Hyperborean

1694. The great historical, geographical and poetical dictionary by Louis Moreri.

Hyperborean, a Name given by the Ancients to some Seas, Mountains and People, the true Situation whereof they could hardly discover; nevertheless they agree in this, that they were in a very far Country towards the North. From thence, among the Latins, to send one to the Hyperborean Mountains signified, to send him to the Earth's End. The Scythian Abaris has described their Oracles, their Manners, and the Original of their Gods, &c. Pherenicus saith, That they are descended from the Titans, and that they retired thither with Saturn after their Defeat. The Romans have recourse to the Hyperboreans, to find out the Original of their Mount Palatine; and, according to Festus Abbreviator, the Daughter of one of those Hyperboreans, named Phalanta, or Pallanta, came to those Parts when Rome was built, and conceived Latinus, by Hercules. Pind. Pyth. 10. jeering their Religion, saith, That they sacrificed Asses to Apollo, who could not forbear laughing when he saw their Ears dressed. But Selinus saith seriously, cap. 21. That they sent their First Fruits by chaste Virgins to Apollo Delius, &c. Claudian. lib. 6. Consulat. Honor. observes, that Griffins were particularly consecrated to the Hyperborean Apollo. Cassiodor. lib. 9. pag. 3. Rosin. Antiq Rom. lib. 2. As for what the Ancients say of the continual Rejoicings of those People, their Concerts of Musical Instruments, their Feasts and Dancings, and their pleasant Condition, free from War, Works, Old Age, and Diseases, it is a Fiction. To omit Fables; By the Hyperborean Seas, we commonly understand the Northern Ocean, which bounds Europe and Asia on the North. By the Hyperborean Mountains, those which were formerly named Riphean, and now, according to Baudrand, the Stolp-Mountains, and Kameni Poyas, in the Northern Part of Russia, towards the Streight of Veigats, and the Mouth of Oby. And by the Hyperborean People, those of the Northern Sarmatia, and those that live near the Sea-Coasts, which are now the Laplanders, under the Swedes, the Danes, and the Russians. And when the Ancients named them Hyperboreans, their meaning was not that they did live beyond Boreas, or the North Wind; but only that they lived very far towards the North: For Hyperborean signifies very much North, as Strabo observes.