Abaris the Hyperborean

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Abaris redirects here. For the Baroque opera see Les Boréades

Abaris the Hyperborean (Αβάρις Υπερβορέος, Abaris Hyperboreos) 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, which he fled during a plague.

1 Legend
- 1.1 Phalaris
2 Modern impact
3 References

[edit] Legend

According to Herodotus (4.36) he was said to have traveled around the world with an arrow symbolizing Apollo, eating no food. Plato (Charmides 158C) classes him amongst the "Thracian physicians" who practice medicine upon the soul as well as the body by means of "incantations" (epodai). A temple to Persephone at Sparta was attributed to Abaris by Pausanias (9.10).

[edit] Phalaris

A particularly rich trove of anecdote is found in Iamblichus's Vita Pythagorica. Here, Abaris is said to have purified Sparta and Knossos, among other cities, from plagues (VP 92-93). Abaris also appears in a climactic scene alongside Pythagoras at the court of the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris. The two sages discuss divine matters, and urge the obstinate tyrant towards virtue (ibid. 215-221). Iamblicus also (disapprovingly) attributes to Abaris a special expertise at animal sacrifice (ibid. 93). The Suda attributes a number of books to Abaris, including a volume of Scythian Oracles in dactylic hexameter, a prose theogony, a work on purifications, and an account of Apollo's visit to the Hyperboreans.

[edit] Modern impact

A Secret Senior Society at Dartmouth College is named Abaris after this figure; it is one of eight Senior Societies among Dartmouth College student groups.
Abaris is featured in Therion songs An Arrow From The Sun and The Wand of Abaris.

[edit] References

Plato's Charmides in the most famous passage concerning Αβάρις Υπερβορέος.
History of Herodotus, in the classical 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.
Ancient Library