According to the beliefs of the ancient Greeks, far in the north, beyond the icy lands from which the cold wind of Boreas flies, there was a country of Hyperborea, whose civilization was at an unusually high stage of development. Its name is translated from Greek as "beyond Borea." During the Middle Ages, many scholars believed that the people who inhabited it, before disappearing from the face of the Earth, managed to give an impetus to the development of all world culture. Modern scholars are very skeptical of such statements, but this does not diminish their interest in what could lie at the heart of the legend.
Descendants of the Titans
In ancient manuscripts, where Hyperborea is often called Arctida, various versions can be found regarding the origin of the people who inhabited it. So, the ancient philosopher and poet Ferenik believed that he was a descendant of mythical titans - children of the sky god Uranus and his wife, the goddess of the land of Gaia. Another ancient Greek named Phanodem in the heat of patriotism argued that the ancestor of these people was a certain Athenian Hyperborean, from whom they inherited their name.
Having rummaged in the annals of the past, you can find many other similar versions, the authors of which tried to prove the involvement of their people in the greatest, although not quite real civilization. It is interesting to note that their followers, who claim, in particular, that Hyperborea is the birthplace of the ancient Slavs, are very numerous these days, but this will be discussed below.
Under the auspices of Apollo
As mentioned above, about what Hyperborea is, mankind has learned from ancient mythology, where its image was often used in a variety of subjects. So, the ancient Greek poet and musician Alkey in his "Anthem to Apollon" wrote that the god of light and joy often went to this country. Having rested there from the summer heat of his native Hellas and then returning to his homeland, he patronized sciences and arts with even greater zeal.
Moreover, some authors can claim that the representatives of the ancient civilization of Hyperborea not only enjoyed the favor of such authoritative gods as Apollo, but they were also partly celestials. Semi-mythical peoples were considered their closest relatives among mortals: latophagi, feacs, and Ethiopians (not to be confused with modern inhabitants of North Africa).
Burnt by Happiness
Like their patron Apollo, the Hyperboreans possessed many artistic talents. It is not known who did their dirty work, but they themselves lived in a state of contentment and bliss, spending time among the noisy worlds, accompanied by music, singing and dancing. When one wanted to take a break from the fun, the Hyperboreans retired and, picking up a pen, composed another genius poem, which they later read to their drinking companions.
Hyperborea, the birthplace of ancient poets and musicians, was so generous to its sons that even death itself was perceived as getting rid of the satiety of life. When it became impossible for them to splash around in this endless ocean of happiness, they climbed the coastal cliffs and plunged into the sea from their heights. So, in any case, argued the ancient Greek historian and mythographer Diodorus of Sicily.
Missing Girls
Other peoples of the world learned about what Hyperborea is due to a curious case. The fact is that the population of this fertile country annually brought the fruits of the first harvest to its patron Apollo, sending them to Delos, an island in the Aegean where the deity lived, accompanied by young and beautiful girls. And then one day the beauties did not return home - either they found husbands in warm places, or fell into the hands of robbers, of whom there were plenty in those days.
Hyperboreans were saddened, and so as not to put anyone at risk anymore, they began to take baskets of fruits to the state border and ask neighboring nations to send them to Delos, passing along the chain, well, just like we pass fare in a crowded minibus. It is not known in what form the gifts of the addressee were reached, but on the errand, the inhabitants of the Earth told each other about the senders of the baskets and their happy life. So, thanks to the missing girls, the rumor about the people living "beyond Borey" was spread all over the world.
The fertile land and its inhabitants
Continuing the conversation about what Hyperborea is, it will be appropriate to recall two famous (albeit mythical) natives of its people. These are the greatest sages, honored to become personal servants of Apollo: Aristeus and Abaris. Venerable men conveyed to the Greeks many secrets of architecture, sculpting versification and other arts, thanks to which the culture of ancient Hellas rose to a height unprecedented in those days. Both of them were considered as hypostasis (in this case - the essence, manifestation) of Apollo himself. They were even attributed to the possession of the miraculous power, which consisted of its fetish symbols - the laurel branch, arrow and black crow.
And, finally, information from what Hyperborea is can be gleaned from the works of the ancient Roman scholar Pliny the Elder. On the pages of his natural work “Natural History,” he paid much attention to this, in his opinion, real people. The venerable Roman wrote that beyond the Riphean mountains (as the highlands located in the north of Eurasia were called in his days) on the other side of the chilling winds, there is a country whose inhabitants are called hyperboreans.
All of them reach old age and part with the world only voluntarily, satiated and weary of happiness. Neither illness nor strife is unknown to them, and they delight their hearing with peny and marvelous verses of their own composition. The climate in that country is so favorable that there is no reason to build houses, and all hyperborea live all year round in groves filled with light and twitter of birds. The sun sets there once every six months, but then, as if ashamed of his liberty, a few minutes later appears again in the sky. The author concludes with the words that the existence of this happiest of peoples does not cause a shadow of doubt in him, although it is shrouded in an impenetrable secret.
Unfortunately, representatives of modern historical science do not share the enthusiasm of Pliny the Younger, and the riddles of Hyperborea are very reserved. In their opinion, the myth of this happy country is just a manifestation of the utopian ideas of the ancient Greeks about distant and unknown peoples living "at the ends of the world." Researchers are forced to state that there is no documentary evidence that the legend of Hyperborean has at least some historical basis.
A fashionable but highly controversial theory
At the same time, over the past decades, many books have been published outlining this very popular topic today, and all of them, as a rule, are works of the occult and pseudoscientific sense. Many authors set as their goal the popularization of the idea, the essence of which boils down to the fact that Hyperborea is the birthplace of the ancient Slavs. As the most convincing, in their opinion, argument, they cite excerpts from the works of the French mystic and 16th century soothsayer Nostradamus, who, for one well-known reason, referred to the Russians as the "Hyperborean people."
The authors try to find evidence of kinship or at least close contacts between the ancient Slavs and Hyperborea (and, as they think, they find it) in the geographical location of this legendary country. The basis for their allegations is an old map created back in the 16th century by the Flemish geographer Gerard Kremer. On it, Hyperborea is represented in the form of a large Arctic continent, in the center of which rises Mount Meru.
Its southern tip is located in close proximity to the northern coast of Eurasia, where the Slavs settled and where most of the Scythian rivers originated from. Further arguments based on simple logic follow: if there are rivers, what prevented the Hyperboreans from going deep into the mainland along them, and on the road, exhausted by abstinence, they hardly missed the opportunity to take advantage of the clear-eyed Slavs and cultivate vast Russian open spaces with their seed.
Sunflower kingdom
In search of evidence of the kinship between the inhabitants of Hyperborea and the Slavs, supporters of this theory do not disregard the monuments of the ancient Russian epic. Among the images that have become a tradition of oral folklore, they are especially attracted to the Sunflower Kingdom, located, as you know, "for the distant lands", and where many epic heroes go to exploits.
What is this if not a memory of bygone times when our ancestors closely communicated with the inhabitants of a country over which the setting sun shines? And it is likely that this communication was so close that its traces can be found in the genetic features of modern Russians. Why have not yet been found? Yes, simply because they did not want to search. This is exactly what the proponents of this theory reason.
As mentioned above, on the shelves of bookstores you can see a lot of literature on this issue. Currently, the most popular book among readers is Yevgeny Averyanov’s book, Ancient Knowledge of Hyperborea, and anyone who wants it can find more detailed information in it.
Map of Admiral Reis
All of the above may seem naive, but serious researchers have real reasons to think about the possibility of the existence of a continent with a highly developed civilization on the site of present Antarctica. Here is just one of them.
The National Library of Istanbul has a geographic map compiled in 1513 by Turkish Admiral Piri Reis. On it, besides America and the Strait of Magellan, the Arctic (Arctida), unknown in that era, is also depicted. The outlines of its coastline are presented with such reliability that could only be achieved using modern aerial photography. However, no ice was noted on it. There is an accompanying inscription on the map, from which it is clear that when compiling it, the admiral was guided by materials from the era of Alexander the Great. Amazing Yes, but that's not all!
According to the data obtained in the 70s of the last century by the participants of the Soviet scientific expedition, the ice cover of the Arctic is about 200 thousand years old, and before that a warm and mild climate prevailed on its territory. It follows that the primary source, on the basis of which the maps of Alexander the Great, and later Piri Reis, were compiled, was created earlier than this date.
If so, then there can only be one conclusion: in ancient times, people lived on the territory of the present Arctic, creating a civilization unprecedented in those days, the death of which can be explained by a climatic catastrophe that turned their country into a lifeless ice desert.
Rescued residents of the lost continent
In recent decades, more and more enthusiasts have appeared who are trying to find the answer to the question of whether the inhabitants of Hyperborea and the ancient Arians, the people who inhabited the central and northern parts of modern Russia, spoke to each other. If the answer turns out to be positive, then our relationship with the "founders of world culture" (as the most ardent supporters of their existence call the Hyperboreans) is not in doubt.
Among the variety of hypotheses, a number of supporters acquired a theory according to which the arias - these are the Hyperboreans themselves, who survived after a natural disaster that destroyed their once-blooming island, and migrated to the continent. Finding themselves in more severe environmental conditions, they largely degraded and lost their previous knowledge, but even what they managed to preserve provided them with intellectual superiority over other inhabitants of the Earth.
That is why many peoples of the world use words that are similar in sound, based on roots that were clearly borrowed once from a single language that belonged to a highly developed nation. It could be used by both residents of the deceased continent, and those with whom they had close contact.
Hyperborea and Atlantis, and ancient arias - ghosts of past millennia
The halo of mystery surrounding Hyperborea makes it related to another disappeared continent - Atlantis, which is known from the works of ancient Greek authors: Plato, Herodotus, Strabo, Diodorus of Sicily and several others. The only difference between them is that, if some traces were preserved from the first, which can be considered (albeit with a great stretch) the part of the land that is the northern coast of Eurasia, then the second disappeared without a trace in the ocean abyss.
Nevertheless, every year there are more and more enthusiasts who are convinced of the historical reliability of the information available about them. Moreover, the hypothesis according to which ancient authors had in mind the same continent has become very popular these days.
Over the past millennia, Hyperborea, and the ancient arias, and Atlantis became only the ghosts of that old era. However, there is evidence that elements borrowed from the peoples of the Mediterranean were present in their culture. First of all, we can talk about the legends of the peoples of the North, which sometimes include plots that are very close to those found in ancient mythology. In addition, a large number of artifacts discovered during archaeological excavations carried out on the coast of the Barents Sea in the early 90s of the last century by an expedition led by Professor V.N.Demin also suggest the idea of common cultures.
The researchers were especially interested in the gigantic rock painting of a certain deity, which reached a height of 70 meters, but was hardly distinguishable from time to time. Its outlines also corresponded to the traditions of the ancient world. However, it was not possible to prove that Hyperborea and Atlandis are one and the same. This question remains open. And to solve it will require considerable effort.