Skythian, 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 Skythia to Greece. The legendary arrow belongs to him, the one he flew on from Greece to Hyperborean Skythia. It was given to him by Apollo.
Gregory the Theologian mentioned this man in his Epitaphios for Basil the Great.
They say that once, when there was a plague throughout the entire inhabited world, Apollo told the Greeks and barbarians who had come to consult his oracle that the Athenian people should make prayers on behalf of all of them. So, many peoples sent ambassadors to them, and Abaris, they say, came as ambassador of the Hyperboreans in the third Olympiad.
[Note] that the Bulgarians thoroughly destroyed the Avars by force.
[Note] that these Avars drove out the Sabinorians, when they themselves had been expelled by peoples living near the shore of Okeanos, who left their own land when a mist formed in the flood of Okeanos and a crowd of griffins appeared. The story was that they would not stop until they had devoured the race of men. So the people driven away by these monsters invaded their neighbors. As the invaders were stronger, the others submitted and left, just as the Saragurians, when they were driven out, went to the Akatziri Huns.
Author: Anonymous (or Suidas)
Title of Work: The Souda (or Lexicon)
Location in Work: Α 19 or s.v. Ἄβαρις
Date of Work: c. 1000 CE
Original Language: Greek (Attic)
Original Text:
Ἄβαρις· Σκύθης, Σεύθον υἱός. συνεγράψατο δὲ χρησμοὺς τοὺς καλουμένους Σκυθινοὺς καὶ Γάμον Ἕβρου τοῦ ποταμοῦ καὶ Καθαρμοὺς καὶ Θεογονίαν καταλογάδην καὶ Ἀπόλλωνος ἄφιξιν εἰς Ὑπερβορέους ἐμμέτρως. ἧκε δὲ ἐκ Σκυθῶν εἰς Ἑλλάδα. τούτου ὁ μυθολογούμενος ὀιςτὸς, τοῦ πετομένου ἀπὸ τῆς Ἐλλάδος μέχρι τῶν Ὑπερβορέων Σκυθῶν· ἐδόθη δὲ αὐτῷ παρὰ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος.
τούτου καὶ Γρεγόριος ὁ Θεολόγος ἐν τῷ εἰς τὸν μέγαν Βασίλειον Ἐπιταφίῳ μνήμην πεποίηται.
φασὶ δὲ ὅτι λοιμοῦ κατὰ πᾶςαν τὴν οἱκουμένην γεγονότος ἀνεῖλεν ὁ Ἀπόλλων μαντευομένοις Ἕλλησι καὶ βαρβάροις τὸν Ἀθηναίων δῆμον ὑπὲρ πάντων εὐχὰς ποιήσασθαι. πρεσβεθομένων δὲ πολλῶν ἐθνῶν πρὸς αὐτοὺς, καὶ Ἄβαριν ἐξ 'Υπερβορέων πρεσβεθτὴν ἀφικἐσθαι λέγουσι κατὰ τὴν γʹ Ὀλυμπιἀδα.
ὅτι τοὺς Ἀβάρις οἱ Βούλγαροι κατὰ κράτος ἄρδην ἠφάνισαν.
ὅτι οἱ Ἀβάρις οὑτοι ἐξήλασαν Σαβίνωρας, μετανάσται γενόμενοι ὑπὸ ἐθνῶν οἰκούντων μὲν τὴν παρωκεανῖτιν ἀκτήν, τὴν δὲ χώραν ἀπολιπόντων διὰ τὸ ἐξ ἀναχύσεως τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ ὀμιχλῶδες γινόμενον, καὶ γρθπῶν δὲ πλῆθος ἀναφανέν· ὅπερ ἦν λόγος μὴ πρότερον παύσασθαι πρὶν ἢ βοράν ποιῆσαι τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος. διὸ δὴ ὑπὸ τῶνδε ἐλαυνόμενοι τῶν δεινῶν τοῖς πληςιοχώροις ἐνέβαλλον· καὶ τῶν ἐπιόντων δυνατωτέρων ὄντων οἱ τὴν ἔφοδον ὑφιστάμενοι μετανίσταντο, ὥσπερ καὶ οἱ Σαράγουροι ἐλαθέντες πρὸς τοῖς Ἀκατίροις Οὔννοις ἐγένοντο.
Reference Edition: Adler, Suidae Lexicon
Source of Date of Work: Baldwin, Aspects
Commentary:
While most texts about Abaris identified him as Hyperborean, this text and Iamblichos in one story identify Abaris as Skythian, and Lykourgos also suggested Abaris was a visitor to and not a native of Hyperborea.
What is most intriguing is the Souda’s reference to a book by Abaris called ‘Skythinian Oracles,’ as Skythinian (Σκυθινός) is a very rare alternate form of the name of Skythian used elsewhere only in two other contexts. Xenophon of Athens uses the name specifically to describe South Caucasian Skythians, and it was also used as a personal name, by the 4th century BCE poet Skythinos of Teos and as a character in a poem by Strato included in the Greek Anthology. It is difficult to judge if the use of the form Skythinos in the Souda for Abaris’ book has any importance or if it is just an odd fluke. The Souda’s reference to the nonsense-place of ‘Hyperborean Skythia’ makes clear that by its time the distinction between the real country of Skythia and the supernatural country of Hyperborea was no longer important.
Gregory of Nazianzos used Abaris and his arrow as a figure of speech in his Epistle 2 and Oration 43.21.
The Souda’s story of Abaris’ arrival in Athens is nearly identical to a passage in the earlier lexicon of Harpokration and both are very close to a longer version told by a commentator on Aristophanes.
The Souda’s dating of Abaris’ arrival to the third Olympiad (768-765 BCE) is unusually early and might be corrupt. Harpokration cited three dates among his sources: the 53rd Olympiad (568-565 BCE); the reign of Kroisos of Lydia (mid-6th century BCE) and the 21st Olympiad (696-693 BCE). Iamblichos wrote that Abaris was a contemporary of Pythagoras, who probably lived into the early 5th century BCE.
The Souda’s story of the Avar migration to Europe being caused by a chain reaction set off by an attack of griffins was obviously inspired by the Arimaspeia, possibly indirectly through Herodotos’ summary. It’s notable that in this story the griffins live near ‘okeanos,’ which might stem from some other early intermediate source that located the Hyperboreans by the world-encircling river, or might stem from a later source referring to an assumed northern ocean.