '''Hyperboreans''' ({{langx|grc| ὑπερβόρε(ι)οι|hyperbóre(i)oi}}, {{IPA|el|hyperbóre(ː)oi̯|pron}}; {{langx|la|Hyperborei}}) were a mythical people who lived in the far northern part of the [[Ecumene|known world]].{{Sfn|Pauly et al.|1914|loc=cols. 258–279}}{{Sfn|Romm|1992|pp=60–67}}<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Grace Harriet |last=Macurdy |title=The Hyperboreans |journal=[[The Classical Review]] |volume=30 |issue=7 |date=1916 |pages=180–183 |doi=10.1017/S0009840X0001060X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |first=Otto |last=Schroeder |title=Hyperboreer |journal=Archiv für Religionwissenschaft |volume=8 |date=1905 |pages=69–84 |lang=de}}</ref> Their name appears to derive from the Greek {{lang|grc|ὑπέρ Βορέᾱ}}, "beyond [[Boreas (god)|Boreas]]" (the God of the [[north wind]]). Some scholars prefer a derivation from {{lang|grc|ὑπερφέρω}} (''hyperpherō'', "to carry over").{{Sfn|Pauly et al.|1914|loc=cols. 259–261}}

Despite their location in an otherwise frigid part of the world, the Hyperboreans were believed to inhabit a sunny, temperate, and divinely blessed land. In many versions of the story, they lived north of the [[Riphean Mountains]], which shielded them from the effects of the cold [[north wind]]. The oldest myths portray them as the favorites of [[Apollo]], and some ancient Greek writers regarded the Hyperboreans as the mythical founders of Apollo's shrines at [[Delos]] and [[Delphi]].{{Sfn|Romm|1992|pp=61–64}}

Later writers disagreed on the existence and location of the Hyperboreans, with some regarding them as purely mythological, and others connecting them to real-world peoples and places in northern Eurasia (e.g. [[Great Britain|Britain]], [[Scandinavia]], or [[Siberia]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Roger |last=Dion |title=La notion d'Hyperboréens: ses vicissitudes au cours de l'Antiquité |journal=Bulletin de l'Association Guillaume Budé |number=2 |date=1976 |volume=1 |pages=143–157 |lang=fr |doi=10.3406/bude.1976.3357}}</ref> In [[medieval literature|medieval]] and [[Renaissance literature]], the Hyperboreans came to signify remoteness and exoticism. Modern scholars consider the Hyperborean myth to be an amalgam of ideas from ancient [[utopia]]nism, "edge of the earth" stories, the cult of [[Apollo]], and exaggerated reports of phenomena in northern Europe (e.g. the Arctic "[[midnight sun]]").<ref>{{Cite journal |first=János |last=Harmatta |author-link=János Harmatta |title=Sur l'origine du mythe des Hyperboréens |journal=Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |volume=3 |issue=1–2 |date=1955 |pages=57–66 |lang=fr}}</ref>

==Early sources==

===Herodotus===
The earliest extant source that mentions Hyperborea in detail, [[Herodotus]]' ''Histories'' (Book IV, Chapters 32–36),<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh4030.htm |title=The History of Herodotus, parallel English/Greek: Book 4: Melpomene: 30 |access-date=14 March 2011 |archive-date=28 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628183558/http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh4030.htm |url-status=live |via=[[Internet Sacred Text Archive]] }}</ref> dates from {{circa|450 BC}}.{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|pp=27–31}} Herodotus recorded three earlier sources that supposedly mentioned the Hyperboreans, including [[Hesiod]] and [[Homer]], the latter purportedly having written of Hyperborea in his lost work ''[[Epigoni (epic)|Epigoni]]''. Herodotus voices doubts as to the attribution of the work to Homer.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Herodotus |title=[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]] |at=[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hdt.+4.32&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126 4.32]}}</ref>

Herodotus wrote that the 7th-century BC poet [[Aristeas]] wrote of the Hyperboreans in a poem (now lost) called ''Arimaspea'' about a journey to the [[Issedones]], who are estimated to have lived in the [[Kazakh Steppe]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Phillips |first=E. D. |title=The Legend of Aristeas: Fact and Fancy in Early Greek Notions of East Russia, Siberia, and Inner Asia |journal= [[Artibus Asiae]] |volume=18 |issue=2 |year=1955 |pages=161–77 [p. 166] |jstor=3248792 |doi=10.2307/3248792}}</ref> Beyond these lived the one-eyed [[Arimaspi]]ans, further on the gold-guarding [[griffin]]s, and beyond these the Hyperboreans.{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|p=31}} Herodotus assumed that Hyperborea lay somewhere in [[Northeast Asia]].

[[Pindar]], lyric poet from [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] and a contemporary of Herodotus in the tenth Pythian Ode described the Hyperboreans and tells of [[Perseus]]' journey to them.

Other 5th-century BC Greek authors, like [[Simonides of Ceos]] and [[Hellanicus of Lesbos]], described or referenced the Hyperboreans in their works.{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|p=61}}

===Location===
The Hyperboreans were believed to live beyond the snowy [[Riphean Mountains]], with [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] describing the location as "The land of the Hyperboreans, men living beyond the home of Boreas."<ref>{{Cite book |author=[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] |title=Description of Greece |at=5. 7. 8}}</ref> [[Homer]] placed [[Boreas (god)|Boreas]] in [[Thrace]], and therefore Hyperborea was in his opinion north of Thrace, in [[Dacia]].<ref name="Proconnesus, Bolton 1962, p. 111">{{Cite book |title=Aristeas of Proconnesus |first=James David Pennington |last=Bolton |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1962 |page=111 |oclc=1907787}}</ref> [[Sophocles]] (''Antigone'', 980–987), Aeschylus (''Agamemnon'', 193; 651), [[Simonides of Ceos]] (Schol. on Apollonius Rhodius, 1. 121) and [[Callimachus]] (''Delian'', [IV] 65) also placed Boreas in [[Thrace]].{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|pp=35, 72}}

Other ancient writers believed the home of Boreas or the Riphean Mountains were in a different location. For example, [[Hecataeus of Miletus]] believed that the Riphean Mountains were adjacent to the Black Sea.<ref name="Proconnesus, Bolton 1962, p. 111"/> Alternatively, [[Pindar]] placed the home of Boreas, the Riphean Mountains and Hyperborea all near the [[Danube]].{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|p=45}}

[[Heraclides Ponticus]] and [[Antimachus]] in contrast identified the Riphean Mountains with the [[Alps]], and the Hyperboreans as a Celtic tribe (perhaps the [[Helvetii]]) who lived just beyond them.{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|pp=60–69}} Aristotle placed the Riphean mountains on the borders of Scythia, and Hyperborea further north.<ref>{{Cite book |author=[[Aristotle]] |title=[[Meteorologica]] |at=1. 13. 350b}}</ref> [[Hecataeus of Abdera]] and others believed Hyperborea was Britain.

Later Roman and Greek sources continued to change the location of the Riphean mountains, the home of Boreas, as well as Hyperborea, supposedly located beyond them. However, all these sources agreed these were all in the far north of Greece or southern Europe.{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|pp=75–80}} The ancient grammarian [[Simmias of Rhodes]] in the 3rd century BC connected the Hyperboreans to the [[Massagetae]]<ref>{{Cite journal |editor1-first=Hugh |editor1-last=Lloyd-Jones |editor2-first=Peter J. |editor2-last=Parsons |title=Simius Rhodius |journal=Supplementum Hellenistcum |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter |date=1983 |at=No. 906, 411 |doi=10.1515/9783110837766|isbn=978-3-11-008171-8 }}</ref> and Posidonius in the 1st century BC to the Western Celts, but [[Pomponius Mela]] placed them even further north in the vicinity of the Arctic.{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|p=79}}

In maps based on reference points and descriptions given by [[Strabo]],<ref>{{Cite book |author=[[Strabo]] |title=[[Geographica]] |at=11.4.3}}</ref> Hyperborea, shown variously as a [[peninsula]] or island, is located beyond what is now France, and stretches further north–south than east–west.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nansen |first=Fridtjof |author-link=Fridtjof Nansen |title=In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times, Vol. II |location=New York |publisher=Frederick A. Stokes Co. |date=1911 |page=188 |translator-first=Arthur G. |translator-last=Chater |oclc=1402860994}}</ref> Other descriptions put it in the general area of the [[Ural Mountains]].

===Later classical sources===
Plutarch, writing in the 1st century AD, mentions Heraclides of Ponticus, who connected the Hyperboreans with the [[Gauls]] who had sacked Rome in the 4th century BC (see [[Battle of the Allia]]).<ref>{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Camillus*.html |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=[[Parallel Lives]] |chapter=Life of Camillus |access-date=19 February 2021 |archive-date=13 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210713102247/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Camillus%2A.html |url-status=live |via=Bill Thayer's Web Site}}</ref>

[[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]], [[Diodorus Siculus]] and [[Stephen of Byzantium]] all recorded important ancient Greek sources on Hyperborea, but added no new descriptions.{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|pp=63–173}}

The 2nd-century AD Stoic philosopher [[Hierocles (Stoic)|Hierocles]] equated the Hyperboreans with the Scythians, and the Riphean Mountains with the [[Ural Mountains]].{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|p=86}} [[Clement of Alexandria]] and other early Christian writers also made this same Scythian equation.<ref>{{Cite book |author=[[Clement of Alexandria]] |title=[[Stromata]] |at=iv. xxi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=[[Clement of Alexandria]] |title=[[Protrepticus (Clement)|Protrepticus]]. |at=II}}</ref>

===Ancient identification with Britain===
Hyperborea was identified with Britain first by [[Hecataeus of Abdera]] in the 4th century BC, as in a preserved fragment by [[Diodorus Siculus]]:

<blockquote>In the regions beyond the land of the Celts there lies in the ocean an island no smaller than [[Sicily]]. This island, the account continues, is situated in the north and is inhabited by the Hyperboreans, who are called by that name because their home is beyond the point whence the north wind (Boreas) blows; and the island is both fertile and productive of every crop, and has an unusually temperate climate.{{Sfn|''Bibliotheca historica''|loc=§§47–48}}</blockquote>

Hecateaus of Abdera also wrote that the Hyperboreans had on their island "a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple which is adorned with many votive offerings and is spherical in shape". Some scholars have identified this temple with [[Stonehenge]].{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|pp=63–173}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Squire |first=Charles |title=Celtic Myth & Legend : Poetry & Romance |date=1910 |location=London |publisher=The Gresham Publishing Company |pages=42ff}}</ref>{{efn|Squire's claim that Diodorus locates this temple "in the centre of Britain" is unfounded.}}{{Sfn|''Bibliotheca historica''|loc=§47}} Diodorus, however, does not identify Hyperborea with Britain, and his description of Britain (5.21–23) makes no mention of the Hyperboreans or their spherical temple.

[[Pseudo-Scymnus]], around 90 BC, wrote that Boreas dwelled at the extremity of Gaulish territory, and that he had a pillar erected in his name on the edge of the sea (''Periegesis'', 183). Some have claimed this is a geographical reference to northern France, and Hyperborea as the British Isles which lay just beyond the [[English Channel]].<ref>{{Cite book |first=Lewis |last=Spence |author-link=Lewis Spence |title=The Mysteries of Britain |date=1905}}</ref>

[[Ptolemy]] (''Geographia'', 2. 21) and [[Marcian of Heraclea]] (''Periplus'', 2. 42) both placed Hyperborea in the [[North Sea]] which they called the "Hyperborean Ocean".{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|p=91}}

In his 1726 work on the [[druid]]s, [[John Toland]] specifically identified Diodorus' Hyperborea with the [[Isle of Lewis]], and the spherical temple with the [[Callanish Stones]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Haycock |first=David Boyd |author-link=David Boyd Haycock |title=William Stukeley: Science, Religion and Archaeology in Eighteenth-Century England |date=2002 |publisher=[[Boydell & Brewer]] |isbn=978-0-85115864-8 |location=Woodbridge, UK |chapter=Chapter 7: Much Greater, Than Commonly Imagined. |access-date=12 March 2016 |chapter-url=http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/OTHE00024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312123711/http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/OTHE00024 |archive-date=12 March 2016 |url-status=live |via=The [[Newton Project]]}}</ref>

==Legends==
Along with [[Thule]], Hyperborea was one of several {{lang|la|[[terra incognita|terrae incognitae]]}} to the Greeks and [[Rome|Romans]], where [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], [[Pindar]] and [[Herodotus]], as well as [[Virgil]] and [[Cicero]], reported that people lived to the age of one thousand and enjoyed lives of complete happiness. [[Hecataeus of Abdera]] collated all the stories about the Hyperboreans current in the 4th century BC and published a lengthy, now-lost treatise on them that was noted by [[Diodorus Siculus]] (ii.47.1–2).<ref>{{Cite book | title=Pseudo-Hecataeus, "On the Jews" : legitimizing the Jewish dispora | last=Bar-Kochva | first=Bezalel | author-link=Bezalel Bar-Kochva | chapter=Chapter VI.3: The Structure of an Ethnographical Work | chapter-url=http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft3290051c&chunk.id=d0e8538&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e8019&brand=eschol |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press | year=1997 | access-date=7 November 2008 | archive-date=23 September 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923093433/https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3290051c&chunk.id=d0e8538&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e8019&brand=eschol | url-status=live |id={{ARK|ark:/13030/ft3290051c}}}}</ref> Legend told that the sun was supposed to rise and set only once a year in Hyperborea, which would place it above or upon the [[Arctic Circle]], or, more generally, in the [[arctic]] [[polar regions]].

The ancient Greek writer [[Theopompus]], in his work ''Philippica'', claimed Hyperborea was once planned to be conquered by a large race of soldiers from another island; however, this plan was apparently abandoned, as the soldiers from Meropis realized the Hyperboreans were too strong, and too blessed, for them to be conquered. This unusual tale, which some{{who|date=September 2021}} believe was satire or comedy, was preserved by [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]] (''Varia Historia'', 3. 18).

[[Theseus]] visited the Hyperboreans and Pindar transferred [[Perseus (mythology)|Perseus]]' encounter with Medusa there from its traditional site in Libya, to the dissatisfaction of his [[Alexandria|Alexandrian editors]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg5034.tlg001b.perseus-grc1:10.72 |title=Scholia Vetera in Pindari Carmina, Vol. II |location=Leipzig |publisher=Teubner|year=1910|editor-last=Drachmann |editor-first=A. B. |at=Pyth.10.72 |access-date=22 June 2020|archive-date=25 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200625082453/https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg5034.tlg001b.perseus-grc1:10.72/?highlight=@%E1%BC%90%CF%80%CE%AD%CE%BD%CE%B8%CE%BF%CF%85%CE%BD%5B1%5D|url-status=live |via=[[Perseus Digital Library]]}}</ref>

[[Apollonius of Rhodes|Apollonius]] wrote that the Argonauts sighted Hyperborea, when they sailed through [[Eridanos (mythology)|Eridanos]].

===Hyperboreans in Delos===
[[File:Typus Orbis Terrarum.jpg|thumb|upright=1.55|On this 1570 map, Hyperborea is shown as an Arctic continent and described as {{lang|la|"Terra Septemtrionalis Incognita"}} (Unknown Northern Land). Notice the similarities in the continent to that of Mercator's map above.]]

Alone among the [[Twelve Olympians]], the Greeks venerated [[Apollo (god)|Apollo]] among the Hyperboreans, and the god was thought to spend his winters there amongst them.<ref>{{cite journal |first=J. Rendel |last=Harris |author-link=J. Rendel Harris |year=1925 |title=Apollo at the Back of the North Wind |journal=[[Journal of Hellenic Studies]] |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=229–242 |jstor=625047 |doi=10.2307/625047|s2cid=163854302 }}</ref> 

According to [[Herodotus]], offerings from the Hyperboreans came to Scythia packed with [[straw]], and they were passed from tribe to tribe until they arrived at [[Dodona]] and from them to other Greek peoples until they to came to Apollo's temple on [[Delos]]. He said they used this method because the first time the gifts were brought by two maidens, [[Hyperoche]] and [[Laodice (Greek myth)|Laodice]], with an escort of five men, but none of them returned. To prevent this, the Hyperboreans began to bring the gifts to their borders and ask their neighbours to deliver them to the next country and so on until they arrived to Delos.<ref name="Herodotus_4">{{cite book |author=Herodotus |translator-first=A. D. |translator-last=Godley |date=1921 |title=Histories |volume=II |series=Loeb Classical Library |location=London |publisher=William Heinemann |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.183371|access-date=17 May 2017 |at=Book IV, 33–34}}</ref>

Herodotus also details that two other virgin maidens, [[Arge]] and [[Upis (mythology)|Opis]], had come from Hyperborea to Delos before, as a tribute to the goddess [[Eileithyia|Ilithyia]] for ease of child-bearing, accompanied by the gods themselves. The maidens received honours in Delos, where the women collected gifts from them and sang hymns to them.<ref name="Herodotus_4" />

===Abaris the Hyperborean===
{{main|Abaris the Hyperborean}}
A particular Hyperborean legendary healer was known as "Abaris" or "Abaris the Healer" whom Herodotus first described in his works. Plato (''Charmides'', 158C) regarded Abaris as a physician from the far north, while [[Strabo]] reported Abaris was Scythian like the early philosopher [[Anacharsis]] (''Geographica'', 7. 3. 8).

===Physical appearance===
Greek legend asserts that the Boreades, who were the descendants of [[Boreas (god)|Boreas]] and the snow-nymph Chione (or Khione), founded the first theocratic monarchy on Hyperborea. This legend is found preserved in the writings of [[Claudius Aelianus|Aelian]]: 
{{blockquote|text=This god [Apollon] has as priests the sons of Boreas [North Wind] and Chione [Snow], three in number, brothers by birth, and six cubits in height [about 2.7 metres].<ref>{{cite web|first=Aaron J. |last=Atsma|url=https://www.theoi.com/Gigante/GigantesHyperboreades.html|title=Hyperboreades|website=Theoi Project |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220916115823/https://www.theoi.com/Gigante/GigantesHyperboreades.html|archive-date=16 September 2022 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book
|author= Aelian
|title=On the Characteristics of Animals |translator-first=A. F. |translator-last=Scholfield |volume=II |series=Loeb Classical Library |location=London |publisher=William Heinemann |page=[https://archive.org/details/L448AelianCharacteristicsOfAnimalsII611/page/n181 357]|url=https://archive.org/details/L448AelianCharacteristicsOfAnimalsII611|access-date=17 May 2017}}
</ref>
}}

[[Diodorus Siculus]] added to this account: 
{{blockquote|text=And the kings of this (Hyperborean) city and the supervisors of the sacred precinct are called Boreadae, since they are descendants of Boreas, and the succession to these positions is always kept in their family.{{Sfn|''Bibliotheca historica''|loc=§47}}}}

The Boreades were thus believed to be giant kings, around {{convert|10|ft|m}} tall, who ruled Hyperborea. No other physical descriptions of the Hyperboreans are provided in classical sources.{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|pp=92–134}} However, [[Aelius Herodianus]], a grammarian in the 3rd century, wrote that the mythical [[Arimaspi]] were identical to the Hyperboreans in physical appearance (''De Prosodia Catholica'', 1. 114) and [[Stephanus of Byzantium]] in the 6th century wrote the same (''Ethnica'', 118. 16). The ancient poet [[Callimachus]] described the Arimaspi as having fair hair,<ref>{{Cite book |author=[[Callimachus]] |title=Hymn IV to Delos |at=292}}</ref> but it is disputed whether the Arimaspi were Hyperboreans.{{Sfn|Bridgman|2005|p=76}} According to Herodianus, the Arimaspi were close in appearance to the Hyperboreans, making the inference that the Hyperboreans had fair hair being potentially valid.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

===Celts as Hyperboreans===
Six classical Greek authors also came to identify the Hyperboreans with their [[Celts|Celtic neighbours]] in the north: [[Antimachus of Colophon]], [[Protarchos (geographer)|Protarchus]], [[Heraclides Ponticus]], [[Hecataeus of Abdera]], [[Apollonius of Rhodes]] and [[Posidonius of Apamea]]. The way the Greeks understood their relationship with non-Greek peoples was significantly moulded by the way myths of the [[Golden Age]] were transplanted into the contemporary scene, especially in the context of Greek colonisation and trade.<ref name="Bridgman, 2005">See further {{Harvnb|Bridgman|2005}}.</ref>

As the Riphean mountains of the mythical past were identified with the Alps of northern Italy, there was at least a geographic rationale for identifying the Hyperboreans with the Celts living in and beyond the Alps, or at least the Hyperborean lands with the lands inhabited by the Celts. A reputation for feasting and a love of gold may have reinforced the connection.<ref name="Bridgman, 2005"/>

==Identification as Hyperboreans==
[[File:1572 Europa Ortelius.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|A map by [[Abraham Ortelius]], Amsterdam 1572: at the top left {{lang|la|Oceanvs Hyperborevs}} separates [[Iceland]] from [[Greenland]]]]

Northern Europeans (Scandinavians), when confronted with the classical Greco-Roman culture of the Mediterranean, identified themselves with the Hyperboreans.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} This aligns with the traditional aspect of a perpetually sunny land beyond the north, since the Northern half of Scandinavia faces long days during high summer with no hour of darkness ('midnight sun'). This idea was especially strong during the 17th century in Sweden, where the later representatives of the ideology of [[Gothicism]] declared the Scandinavian peninsula both the lost [[Atlantis]] and the Hyperborean land.

Northern regions and their inhabitants have been called "Hyperborean", without claims of descent from the mythological Hyperboreans. In this vein, the self-described "Hyperborean-Roman Company" ({{lang|de|Hyperboreisch-römische Gesellschaft}}) were a group of northern European scholars who studied classical ruins in Rome, founded in 1824 by [[Theodor Panofka]], [[Otto Magnus von Stackelberg (archaeologist)|Otto Magnus von Stackelberg]], [[August Kestner]] and [[Eduard Gerhard]]. In this sense, [[Washington Irving]], in elaborating on the [[Astor Expedition]] in the [[Pacific Northwest]], described how:
 
<blockquote>While the fiery and magnificent Spaniard, inflamed with the mania for gold, has extended [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|his discoveries and conquests]] over those brilliant countries scorched by the ardent sun of the tropics, the adroit and buoyant [[French colonization of the Americas|Frenchman]], and the cool and calculating [[British colonization of the Americas|Briton]], have pursued the less splendid, but no less lucrative, traffic in furs amidst the hyperborean regions of the Canadas, until they have advanced even within the Arctic Circle.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Irving |first=Washington |author-link=Washington Irving |title=Astoria or Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains |date=1836 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=Carey, Lea, & Blanchard}}</ref></blockquote>

The term "Hyperborean" still sees some jocular contemporary use in reference to groups of people who live in a cold climate. Under the [[Library of Congress Classification|Library of Congress Classification System]], the letter subclass PM includes "Hyperborean Languages", a catch-all category that refers to all the linguistically unrelated languages of [[Circumpolar peoples|peoples living in Arctic regions]], such as the [[Inuit]].

Hyperborean has also been used in a metaphorical sense, to describe a sense of distance from the ordinary. In this way, [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] referred to his sympathetic readers as Hyperboreans in ''[[The Antichrist (book)|The Antichrist]]'' (written 1888, published 1895): "Let us look each other in the face. We are Hyperboreans&nbsp;– we know well enough how remote our place is." He quoted Pindar and added "Beyond the North, beyond the ice, beyond death&nbsp;– our life, our happiness."

==Hyperborean Indo-European hypothesis==
[[John G. Bennett]] wrote a research paper entitled "The Hyperborean Origin of the Indo-European Culture" (''Journal Systematics'', Vol. 1, No. 3, December 1963) in which he claimed the [[Indo-European homeland]] was in the far north, which he considered the Hyperborea of classical antiquity.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://systematics.org/journal/vol1-3/SJ1-3c.htm |title=The Hyperborean Origin of the Indo-European Culture |first=John G. |last=Bennett |author-link=John G. Bennett |journal=Systematics |volume=1 |number=3 |date=December 1963 }}</ref> This idea was earlier proposed by [[Bal Gangadhar Tilak]] (whom Bennett credits) in his ''[[The Arctic Home in the Vedas]]'' (1903) as well as the Austro-Hungarian ethnologist [[Karl Penka]] (''Origins of the Aryans'', 1883).<ref>{{cite book |title=Arktos: the Polar Myth in Science, Symbolism, and Nazi Survival |first=Jocelyn |last=Godwin |location=London |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=1993 |pages=32–50 |isbn=0-500-27713-3 }}</ref>

Soviet Indologist [[Natalya Romanovna Guseva|Natalia R. Guseva]]{{sfn|Shnirelman|2007|p=38-39}} and Soviet ethnographer S. V. Zharnikova,{{sfn|Shnirelman|2007|p=40}} influenced by Tilak's ''[[The Arctic Home in the Vedas]]'', argued for a northern [[Urals]] Arctic homeland of the Indo-Aryan and Slavic people.{{sfn|Shnirelman|2007|p=38-41}} Their ideas were popularized by Russian nationalists.{{sfn|Shnirelman|2007|p=41}}

==In modern esoteric thought==
According to Jason Jeffrey, [[H. P. Blavatsky]], [[René Guénon]] and [[Julius Evola]] all shared the belief in the Hyperborean, polar origins of mankind and a subsequent solidification and [[Devolution (biology)|devolution]].<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/hyperborea-the-quest-for-mystical-enlightenment |title=Hyperborea & the Quest for Mystical Enlightenment |journal=New Dawn |first=Jason |last=Jeffrey |number=58 |date=January–February 2000 |access-date=15 February 2012 |archive-date=1 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150601011231/http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/hyperborea-the-quest-for-mystical-enlightenment |url-status=live }}</ref> Blavatsky describes the Hyperboreans as the origin of the second "[[root race]]" and as non-intelligent ethereal creatures that reproduced by [[budding]].<ref name="Powell-32">{{Cite book |last=Powell |first=Arthur Edward |title=The Solar System |date=1930 |pages=193–196 |chapter=Chapter 32: The Earth: The second root-race |location=London |publisher=Theosophical Publishing House |oclc=19993837}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |editor-first=John |editor-last=Alego |title=Hyperborean |url=https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/hyperborean |website=Theosophy World |publisher=Theosophical Publishing House |location=Manila |access-date=13 May 2021 |archive-date=13 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513054733/https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/hyperborean |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=Helena Petrovna |last=Blavatsky |author-link=Helena Blavatsky |title=The Secret Doctrine |volume=II |editor-first=Boris |editor-last=De Zirkoff |location=Wheaton, Illinois |publisher=Theosophical Publishing House |date=1993 |page=7 |isbn=978-0-8356-0238-9}}</ref> However, Jeffrey's account may contradict some [[theosophy|theosophical]] tenets, as according to other authors like Santucci, theosophy sees the passage from one root race to another as always evolution, never devolution, thus the Hyperborean could not be superior to modern man.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Santucci |first1=James A |title=The Notion of Race in Theosophy |journal=Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions |year=2008 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=37–63 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2008.11.3.37 |access-date=13 May 2021 |publisher=University of California Press |doi=10.1525/nr.2008.11.3.37 |jstor=10.1525/nr.2008.11.3.37 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207035455/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2008.11.3.37 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

According to these [[Western esotericism|esotericists]],{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} the Hyperborean people represented the [[Golden Age]] polar center of civilization and spirituality, with mankind, instead of evolving from a common ape ancestor, progressively devolving into an apelike state as a result of straying, both physically and spiritually, from its mystical otherworldly homeland in the Far North, succumbing to the 'demonic' energies of the South Pole, the greatest point of materialization.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Than |first1=Ker |title=Humans Were in the Arctic 10,000 Years Earlier Than Thought |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/humans-were-arctic-10000-years-earlier-thought-180957819/ |website=Smithsonian |publisher=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=14 January 2016 |archive-date=17 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117163007/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/humans-were-arctic-10000-years-earlier-thought-180957819/? |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Modern interpretations==

Since Herodotus places the Hyperboreans beyond the [[Massagetae]] and [[Issedones]], both [[Central Asian]] peoples, it appears that his Hyperboreans may have lived in [[Siberia]]. [[Heracles]] sought the [[Ceryneian Hind|golden-antlered hind]] of [[Artemis]] in Hyperborea. As the [[reindeer]] is the only deer species of which females bear antlers, this would suggest an [[arctic]] or [[subarctic]] region. Following J. D. P. Bolton's location of the [[Issedones]] on the south-western slopes of the [[Altai Mountains|Altay Mountains]], [[Carl Ruck|Carl P. Ruck]] places Hyperborea beyond the [[Dzungarian Gate]] into northern [[Xinjiang]], noting that the Hyperboreans were probably Chinese.<ref>{{Citation
|last1 = Wasson
|first1 = R. Gordon
|author-link = R. Gordon Wasson
|last2 = Kramrisch
|first2 = Stella
|last3 = Ott
|first3 = Jonathan
|title = Persephone's Quest – Entheogens and the origins of Religion
|publisher = Yale University Press
|year = 1986
|pages = 227–230
|isbn = 0-300-05266-9|display-authors=etal}}</ref>

In 1974 [[Robert Charroux]] first related the Hyperboreans to an [[ancient astronaut]] race.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Mysterious Past |first=Robert |last=Charroux |author-link=Robert Charroux |location=London |publisher=Futura Publications |year=1974 |pages=29 |isbn=0-86007-044-1 }}</ref> [[Miguel Serrano]] was influenced by Charroux's writings on the Hyperboreans.<ref>{{cite book |title=Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity |first=Nicholas |last=Goodrick-Clarke |location=New York |publisher=NYU Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-8147-3155-4 }}</ref>

[[Aleksandr Dugin]] has "touted ancient legends about the sunken city of Atlantis and the mythical civilisation Hyperborea" in defense of his vision of a vast Russian Empire. "He believes Russia is the modern-day reincarnation of the ancient 'Hyperboreans', who need to stand at odds with the modern-day 'Atlanteans', the [[United States]]".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-08-27 |first=James |last=Carli |title=Aleksandr Dugin: The Russian Mystic Behind America's Weird Far-Right |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aleksandr-dugin-the-russian-mystic-behind-americas_b_59a1fca2e4b0d0ef9f1c14ac |access-date=2022-04-26 |website=HuffPost |language=en |archive-date=26 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220426052547/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aleksandr-dugin-the-russian-mystic-behind-americas_b_59a1fca2e4b0d0ef9f1c14ac |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Bronze Age origins===

The archaeologists [[Kristian Kristiansen (archaeologist)|Kristian Kristiansen]] and Thomas B. Larsson have argued that accounts of Hyperborea and its associated myths represent "a mythological relict" from the [[Bronze Age Europe|Bronze Age]]:

{{quote|The Delphic Apollo had strong northern links with the solar deity of the Baltic, from where amber came. He travelled on his white swans to the Hyperborean of the cold North during winter. This is a mythological relict of the economic role of the central and northern European periphery during the Bronze Age. On numerous metal items swans carried the sun, materialising the common myth of the sun-god, which according to Herodotus (IV, 32-6) was brought to Delos by Hyperborean maidens in at least two missions.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=di7Dc7Y1ETYC |title=The Rise of Bronze Age Society |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |last1=Kristiansen |first1=Kristian |last2=Larsson |first2=Thomas B. |pages=44|isbn=978-0-521-84363-8 }}</ref>}}

The historian Timothy P. Bridgman similarly suggests that "The Hyperborean gift route may constitute a hazy memory of [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] trade routes and dealings with northern peoples."{{sfn|Bridgman|2005|p=108|ps=: "During the Late Helladic I and II, imported amber, with the exception of Thebes, was restricted to the Peloponnesus, and may have arrived in Greece by a system of gift exchange. The possibility of gift exchange permits us to draw an interesting parallel with the Hyperborean gift route as recorded by Herodotus, Callimachus and Pausanias. […] The transfer of the offering from the north could have been accompanied by gift exchange. The Hyperborean gift route, then, may constitute a hazy memory of Mycenaean trade routes and dealings with northern peoples."}}

Archaeological evidence for Greek contacts with the north in the Bronze Age includes amber from the [[Nordic Bronze Age#International contacts|Baltic]], amber necklaces from [[Bush Barrow#Connections with Greece|Britain]], and [[Chariot|chariot equipment]] from the [[History of the western steppe|Steppe]] or [[Pannonian Basin|Carpathian Basin]] found in the elite [[Grave Circle A, Mycenae|Shaft Graves]] at [[Mycenae]],<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Kristiansen|first1=Kristian|last2=Suchowska-Ducke|first2=Paulina|date=December 2015|title=Connected Histories: the Dynamics of Bronze Age Interaction and Trade 1500–1100 bc|journal=[[Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society]]|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|volume=81|pages=361–392|doi=10.1017/ppr.2015.17|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/3435319|title=Mobility, Meaning and the Transformations of Things|chapter=Bright as the sun: The appropriation of amber objects in Mycenaean Greece|date=January 2013|pages=147–169|last1=Maran|first1=Joseph|editor-last1=Hahn|editor-first1=Hans Peter|editor-last2=Weiss|editor-first2=Hadas|publisher=Oxbow Books|isbn=978-1-84217-525-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.academia.edu/43434670 |title=Objects, Ideas and Travelers: Contacts between the Balkans, the Aegean and Western Anatolia during the Bronze and Early Iron Age |date=2020 |chapter=The Introduction of the Horse-Drawn Light Chariot – Divergent Responses to a Technological Innovation in Societies between the Carpathian Basin and the East Mediterranean |last=Maran |first=Joseph |publisher=Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn |isbn=978-3-7749-4248-6 |pages=505–528 |access-date=7 April 2023 |archive-date=7 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407151859/https://www.academia.edu/43434670/The_Introduction_of_the_Horse_Drawn_Light_Chariot_Divergent_Responses_to_a_Technological_Innovation_in_Societies_between_the_Carpathian_Basin_and_the_East_Mediterranean |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=di7Dc7Y1ETYC |title=The Rise of Bronze Age Society |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |last1=Kristiansen |first1=Kristian |last2=Larsson |first2=Thomas B. |pages=129|isbn=978-0-521-84363-8 }}</ref> and Baltic amber found in the sanctuaries at Delphi and on Delos.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319881725 |title=Mysterious Raw Material From the Far North: Amber in Mycenaean Culture |date=2013 |last1=Czebreszuk |first1=Janusz |publisher=BAR International Series}}</ref>

In 1924 the tombs associated with the Hyperborean maidens in Delos (Hyperoche, Laodice, Opis and Arge) were identified "in the very places described by Herodotus" and exacavated by French archaeologists [[Charles Picard]] and Joseph Replat.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/635999 |journal=The Classical Quarterly |volume=22 |issue=3/4| date=1928 |pages=155–159 |last1=Seltman |first1=C.T. |title=The Offerings of the Hyperboreans|doi=10.1017/S000983880002961X |jstor=635999 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Both pairs of tombs were found to date from the Bronze Age and contained [[Cycladic culture|Cycladic]], [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] and [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] pottery dating from the period 1875–1420 BC (equivalent to [[Minoan chronology|Middle Minoan II]] to Late Minoan II). A 'primitive cult' was apparently attached to the tombs in the Cycladic and Mycenaean age.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/635999 |journal=The Classical Quarterly |volume=22 |issue=3/4| date=1928 |pages=155–159 |last1=Seltman |first1=C.T. |title=The Offerings of the Hyperboreans|doi=10.1017/S000983880002961X |jstor=635999 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/bch_0007-4217_1924_num_48_1_2991 |journal=Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique |date=1924  |volume=48  |pages=217–263 |title=Recherches sur la topographie du Hiéron délien |first1=Charles |last1=Picard |last2=Replat |first2=Joseph|doi=10.3406/bch.1924.2991 }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[1309 Hyperborea]]
* [[Agartha]]
* [[Arcadia (utopia)]]
* [[Fortunate Isles]]
* [[Hyborian Age]]
* [[Hyperborean cycle]] 
* [[Meropis]]
* [[Mythical place]]
* [[Oponskoye Kingdom]]
* [[Patagon]]s
* [[Pytheas]]
* [[Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger]]
* [[Thule]]{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
:''Portions of this article were formerly excerpted from the public domain [[John Lemprière|Lemprière]]'s ''[[Lemprière's Bibliotheca Classica|Classical Dictionary]]'', 1848.''
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{Citation |year=2005 |last=Bridgman |first=Timothy P. |title=Hyperboreans. Myth and history in Celtic-Hellenic contacts |series=Studies in Classics |publisher=Routledge |location=New York and London |isbn=0-415-96978-6 }}
* {{Citation |ref={{harvid|''Bibliotheca historica''}} |chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/2B*.html#note36 |author=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica]] |chapter=Book II |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412180430/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/2B%2A.html#note36 |url-status=live |via=Bill Thayer's Web Site}}
* {{Citation |ref={{harvid|Pauly et al.|1914}} |first=August |last=Pauly |author-link=August Pauly |display-authors=etal |title=[[Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft]] |series=Band IX |volume=17 (''Hyaia-Imperator'') |date=1914 |chapter=Hyperboreer |lang=de}}
* {{Citation |last=Romm |first=James S. |title=The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought |location=Princeton, New Jersey |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=1992 |isbn=978-0-691-06933-3}}
* {{Citation | last =Shnirelman | first =Victor | year =2007 | chapter =Archaeology, Russian Nationalism, and the "Arctic Homeland" | title =Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts | editor-last1 =Kohl | editor-first1 =P. L. | editor-last2 =Kozelsky | editor-first2 =M. | editor-last3 =Ben-Yehuda | editor-first3 =N. | publisher =University of Chicago Press | chapter-url =http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/51598/1/7.P%20H%20I%20L%20I%20P%20L%20.%20K%20O%20H%20L.pdf#page=40 | access-date =2 May 2021 | archive-date =23 April 2021 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20210423060747/http://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/51598/1/7.P%20H%20I%20L%20I%20P%20L%20.%20K%20O%20H%20L.pdf#page=40 | url-status =live }}
{{refend}}

{{Continents of the world}}
{{Greek religion}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Hyperborea| ]]
[[Category:Fictional continents]]
[[Category:Classical ethnography]]