Category: Abaris
The legends of Abaris and Aristeas share some key elements. Both figures were believed to have visited the temple of Apollo in Hyperborea, and both spread their stories among Greeks. Both figures were associated with worship of Apollo, and both came to be associated with Pythagoreanism. Both traveled extensively, although Abaris traveled around Greece whereas Aristeas traveled in foreign lands. And in some versions of Abaris’ story, he flew with help from Apollo, although Abaris did so riding on Apollo’s arrow, whereas Aristeas flew as a disembodied soul guided by Apollo.
When the evidence about Abaris is examined closely, however, the parallels with the legend of Aristeas seem limited. This might be partly because the legend of Abaris is much less well preserved. The spread of the story of Abaris appears to have been linked with the circulation of a book of written oracles attributed to him, but the earliest reference to this book comes from Hellenistic or Roman-era scholarship preserved in Byzantine scholia, and no extant text tells us anything explicitly about the book’s contents. Judging from the stories told about Abaris, this book was made up of multiple shorter stories of his oracles that were directly relevant to religious practices, and thus more closely related to the Homeric hymns than to long narrative poems meant for public performance like the Arimaspeia, Hesiodic poems and heroic epics.
The oldest stories of Abaris have him arriving among the Greeks as an envoy of thanksgiving after Greeks resolved a legendary global famine, which was part of the founding myth of the Apollonian festival of Pyanopsia, celebrated widely in Greece especially in Attica, Ionia and Ionian colonies.
In most versions of the legend, Abaris was himself a Hyperborean, and in the earliest account, by Herodotos, he does not eat. But in another of the earliest accounts, by the orator Lykourgos, Abaris was a visitor to Hyperborea, and in two later accounts he is called a Skythian. But it is unclear whether Abaris was ever associated with the South Caucasian Skythians who figure in the Arimaspeia.
Herodotos on Hyperboreans
Posted in Abaris, Arimasps, Hyperboreans, SkythiansAbout the Hyperborean people, neither the Skythians nor any others of those living by them tell us anything, unless perhaps the Issedones. And I myself think even they say nothing. For if they spoke of…
Fragments of Herakleides of Pontos on Abaris
Posted in Abaris, Hyperboreans1. [Diogenes Laertios] Herakleides son of Euthyphron of Herakleia of Pontos was a wealthy man. In Athens he first joined up with Speusippos. Besides, he listened to the Pythagoreans and zealously emulated Plato. And later…
Lykourgos on Abaris’ mission to Hyperborea during a legendary famine
Posted in Abaris, Hyperboreans, Skythians1. […] oh gentlemen jurors, that one is not to sacrifice in the way Menesaichmos says, and if one does, it is sacrilege. He will read you the testimony of Theogenes, being the herald to…
A Hellenistic or Roman-era scholar connecting Abaris to eiresione
Posted in Abaris, Hyperboreans[Aristophanes:] “You’ve torn my eiresione to pieces!” [Commentator:] An olive branch bound up with enwinding wool. And they hung on it all the seasonal first fruits, and stood it before the doors, as still even…
Apollonios the paradoxographer on Aristeas appearing in Sicily
Posted in Abaris, Cult of Aristeas, Extracorporeal travelEpimenides the Cretan is said to have been sent off to a country pasture by his father and father’s brothers to bring a sheep back to town. When night overtook him he wandered off the…
Harpokration on Abaris
Posted in Abaris, HyperboreansAbaris: A proper name. When a plague, they say, had spread over the whole inhabited world, Apollo answered the oracle-seeking Greeks and barbarians that the Athenian people were to make prayers on everyone’s behalf. And…
Clement of Alexandria on Aristeas as predictor of the future
Posted in Abaris, Cult of Aristeas, Extracorporeal travelAnd even the great Pythagoras was always applying himself to prediction, and Abaris the Hyperborean and Aristaias the Prokonnesian, and Epimenides the Cretan, the one who came to Sparta, and Zoroaster the Mede, and Empedokles…
Origen versus Celsus on Jesus versus Aristeas
Posted in Abaris, Cult of Aristeas, Extracorporeal travel, Seizure and possessionNext, miracles have happened everywhere, or in many places, as even [Celsus] on this repeatedly cites Asklepios being a benefactor and foretelling the future to whole cities that were dedicated to him, including Trikka, Epidauros,…
Iamblichos on why Pythagoreans trust in Aristeas
Posted in Abaris, Cult of Aristeas, HyperboreansNext, then, let us celebrate in words [Pythagoras’] virtuous deeds no longer in general, but according to the individual virtues. Let us begin first with the gods, as is the custom, and let us try…
Iamblichos including Aristeas among a list of Pythagoreans
Posted in Abaris, Cult of AristeasOut of all the Pythagoreans so many have been anonymous and unknown, but of those who are known, these are their names: […] Metapontines: […] Aristeas […] Akragantine: Empedokles […] Hyperborean: Abaris […]
Iamblichos on ‘Abaris the Skythian’ as Pythagoras’ apprentice
Posted in Abaris, Hyperboreans, SkythiansIn general it is worth knowing that Pythagoras discovered many ways of teaching and training, and transmitted the appropriate portion of wisdom according to each one’s own nature and ability. And the greatest evidence is…
The Souda on ‘Skythian’ Abaris and his ‘Skythinian’ book of oracles
Posted in Abaris, Griffins, Hyperboreans, SkythiansSkythian, son of Seuthes. He wrote the so-called Skythinian Oracles and Marriage of the river Hebros and Purifications and a Theogony in prose and Arrival of Apollo among the Hyperboreans in meter. He came from…