1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Abaris

For works with similar titles, see Abaris.

ABARIS, a Scythian or Hyperborean, priest and prophet of Apollo, who is said to have visited Greece about 770 B.C., or two or three centuries later. According to the legend, he travelled throughout the country, living without food and riding on a golden arrow, the gift of the god; he healed the sick, foretold the future, worked miracles, and delivered Sparta from a plague (Herod. iv. 36; Iamblichus, De Vit. Pythag. xix. 28). Suidas credits him with several works: Scythian oracles, the visit of Apollo to the Hyperboreans, expiatory formulas and a prose theogony.