Abstract
<p>The individual Hyperboreans appearing in ancient literature are presented with a review of the Greek and Latin sources and collections of references. Most of the mythological characters are briefly discussed, but the literary evolution of the legends of Abaris and of the “Hyperborean maidens” are treated in some detail. Some of the literary sources receive scholarly treatment, the paper including philological notes on [Aristeas Epic.] fr. 11 Bernabé (the passage is inspired by an interpretation of the name Abaris); Call. <em>Dian</em>. 204–5 (includes an allusion to the Hyperborean maiden Upis/Opis); Call. <em>Del</em>. 293–95 (the passage hints at an etymology of the word Περφερέες; and ἐκεῖνοι in 295 is sound); Call. <em>Aet</em>. fr. 186.26–30 Pfeiffer (discussion of the myth of Orion and Opis); D.H. 1.43.1–2 (discussion of the myth of Palantho and Heracles); Hecat.Abd. <em>FGrH</em> 264 frr. 7, 12 (discussion of the different information about the Hyperborean leadership that is given in the two fragments); Hdt. 4.35 (interpretation of the phrase ἅμα αὐτοῖσι τοῖσι θεοῖσι); Iambl. <em>VH</em> 32.217 (the stated opinions of Abaris seem similar to those professed in Heraclid.Pont. fr. 75 Wehrli); Verg. <em>Aen</em>. 11.857–58 (the utterance of Opis alludes to the death of Orion as presented in Euphorion, Callimachus and pseudo-Apollodorus).</p>
Highlights
I share with the northernmost Classics Professor in the world an affiliation with and sentimental attachment to the regions of the utmost North, real and imaginary
An asterisk by the abbreviated title of an author, work or number of fragment indicates that the attribution is uncertain; a question mark after a source indicates that the mention of the Hyperborean(s) in question is in some way conjectural, for instance restored in the text by emendation
This is in accordance with a version of the myth preserved in a few sources, which has the elder Hyperborean maidens nursing the infants Apollo and Artemis, giving their own names as epithets to the gods
Summary
I share with the northernmost Classics Professor in the world an affiliation with and sentimental attachment to the regions of the utmost North, real and imaginary. Synnøve has explored this theme in her research (e.g., des Bouvrie 1996), and I would like to honour her with a techncial contribution in this same area. My article takes the form of a catalogue enumerating the individual Hyperboreans mentioned in the literature of Greco-Roman Antiquity. This paper reviews the sources that mention Hyperborean individuals, commenting on noteworthy features of and some more or less bone-dry philological problems in the texts. The famous Hyperboreans will be presented according to the chronological order of the sources that mention them first, that is approximately in the order of fame.
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