Elements of salvation in the Greek myths on the Hyperboreans

Abstract

The Greek historiographical and poetical sources about the Hyperboreans show that both their concept and their image were constructed from a mythical perspective, in spite of being developed mainly by geographers and of course trademen. Yet there are elements that must have been borrowed to the Indo-European heritage, although this does not imply tout court that they are properly Indo-European creations. This paper aims at analyzing the eschatological side of the Hyperborean dossier, especially after the Herodotean and Hecataean sources. Besides the hermeneutical operation of decoding the mythical frame in which our sources are embedded, the archaeological materials can provide a tenable counterpart touchstone to check the validity of the suggested reconstruction of such a religious idea.