PART 1 - Ch.V.5

(The temple of the Hyperboreans in Leuce island)

PART 1

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V. 5. The Celts near the island of the Hyperboreans.

In the Apollinic genesis we are faced with two more important questions of the prehistoric geography.

The blessed island of Apollo, Hecateus tells us, is in the northern parts (understand the Greek zone) and namely facing the land of the Celts (Diodorus Siculus, lib.II.47).

According to all the historical and geographical data, the Celts had immigrated to Europe from Asia only late, after the two big Neolithic currents. This warlike people had occupied in the beginning an important part of the vast lands from north of the Black Sea. Pushed afterwards by the new ethnic currents (German), which poured forth out of Asia towards Europe, they spread to different parts of Dacia, Pannonia and Germany, while some groups penetrated southwards, even during Pelasgian times, and settled sporadically as far as Beotia.

Diverse historical and geographical sources of antiquity mention those Celts from near the Black Sea. So, the renowned sophist Asclepiades of Thrace, who lived in the 4^th century bc, shows the legendary Boreas (from the Rhipae mountains, the Carpathians), as a king of the Celts (Probus ad Virgil. Georg. II. 84 / Fragmenta Hist. grace. Ed. Didot. III 306; fragm. 28). This Boreas appears with other authors as king of the Scythians, and Hecateus Abderitas says that the Boreazii, or the descendants of king Boreas, are the rulers and great priests of the Hyperboreans, in the holly island of Apollo.

The Agathyrses, renowned for their gold riches – a Tursene (Pelasgian) people – who in Herodotus’ times dwelt in today Transylvania – are considered by some Greek authors as Celts (Stephanos Byzanthinos, cf. Tacitus, Germania c. XXVIII. XLIII; Diefenbach, Origines Europaeae, p.139 seqq.).

Finally, the renowned grammarian and poet Lycophron from Eubea, who lived in the 3^rd century bc, tells us that Leuce island is situated in front of the mouths of the river named Keltos (Cassandr. V. 189 / Kohler, Memoire, p.544, 730), and under this name he understands the Istru, which came from the lands of the Celts, as Herodotus also writes.

Diodorus Siculus also mentions the Celts, as living close to the Black Sea. He says “the Celts who dwell in the northern region, and in the lands near the Ocean and the Hercinic mountains, as well as all those who are scattered as far as Scythia, are called Galls. And of these, the ones who dwell under the Northern Pole and those neighboring the Scythians are the wildest... their power and savagery had become so renowned in the world, that it is told that in ancient times they had wandered across, and had laid waste the whole of Asia, under the then name of Cimerians (lib. V.c.32). Strabo (XI.7.2) writes also: The old Greek authors called Scythians and Celtoscythians all the northern populations (Cf. Ibid. VII. 1.1).

When Hecateus tells us therefore, that the holly island of Apollo is in the northern region (or at north of the Greek zone) and faces the lands of the Celts, he considers the same historical sources as Asclepiades, who maintained that Boreas from the Rhipaei mountains was a king of the Celts; as Diodorus Siculus, who presents the Cimmerians from near the shores of the Nipru (TN – Dneper) river as Celts; and finally as Stephanos Byzanthinos, who considers the Agathyrsos, or the Pelasgian Tursens from near the river Mures, as Celts.

We will examine now the last geographical matter from the Apollinic legends. Geography is one of the principal lights of history.

From the blessed island of Apollo, writes Hecateus Abderitas, were seen some heights from Selina, which was not too distant. This Selina, near the island of Apollo, has complicated even more the geographical question of the location of the pious and virtuous Hyperboreans, about whom Hecateus speaks. Namely, the commentators of the fragments of Hecateus Abderitas, some for lack of precise geographical knowledge, others seduced by the text somewhat altered, as transmitted by Diodorus Siculus, believed that by this enigmatic Selene, from near the island of Apollo the Hyperborean, must be understood the moon (TN – luna) in the sky, interpreting therefore this passage not in the pure geographical spirit of the author, but giving it a totally fabulous meaning.

But Selina from the land of the Hyperboreans was a geographical reality. Leuce Island or Alba, which, after the Trojan war was consecrated to Achilles’ tomb, is situated, as we know, facing the two upper mouths of the Danube, one Chilia and the other Sulina. This latter arm of the Danube, which in the 10^th century ad appears to have been the most navigable, is called Selina by Constantinos Porfynogenitos (De admin. Imp. C.9), and under the same name of Selina it also appears in the “Catalan periple” of 1375 (Notices et Extraits de manuscrits de la Bibliotheque du roi et autres bibliotheques publies par l’Institut royal de France, T.XIV. 2-me partie, Paris, 1843). Finally, under the name of Selina, this part of the Danube Delta appears in all our heroic songs (Teodorescu, Folk poetry, p.562).

When Hecateus Abderitas writes then, that from the blessed island of Apollo were seen some terrestrial heights from Selina, he did not consider the aspect of the sky, or the distance, shorter or longer, of the moon to this corner of the earth, but he considered exclusively only that continental part of the Danube Delta, which, even in the Middle Ages was known to the Black Sea navigators under the name of Selina [1].

[1. An analogous geographical situation about Selina presents itself in Italy. Luna (TN -the moon), writes Strabo (V.2.5), is a city and port of Etruria and the Greeks call both Selene. The port is encircled by tall mountains, from where can be seen the sea and Sardinia, and a large part of the shore, both from here (Italy) and from there (Sardinia). So, there were in ancient time cities and ports dedicated to the moon or Selene, and bore the name of this divinity. It is possible that today the highest points of the Danube Delta can not be seen any more from the Serpents’ Island (Leuce), but this cannot serve as evidence, that in remote times the geological situation has been the same. According to Romanian traditions, a feature of the temple from Leuce Island was its considerable height].

We have examined here the main parts of the positive geography found in the fragments left from Hecateus Abderitas. This information will permit us to fix with complete certainty the geographical position of the island, where the memorable temple of Apollo the Hyperborean is to be found.

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