PREHISTORIC
PART 1 – Ch.V
The temple of the Hyperboreans in Leuce island (Alba)
V.1.
Hecateus Abderita about the island and temple of Apollo, in the land of the
Hyperboreans.
The tumulus of Achilles in Leuce (Alba)
Island, prompts us also to pay attention to the antiquity of its temple. In a
very remote prehistoric epoch, a
magnificent temple existed in the eastern parts of Dacia, the renown and
influence of which had reached far, to the south-eastern lands of Europe, and
the memory and holiness of which is celebrated even today in Romanian religious
carols. Several authors of the antiquity wrote about this temple, which appears
to us like one of the great and holy marvels of the prehistoric world, and
among these was the historic Hecateus
Abderita, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great.
We will reproduce here these
precious accounts of Hecateus, taken from the few fragments which have survived
in the writings of Diodorus Siculus and Claudius Aelianus.
Diodorus Siculus (lib. II, 47 – Fragmenta Hist. graec. Ed. Didot. II, p.386) writes:
“Now, after we have described the
northern parts of Asia, we believe it is of interest to also mention here what
is being told about the Hyperboreans.
Among the writers of antiquity, Hecateus
(Abderita) and others, tell that, facing the land of the Celts in the parts of
the Ocean, there is an island, which is not smaller than Sicily, situated in
the northern region and inhabited by the Hyperboreans,
so named because they are more distant than the wind Boreas. Here the soil is very good and fertile, the
temperate climate excellent, and because of this, the fruits are produced here
twice a year (cf. p.68-69). It is said that Latona, (Leto), Apollo’s mother, was born here, and that’s why Apollo is venerated here more than the
other gods; and because the Hyperboreans of this island celebrate this god
every day, continuously singing his praises and giving him the greatest honors,
it is said that these men are like a sort of priests of Apollo.
There is also in this island
(Hecateus uses here a form of expression by which he gives a vague indication
of location, meaning, in the parts of
the Ocean, in the parts of the island, or in its vicinity) a magnificent holy grove of Apollo, of
a considerable size, and a renowned
temple, the exterior shape of which is spherical, and which temple is
decorated with many offerings (cf.p.72-73).
This god, Apollo, also has a holy
city of his own, and the people who dwell in this city are mostly cither
players (the shape of this instrument resembles exactly the Romanian “cobza” of
today), who, during the divine service, play in unison the cithers, and sing
hymns, honoring and praising the God’s deeds. The Hyperboreans have a
distinctive way of talking (dialectos) and show a very familiar
friendship to the Greeks, especially to the Athenians and the inhabitants of Delos (the old inhabitants of Athens and Delos were Pelasgians);
this goodwill of theirs had been established and confirmed since the oldest of
times. It is even said that some of the Greeks went to the Hyperboreans and
left there very precious gifts, inscribed with Greek letters; and that,
similarly, Abaris came from there to
Greece, and renewed the old friendship and kinship
with the Delians.
It is also said that from this
island, the whole of Selina (Selene) can be seen at a short
distance from earth, and that some heights can be seen also in it. It is also
said that god Apollo comes to this island every 19 years, during which time the
constellations make their periodic cycle on the sky. During the time of the
God’s apparition in their island, beginning with the spring equinox, until the
rising of the Pleiades in the first half of the month of May, the Hyperboreans
play the cithers at night and dance in circles (hora), enjoying these beautiful
days. The mastery of the city and the supreme administration of the temple
belong to the Boreazi, who are
descendants of Boreas, and they rule
successively, by right”.
We showed so far the fragment of Hecateus
Abderita, transmitted by Diodorus Siculus.
On the other hand, the sophist Claudius Aelianus, who lived at the
time of the emperor Adrian, transmits another fragment from Hecateus’ writings,
regarding this important temple of the prehistory: “Not only the poets”, says
Aelianus, “but also other writers, celebrate the Hyperborean people and the honors they bring to Apollo. Among others, Hecateus
Abderita, but not the one from Miletus, relates that Apollo’s priests are the sons of Boreas and Chiona, three brothers
in all, six ells tall. When they hold, at the usual time, the solemn divine
service, or prayer, countless flocks of swans fly there from the mountains
which they name Ripaei, and these
swans, after flying firstly around the temple, like they wished to purify it,
descend to the court of the temple, which is very spacious and beautiful.
During the divine service, while the temple singers intone praises to god
Apollo, in a sort of melodies specific to them, and while the cither players
accompany in unison the harmonious melody of the singers, from outside the
temple, the swans join in their singing, gaggling together; and it must be
noted that these swans make no mistake, like emitting dissonant or unpleasant
sounds, but follow the tone and the start given by the master of the choir, and
sing together with the singers, who are most accustomed with the holy hymns.
After the hymn ends, this birds’ choir withdraws, looking like they have come
here with only the special purpose of celebrating the god, of listening all day
to the honors done to the gods, of singing together and delighting others at
the same time”.
These are the precious fragments
preserved from the writings of Hecateus, about the magnificent temple of Apollo
from the land of the Hyperboreans.
The Hyperboreans’ cult of Apollo
represents the golden epoch of the ante-Greek Pelasgian civilization. With the
beginning of the Pelasgian migrations from the Carpathian Mountains towards
south, this cult spreads over ancient Greece, over the islands of the
Archipelagos and the shores of Asia Minor. We will examine here, from a
historic and geographic point of view, the details preserved in Hecateus’
writings about the Hyperboreans.
A new, important chapter in the
history of the old Pelasgian world opens in front of us.