Homo hyperboreus – szwedzka próba zakwestionowania oryginalności dorobku intelektualnego starożytnych Greków w XVII wieku

Piotr Kochanek

doi:10.56583/fs.2322

Published : 2023-12-31

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2023)

Homo Hyperboreus: The 17th-Century Swedish Attempt to Question the Originality of the Intellectual Achievements of the Ancient Greeks

Piotr Kochanek

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9702-548X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56583/fs.2322

Abstract

In the 17th century, Sweden was one of the European powers. One of the ways in which it tried to ideologically strengthen its high international position was to refer to the well-known Greek myth about the Hyperboreans. This reference had two main purposes: 1) to point out the high ethical and moral level of the Swedes as descendants of the Hyperboreans; 2) to question the cultural hegemony of the ancient Greeks, who themselves had considered the Hyperboreans to be a society with an exemplary ethical and moral structure. Relying on the Hyperborean legend, Swedish scholars (e.g. Georg Stiernhielm, Olaus Verelius, and Olaf Rubeck the Elder) tried to prove that the Swedes, descendants of the Goths, were the oldest nation of Europe and that the Gothic language was the original language of humanity. Consequently, the Greeks were believed to have perceived the culture of the Goths and Swedes, whom they called Hyperboreans, as models to follow, and their intellectual achievements were seen a mere imitation. Therefore, it was not the Greeks but the Goths and Swedes that had built the foundations of European civilization and that deserved the first place in the hierarchy of European nations.

Keywords:

history of Swedish political thought, Hyperboreans, Goths, Swedes, hierarchy of European nations, homo hyperboreus

Details

References

Statistics

Authors

Download files

PDF (Język Polski)

Citation rules

Kochanek, P. (2023). Homo Hyperboreus: The 17th-Century Swedish Attempt to Question the Originality of the Intellectual Achievements of the Ancient Greeks. Facta Simonidis, 16(2), 11–40. https://doi.org/10.56583/fs.2322

Altmetric indicators

Cited by / Share

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

References

Anttila T., The Power of Antiquity. The Hyperboreans Research Tradition in Early Modern Swedish Research on National Antiquity, Oulu 2014 (Acta Universitatis Ouluensis, B: Humaniora, vol. 125).

Apotheosis of the North. The Swedish Appropriation of Classical Antiquity around the Baltic Sea and Beyond (1650-1800), ed. B. Roling, B. Schirg, S.H. Bauhaus, Berlin-Boston 2017 (Transformationen der Antike, Bd. 48).

Boreas Rising. Antiquarianism and National Narratives in 17th- and 18th-Century Scandinavia, ed. B. Roling, B. Schirg, Berlin-Boston 2019 (Transformationen der Antike, Bd. 53).

Burke P., Languages and Communities in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge 2004 (The Wiles Lectures). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511617362

Croke B., Cassiodorus and the “Getica” of Jordanes, „Classical Philology”, 82 (1987), no. 2, s. 117-134. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/367034

Doležal S., „Thúlé” a „Scandza” u Jordana a souvislosti s Procopiem, „Listy Filologické”, 134 (2011), Čis. 3-4, s. 285-307.

Donecker S., The “Vagina nationum” in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Envisioning of North as a Repository of Migrating Barbarians, in: Visions of the North in Premodern Europe, ed. D. Jørgensen, V. Langum, Turnhout 2018 (Cursor Mundi, vol. 31), s. 307-328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CURSOR-EB.5.114068

Eco U., La ricerca della lingua perfetta nella cultura europea, Roma-Bari 1993 (Fare l’Europa).

Ehrhardt H., Goticismus, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Bd. 4: Erzkanzler bis Hiddensee, München-Zürich 1989, szp. 1573-1575.

Ekman E., Gothic Patriotism and Olof Rudbeck, „Journal of Modern History”, 34 (1962), no. 1, s. 52-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/238996

Ellenius A., Johannes Schefferus and Swedish Antiquity, „Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes”, 20 (1957), no. 1-2, s. 59-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/750151

Eriksson G., The Atlantic Vision. Olaus Rudbeck and Baroque Science, Canton (Mass.) 1994 (Uppsala Studies in the History of Science, vol. 19).

Gautier Dalché P., La Géographie de Ptolémée en Occident (IVe-XVIe siècle), Turnhout 2009 (Terrarum Orbis, [vol.] 9).

Hovdhaugen E., The Study of Early Germanic Languages in Scandinavia. Ihre, Stiernhielm, in: History of the Language Sciences. An International Handbook on the Evolution of Language from the Beginnings to the Present, vol. 2, ed. S. Auroux, Berlin-Boston 2006 (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, Bd. 18, T. 2), s. 1125-1129.

Keuning J., Isaac Massa, 1586-1643, „Imago Mundi”, 10 (1953), s. 65-79. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03085695308592034

Kochanek P., Die Vorstellung vom Norden und der Eurozentrismus. Eine Auswertung der patristischen und mittelalterlichen Literatur, Mainz 2004 (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts fur Europäische Geschichte Mainz. Abteilung fur Abendlandische Religionsgeschichte, Bd. 205).

Kochanek P., Iluzja schematów choro- i topograficznych jako baza mnemotechnicznej „portolany” w starożytności, w: Tworzenie iluzji społecznych. Wiedza w sferze publicznej, red. J. Szymczyk, M. Zemło, A. Jabłoński, Lublin 2012 (Studia nad Wiedzą, t. 4), s. 73-126.

Kochanek P., Schematy ekumeny w literaturze patrystycznej w kontekście klasycznych schematów zamieszkałej ziemi, „Vox Patrum”, 30 (2010), t. 55, s. 307-340. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31743/vp.4341

Kolendo J., Mity etnogenezy w starożytności a kształtowanie się pojęć autochtonizmu i allochtonizmu, w: Wędrówka i etnogeneza w starożytności i w średniowieczu, red. M. Salamon, J. Strzelczyk, wyd. 2, Krakow 2010, s. 13-31.

Lindroth S., Der Gotizismus und seine Bedeutung in der schwedischen Wissenschaft, in: Studia gotica. Die eisenzeitlichen Verbindungen zwischen Schweden und Sudosteuropa, Vortrage beim Gotensymposion im Statens Historiska Museum, Hrsg. U.E. Hagberg, Stockholm 1972 (Kungliga Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademiens Handlingar. Antikvariska serien, vol. 25), s. 12-19.

Malpas J., “We Hyperboreans”. Toward a Nietzschean Topography, in: Individual and Community in Nietzsche’s Philosophy, ed. J. Young, Cambridge 2014, s. 195-213. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107279254.010

Manselli R., I popoli immaginari. Gog e Magog, in: Popoli e paesi nella cultura altomedievale, 23-29 aprile 1981, vol. 2, Spoleto 1983 (Settimane di Studi del Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, vol. 29/2), s. 487-517.

Neville K., Gothicism and Early Modern Historical Ethnography, „Journal of the History of Ideas”, 70 (2009), no. 2, s. 213-234. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/jhi.0.0036

Nietzsche F., Antychryst. Przemiany wszelkich wartości, przedmowa i księga pierwsza, tłum. L. Staff, Warszawa 1907 (Dzieła Fryderyka Nietzschego, t. 8).

Nietzsche F., Der Antichrist. Versuch einer Kritik des Christenthums, in: tenże, Der Fall Wagner. Götzen-Dämmerung. Nietzsche contra Wagner. Der Wille zur Macht (I. Buch: Der Antichrist). Dichtungen, Leipzig 1899 (Nietzsche’s Werke, Bd. 8), s. 211-314.

Nordström J., De yverbornes ö. Sextonhundratalsstudier, Stockholm 1934.

Pihlaja P.M., The “Northern Atlantis” Revisited. Inventing the Arctic Roots of Civilisation in Late Eighteenth-Century Paris, in: Visions of the North in Premodern Europe, ed. D. Jørgensen, V. Langum, Turnhout 2018 (Cursor Mundi, vol. 31), s. 329-347. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CURSOR-EB.5.114069

Plassmann A., Origo gentis. Identitäts- und Legitimitätsstiftung in früh- und hochmittelalterlichen Herkunftserzählungen, Berlin 2006 (Orbis Mediaevalis, Bd. 7). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1524/9783050048529

Preste T., Il goticismo. Un mito per la costruzione dell’identità svedese (1611-1682), „Studi Storici”, 49 (2008), nr 2, s. 473-521.

Rix R.W., The Barbarian North in the Medieval Imagination. Ethnicity, Legend, and Literature, London 2015 (Routledge Studies in Medieval Religion and Culture, vol. 11). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315743622

Roling B., Akademischer Hyperboreer-Kult. Rudbeckianische Disputationen zwischen Netzwerkbildung und nationaler Überhohung, in: Frühneuzeitliche Disputationen. Polyvalente Produktionsapparate gelehrten Wissens, Hrsg. M. Gindhart, H. Marti, R. Seidel, Mitarbeit K. Marti-Weissenbach, Köln-Weimar-Wien 2016, s. 199-216. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7788/9783412504854-007

Roling B., Atlantic Uppsala. Paganism and Old Norse Literature in Swedish University Disputations, in: Early Modern Disputations and Dissertations in an Interdisciplinary and European Context, ed. M. Friedenthal, H. Marti, R. Seidel, Leiden-Boston 2020 (Intersections, vol. 71), s. 857-877. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004436206_033

Roling B., Der Schamane und das Orakel von Delphi. Prophetie und Prophetiemodelle im frühneuzeitlichen Skandinavien, in: Prophetie und Autorschaft. Charisma, Heilsversprechen und Gefährdung, Hrsg. H. Meier, M. Wagner-Edelhaaf, Berlin-Boston 2014, s. 277-303. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1524/9783050065243.277

Roling B., Hyperboreans in Tibet. Transformations of the “Atlantica” of Olaus Rudbeck in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century, in: Boreas Rising. Antiquarianism and National Narratives in 17th- and 18th-Century Scandinavia, ed. B. Roling, B. Schirg, Berlin-Boston 2019 (Transformationen der Antike, Bd. 53), s. 263-280. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110638042-013

Roling B., Odin, Apoll des Nordens. Der europäischer Antiquarismusdiskurs und die Erschliesung nationaler Tradition in der Frühen Neuzeit, in: Neue Diskurse der Gelehrtenkultur in der Frühen Neizeit. Ein Handbuch, Hrsg. H. Jaumann, G. Stiening, Berlin 2016, s. 565-634. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110289992-014

Roling B., Zion im Norden. Olaus Rudbeck der Jungere und die biblische Stilisierung Lapplands, „Orbis Terrarum”, 13 (2015), s. 227-250.

Roling R., Odins Imperium. Der Rudbeckianismus als Paradigma an den skandinavischen Universitäten (1680-1860), Bd. 1-2, Leiden-Boston 2020 (Mittellateinische Studien und Texte, Bd. 54/1-2). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004434516_002

Sandin P., Scythia or Elysium? The Land of the Hyperboreans in Early Greek Literature, in: Visions of the North in Premodern Europe, ed. D. Jørgensen, V. Langum, Turnhout 2018 (Cursor Mundi, vol. 31), s. 13-39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CURSOR-EB.5.114055

Schilder G., Development and Achievements of Dutch Northern and Arctic Cartography in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, „Arctic”, 37 (1984), no. 4, s. 493-514. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic2231

Schmidt-Voges J., De antiqua claritate et clara antiquitate Gothorum. Gotizismus als Identitätsmodell im frühneuzeitlichen Schweden, Frankfurt am Main-Berlin-Bern 2004 (Imago Borealis, vol. 4).

See K. von, Nord-Glaube und Atlantis-Sehnsucht, in: tenże, Ideologie und Philologie. Aufsätze zur Kultur- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Heidelberg 2006 (Frankfurter Beitrage zur Germanistik, Bd. 44), s. 91-117.

Sinnerbrink R., “We Hyperboreans”. Platonism and Politics in Heidegger and Nietzsche, „Contretemps”, 2002, no. 3, s. 161-174.

Sjökvist P., Petrus Lagerlöf Instructing on Gothicism, in: Apotheosis of the North. The Swedish Appropriation of Classical Antiquity around the Baltic Sea and Beyond (1650-1800), ed. B. Roling, B. Schirg, S.H. Bauhaus, Berlin-Boston 2017 (Transformationen der Antike, Bd. 48), s. 63-76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110524888-005

Söderberg V., Nicolaus Ragvaldis tal i Basel 1434, „Samlaren”, 17 (1896), s. 187-195.

Strzelczyk J., Goci – rzeczywistość i legenda, Warszawa 1984.

Svenbro J., L’Ideologie „gothisante” et l’„Atlantica” d’Olof Rudbeck. Le mythe platonicien et l’Atlantide au service de l’Empire suedois du XVIIe siecle, „Quaderni di Storia”, 11 (1980), s. 121-156.

Svennung J., Zur Geschichte des Gothicismus, Stockholm 1967 (Skrifter/Kungliga Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet i Uppsala, vol. 44/2B).

Szelągowska K., Renesansowa historiografia norweska na tle pisarstwa historycznego XVI w. w Skandynawii, „Kwartalnik Historyczny”, 116 (2009), z. 1, s. 75-101.

Vidal-Naquet P., Atlantis and the Nations, transl. J. Lloyd, „Critical Inquiry”, 18 (1992), s. 300-325. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/448634

Visions of the North in Premodern Europe, ed. D. Jorgensen, V. Langum, Turnhout 2018 (Cursor Mundi, vol. 31).

Winiarczyk M., „O Hyperborejczykach” Hekatajosa z Abdery. Stan badań (1848-2005) i próba interpretacji, „Meander”, 61 (2006), nr 1-2, s. 29-55.

Winiarczyk M., Das Werk „Peri Hyperboreon” des Hekataios von Abdera (FGrHist 264 F 7-14). Forschungsgeschichte (1848-2005) und Interpretationsversuch, „Eos”, 93 (2006), fasc. 1, s. 26-54.

Winiarczyk M., Die hellenistischen Utopien, Berlin-Boston 2011 (Beitrag zur Altertumskunde, Bd. 293). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110263893

Winiarczyk M., Utopie w Grecji hellenistycznej, Wrocław 2010 (Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis. Antiquitas, nr 32).

Wührer K., Zur Gotenfrage, „Zeitschrift fur deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur”, 87 (1957), H. 4, s. 241-244.