Abarimon or antipode in

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

are people whose feet are turned backwards, but in spite of this handicap were able to run at great speed. In Europe, this tribe was first described by

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

, in his book, ''Natural History'' (VII 11), who considered them to be native to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. A similar tale is recounted by

Aulus Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, or ...

in ''Attic Nights''. They lived side by side with wild animals and attempts to capture them failed because they were so savage. Pliny refers to information that originates from Baiton, which was

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, wikt:Ἀλέξανδρος, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Maced ...

's Land Surveyor. Baiton says that the ''abarimons'' could only breathe the air in their own domestic valleys. Because of the special quality of air, which meant if it was breathed for a long period of time, it would be impossible to breathe any other type of air. Therefore the inhabitants were unable to leave the valley and live anywhere else. And so it was impossible to capture them and bring them to the courts of a distant ruler, or to the great Macedonian conquest. Plinius, ''

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' ( la, Naturalis historia) is a work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. ...

''7, 11. It is possible that this is an overly designed ethnographic description of an ancient wildlife strain in the areas near

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

.W. Tomaschek, RE I, 1, Sp. 16. According to another

legend A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...

, Abarimon is mentioned as a landscape in

Scythia Scythia (Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe. His ...

, a valley of Mount Imaus, (which may be identical to

Hindukush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Provinc ...

or the

Himalayan Mountains The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

). Later, Abarimon has been briefly described in Thomas Cooper's ''Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae'', as a tribe in the country '' Tataria ''. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, some mapdrawers, after a familiar

heliocentric Heliocentrism (also known as the Heliocentric model) is the astronomical model in which the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the center of the universe. Historically, heliocentrism was opposed to geocentrism, which placed the Earth at ...

view, have made monsters in the form of Abarimon people and placed them at the outer border of the world.

References

*''Natural History of Pliny''.

John Bostock John Joseph Bostock (born 15 January 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Notts County. Bostock made his professional debut for Crystal Palace at the age of 15. In 2008, he signed for Tottenham Hotsp ...

Henry Thomas Riley Henry Thomas Riley (June 1816 – 14 April 1878) was an English translator, lexicographer, and antiquary. Life Born in June 1816, he was only son of Henry Riley of Southwark, an ironmonger. He was educated at Chatham House, Ramsgate, and at Cha ...

, translators. George Bell & Sons, 1890.

External links

* http://www.lizaphoenix.com/encyclopedia/abarimon.shtml {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180326064534/http://www.lizaphoenix.com/encyclopedia/abarimon.shtml , date=2018-03-26 The Phoenixian Book of Creatures. Mythic humanoids Roman legendary creatures Himalayan peoples Mythological peoples

See also

References

External links