Hyperborea

<p >In&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mythology" title="Greek mythology" >Greek mythology</a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;<b>Hyperboreans</b>&nbsp;(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek" title="Ancient Greek" >Ancient&nbsp;Greek</a>:&nbsp;Ὑπερβόρε(ι)οι,&nbsp;<small>pronounced&nbsp;</small><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Greek" title="Help:IPA for Greek" >[hyperbóre(ː)ɔi̯]</a>;&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_language" title="Latin language" class="mw-redirect" >Latin</a>:&nbsp;<i>Hyperborei</i>) were mythical people who lived "beyond the North Wind". The Greeks thought that&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemoi#Boreas" title="Anemoi" >Boreas</a>, the god of the North Wind (one of the&nbsp;<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemoi" title="Anemoi" >Anemoi</a></i>, or "Winds") lived in&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrace" title="Thrace" >Thrace</a>, and therefore Hyperborea indicates a region that lay far to the north of&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrace" title="Thrace" >Thrace</a>.

This land was supposed to be perfect, with the sun shining twenty-four hours a day, which to modern ears suggests a possible location within the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Circle" title="Arctic Circle" >Arctic Circle</a>. However, it is also possible that Hyperborea had no real physical location at all, for according to the&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Greece" title="Classical Greece" >classical Greek</a>&nbsp;poet&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pindar" title="Pindar" >Pindar</a>,</p>

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<dd >neither by ship nor on foot would you find</dd>

<dd >the marvellous road to the assembly of the Hyperboreans.</dd>

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<p >Pindar also described the otherworldly perfection of the Hyperboreans:</p>

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<dd >Never the Muse is absent</dd>

<dd >from their ways: lyres clash and flutes cry</dd>

<dd >and everywhere maiden choruses whirling.</dd>

<dd >Neither disease nor bitter old age is mixed</dd>

<dd >in their sacred blood; far from labor and battle they live.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperborea#cite_note-1" >[1]</a></sup></dd>

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