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PYTHEAS

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 704 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PYTHEAS , of See also:

Marseilles (Massilia), a celebrated See also:Greek navigator and geographer, from whom the Greeks apparently derived their earliest definite See also:information concerning western See also:Europe, and especially the See also:British Islands. He was probably contemporary with See also:Alexander the See also:Great; he certainly wrote before See also:Dicaearchus, a See also:pupil of See also:Aristotle who died about 285 B.C. His See also:work is lost, and we are See also:left almost wholly in the dark as to its See also:form and See also:character, but the various titles under which it is quoted (e.g. Pits aepiotos, or Td 7rEpi rou 'Dceavov) point to a See also:geographical See also:treatise, in which Pytheas had embodied the results of his observations, rather than to a continuous narrative of his voyage. Some See also:modern writers have supposed Pytheas to have been sent out, at public expense, in command of an expedition organized by the See also:republic of Massilia; but there is no See also:ancient authority for this, and See also:Polybius, who had unquestionably seen the See also:original work, expressly states that he had undertaken the voyage in a private capacity and with limited means. All that we know concerning the voyage of Pytheas (apart from detached notices) is contained in a brief passage of Polybius, cited by See also:Strabo, in which he tells us that Pytheas, according to his own statement, had not only visited See also:Britain, but had personally explored a large See also:part of it (" travelled all over it on See also:foot," according to one See also:reading of the See also:text in Strabo, bk. iv. ch. i.), and estimated its circumference at more than 40,000 stadia (4000 geographical See also:miles). To this he added the See also:account of See also:Thule (which he placed six days' voyage See also:north of Britain) and the adjoining regions, in which there was no longer any distinction between See also:air, See also:earth and See also:sea, but a See also:kind of mixture of all three, resembling the gelatinous mollusc known as pulmo marinas, which rendered all See also:navigation and progress in any other mode alike impossible. This substance Pytheas had himself seen, according to Strabo (bk. iv. ch. i.), but the other phenomena he described only from hearsay. After this he visited " the whole of the coasts of Europe" (i.e. those bordering on the ocean) as far as the Tanais (Strabo, bk. ii. ch. iv. § 1). This last See also:sentence has led some modern writers to suppose that he made two different voyages; but this is improbable; the expressions of Polybius imply that his explorations in both directions, first towards the north and after-wards towards the See also:east, formed part of the same voyage. The countries visited, and to a certain extent explored, by Pytheas, were previously unknown to the Greeks—except, perhaps, by vague accounts received through the Phoenicians—and were not visited by any subsequent authority during more than two centuries.

Hence some of the later Greek geographers altogether disregarded his statements, and treated his voyage as a fiction. Eratosthenes, indeed (276-196 B.c.), attached great value to his authority as to Britain and See also:

Spain, though doubting some of his statements; but Polybius (c. 204-122 B.c.) considered the whole work of Pytheas a See also:tissue of fables, like that of See also:Euhemerus concerning Panchaea; and even Strabo, in whose See also:time the western regions of Europe were comparatively well known, adopted to a great extent the view of Polybius. In modern times a See also:critical examination has arrived at a more favourable See also:judgment, and though Gossellin in his Recherches sur la geographae See also:des anciens (iv. 168–18o) and See also:Sir G. C. See also:Lewis in his See also:History of Ancient See also:Astronomy (pp. 466–481) revived the sceptical view, the tendency of modern critics has been rather to exaggerate than to depreciate the value of what was really added by Pytheas to knowledge. Our information concerning him is so imperfect, and the scanty notices preserved to us from his work are so meagre and discordant, that it is difficult to arrive at anything like a See also:sound conclusion. It may, however, be considered as fairly established that Pytheas made a voyage See also:round the western coasts of Europe, proceeding from Gades, the great Phoenician See also:emporium, and probably the farthest point See also:familiar to the Greeks, round Spain and See also:Gaul to the British Islands, and that he followed the eastern See also:coast of Britain for a considerable distance to the north, obtaining in-formation as to its farther See also:extension in that direction which led him greatly to exaggerate its See also:size. At the same time he heard vaguely of the existence of a large See also:island to the north of it—probably derived from the fact of the Orkneys and Shetlands being really found in that position—to which he gave the name of Thule. The most important statement made by Pytheas in regard to Thule was that connected with the astronomical phenomena affecting the duration of See also:day and See also:night therein.

Unfortunately the re-ports transmitted to us differ so widely that it is almost impossible to determine what Pytheas himself stated. It is, however, probable that the version given in one passage by See also:

Pliny (H.N. iv. 16, 104) correctly represents his authority. According to this, the days at the summer See also:solstice were twenty-four See also:hours in length, and conversely at the See also:winter solstice the nights were of equal duration. Of course this would be true had Thule been situated under the See also:Arctic Circle, which Pytheas evidently considered it to be, and his skill as an astronomer would See also:lead him to accept as a fact what he knew must be true at some point as a voyager proceeded onwards towards the north. Still more difficult is it to determine the extent and character of Pytheas's explorations towards the east. The statement that he proceeded along the coasts of Europe " from Gades to the Tanais " is evidently based upon the supposition that this would be a See also:simple and See also:direct course along the See also:northern shores of See also:Germany and Sdythia —Polybius himself, in See also:common with the other Greek geographers till a much later See also:period, being ignorant of the See also:projection of the Danish or Cimbric See also:peninsula, and the circumnavigation that it involved—of all which no trace is found in the extant notices of Pytheas. Notwithstanding this, some modern writers have sup-posed him to have entered the Baltic and penetrated as far as the See also:Vistula (his Tanais). The only See also:foundation for this is to be found in the fact that in a passage cited by Pliny (H. N. See also:xxxvii. 2, 35) Pytheas is represented as stating that See also:amber was brought from an island called Abalus, distant a day's voyage from the See also:land of the Guttones, a See also:German nation who dwelt on an See also:estuary of the ocean called Mentonomus, 6000 stadia in extent. It was a See also:production thrown up by the waves of the sea, and was used by the inhabitants to See also:burn instead of See also:wood.

It has been conjectured that the " estuary " here mentioned refers to the Baltic, the existence of which as a See also:

separate sea was unknown to all ancient geographers; but the obscure manner in which it is indicated, as well as the inaccuracy of the statements concerning the See also:place from whence the amber was actually derived, both point to the sort of hearsay accounts which Pytheas might readily have picked up on the shores of the German Ocean, without proceeding farther than the mouth of the See also:Ems, See also:Weser or See also:Elbe, which last is supposed by Ukert to have been the limit of his voyage in this direction. It must be observed also that amber is found in See also:Friesland and on the See also:west coast of See also:Schleswig, as well as in the Baltic, though not in equal abundance. As to the See also:Cassiterides, or See also:Tin Islands, the exploration of which would naturally be one of the See also:chief See also:objects of Pytheas, he seems to have furnished See also:Timaeus, who wrote less than a See also:century after him, with details upon the same, especially in regard to the commercial centre of Iktis (St See also:Michael's See also:Mount in See also:Cornwall ?), which are pre-served by Diodorus. The See also:trade with these regions was probably at this period in Phoenician hands, but we know that at a later time a considerable portion of the See also:supply was carried overland through Gaul to Massilia. Pytheas certainly had one merit which distinguished him from almost all his contemporaries—he was a See also:good astronomer, and was one of the first who made observations for the determination of latitudes, among others that of his native place Massilia, which he fixed with remarkable accuracy; his result, which was within a few miles of the truth, was adopted by See also:Ptolemy, and became the basis of the Ptolemaic See also:map of the western Mediterranean. His calculations of the length of the longest day at four different points in the neighbourhood of Britain are probably based on native reports. If these figures (16, 17, 18 and 19 hours) are to be pressed, they would refer to, say, See also:Ushant (48° N.), Flamborough See also:Head (540), Tarbet Ness in See also:Ross (58°) and the northern-most Shetlands (610). Pytheas was also the first among the Greeks who arrived at any correct notion of the tides, and not only indicated their connexion with the See also:moon, but pointed out their periodical fluctuations in accordance with the phases of that luminary. Other observations concerning the See also:manners and customs of the inhabitants of remote northern regions prove that he had himself really visited them. Among these are the See also:gradual disappearance of various kinds of See also:grain as one advanced towards the north; the use of fermented liquors made from See also:corn and See also:honey; and the See also:habit of threshing out their corn in large covered barns, instead of on open threshing-floors as in See also:Greece and See also:Italy, on account of the want of See also:sun and abundance of See also:rain. Pytheas 's See also:notice of the See also:depth of the See also:Bay of See also:Biscay, of the length of the projection of See also:Brittany, of Ushant under the name of Uxisama, and of three promontories of Britain, two of which seem to correspond to Land's End (Belerion), and North See also:Foreland (Kantion), must not be forgotten. The fragments of Pytheas have been collected by Arvedson (See also:Upsala, 1824), and by Fuhr (De Pythea massiliensi, See also:Darmstadt, 1835).

Of the numerous See also:

treatises and See also:dissertations on the subject, see Ukert, " Bemerkungen uber Pytheas," in vol. i. of his Geog. d. Griechen u. Romer, pp. 298-309, which contains an excellent See also:summary of all that is known concerning Pytheas; Sir See also:George C. Lewis, See also:Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients, pp. 466–48o (See also:London, 1862); Sir See also:Edward H. See also:Bunbury, History of Ancient See also:Geography, vol. i. ch. xv. § 2 (London, 1883) ; C. I. See also:Elton, Origins of See also:English History, cf. especially app. i. pp. 400, &c. (London, 1882); See also:Hugo Berger, Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Erdkunde der Griechen, pt.

3 (2nd ed., See also:

Leipzig, 1903). A very elaborate investigation of the whole subject will be found in Miillenhoff, Deutsche Alterthumskunde, i. 211–497 (See also:Berlin, 1870). See also Sir Clements See also:Markham's See also:paper, " Pytheas, the Discoverer of Britain," in the Geographical See also:Journal (See also:June 1893) ; and H. F. Tozer, History of Ancient Geography, pp. 152–164 (See also:Cambridge, 1897). (E. H. B.; C. R.

End of Article: PYTHEAS

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