Abstract
The article deals with the problem of localization of the mythical Hyperborean people who lived in Northern Eurasia beyond the Riphean Mountains. Their place of residence was determined by diff erent authors in diff erent ways: from Celtic to Northern India and China. Pliny the Elder in his “Natural History” gives 5 versions of the location of the Hyperboreans (NH. IV. 89-90; VI. 34, 55, 219). These versions are contradictory and refl ect the whole spectrum of opinions that existed in ancient times – this is the extreme north of Eastern Europe, where the Hyperboreans have been located since the time of Herodotus, the more southern regions, the north of China, and an island located in the ocean between our Ecumene and the land of the antipodes. Since the definition of the ocean in which the Hyperborean Island was located is problematic (the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Sea?), most of the article is devoted to this issue. In our opinion, this island should be located in the North Atlantic, since the land of the antipodes opposite to our Ecumene should be localized in the western hemisphere in its northern segment. The article provides ancient evidence of the tradition of the location of the Hyperboreans in the western part of Europe (Ecumene), and Hecateus of Abdera, whose work “On the Hyperboreans” was mentioned by Pliny himself, directly places the Hyperboreans on an island in the North Atlantic (“opposite the Celtic”). The considered passages of Pliny allow us to see the basic principles of the encyclopedic method of presenting information; these are: taking into account as many opinions of previous authors as possible, as a rule, without polemics with them, even if Pliny does not agree with them, sometimes expressing skepticism about the opinions quoted, and sometimes expressing his own opinion. This is the case with the Hyperboreans: having expressed in a somewhat skeptical form various versions of their localization, Pliny nevertheless categorically declares that such a people exists (NH. IV. 91).
Keywords
Pliny the Elder, “Natural History”, Hyperboreans, their localization.
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