noun
definition
One of a race of people in Greek mythology living in the extreme north, beyond the north wind.
definition
(usually humorous) Any person living in a northern country, or to the north.
Examples of hyperboreans in a Sentence
According to other accounts their home was among the Hyperboreans.
His dwelling-place was on Mount Haemus in Thrace, or at Salmydessus, near the country of the Hyperboreans.
According to Herodotus, two maidens, Opis and Arge, and later two others, Hyperoche and Laodice, escorted by five men, called by the Delians Perpherees, were sent by the Hyperboreans with certain offerings to Delos.
Finding that their messengers did not return, the Hyperboreans adopted the plan of wrapping the offerings in wheat-straw and requested their neighbours to hand them on to the next nation, and so on, till they finally reached Delos.
Ahrens, that Hyperboreans and Perpherees are identical, is now widely accepted.
The Hyperboreans were thus the bearers of the sacrificial gifts to Apollo over land and sea, irrespective of their home, the name being given to Delphians, Thessalians, Athenians and Delians.
Schrader that the form HEpcEpEES requires a passive meaning, "those who are carried round the altar," perhaps dancers like the whirling dervishes; distinguishing them from the Hyperboreans, he explains the latter as those who live "above the mountains," that is, in heaven.
Under the influence of the derivation from 130p as, the home of the Hyperboreans was placed in a region beyond the north wind, a paradise like the Elysian plains, inaccessible by land or sea, whither Apollo could remove those mortals who had lived a life of piety.
The close connexion of the Hyperboreans with the cult of Apollo may be seen by comparing the Hyperborean myths, the characters of which by their names mostly recall Apollo or Artemis (Agyieus, Opis, Hecaergos, Loxo), with the ceremonial of the Apolline worship. No meat was eaten at the Pyanepsia; the Hyperboreans were vegetarians.
It was said that Apollo soon after his birth spent a year amongst the Hyperboreans, who dwelt in a land of perpetual sunshine, before his return to Delphi.
This return is explained as the second birth of the god and his victory over the powers of winter; the name Hyperboreans is explained as the "dwellers beyond the north wind."
He is said to have been the first priest of Apollo, his connexion with whom is indicated by his traditional birthplaceLycia or the land of the Hyperboreans, favourite haunts of the god.