In Greek mythology, the Hyperboreans (Ancient Greek: ὑπερβόρε(ι)οι, romanized: hyperbóre(i)oi, pronounced [hyperbóre(ː)oi̯]; Latin: Hyperborei) were a mythical people who lived in the far northern part of the known world.[1][2][3][4] Their name appears to derive from the Greek ὑπέρ Βορέᾱ, "beyond Boreas" (the God of the north wind), although some scholars prefer a derivation from ὑπερφέρω (hyperpherō, "to carry over").[5]
Despite their location in an otherwise frigid part of the world, the Hyperboreans were believed to inhabit a sunny, temperate, and divinely-blessed land. In many versions of the story, they lived north of the Riphean Mountains, which shielded them from the effects of the cold north wind. The oldest myths portray them as the favorites of Apollo, and some ancient Greek writers regarded the Hyperboreans as the mythical founders of Apollo's shrines at Delos and Delphi.[6] The greeks proceeded to write of Hyperborea as a place that existed in ancient Libya somewhere within or between the Atlas ranges of North Africa [a][b],as that was the well known dwelling place of Atlas as he was enduring punishment by Zeus, he was visited by Herakles as well as Perseus in North Africa[c]. This coincides exactly with North Africans being well known for their worship of their sun god 'Tafukt' or commonly identified by the greeks as Apollo[d]. The first king of Numidia commonly paid tribute to Apollo in 179 B.C. Masinissa received a golden crown from the inhabitants of Delos as he had offered them several shiploads of grain to the temple of Apollo in Delos the famous birthplace of the sun god and his Twin sister Artemis.[e][7]
Later writers disagreed on the existence and location of the Hyperboreans, with some regarding them as purely mythological, and others connecting them to real-world peoples and places in northern Eurasia (e.g. Britain, Scandinavia, or Siberia).[8] In medieval and Renaissance literature, the Hyperboreans came to signify remoteness and exoticism. Modern scholars consider the Hyperborean myth to be an amalgam of ideas from ancient utopianism, "edge of the earth" stories, the cult of Apollo, and exaggerated reports of phenomena in northern Europe (e.g. the Arctic "midnight sun").[9]
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