Ἄβαρις
Abaris, Avars
Translated by Anne Mahoney21 Aug 1998Vetting: high17 revisions
Translation
Scythian, son of Seuthes. He wrote the so-called Scythinian Oracles1 and Marriage of the river Hebros and Purifications and a Theogony in prose and Arrival of Apollo among the Hyperboreans in meter. He came from Scythia to Greece.
The legendary arrow belongs to him, the one he flew on from Greece to Hyperborean Scythia. It was given to him by Apollo.2
Gregory the Theologian mentioned this man in his Epitaphios for Basil the Great.3
They say4 that once, when there was a plague throughout the entire inhabited world, Apollo told the Greeks and barbarians who had come to consult his oracle that the Athenian people should make prayers on behalf of all of them. So, many peoples sent ambassadors to them, and Abaris, they say, came as ambassador of the Hyperboreans in the third Olympiad.5
[Note] that the Bulgarians thoroughly destroyed the Avars6 by force.
[Note] that these Avars drove out the Sabinorians, when they themselves had been expelled by peoples living near the shore of the Ocean, who left their own land when a mist formed in the flood of the Ocean and a crowd of griffins appeared; the story was that they would not stop until they had devoured the race of men. So the people driven away by these monsters invaded their neighbors. As the invaders were stronger, the others submitted and left, just as the Saragurians, when they were driven out, went to the Akatziri Huns.7
The declension is Abaris, Abaridos [genitive singular], Abaridas [accusative plural], and with apocope Abaris [also accusative plural, with a long iota].
See about these things under 'Bulgarians'.8
The legendary arrow belongs to him, the one he flew on from Greece to Hyperborean Scythia. It was given to him by Apollo.2
Gregory the Theologian mentioned this man in his Epitaphios for Basil the Great.3
They say4 that once, when there was a plague throughout the entire inhabited world, Apollo told the Greeks and barbarians who had come to consult his oracle that the Athenian people should make prayers on behalf of all of them. So, many peoples sent ambassadors to them, and Abaris, they say, came as ambassador of the Hyperboreans in the third Olympiad.5
[Note] that the Bulgarians thoroughly destroyed the Avars6 by force.
[Note] that these Avars drove out the Sabinorians, when they themselves had been expelled by peoples living near the shore of the Ocean, who left their own land when a mist formed in the flood of the Ocean and a crowd of griffins appeared; the story was that they would not stop until they had devoured the race of men. So the people driven away by these monsters invaded their neighbors. As the invaders were stronger, the others submitted and left, just as the Saragurians, when they were driven out, went to the Akatziri Huns.7
The declension is Abaris, Abaridos [genitive singular], Abaridas [accusative plural], and with apocope Abaris [also accusative plural, with a long iota].
See about these things under 'Bulgarians'.8
Greek original · Adler’s text
Ἄβαρις· Σκύθης, Σεύθου υἱός. συνεγράψατο δὲ χρησμοὺς τοὺς καλουμένους Σκυθινοὺς καὶ Γάμον Ἕβρου τοῦ ποταμοῦ καὶ Καθαρμοὺς καὶ Θεογονίαν καταλογάδην καὶ Ἀπόλλωνος ἄφιξιν εἰς Ὑπερβορέους ἐμμέτρως. ἧκε δὲ ἐκ Σκυθῶν εἰς Ἑλλάδα. τούτου ὁ μυθολογούμενος ὀϊστὸς, τοῦ πετομένου ἀπὸ τῆς Ἑλλάδος μέχρι τῶν Ὑπερβορέων Σκυθῶν· ἐδόθη δὲ αὐτῷ παρὰ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος. τούτου καὶ Γρηγόριος ὁ Θεολόγος ἐν τῷ εἰς τὸν μέγαν Βασίλειον Ἐπιταφίῳ μνήμην πεποίηται. φασὶ δὲ ὅτι λοιμοῦ κατὰ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην γεγονότος ἀνεῖλεν ὁ Ἀπόλλων μαντευομένοις Ἕλλησι καὶ βαρβάροις τὸν Ἀθηναίων δῆμον ὑπὲρ πάντων εὐχὰς ποιήσασθαι. πρεσβευομένων δὲ πολλῶν ἐθνῶν πρὸς αὐτοὺς, καὶ Ἄβαριν ἐξ Ὑπερβορέων πρεσβευτὴν ἀφικέσθαι λέγουσι κατὰ τὴν γʹ Ὀλυμπιάδα. ὅτι τοὺς Ἀβάρις οἱ Βούλγαροι κατὰ κράτος ἄρδην ἠφάνισαν. ὅτι οἱ Ἀβάρις οὗτοι ἐξήλασαν Σαβίνωρας, μετανάσται γενόμενοι ὑπὸ ἐθνῶν οἰκούντων μὲν τὴν παρωκεανῖτιν ἀκτήν, τὴν δὲ χώραν ἀπολιπόντων διὰ τὸ ἐξ ἀναχύσεως τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ ὁμιχλῶδες γινόμενον, καὶ γρυπῶν δὲ πλῆθος ἀναφανέν· ὅπερ ἦν λόγος μὴ πρότερον παύσασθαι πρὶν ἢ βορὰν ποιῆσαι τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος. διὸ δὴ ὑπὸ τῶνδε ἐλαυνόμενοι τῶν δεινῶν τοῖς πλησιοχώροις ἐνέβαλλον· καὶ τῶν ἐπιόντων δυνατωτέρων ὄντων οἱ τὴν ἔφοδον ὑφιστάμενοι μετανίσταντο, ὥσπερ καὶ οἱ Σαράγουροι ἐλαθέντες πρὸς τοῖς Ἀκατίροις Οὔννοις ἐγένοντο. κλίνεται δὲ Ἄβαρις, Ἀβάριδος, τοὺς Ἀβάριδας, καὶ κατὰ ἀποκοπὴν Ἀβάρις. ζήτει περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ Βούλγαροι.
Betacode
*)/abaris: *sku/qhs, *seu/qou ui(o/s. sunegra/yato de\ xrhsmou\s tou\s kaloume/nous *skuqinou\s kai\ *ga/mon *(/ebrou tou= potamou= kai\ *kaqarmou\s kai\ *qeogoni/an kataloga/dhn kai\ *)apo/llwnos a)/ficin ei)s *(uperbore/ous e)mme/trws. h(=ke de\ e)k *skuqw=n ei)s *(ella/da. tou/tou o( muqologou/menos o)i+sto\s, tou= petome/nou a)po\ th=s *(ella/dos me/xri tw=n *(uperbore/wn *skuqw=n: e)do/qh de\ au)tw=| para\ tou= *)apo/llwnos. tou/tou kai\ *grhgo/rios o( *qeolo/gos e)n tw=| ei)s to\n me/gan *basi/leion *)epitafi/w| mnh/mhn pepoi/htai. fasi\ de\ o(/ti loimou= kata\ pa=san th\n oi)koume/nhn gegono/tos a)nei=len o( *)apo/llwn manteuome/nois *(/ellhsi kai\ barba/rois to\n *)aqhnai/wn dh=mon u(pe\r pa/ntwn eu)xa\s poih/sasqai. presbeuome/nwn de\ pollw=n e)qnw=n pro\s au)tou\s, kai\ *)/abarin e)c *(uperbore/wn presbeuth\n a)fike/sqai le/gousi kata\ th\n g# *)olumpia/da. o(/ti tou\s *)aba/ris oi( *bou/lgaroi kata\ kra/tos a)/rdhn h)fa/nisan. o(/ti oi( *)aba/ris ou(=toi e)ch/lasan *sabi/nwras, metana/stai geno/menoi u(po\ e)qnw=n oi)kou/ntwn me\n th\n parwkeani=tin a)kth/n, th\n de\ xw/ran a)polipo/ntwn dia\ to\ e)c a)naxu/sews tou= *)wkeanou= o(mixlw=des gino/menon, kai\ grupw=n de\ plh=qos a)nafane/n: o(/per h)=n lo/gos mh\ pro/teron pau/sasqai pri\n h)\ bora\n poih=sai to\ tw=n a)nqrw/pwn ge/nos. dio\ dh\ u(po\ tw=nde e)launo/menoi tw=n deinw=n toi=s plhsioxw/rois e)ne/ballon: kai\ tw=n e)pio/ntwn dunatwte/rwn o)/ntwn oi( th\n e)/fodon u(fista/menoi metani/stanto, w(/sper kai\ oi( *sara/gouroi e)laqe/ntes pro\s toi=s *)akati/rois *ou)/nnois e)ge/nonto. kli/netai de\ *)/abaris, *)aba/ridos, tou\s *)aba/ridas, kai\ kata\ a)pokoph\n *)aba/ris. zh/tei peri\ tw=n au)tw=n e)n tw=| *bou/lgaroi.
Notes (8)
- See generally A.H. Griffiths in OCD(4) p.1: "legendary devotee of Apollo from the far north, a shamanistic missionary and saviour-figure like Aristeas [alpha 3900]". Adler credits this part of the entry to the Epitome Onomatologi Hesychii Milesii.↩
- 1Or in one manuscript, 'Skythian'. ↩
- 2Perhaps from a scholion on the passage about to be cited (so Adler). Cf. Herodotos 4.36.1 (web address 1). ↩
- 3Gregory of Nazianzus PG 36.524b. ↩
- 4This material is from Harpokration s.v.
*)/abaris ↩- 5768-765 BCE. Harpokration (see preceding note) cites Hippostratos (FGrH 568 F4) to this effect, but adds that there were later alternatives: the twenty-first Olympiad (696-693) or "the time of Croesus, king of Lydia" (so Pindar, fr.270 Snell-Maehler), i.e. c.560-546. ↩
- 6The word used for the Avars here,
*)aba/ris , is a homograph for the name of the Hyperborean wise man Abaris, so this separate section on the Avars is included in this entry. There is no indication that the lexicographer sees any connection between the two topics. In mid-C6 CE the Avars were a nomadic people of the steppe north of the Black Sea; cf. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium s.v. Avars. On the territories of the Avars and of their surrounding ethnic groups in the epoch of Justinian (cf. iota 446 generally), see Louth (110, map). ↩- 7Priscus fr.30 FHG (4.104), still 30 Bornmann and 30 Carolla. Carolla identifies (69 note) the first part up to
*sabi/nwras as not literally Priscan; it has evidently been abstracted from the source text by the lexicographer and supplied as a preface to the rest of the fragment.*sabi/nwras is a transcription error; Priscus's text in fact concerns the*sabei=roi (Savirs, Sabirs); cf. alpha 2330 note and Blockley (345, 395 note 156). The final part reappears at alpha 820 and sigma 111. ↩- 8beta 423.
References
RE Abaris (1) I.16-17
Macartney, C.A. "On the Greek Sources for the History of the Turks in the Sixth Century." BSOAS 11 (1944): 266-275
A.P. Kazhdan, ed. et al., The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, (Oxford 1991)
A. Louth, "Justinian and His Legacy," in J. Shepard, ed., The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c. 500-1492, (Cambridge 2008) 99-129.
P. Carolla, ed., Priscus Panita: Excerpta et Fragmenta, (Berlin 2008)
R.C. Blockley, The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire: Eunapius, Olympiodorus, Priscus and Malchus, vol. II, (Liverpool 1983)
Macartney, C.A. "On the Greek Sources for the History of the Turks in the Sixth Century." BSOAS 11 (1944): 266-275
A.P. Kazhdan, ed. et al., The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, (Oxford 1991)
A. Louth, "Justinian and His Legacy," in J. Shepard, ed., The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire c. 500-1492, (Cambridge 2008) 99-129.
P. Carolla, ed., Priscus Panita: Excerpta et Fragmenta, (Berlin 2008)
R.C. Blockley, The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire: Eunapius, Olympiodorus, Priscus and Malchus, vol. II, (Liverpool 1983)
External resources
- Web address 1 perseus.tufts.edu
Linked from18 entries
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- δ1193Διοπτῆρεςscouts[Meaning] the watchers, the advanced guards. "Because of the rain pouring down, as the Avars contrived, and the air being foggy and dark, the scouts were not able to distinguish the enemy coming to assault" .
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Neighbouring entries
Revision history17 revisions · last 24 Jan 2026
- expanded n.7, added to bibliography, added cross-reference — Ronald Allen
- expanded n.7, added to bibliography — Ronald Allen
- expanded n.6, added further bibliography — Ronald Allen
- tweaked translation — Catharine Roth
- updated a ref — David Whitehead
- updated a ref — David Whitehead
- another note; cosmetics — David Whitehead
- cosmeticule — Jennifer Benedict
- augmented notes, added link and keywords, set status — William Hutton
- augmented n.6 and added a keyword — David Whitehead
- augmented notes and keywords; cosmetics — David Whitehead
- The only thracian item concerning Abaris is his father's name. Everything else pledes for his sythian ('hyperborean') origin. This is why I suppose we deal here with a copist mistake, and I propose the emendation: ́Αβαρις: Σκύθης, *Σκύθου υἱός (for Σκύθης as mythological character, see for example Herodotos 4,10). — Mihai Olteanu
- added note — David Whitehead
- augmented notes and bibliography; cosmetics — David Whitehead
- Modified translation and notes, added keywords, set status. — William Hutton
- —
- —
- Translated — Anne Mahoney