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HYPERBOREANS (`Tirep(3bpeot, `Taepf3b...

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 200 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HYPERBOREANS (`Tirep(3bpeot, `Taepf3bpeiot) , a mythical See also:people intimately connected with the See also:worship of See also:Apollo. Their name does not occur in the Iliad or the Odyssey, but See also:Herodotus (iv. 32) states chat they were mentioned in See also:Hesiod and in the See also:Epigoni, an epic of the Theban See also:cycle. According to Herodotus, two maidens, Opis and Arge, and later two others, Hyperoche and Laodice, escorted by five men, called by the Delians Perpherees, were sent by the Hyperboreans with certain offerings to See also:Delos. Finding that their messengers did not return, the Hyperboreans adopted the See also:plan of wrapping the offerings in See also:wheat-See also:straw and requested their neighbours to See also:hand them on to the next nation, and so on, till they finally reached Delos. The theory of H. L. See also:Ahrens, that Hyperboreans and Perpherees are identical, is now widely accepted. In some of the dialects of See also:northern See also:Greece (especially See also:Macedonia and See also:Delphi) had a tendency to become 13. The See also:original See also:form of Ilepcepees was virepckepizat or inripcbopoi (" those who carry over "), which becoming iorip13opot. gave rise to the popular derivation from (3opias (" dwellers beyond the See also:north See also:wind "). The Hyperboreans were thus the bearers of the sacrificial gifts to Apollo over See also:land and See also:sea, irrespective of their See also:home, the name being given to Delphians, Thessalians, Athenians and Delians. It is objected by O.

See also:

Schroder that the form llepck pees requires a passive meaning, " those who are carried See also:round the See also:altar," perhaps dancers like the whirling dervishes; distinguishing them from the Hyperboreans, he explains the latter as those who live " above the mountains," that is, in See also:heaven. Under the See also:influence of the derivation from /3opEas, the home of the Hyperboreans was placed in a region beyond the north wind, a See also:paradise like the Elysian plains, inaccessible by land or sea, whither Apollo could remove those mortals who had lived a See also:life of piety. It was a land of perpetual See also:sunshine and See also:great fertility; its inhabitants were See also:free from disease and See also:war. The duration of their life was See also:i000 years, but if any desired to shorten it, he decked himself with garlands and threw himself from a See also:rock. into the sea. The See also:close connexion of the Hyperboreans with the cult of Apollo may be seen by comparing the Hyperborean myths, the characters of which by their names mostly recall Apollo or See also:Artemis (Agyieus, Opis, Hecaergos, Loxo), with the ceremonial of the Apolline worship. No See also:meat was eaten at the See also:Pyanepsia; the Hyperbpreans were vegetarians. At the festival of Apollo at Leucas a victim flung himself from a rock into the sea, like the Hyperborean who was tired of life. According to an Athenian See also:decree (380 B.C.) asses were sacrificed to Apollo at Delphi, and See also:Pindar (Pythias x. 33) speaks of " hecatombs of asses " being offered to him by the Hyperboreans. As the latter conveyed sacrificial gifts to Delos hidden in wheat-straw, so at the See also:Thargelia a sheaf of See also:corn was carried round in procession, concealing a See also:symbol of the See also:god (for other resemblances see See also:Crusius's See also:article). Although the Hyperborean legends are mainly connected with Delphi and Delos, traces of them are found in See also:Argos (the stories of Heracles, See also:Perseus, Io), See also:Attica, Macedonia, See also:Thrace, See also:Sicily and See also:Italy (which See also:Niebuhr indeed considers their original home). In See also:modern times the name has been applied to a See also:group of races, which includes the Chukchis, See also:Koryaks, Yukaghirs, Ainus, Gilyaks and Kamchadales, inhabiting the See also:arctic regions of See also:Asia and See also:America.

But if ever ethnically one, the See also:

Asiatic and See also:American branches are now as far apart from each other as they both are from the Mongolo-Tatar stock. See O. Crush's in See also:Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie; O. Schroder in Archie fiir Religionswissenschaft (1904), viii. 69; W. Mannhardt, Wald- and Feldkulte (19(35) ; L. R. Farnell, Cults of the See also:Greek States (1907), iv. 100.

End of Article: HYPERBOREANS (`Tirep(3bpeot, `Taepf3bpeiot)

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