'Hyperborea' - The White Supremacist Dogwhistle Infiltrating Classics
Unfortunately, they're back at it...
I was minding my own business the other day, scrolling through the literal hellscape that was once known as Twitter, when an Ad popped up on my timeline:
At first glance I thought, wow that’s better than 99% of the the other random ones I see. Then, of course, the blue tick, the name, the ad and the aesthetic of it all activated my spidey senses and I immediately began to play my favourite game - how many seconds of browsing their profile until it’s entirely obvious they’re a Nazi? Would you believe it when I say that this broke the record; I didn’t even need to scroll:
Now at first glance, most people wouldn’t suspect much was wrong here. It has that vague kind of ‘RETVRN’ vibe to it, but not much immediately screams “I’m a Nazi.” That, of course, is the benefit of a dog whistle - it’s invisible to most, but very clear to a specific group of people. Now, you’ve read the title of this piece so it should be clear that the one word that tipped me off here was the ‘Location’ field being set to ‘Hyperborea’. This is the sign this account is run by someone who is deep into the world of ‘Esoteric Neo-Nazism.’
Given the account’s seemingly wholesome face and the fact that it was being advertised to many, I thought it would be valuable to unpack the origins and meanings of these ideas so others can watch out for similarly sinister accounts that attempt to slip their hateful ideologies into Classics content.
What was Hyperborea?
Hyperborea is a mythical northern land, whose origins can be traced back to Greek mythology; hence the Greek name meaning “beyond the North Wind”. The first extant source is Herodotus, who speaks of the Hyperboreans in mythical terms, much like the Aetheopians who lived in the far East. Geographically they were a people beyond the mountains to the north of Greece; during the Roman period their home pushed further and further north as they came into contact with other peoples - some even supposed that Gaul or Britain might be the mythical land. It gained a ‘lost’ or ‘unreachable’ quality in later times, in much the same way that Thule did as a hidden island far to the north.
Hyperborea was thought to be a sunny, blessed land despite its northern location, whose inhabitants were favoured by Apollo. While very little is said about them, they are sometimes described as giants, and in this way some Scandinavian peoples have linked their location and folklore to this idea. As you can imagine, over the course of 2000 years very little of its original basis from Greek mythology remains in the legend.
What Is Esoteric Neo-Nazism?
Look, I’m no expert in this and I really don’t want to be. A quick Google will give you the most baffling and horrifying ideas combined into one, but the basics are this: after the fall of the Nazis, some people were determined to keep their ideas going. Unlike some of the more brutal skinheads, these ones took the race ideology of the Nazi party and combined it with a hodgepodge of spiritualism and mysticism, to make a white-supremacist religion. The focus was still on Hitler’s Aryanism, which was already a blend of racist science and mystical woo, but they really just turned it up to 11. Ultimately they just picked out whatever they could that would support their racist beliefs and sounded crazy enough to fit their vibe. The ‘black sun’ symbol (which I won’t add here for obvious reasons) was a big favourite of theirs. If you really want to know more, which I wouldn’t recommend, Google away at your own peril.
How Do These Things Combine?
Well you might have guessed it, but the idea of the Hyperboreans and the Aryans have a lot of overlap, so it was natural that these neo-Nazis would latch onto the idea. They see the north as the origin point of their superior race, who spread south and made contact with Greece and northern India. The identification of Hyperborea as northern Europe obviously links them with white people and therefore it’s right up the alley of white supremacists. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot of overlaps with the ‘Ancient aliens’ or ‘lost civilisation’ crap that floats around today - Graham Hancock and co are not very far away from this at all, unfortunately.
So, with the rise of the ‘alt-right’ or whatever they call themselves these days, the need for dog whistles to promote their white supremacy has popularised the concept of Hyperborea. With many ‘aesthetic’ accounts promoting ‘Western’ culture through Classical art and achitecture, they are also leaning into the link between ‘Hyperborea’ and ancient Greece. Which is why, when I saw that Twitter account above, I knew that if I did a little digging I’d find some pretty obvious white supremacist ideas. Believe it or not, a few posts in and they were firmly declaring the white origins of people in Northern India based on bogus studies.
Luckily, the connection of Hyperborea to Classics isn’t as strong as the ‘Ancient Aliens’ sort, but if left unchecked it won’t be long till we see all the great Greek myths being co-opted into this racist pseudo-mythology. I’m never one to gate-keep the Classics, but this is clearly one group for whom no space will be given. Keep an eye out for these ones and hopefully we can push back against a frankly hateful group infiltrating a discipline that is, admittedly, already mired in racial biases.
Thanks for reading and remember to stay vigilant!