Suda On Line menu Search

Home
Search results for alpha,18 in Adler number:
Greek display:    

Headword: Abaris
Adler number: alpha,18
Translated headword: Abaris, Avars
Vetting Status: high
Translation:
Scythian, son of Seuthes. He wrote the so-called Scythinian Oracles[1] 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 Scythia to Greece.
The legendary arrow belongs to him, the one he flew on from Greece to Hyperborean Scythia. It was given to him by Apollo.[2]
Gregory the Theologian mentioned this man in his Epitaphios for Basil the Great.[3]
They say[4] 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.[5]
[Note] that the Bulgarians thoroughly destroyed the Avars[6] by force.
[Note] that these Avars drove out the Sabinorians, when they themselves had been expelled by peoples living near the shore of the Ocean, who left their own land when a mist formed in the flood of the Ocean 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.[7]
The declension is Abaris, Abaridos [genitive singular], Abaridas [accusative plural], and with apocope Abaris [also accusative plural, with a long iota].
See about these things under 'Bulgarians'.[8]
Greek Original:
Abaris: Skuthês, Seuthou huios. sunegrapsato de chrêsmous tous kaloumenous Skuthinous kai Gamon Hebrou tou potamou kai Katharmous kai Theogonian katalogadên kai Apollônos aphixin eis Huperboreous emmetrôs. hêke de ek Skuthôn eis Hellada. toutou ho muthologoumenos oïstos, tou petomenou apo tês Hellados mechri tôn Huperboreôn Skuthôn: edothê de autôi para tou Apollônos. toutou kai Grêgorios ho Theologos en tôi eis ton megan Basileion Epitaphiôi mnêmên pepoiêtai. phasi de hoti loimou kata pasan tên oikoumenên gegonotos aneilen ho Apollôn manteuomenois Hellêsi kai barbarois ton Athênaiôn dêmon huper pantôn euchas poiêsasthai. presbeuomenôn de pollôn ethnôn pros autous, kai Abarin ex Huperboreôn presbeutên aphikesthai legousi kata tên g# Olumpiada. hoti tous Abaris hoi Boulgaroi kata kratos ardên êphanisan. hoti hoi Abaris houtoi exêlasan Sabinôras, metanastai genomenoi hupo ethnôn oikountôn men tên parôkeanitin aktên, tên de chôran apolipontôn dia to ex anachuseôs tou Ôkeanou homichlôdes ginomenon, kai grupôn de plêthos anaphanen: hoper ên logos mê proteron pausasthai prin ê boran poiêsai to tôn anthrôpôn genos. dio dê hupo tônde elaunomenoi tôn deinôn tois plêsiochôrois eneballon: kai tôn epiontôn dunatôterôn ontôn hoi tên ephodon huphistamenoi metanistanto, hôsper kai hoi Saragouroi elathentes pros tois Akatirois Ounnois egenonto. klinetai de Abaris, Abaridos, tous Abaridas, kai kata apokopên Abaris. zêtei peri tôn autôn en tôi Boulgaroi.
Notes:
See generally A.H. Griffiths in OCD(4) p.1: "legendary devotee of Apollo from the far north, a shamanistic missionary and saviour-figure like Aristeas [alpha 3900]". Adler credits this part of the entry to the Epitome Onomatologi Hesychii Milesii.
[1] Or in one manuscript, 'Skythian'.
[2] Perhaps from a scholion on the passage about to be cited (so Adler). Cf. Herodotos 4.36.1 (web address 1).
[3] Gregory of Nazianzus PG 36.524b.
[4] This material is from Harpokration s.v. *)/abaris
[5] 768-765 BCE. Harpokration (see preceding note) cites Hippostratos (FGrH 568 F4) to this effect, but adds that there were later alternatives: the twenty-first Olympiad (696-693) or "the time of Croesus, king of Lydia" (so Pindar, fr.270 Snell-Maehler), i.e. c.560-546.
[6] The word used for the Avars here, *)aba/ris, is a homograph for the name of the Hyperborean wise man Abaris, so this separate section on the Avars is included in this entry. There is no indication that the lexicographer sees any connection between the two topics.
[7] Priscus fr.30 FHG (4.104), still 30 Bornmann. The final part reappears at alpha 820 and sigma 111.
[8] beta 423.
References:
RE Abaris (1) I.16-17
Macartney, C.A. "On the Greek Sources for the History of the Turks in the Sixth Century." BSOAS 11 (1944): 266-275
Associated internet address:
Web address 1
Keywords: biography; Christianity; dialects, grammar, and etymology; geography; historiography; history; mythology; philosophy; poetry; religion; rhetoric
Translated by: Anne Mahoney on 21 August 1998@17:03:41.
Vetted by:
William Hutton (Modified translation and notes, added keywords, set status.) on 19 January 2001@14:57:43.
David Whitehead (augmented notes and bibliography; cosmetics) on 9 February 2001@05:20:43.
David Whitehead (added note) on 14 February 2001@06:09:48.
Mihai Olteanu (The only thracian item concerning Abaris is his father's name. Everything else pledes for his sythian ('hyperborean') origin. This is why I suppose we deal here with a copist mistake, and I propose the emendation: ́Αβαρις: Σκύθης, *Σκύθου υἱός (for Σκύθης as mythological character, see for example Herodotos 4,10).) on 22 January 2002@21:55:20.
David Whitehead (augmented notes and keywords; cosmetics) on 23 January 2002@03:11:25.
David Whitehead (augmented n.6 and added a keyword) on 5 October 2004@03:21:13.
William Hutton (augmented notes, added link and keywords, set status) on 24 August 2007@11:05:00.
Jennifer Benedict (cosmeticule) on 25 March 2008@00:16:43.
David Whitehead (another note; cosmetics) on 28 March 2014@06:23:27.
David Whitehead (updated a ref) on 29 July 2014@12:06:21.
David Whitehead (updated a ref) on 31 January 2015@09:22:24.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation) on 18 February 2024@01:49:17.

Find      

Test Database Real Database

(Try these tips for more productive searches.)

No. of records found: 1    Page 1

End of search