The traditions of arrow divination and oracular augury practices, as well as good luck charms to be given out as gifts to newborn males (see Arrow Divination and Yakudoshi Custom) appear to have originated between the Black Sea-Maeotia area, the Caucasus’ Riphae Mountains and Altai mountains in North Asia. See the excerpts below place the divine arrow stories in the land of the Scythians / Skythians mentioning the Hyborean cold North Winds swooping down upon the Scythians in the Caucasus and the swans from the Riphaion Mountains. In the case of the Altai, all the Turkic-Xiongnu and Mongolic tribes have in common arrow augury, archery games and the custom of gifting of arrow to male children.
‘Descent of the Divine Royal Kings from Heaven’ Legends, and Bows and Arrows gifts to royal heirs
In Japanese 8th century ancient records of the province of Yamashiro, tell the tale of the red painted arrow that comes floating down the river to impregnate the Tamayori-bime princess. The arrow is a metaphor for a storm deity:
The following is an outline of the story as recorded in the Yamashiro no kuni no fudoki 山城国風土g己 [The regional records of the province
of Yamashiro] compiled m the eighth century:(6)
The great god of Kamo, Kamo no Taketsunumi no Mikoto, descended onto the top of Mt. Takachiho in Himuka, and later led Emperor Jinmu [the first emperor] in his expedition to the east. Then he reached Kamo in the province of Yamashiro [present Kyoto] by himself, and there married a deity of Tanba, Ikakoya-bime. A female deity, Tamayori-bime，
was born.
When Tamayori-bime was playing on the river Semi, the upper reaches of the Kamo River, a red painted arrow came floating down. She picked it up, and stuck it at one end of her bed, whereupon she became pregnant because of the arrow.
A boy was born.
When the boy came of age, his grandfather, Taketsunumi no Mikoto, gave a magnificent banquet and invited many deities. They enjoyed themselves for seven days and seven
nights, when Taketsunumi no Mikoto said to the boy, “Offer this cup of sake to a deity whom you identify as your own father.” The boy looked heavenward with the cup in his hand
and prayed; then he flew up to heaven, breaking through the roof tiles. He was named Kamo no WaKi-ikazuchi no Mikoto (ikazuchi means “thunder”). The red painted arrow is Ho no
Ikazuchi no Kami, now worshipped at the shrine of O to kuni District.
(abridged from Akimoto 1958, pp. 414-15)
— Toshio, Akima “The Myth of the Goddess of the Undersea World and the Tale of Empress Jingu’s Subjugation of Silla”
According to the Korean myth of Jakjegon, who is born to Jinui, the younger daughter of Boyuk of Songak County, Shilla (who was the son of mountain god Kang-chung and a tigress goddess). Jinui had received the advances of a royal prince of the Tang Emperor and lived with him for a few months before he left for his home country, leaving behind bows and arrows for the son she will bear him. The youth Jakjegon sets out for to look for his father, but his boat meets with a sea storm and the sailor crew sacrifice him to the Undersea Dragon King, whereupon he meets and is wedded to his wife, the daughter of the Dragon King. They later return to settle Korea and among his four sons, is Yongon (Yung) who will migrate to north of Paektu mountain and give birth to the founder of Koryo kingdom. He loses his wife however, because one night he goes back on his promise not to look at her as she descends a well for the Western Sea every night, and she turns into a yellow dragon and vanishes forever. Adapted and summarized from: Korean Myths and Folk Legends (Hwang Pae-Gang) p 92-93
The Jakjegon Korean tale has many components of the Legend of Empress Jimmu as well as the Urashima Taro legend. However, the Korean tale itself gives a Chinese origin for the royal paternal lineage, the indication that Jakjegon is the son of the Tang Emperor suggests in no uncertain terms a Chinese provenance. More details on the custom of gifting newborn boys with bows and arrows here: (see Arrow Divination and Yakudoshi Custom)
Compare the above arrow symbolism with that of the tale of the Greek arrow of Apollo recounted below.
The Greek arrow is a symbol of Apollo and Greek tales told of his priest Abaris flying on it … denoting shamanic influences:
“Abaris the Hyperborean (Greek: Ἄβαρις Ὑπερβόρειος, Abaris Hyperboreios), son of Seuthes, was a legendary sage, healer, and priest of Apollo known to the Ancient Greeks. He was supposed to have learned his skills in his homeland of Hyperborea, near the Caucasus,[1] which he fled during a plague. He was said to be endowed with the gift of prophecy, and by this as well as by his Scythian dress and simplicity and honesty he created great sensation in Greece, and was held in high esteem.[2]
According to Herodotus he was said to have traveled around the world with an arrow[3] symbolizing Apollo, eating no food.[4] Heraclides Ponticus wrote that Abaris flew on it. Plato (Charmides 158C) classes him amongst the “Thracian physicians” who practice medicine upon the soul as well as the body by means of “incantations” (epodai). A temple to Persephone at Sparta was attributed to Abaris by Pausanias (9.10). Alan H. Griffiths compares Abaris to Aristeas in terms of being a “shamanistic missionary and savior-figure” and notes Pindar places Abaris during the time of Croesus.[5]” — Source: Abaris, the Hyperborean
The arrow as a divination and magical tool and healing symbol:
“Abaris was a priest of Apollo who, with the help of that god, fled from Scythia (in the Caucasus) to Greece to avoid a plague. Apollo gave him a golden arrow which cured diseases and spoke oracles. The arrow also rendered the priest invisible and made him ride through the sky. Abaris later gave the dart to Pythagoras. He is mentioned by Herodotus and Pindar and surnamed ‘the Hyperborean’.” –Source: “Abaris.” Encyclopedia Mythica from Encyclopedia Mythica Online.
<http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/abaris.html>
[Accessed September 20, 2013].
According to “Apollo”, from Encyclopedia Mythica Online, Apollo is:
“…a god of light, known as “Phoebus” (radiant or beaming, and he was sometimes identified with Helios the sun god). He was also the god of plague and was worshiped as Smintheus (from sminthos, rat) and as Parnopius (from parnops, grasshopper) and was known as the destroyer of rats and locust, and according to Homer’s Iliad, Apollo shot arrows of plague into the Greek camp. Apollo being the god of religious healing would give those guilty of murder and other immoral deeds a ritual purification. Sacred to Apollo are the swan (one legend says that Apollo flew on the back of a swan to the land of the Hyperboreans, he would spend the winter months among them), the wolf and the dolphin. His attributes are the bow and arrows…In art Apollo is at most times depicted as a handsome young man, clean shaven and carrying either a lyre, or his bow and arrows.”
The arrow of Apollo was buried in the Hyperborean mountain
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 15 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
“Eratosthenes [Greek writer C3rd B.C.] says about the Arrow, that with this Apollo killed the Cyclopes who forged the thunderbolt by which Aesculapius died. Apollo had buried this arrow in the Hyperborean mountain, but when Jupiter [Zeus] pardoned his son, it was borne by the wind and brought to Apollo along with the grain which at that time was growing. Many point out that for this reason it is among the constellations.”
[N.B. Presumably the “arrow in the Hyperborean mountain” is connected with the tale of Abaris, the Hyperborean arrow-riding prophet of Apollon.]
The sources for the above as well as for the quotes in the following section are from Hyperboreans:
Who were the Hyperboreans?
Aelian, On Animals 11. 1 :
“The race of the Hyperboreans and the honours there paid to Apollon are sung of by poets and are celebrated by historians, among whom is Hekataios, not of Miletos but of Abdera [Greek philosopher C4th B.C.] . . . This god [Apollon] has as priests the sons of Boreas (North Wind) and Khione (Snow), three in number, brothers by birth, and six cubits in height. So when at the customary time they perform the established ritual of the aforesaid god there swoop down from what are called the Rhipaion mountains swans in clouds, past numbering, and after they have circled round the temple as though they were purifying it by their flight, they descend into the precinct of the temple, an area of immense size and of surpassing beauty. Now whenever the singers sing their hymns to the god and the harpers accompany the chorus with their harmonious music, thereupon the swans also with one accord join in the chant and never once do they sing a discordant note or out of tune, but as though they had been given the key by the conductor they chant in unison with the natives who are skilled in the sacred melodies. Then when the hymn is finished the aforesaid winged choristers, so to call them, after their customary service in honour of the god and after singing and celebrating his praises all through the day, depart.”
Aelian, Historical Miscellany 2. 26 (trans. Wilson) (Greek rhetorician C2nd to 3rd A.D.) :
“Aristotle says that Pythagoras [C6th B.C.] was addressed by the citizens of Kroton as Apollon Hyperboreus (of the Hyperboreans).” [I.e. probably because he was a prophet of the northern mysteries.]
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1. 11 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :
“Golden are the tears of the daughters of Helios (the Sun). The story is that they are shed for Phaëthon; for in his passion for driving this son of Helios ventured to mount his father’s chariot, but because he did not keep a firm rein he came to grief and fell into the Eridanos . . . Now the youth is thrown from the chariot and is falling headlong–for his hair is on fire and his breast smouldering with the heat; his fall will end in the river Eridanos and will furnish this stream with a mythical tale. For swans scattered about, breathing sweet notes, will hymn the youth; and flocks of swans rising aloft will sing the story to Kaÿstros and Istros [rivers of Lykia and Skythia]; nor will any place fail to hear the strange story. And they will have Zephyros, nimble god of wayside shrines, to accompany their song, for it is said that Zephyros has made a compact with the swans to join them in the music of the dirge. This agreement is even now being carried out, for look! The wind is playing on the swans as on musical instruments.” [N.B.The swans were said to spend the summer on the Kaystros river in Lydia and the winter on the Danube (Istros) among the Hyperboreans. Cf. Himerius 79. 17d (not quoted here).]
Clement, Exhortation to the Greeks 3 (trans. Butterworth) (Greek Christian rhetoric C2nd to 3rd A.D.) :
“These temples [those of the pagan Greeks] . . . are called by a fair-sounding name, but in reality they are tombs. But I appeal to you, even at this late hour forget daimon-worship, feeling ashamed to honour tombs . . . Why recount to you the Hyperborean women? They are called Hyperokhe and Laodike, and they lie in the Artemision (Temple of Artemis) at Delos; this is in the temple precincts of Delian Apollon.”
Where is Hyperborea?
Virgil, Georgics 3. 195 ff (trans. Fairclough) (Roman bucolic C1st B.C.) :
“When the gathered North Wind (Aquilo) swoops down from Hyperborean coasts, driving on Scythia’s storms and dry clouds.”
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 4. 88 ff (trans. Rackham) (Roman encyclopedia C1st A.D.) :
“Along the [Black Sea] coast [of Europe], as far as the river Tanais [the Don], are the Maeotae [a Skythian tribe] . . . and last of all in the rear of the Maeotae are the Arimaspi. Then come the Ripaean Mountains [the Carpathians?] and the region called Peterophorus [‘wing-bringers’], because of the feather-like snow continually falling there; it is a part of the world that lies under the condemnation of nature and is plunged in dense darkness, and occupied only by the work of frost and the chilly lurking-places of Aquilo [Boreas the North Wind]. Behind these mountains and beyond Aquilo there dwells–if we can believe it–a happy race of people called the Hyperboreans, who live to extreme old age and are famous for legendary marvels. Here are believed to be the hinges on which the firmament turns and the extreme revolutions of the stars, with six months’ daylight and a single day of the sun in retirement, not as the ignorant have said, from the spring equinox till autumn: for these people the sun rises once in the year, at midsummer, and sets once, at midwinter. It is a genial region, with a delightful climate and exempt from every harmful blast. The homes of the natives are the woods and groves; they worship the gods severally and in congregations; all discord and all sorrow is unknown. Death comes to them only when, owing to the satiety of life, after holding a banquet and anointing their old age with luxury, they leap from a certain rock into the sea: this mode of burial is the most blissful. Some authorities have placed these people not in Europe but on the nearest part of the coasts of Asia, because there is a race there with similar customs and a similar location, named the Attaci; others have put them midway between the two suns, the sunsets of the antipodes and our sunrise, but this is quite impossible because of the enormous expanse of sea that comes between. Those who locate them merely in a region having six months of daylight have recorded that they sow in the morning periods, reap at midday, pluck the fruit from the trees at sunset, and retire into caves for the night. Nor is it possible to doubt about this race, as so may authorities state that they regularly send the first fruits of their harvests to Delos as offerings to Apollo, whom they specially worship. These offerings used to be brought by virgins, who for many years were held in veneration and hospitably entertained by the nations on the route, until because of a violation of good faith they instituted the custom of depositing their offerings at the nearest frontiers of the neighbouring people, and these of passing them on to their neighbours, and so till they finally reached Delos. Later this practice itself also passed out of use.”
Virgil, Georgics 3. 195 ff (trans. Fairclough) (Roman bucolic C1st B.C.) :
“When the gathered North Wind (Aquilo) swoops down from Hyperborean coasts, driving on Scythia’s storms and dry clouds.”
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 4. 88 ff (trans. Rackham) (Roman encyclopedia C1st A.D.) :
“Along the [Black Sea] coast [of Europe], as far as the river Tanais [the Don], are the Maeotae [a Skythian tribe] . . . and last of all in the rear of the Maeotae are the Arimaspi. Then come the Ripaean Mountains [the Carpathians?] and the region called Peterophorus [‘wing-bringers’], because of the feather-like snow continually falling there; it is a part of the world that lies under the condemnation of nature and is plunged in dense darkness, and occupied only by the work of frost and the chilly lurking-places of Aquilo [Boreas the North Wind]. Behind these mountains and beyond Aquilo there dwells–if we can believe it–a happy race of people called the Hyperboreans, who live to extreme old age and are famous for legendary marvels. Here are believed to be the hinges on which the firmament turns and the extreme revolutions of the stars, with six months’ daylight and a single day of the sun in retirement, not as the ignorant have said, from the spring equinox till autumn: for these people the sun rises once in the year, at midsummer, and sets once, at midwinter. It is a genial region, with a delightful climate and exempt from every harmful blast. The homes of the natives are the woods and groves; they worship the gods severally and in congregations; all discord and all sorrow is unknown. Death comes to them only when, owing to the satiety of life, after holding a banquet and anointing their old age with luxury, they leap from a certain rock into the sea: this mode of burial is the most blissful. Some authorities have placed these people not in Europe but on the nearest part of the coasts of Asia, because there is a race there with similar customs and a similar location, named the Attaci; others have put them midway between the two suns, the sunsets of the antipodes and our sunrise, but this is quite impossible because of the enormous expanse of sea that comes between. Those who locate them merely in a region having six months of daylight have recorded that they sow in the morning periods, reap at midday, pluck the fruit from the trees at sunset, and retire into caves for the night. Nor is it possible to doubt about this race, as so may authorities state that they regularly send the first fruits of their harvests to Delos as offerings to Apollo, whom they specially worship. These offerings used to be brought by virgins, who for many years were held in veneration and hospitably entertained by the nations on the route, until because of a violation of good faith they instituted the custom of depositing their offerings at the nearest frontiers of the neighbouring people, and these of passing them on to their neighbours, and so till they finally reached Delos. Later this practice itself also passed out of use.”
Hyperborea is associated with swans
Aelian, On Animals 11. 10 :
“I have mentioned the swans from the Rhipaion Mountains in the country of the Hyperboreans on account of their daily and assiduous service of [Apollon] the son of Zeus and Leto.”
Aelian, On Animals 11. 1 :
“The race of the Hyperboreans and the honours there paid to Apollon are sung of by poets and are celebrated by historians, among whom is Hekataios, not of Miletos but of Abdera [Greek philosopher C4th B.C.] . . . This god [Apollon] has as priests the sons of Boreas (North Wind) and Khione (Snow), three in number, brothers by birth, and six cubits in height. So when at the customary time they perform the established ritual of the aforesaid god there swoop down from what are called the Rhipaion mountains swans in clouds, past numbering, and after they have circled round the temple as though they were purifying it by their flight, they descend into the precinct of the temple, an area of immense size and of surpassing beauty. Now whenever the singers sing their hymns to the god and the harpers accompany the chorus with their harmonious music, thereupon the swans also with one accord join in the chant and never once do they sing a discordant note or out of tune, but as though they had been given the key by the conductor they chant in unison with the natives who are skilled in the sacred melodies. Then when the hymn is finished the aforesaid winged choristers, so to call them, after their customary service in honour of the god and after singing and celebrating his praises all through the day, depart.”
Aelian, On Animals 11. 10 :
“I have mentioned the swans from the Rhipaion Mountains in the country of the Hyperboreans on account of their daily and assiduous service of [Apollon] the son of Zeus and Leto.”
Aelian, Historical Miscellany 2. 26 (trans. Wilson) (Greek rhetorician C2nd to 3rd A.D.) :
“Aristotle says that Pythagoras [C6th B.C.] was addressed by the citizens of Kroton as Apollon Hyperboreus (of the Hyperboreans).” [I.e. probably because he was a prophet of the northern mysteries.]
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1. 11 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :
“Golden are the tears of the daughters of Helios (the Sun). The story is that they are shed for Phaëthon; for in his passion for driving this son of Helios ventured to mount his father’s chariot, but because he did not keep a firm rein he came to grief and fell into the Eridanos . . . Now the youth is thrown from the chariot and is falling headlong–for his hair is on fire and his breast smouldering with the heat; his fall will end in the river Eridanos and will furnish this stream with a mythical tale. For swans scattered about, breathing sweet notes, will hymn the youth; and flocks of swans rising aloft will sing the story to Kaÿstros and Istros [rivers of Lykia and Skythia]; nor will any place fail to hear the strange story. And they will have Zephyros, nimble god of wayside shrines, to accompany their song, for it is said that Zephyros has made a compact with the swans to join them in the music of the dirge. This agreement is even now being carried out, for look! The wind is playing on the swans as on musical instruments.” [N.B.The swans were said to spend the summer on the Kaystros river in Lydia and the winter on the Danube (Istros) among the Hyperboreans. Cf. Himerius 79. 17d (not quoted here).]
Clement, Exhortation to the Greeks 3 (trans. Butterworth) (Greek Christian rhetoric C2nd to 3rd A.D.) :
“These temples [those of the pagan Greeks] . . . are called by a fair-sounding name, but in reality they are tombs. But I appeal to you, even at this late hour forget daimon-worship, feeling ashamed to honour tombs . . . Why recount to you the Hyperborean women? They are called Hyperokhe and Laodike, and they lie in the Artemision (Temple of Artemis) at Delos; this is in the temple precincts of Delian Apollon.”
Ovid, Metamorphoses 10. 352 ff (trans. Brookes More) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
“Or if some black bitumen catches fire or yellow sulphur burns with little smoke, then surely, when the ground no longer gives such food and oily nutriment for flames . . . ‘Tis said that Hyperboreans of Pallene can cover all their bodies with light plumes by plunging nine times in Minerva’s marsh [i.e. a lake of bitumen]. But I cannot believe another tale : that Scythian women get a like result by having poison sprinkled on their limbs.”
[N.B. The bitumen marsh is presumably the mythical swamp of the Eridanos into which Phaethon fell after he was struck down from the chariot of the sun by Zeus with a thunderbolt. The swans of Hyperborea were said to rise from its waters. In Ovid’s story the Hyperborean folk themselves become swans after bathing in the waters. Cf. Ovid’s myth of the metamorphosis of Kyknos “the Swan,” a friend of Phaethon.]
The cult of Apollo
“The Hyperboreans’ cult of Apollo represents the golden epoch of the ante-Greek Pelasgian civilization. With the beginning of the Pelasgian migrations from the Carpathian Mountains towards south, this cult spreads over ancient Greece, over the islands of the Archipelagos and the shores of Asia Minor. We will examine here, from a historic and geographic point of view, the details preserved in Hecateus’ writings about the Hyperboreans. A new, important chapter in the history of the old Pelasgian world opens in front of us.
Leto and Apollo. The prophets Olen and Abaris from the land of the Hyperboreans.
During Greek antiquity, the true home of the god Apollo was considered to have been in the land of the Hyperboreans. Even the inhabitants of Croton (Lower Italy), a city famous for the purity of its mores, gave Apollo, according to Aristotle, the epithet “Hyperborean” (Aelianus, V. H. II. 26; Frag. Hist. Graec. II. p.175. frag. 233 b; Cicero, De nat. Deor. III.23). Leto, on the other hand, the gentle goddess, with a sweet and kind disposition, the mother of Apollo and ArTumis, was born in the Hyperborean country, according to Hecateus, as well as to other authors of the antiquity (Diodorus Siculus, II. c. 47, IV.51; Pausanisas, Descriptio Graeciae, I. 18. 5; Aristoteles, Hist. Anim. VI. 35). According to Greek legend, Leto, pregnant by Jove, was persecuted by jealous Juno, being chased everywhere on the face of the earth, so much so that no country wished to receive her in order to give birth. Rejected everywhere, Leto at last reached, after long wanderings this way and that, Delos, a small unproductive island in the Archipelagos, and the solitary rocks of this island gave her asylum. The birth pains lasted for nine days and nine nights and here, on the green grass, under a fragrant palm tree, the Hyperborean goddess (from the Lower Danube) gave birth to the great god of the antique light (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, I. 4.1). Since that time, the island of Delos became a holy ground for the new Hyperborean god, and strong religious ties were established between the Hyperboreans and the Temple of Apollo in Delos, ties which continued during the whole of Greek antiquity.
Herodotus and Plutarch mention an old custom of the Hyperboreans, to send each year to the Temple of Apollo in Delos gifts from their first harvest. They wrapped these gifts in straw, and sent them to Delos with a delegation, which travelled to the holy place of their destination, in accompaniment of whistles, bagpipes and “cobze” (Plutarc, Oeuvres, Tome XIV, p.518). The Hyperborean mission went first to Dodona in Epirus, the old religious centre of the Balkan Pelasgians, from Dodona they crossed Thessaly and over to Eubea Island, and from there they continued the trip to Delos on water. In the beginning, writes Herodotus (lib. IV. C. 33-35), the Hyperboreans sent to Delos with these gifts two virgins, whose names, according to the Delians, were Hyperoche and Laodicea. To ensure their safety they sent with them five men, whom, according also to Herodotus, the Delians called Perpheres (bringers of gifts) and whom they treated with great honor. But it so happened that this delegation sent to Delos did not return, the Hyperboreans were very affected and, afraid that it could happen again in the future, they introduced the custom to bring the holy gifts, wrapped in straw, to the boundary of their country, where they asked their neighbors to hand them on, from people to people, until they reached Delos. But even before Hyperoche and Laodicea, continues Herodotus, the Hyperboreans had sent to Delos another two virgins, one called Arge and the other Opis, girls, who had travelled there together with Ilithya, who afterwards had helped Leto to give birth to the god Apollo. The women from Delos and from the Ionian islands venerated these two girls and Ilithya as divinities, and invoked them in the hymns composed by the hieratic poet Olen .
[1. So, the virgins sent by the Hyperboreans to Delos were, according to Herodotus, Arge and Opis (IV, 35), and the ones sent the second time were Hyperoche and Laodicea (IV,33). Pausanias names the first ones Hecaerge and Opis (V, 7. 8) and another one, sent later, Achaea. It results therefore that Arge was identical with Hecaerge and Hyperoche with Achaea. It is without doubt that the names of these Hyperborean virgins were expressed in Greek forms. In Pelasgian language Arg(os) means country (TN – tera) and field (Strabo, VIII, 6. 9). Homer calls the country of the Pelasgians Pelasgichon ‘argos (Iliad, II, 681). The whole of the Peloponnesus was once called Argos (Strabo, VIII, 6. 9). So, in this case, Arge cannot have another meaning than countrywoman or from the country (TN – terana or from tera); a word identical in fact with Opis, the second virgin’s name, which in the old Pelasgian – Latin language meant Terra (Varro, L, L, V. 57. 64). As we have seen, the name Arge appears with Pausanias as Hecaerge, the Greek adverb “hecas”, from far away, having been added. So, Hecaerge appears as a name with a topical character, having the meaning: from a far away country.”
Editorial note: The extracted passages above are a study on arrow symbolism and the possible Greek influences or derived (or in a vice-versa direction) arrow symbolism of the Saka-Scythians, Korean and Japanese arrow symbols (the latter two involve arrows impregnating virgin women which recalls the cult of Apollo and the gift of the Hyperborean virgins).
Further reading:
JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY & FOLKLORE 