Abaris: 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 when many nations were sending ambassadors to them, also Abaris arrived as an ambassador from the Hyperboreans.
But the time when he was present is disputed. For Hippostratos says he was present in the 53rd Olympiad, and Pindar when Kroisos was king of the Lydians, but others in the 21st Olympiad.
Author: Harpokration the lexicographer
Title of Work: Lexicon of the Ten Orators
Location in Work: s.v. Ἄβαρις
Date of Work: c. 160 CE
Original Language: Greek (Attic)
Original Text:
Ἄβαρις: ὄνομα κύριον.
λοιμοῦ δέ φασι κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην γεγονότος ἀνεῖλεν ὁ Ἀπόλλων μαντευομένοις Ἕλλησί τε καὶ βαρβάροις τὸν Ἀθηναίων δῆμον ὑπὲρ πάντων εὐχὰς ποιήσασθαι. πρεσβευομένων δὲ πολλῶν ἐθνῶν πρὸς αὐτοὺς καὶ Ἄβαριν ἐξ Ὑπερβορέων πρεσβευτὴν ἀφικέσθαι λέγουσιν.
ὁ δὲ χρόνος ἐν ᾧ παραγέγονε διαφωνεῖται· Ἱππόστρατος μὲν γὰρ κατὰ τὴν νγʹ αὐτὸν Ὀλυμπιάδα λέγει παραγενέσθαι, ὁ δὲ Πίνδαρος κατὰ Κροῖσον τὸν Λυδῶν βασιλέα, ἄλλοι δὲ κατὰ τὴν καʹ Ὀλυμπιάδα.
Reference Edition: Dindorf, Harpokration
Source of Date of Work: Naoumides, Papyrus of Harpocration
Commentary:
The first two sentences of this text probably derive from the same Hellenic or Roman-era scholarly commentary as a longer text preserved in the scholia to Aristophanes. Notice the similarity of Harpokration’s “κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην” and “τὸν Ἀθηναίων δῆμον ὑπὲρ πάντων” to the Aristophanes scholia’s “τὴν πᾶσαν κατασχόντος οἰκουμένην” and “ὑπὲρ ἁπάντων Ἀθηναῖοι.” Thus the first two sentences of this text cannot be considered a fragment of Lykourgos’ Against Menesaichmos, as did Nicos Conomis (Lycurgi Fragmentis, 14.5b): although it’s very likely the scholarly commentary behind this text and the Aristophanes scholia drew partly on Lykourgos, he could not have been the sole source.
The Hippostratos mentioned is probably the Hellenistic historian of Sicily (BNP, s.v. Hipppostratus [4]; BNJ/FGrH Hippostratos 568, where this text is not included). The 53rd Olympiad corresponds to 568-565 BCE, which seems a late setting for the Athenian legend and an early one for the neo-Pythagorean legend of Abaris as a contemporary of Pythagoras.
This is the only text that claims Pindar wrote on Abaris, and it seems probably a mistake, as it’s hard to imagine that if such a revered poet had written on Abaris there would be no more extant record of it than this. It would also be out of character for Pindar to refer to a past historical figure such as Kroisos of Lydia, who reigned in the mid-6th century BCE. It seems most likely that this text derives from a redaction of a scholarly text about Abaris and Hyperboreans in which Pindar was cited as a source on the latter.
The 21st Olympiad corresponds to 696 to 693 BCE.
Concordance: But see commentary: Conomis, Lycurgi Fragmentis, 14.5b; Maehler and Snell, Pindar F270