Riphean Mountains

This article is about the mountain range in classical literature. For location on the Moon, see Montes Riphaeus.
Franco-Flemish map of the world (ca. 1277) depicting global climate zones. The Riphean Mountains (riphei montes) appear in the far north (left).

In Greco-Roman geography, the Riphean Mountains (also Riphaean; /rɪˈfeɪən/, or /rɪˈfiən/; Ancient Greek: Ῥιπαῖα ὄρη; Latin: Rhipaei or Riphaei montes) were a supposed mountain range located in the far north of Eurasia.[1] The name of the mountains is probably derived from Ancient Greek: ῥιπή ("wind gust").[2] The Ripheans were often considered the northern boundary of the known world. As such, classical and medieval writers described them as extremely cold and covered in perennial snow. Ancient geographers considered the Ripheans the source of Boreas (the north wind) and several large rivers (the Dnieper, the Don, and the Volga). The location of the Ripheans, as described by most classical geographers, would correspond roughly with the Volga region of modern-day Russia.[3]

  1. ^ August Pauly et al., Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, IA, vol. 1 (Ra-Ryton) (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1914), s.v. "Ῥιπαια ὄρη," cols. 846-919; and William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (London: Walton & Mayberly, 1854), s.v. "Rhipaei Montes."
  2. ^ Henry George Liddell & Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940), s.v. "ῥῑπή."
  3. ^ "Non-existent mountains and lakes on the maps stored in the National Library of Russia". expositions.nlr.ru. Retrieved 2021-09-24.;Mund, Stéphane (2008). "The discovery of Muscovite Russia in Tudor England". Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire. 86 (2): 351–373. doi:10.3406/rbph.2008.7474.