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In Greek mythology, according to tradition, the 'Hyperboreans' were a mythical people who lived far to the north of Thrace. Their land, called 'Hyperborea', or 'Hyperboria' ("beyond the Boreas (north wind)"), was perfect, with the Sun shining twenty-four hours a day.
:Never the Muse is absent
:from their ways: lyres clash and flutes cry
:and everywhere maiden choruses whirling.
:Neither disease nor bitter old age is mixed
:in their sacred blood; far from labor and battle they live.
::(Pindar, Tenth Pythian Ode, Richmond Lattimore, translator).
Reaching such exotic lands is never easy:
:Never on land or by sea will you find
:the marvelous road to the feast of the Hyperborea.
Pindar cautioned. The Greeks thought that Boreas, the North Wind, lived in Thrace, and that therefore Hyperborea was an unspecified nation in the northern lands beyond Scythia.

Contents

Legends

Modern interpretations

Hyperborea in Modern Esoteric Thought

Cultural references

Notes

References

Legends

Alone among the Twelve Olympians, Apollo was venerated among the Hyperboreans: he spent his winter amongst them.^[1] For their part the Hyperboreans sent mysterious gifts, packed in straw that came first to Dodona and then were passed from people to people until they came to Apollo's temple on Delos (Pausanias). Abaris, Hyperborean priest of Apollo, was a legendary wandering healer and seer. Theseus and Perseus also visited the Hyperboreans.
Along with Thule, Hyperborea was one of several ''terrae incognitae'' to the Greeks and Romans, where Pliny and Herodotus, as well as Virgil and Cicero, reported that people lived to the age of one thousand and enjoyed lives of complete happiness. According to Herodotus (4.13), Aristeas had written a hexameter poem (now lost) about a 'trip' to the Issedones. Beyond these lived the one-eyed Arimaspians, further on there were gold-guarding griffins, and beyond these the Hyperboreans. Hesiod mentioned the Hyperboreans, Herodotus reported, "and Homer also in the ''Epigoni'', if that be really a work of his". Also, the sun was supposed to rise and set only once a year in Hyperborea, which would place it at the North Pole.
In maps based on reference points and descriptions given by Strabo,^[2] Hyperborea, shown variously as a peninsula or island, is located beyond France and has a greater latitudinal than longitudinal extent.^[3] Other descriptions put it in the general area of the Ural Mountains.

Modern interpretations

As with other legends of this sort, selected details can be reconciled with modern knowledge. Above the Arctic Circle, from the time of the vernal equinox to the time of the autumnal equinox, the sun can shine for twenty-four hours a day; at the extremes (that is, the Poles), it rises and sets only once a year, possibly leading to the erroneous conclusion that a "day" for such persons is a year long, and therefore that living a thousand days would be the same as living a thousand years.
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 golden-antlered hind of Artemis in Hyperborea. As the reindeer is the only deer species of which females bear horns, 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 Altay mountains, Carl P.Ruck places Hyperborea beyond the Dzungarian Gate into northern Xinjiang, noting that the Hyperboreans were probably Chinese. ^[4] Hecataeus of Abdera, however, clearly places the Hyperboreans in the British Isles.
The term "Hyperborean" sees some self-consciously jocular contemporary use to refer to any who live in a cold climate.^[5] Under the 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 peoples living in Arctic regions, such as the Inuit.

Hyperborea in Modern Esoteric Thought

H.P. Blavatsky, Rene Guenon and Julius Evola all shared the belief in the
Hyperborean, polar origins of mankind and a subsequent solidification
and devolution (cf. [1]). According to these esoterists, Hyperborea was the Golden Age polar center of civilization and spirituality; and Humankind does not rise from the ape, but progressively physicalizes into the apelike condition as it strays 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.

Cultural references

★ the "Hyperboreans" (Hyperboreisch-römische Gesellschaft) was a group of northern European scholars who studied classical ruins in Rome, founded in 1824 by Theodor Panofka, Otto Magnus von Stackelberg , August Kestner and Eduard Gerhard.

★ In James Joyce's ''Ulysses'', Buck Mulligan tells Stephen, "I'm hyperborean as much as you."

★ In the fiction of Robert E. Howard, Hyperborea is a far northern land of fair-haired barbarians, to the north and east of Conan's native Cimmeria.

★ In the game '', Hyperborea is depicted as the land north of Scythia and Germania and it is home to an Independant Kingdom of Amazons.

★ In Stephen King's third ''Dark Tower'' book, ''The Wastelands'', Calvin Tower calls Jake a Hyperborean wanderer.

★ The Hyperborean Empire (and fictional myths associated thereof) is a common lyrical theme of metal band Bal-Sagoth, referenced in a three-part song called "The Splendor of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire" (parts I, II, and III found on albums Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule, Battle Magic, and Atlantis Ascendant; respectively.)

★ Edward Cline used the name Hyperborea as the title of a fictional novel appearing in his ''Sparrowhawk'' series of historical novels.

★ George Macdonald briefly mentions the Hyperborean regions in ''At the Back of the North Wind''.

★ Friedrich Nietzsche referred to those who followed his philosophy as "Hyperboreans" in ''The Antichrist'' (translated by Anthony M. Ludovici.)

★ The electronic music group Tangerine Dream has published an album named ''Hyperborea''.

★ The ship from Jungle Planet in '' was named Hyperborea and one of the four ships that formed the Ark.

★ In the ''Cthulhu Nation'' MMORPG, based on the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, there are creatures named Hyperborean and Hyperborean Elder.

★ The band HORSE the band has a song titled "Hyperborea".

Notes

1. J. Rendel Harris, 1925. "Apollo at the Back of the North Wind", ''Journal of Hellenic Studies'' '45'.2 pp. 229-242.
2. Strabo, 11.4.3.
3. Fridtjof Nansen. '' In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times''. Frederick A. Stokes co., 1911. Page 188.
4.
5. Gregg Easterbrook refers to the Minnesota Vikings football team (NFL) as the "Hyperboreans" in his "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" articles on ESPN's website.

References

★ Portions of this article were formerly excerpted from the public domain ''Lempriere's Dictionary'', 1848.