View source for Pytheas

{{Short description|Ancient Greek geographer (born ca. 350 BC)}}
{{Distinguish|Pythias}}
{{For|the ancient Athenian orator|Pytheas (Athenian)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Pytheas of Massalia
| image             = Parisinus gr 1397 f.162 pytheas of massalia from Strabo 7.3.1.jpg
| image_size        = 200px
| alt               = 
| caption           = Pytheas of Massalia (Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης) in the 10th century manuscript of [[Strabo]] ([[Geographica|Geog]].7.3.1) written in [[Byzantine]] [[Greek minuscule]].
| birth_date        = {{circa}} 350 BC{{Sfn|Kaplan|2013}}
| birth_place       = [[Massalia]]
| death_date        = 
| citizenship       = Massaliote
| nationality       = [[Greeks|Greek]]
| fields            = Geography, exploration, navigation
| notable_students  = 
| known_for         = Earliest [[Greeks|Greek]] voyage to [[Great Britain|Britain]], the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]], and the [[Arctic Circle]] for which there is a record, author of ''[[Periplus]]''.
| footnotes         = 
}}
'''Pytheas of Massalia''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ɪ|θ|i|ə|s}}; [[Ancient Greek]]: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης ''Pythéās ho Massaliōtēs''; [[Latin]]: ''Pytheas Massiliensis''; born {{circa}} 350 BC, {{fl.}} {{circa}} 320–306 BC){{Sfn|Cunliffe|2002|p=2}}{{Sfn|Kaplan|2013}}{{Sfn|Warmington|Spawforth|2015}} was a [[Greeks|Greek]] [[List of Graeco-Roman geographers|geographer]], explorer and astronomer from the [[Greek colonies|Greek colony]] of [[Massalia]] (modern-day [[Marseille]], France).{{Sfn|Kaplan|2013}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Stein-Hölkeskamp|first1=Elke|last2=Engels|first2=Johannes|last3=Gärtner|first3=Hans Armin|last4=Albiani|first4=Maria Grazia|date=2006|title=Pytheas|journal=Brill's New Pauly|doi=10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1016010}}</ref> He made a voyage of exploration to Northern Europe in about 325&nbsp;BC, but his account of it, known widely in [[Ancient history|antiquity]], has not survived and is now known only through the writings of others.

On this voyage, he circumnavigated and visited a considerable part of the [[British Isles]]. He was the first known Greek scientific visitor to see and describe the Arctic, [[polar ice]], and the [[Celtic peoples|Celtic]] and [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribes. He is also the first person on record to describe the [[midnight sun]]. The theoretical existence of some Northern phenomena that he described, such as a frigid zone, and temperate zones where the nights are very short in summer and the sun does not set at the [[summer solstice]], was already known. Similarly, reports of a country of perpetual snow and darkness (the country of the [[Hyperboreans]]) had reached the [[Mediterranean]] some centuries before.

Pytheas introduced the idea of distant [[Thule]] to the geographic imagination, and his account of the [[tide]]s is the earliest one known that suggests the moon as their cause.

== Record ==
<!-- "On the Ocean (Pytheas)" redirects here (see [[MOS:HIDDENLINKADVICE]]) -->
[[File:Strabon Rerum geographicarum 1620.jpg|thumb|The 1620 edition of [[Strabo]]'s ''[[Geographica]]'', published in Paris.]]
[[File:BnF gr 1397 42r Pytheas in Strabo's Geographica (1.4.3).png|thumb|Pytheas (Πυθέας) in Strabo's [[Geographica]], from an 11th century manuscript.]]
Pytheas described his travels in a work that has not survived; only excerpts remain, quoted or paraphrased by later authors. Much of what is known about Pytheas comes from commentary written by historians during the classical period hundreds of years after Pytheas's journeys occurred,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cunliffe |first=Barry |title=The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek |publisher=Penguin Group |year=2001 |isbn=0-7139-9509-2 |location=London, England |pages=74–76}}</ref> most familiarly in [[Strabo]]'s ''[[Geographica]]'' (late 1st century BC, or early 1st century AD),<ref>Book I.4.2–4 covers the astronomical calculations of Pytheas and calls him a prevaricator. Book II.3.5 excuses his prevarication on the grounds of his being a professional. Book III.2.11 and 4.4, Book IV.2.1 criticises him again, Book IV.4.1 mentions his reference to the Celtic Ostimi. Book IV.5.5 describes [[Thule]]. Book VII.3.1 accuses him of using his science to conceal lies.</ref> passages in the [[Bibliotheca historica|world history]] written by [[Diodorus Siculus|Diodorus of Sicily]] between 60 and 30 BC, and Pliny's ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' (AD 77).

Diodorus does not mention Pytheas by name. The association is made as follows:<ref>{{cite book |last=Holmes |first=T. Rice |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientbritaina00holmgoog |title=Ancient Britain and the Invasions of Julius Caesar |date=1907 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientbritaina00holmgoog/page/n524 499]–500 |quote=Ancient Britain and the Invasions of Julius Caesar.}}</ref> Pliny reports: "[[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]] says there is an island named [[Ictis|Mictis]] [...] where tin is found, and to which the Britons cross."<ref name="plinyIV-30">''Natural History'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D30 Book IV Chapter 30 (16.104)].</ref> Diodorus says that tin was brought to the island of [[Ictis]], where there was an [[Emporium (antiquity)|emporium]]. Walbank (1956),<ref>{{Cite book |last=f.w. walbank |url=http://archive.org/details/historicalcommen0001fwwa |title=a historical commentary on polybius |date=1957 |others=Internet Archive}}</ref> Mette (1952)<ref name="Mette 1952">{{Cite book |last=Mette |first=Hans Joachim |title=Pytheas von Massalia. |date=1952 |publisher=W. de Gruyter |location=Berlin|ol=15125632M }}</ref> and [[Duane W. Roller|Roller]] (2006)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roller |first=Duane W. |title=Through the Pillars of Herakles: Greco-Roman Exploration of the Atlantic |date=2006-02-15 |publisher=Routledge|ol=7493462M }}</ref> agree that Diorodus' information on the British Isles is an epitome of Pytheas via Timaeus.

Scholars of the 19th century tended to interpret these titles as the names of distinct works covering separate voyages; for example, Smith's ''[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]'' hypothesizes a voyage to Britain and Thule written about in "Ocean" and another from [[Cádiz]] to the river [[Don (river)|Don]], written about in "A Sailing-Around".<ref name="smithpyth" /> As is common with ancient texts, multiple titles may represent a single source, for example, if a title refers to a section rather than the whole. Mainstream consensus is that there was only one work, "On the Ocean", which was based on a [[periplus]], a type of navigational literature.

=== Surviving fragments ===
Only 'fragments' (i.e., quotations in other authors) or references/epitomies survive of Pytheas' original work in the works of other authors. Scott (2022) cited at least 39 such examples.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Scott |first=Lionel |title=Pytheas of Massalia: texts, translation, and commentary |date=2022 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-032-01998-7 |series=Routledge classical translations |location=Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY}}</ref> 
{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|+Table of Concordence: Fragments of Pytheas<ref name=":0" />
| colspan="4" align="left" |'''Concordence Number'''
| rowspan="2" align="left" |'''Reference'''
|-
| align="left" |'''Scott''' '''(2022)'''<ref name=":0" />
| align="left" |'''Mette''' '''(1952)'''<ref name="Mette 1952"/>
| align="left" |'''Roseman''' '''(1994)'''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roseman |first=Christina Horst |title=Pytheas of Massalia: On the Ocean: Text, Translation and Commentary |date=December 1994 |publisher=Ares Publishers |isbn=978-0-89005-545-8|ol=8215022M }}</ref>
| align="left" |'''Bianchetti''' '''(1998)'''<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Malusa |first1=Annalisa |last2=Novaga |first2=Matteo |date=2018 |title=Crystalline evolutions in chessboard-like microstructures |url=https://doi.org/10.3934/nhm.2018022 |journal=Networks & Heterogeneous Media |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=493–513 |doi=10.3934/nhm.2018022 |issn=1556-181X|hdl=11568/933476 |hdl-access=free |arxiv=1710.06775 }}</ref>
|-
| align="left" |F1
| align="left" |F2
| align="left" |T26
| align="left" |F2a, F2b
| align="left" |Aetios III 17.3
|-
| align="left" |F2
| align="left" |F14
| align="left" |T27
| align="left" |F12a
| align="left" |[[Cleomedes]] I 4
|-
| align="left" |F3
| align="left" |F9(b)
| align="left" |F9
| align="left" |F13b
| align="left" |[[Cosmas Indicopleustes]], Christian Topography 2.80
|-
| align="left" |F4
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |[[Diodorus Siculus|Diodoros Siculus]] 5.21.3–4 ≈ [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaios]] [[Fragmente der griechischen Historiker|FGrH]] 566 F164.21<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/diefragmentederg0000unse |title=Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (F Gr Hist) |date=1923 |publisher=Berlin : Weidmannsche Buchhandlung |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-90-04-01102-1}}</ref>
|-
| align="left" |F5
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Diodoros Siculus 5.22.1–4 ≈ Timaios FGrH 566 F164.22
|-
| align="left" |F6
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Diodoros Siculus 5.23.1, 4 ≈ Timaios FGrH 566 F164.23
|-
| align="left" |F7
| align="left" |9(a)
| align="left" |F8
| align="left" |F13a
| align="left" |[[Geminus|Geminos]] 6.7–9
|-
| align="left" |F8
| align="left" |F1
| align="left" |F1
| align="left" |F1
| align="left" |[[Hipparchus|Hipparchos of Nicaea]], Commentary on the Phaenomena of Aratos and Eudoxos 1.4.1
|-
| align="left" |F9
| align="left" |F3
| align="left" |T28
| align="left" |F23
| align="left" |[[Marcian of Heraclea|Marcianus of Heracleia]], Epitome of the Periplus of the Inner Sea by Menippos 1.2, GGM 1.565
|-
| align="left" |F10
| align="left" |F13(a)
| align="left" |T18(b)
| align="left" |F9b
| align="left" |[[Martianus Capella]], De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii 6.595
|-
| align="left" |F11
| align="left" |
| align="left" |T29
| align="left" |F12b
| align="left" |Martianus Capella, De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii 6.608–9
|-
| align="left" |F12
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |[[Pomponius Mela|Mela]] 3.47–50
|-
| align="left" |F13
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Mela 3.54–7
|-
| align="left" |F14
| align="left" |F10(a), 10(b)
| align="left" |T17, T20
| align="left" |F3, F7d, F10
| align="left" |[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] [[Natural History (Pliny)|NH]] 1.2, 1.4, 1.37
|-
| align="left" |F12
| align="left" |T24
| align="left" |F17
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
|-
| align="left" |F15
| align="left" |F13(a)
| align="left" |T18(a)
| align="left" |F9a
| align="left" |Pliny NH 2.186–7
|-
| align="left" |F16
| align="left" |F13(a)
| align="left" |T19
| align="left" |F7e
| align="left" |Pliny NH 2.217
|-
| align="left" |F17
| align="left" |F11(b)
| align="left" |T21
| align="left" |F16
| align="left" |Pliny NH 4.94–7
|-
| align="left" |F18
| align="left" |F11(b)
| align="left" |T22
| align="left" |F7c
| align="left" |Pliny NH 4.102
|-
| align="left" |F19
| align="left" |F11(b)
| align="left" |T23
| align="left" |F8f
| align="left" |Pliny NH 4.103–4
|-
| align="left" |F20
| align="left" |F13(b)
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Pliny NH 6.219
|-
| align="left" |F21
| align="left" |F11(a)
| align="left" |T25
| align="left" |F15
| align="left" |Pliny NH 37.35–6
|-
| align="left" |F22
| align="left" |F15
| align="left" |T30
| align="left" |F19
| align="left" |Schol in Ap Rhod 4.761–5a
|-
| align="left" |F23
| align="left" |F6(f)
| align="left" |T1b
| align="left" |F18b
| align="left" |[[Stephanus of Byzantium|Steph Byz]] sv  ̓Ωστίωνες ≈ [[Aelius Herodianus]], De Pros Cath 3.1.19
|-
| align="left" |F24
| align="left" |F6(a)
| align="left" |F2
| align="left" |F8a
| align="left" |[[Strabo]] 1.4.2
|-
| align="left" |F25
| align="left" |F6(a)
| align="left" |T1a, T2, F3
| align="left" |F7a, F8a, F18a
| align="left" |Strabo 1.4.3–4
|-
| align="left" |F26
| align="left" |F6(a)
| align="left" |T3, F5
| align="left" |F6a
| align="left" |Strabo 1.4.5
|-
| align="left" |F27
| align="left" |F6(b)
| align="left" |T4
| align="left" |F8b
| align="left" |Strabo 2.1.12
|-
| align="left" |F28
| align="left" |F6(b)
| align="left" |T5
| align="left" |F11
| align="left" |Strabo 2.1.18
|-
| align="left" |F29
| align="left" |F5
| align="left" |T6
| align="left" |F20
| align="left" |Strabo 2.3.5
|-
| align="left" |F30
| align="left" |F7(a)
| align="left" |T7, T8
| align="left" |F7b, F8d, F21
| align="left" |Strabo 2.4.1–2 = Polyb 34.5.1–13
|-
| align="left" |F30 n 8
| align="left" |F7(b)
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
|-
| align="left" |F31
| align="left" |F6(c)
| align="left" |T9, F6
| align="left" |F8c
| align="left" |Strabo 2.5.7–8
|-
| align="left" |F32
| align="left" |F6(c)
| align="left" |
| align="left" |
| align="left" |Strabo 2.5.41
|-
| align="left" |F33
| align="left" |F6(d)
| align="left" |T10
| align="left" |F14
| align="left" |Strabo 2.5.43
|-
| align="left" |F34
| align="left" |F8
| align="left" |T11
| align="left" |F4
| align="left" |Strabo 3.2.11
|-
| align="left" |F35
| align="left" |F4
| align="left" |T12
| align="left" |F35
| align="left" |Strabo 3.4.4
|-
| align="left" |F36
| align="left" |F7(c)
| align="left" |T13
| align="left" |F5
| align="left" |Strabo 4.2.1 = [[Polybius|Polyb]] 34.10.6–7
|-
| align="left" |F37
| align="left" |F6(e)
| align="left" |T14
| align="left" |F6b
| align="left" |Strabo 4.4.1
|-
| align="left" |F38
| align="left" |F6(g)
| align="left" |T15, F7
| align="left" |F8e
| align="left" |Strabo 4.5.5
|-
| align="left" |F39
| align="left" |F6(h)
| align="left" |T16
| align="left" |F8g
| align="left" |Strabo 7.3.1
|}

== Dating the voyage ==
[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] said that [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]] (born about 350 BC) believed Pytheas' story of the discovery of [[amber]].<ref name="pliny37-11">''Natural History'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+37.11&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137 Book 37, Chapter 11]: "''Pytheas says that the [[Gutones]], a people of [[Germania|Germany]], inhabit the shores of an æstuary of the Ocean called [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=mentonomon-geo Mentonomon], their territory extending a distance of six thousand stadia; that, at one day's sail from this territory, is the Isle of [[Baltia|Abalus]], upon the shores of which, amber is thrown up by the waves in spring, it being an excretion of the sea in a concrete form; as, also, that the inhabitants use this amber by way of fuel, and sell it to their neighbours, the [[Teutons|Teutones]]. [[Timaeus (historian)|Timæus]], too, is of the same belief, but he has given to the island the name of [[Baltia|Basilia]].''"</ref> First century BC [[Strabo]] said that [[Dicaearchus]] (died about 285 BC) did not trust the stories of Pytheas.<ref>''[[Geographica]]'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2D*.html Book II.4.2] paragraph 401): "''And as for [[Eratosthenes]] — adds [[Posidonius|Poseidonius]] — ... he believes Pytheas, and that, too, though not even [[Dicaearchus]] believed him. Now that last remark, "though not even Dicaearchus believed him," is ridiculous; as if it were fitting for Eratosthenes to use as a standard the man against whom he himself directs so many criticisms.''"</ref><ref>[https://topostext.org/work/144#2.4.2 Geog. 2.4.2]</ref> None of [[Aristotle]]'s works mention Pytheas, nor do those [[Ephorus]]. Thus the [[terminus post quem]] for Pytheas' voyage are the works of Aristotle and Ephorus, and the [[Terminus post quem|terminus ante quem]] is that of Aristotle's student, Dicaearchus.  [[Henry Fanshawe Tozer]] estimated that Pytheas' voyage occurred about 330 BC, derived from three main sources.<ref name="Tozer">{{cite book |last=Tozer |first=Henry Fanshawe |url=https://archive.org/details/b24876628/page/152/mode/2up |title=A History of Ancient Geography |publisher=Cambriddge University Press |year=1897 |location=Cambridge |pages=152–154}}.</ref>

The earliest exant author to quote Pytheas explicitly is [[Hipparchus|Hipparcus]], however he is also widely quoted explicitly by other later authors such as [[Polybius]], [[Cleomedes|Cleomides]], [[Geminus]] and [[Aetius (philosopher)|Aetius]]; perhaps the last was [[Dicuil]]. By far, the most quotations of Pytheas survive in [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] and [[Strabo]], however they seem to be quoting Pytheas as a [[Tertiary source|teriary source]], perhaps through [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]]. The ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis Historia]]'' and ''[[Geographica]]'' demonstrate that Pytheas was also used by a range of [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] authors starting with [[Dicaearchus]], [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]], [[Eratosthenes]], [[Polybius]], [[Artemidorus]] and Xenophon of [[Lampsacus]]. The extent to which [[Hecataeus of Abdera]]'s ''[[On the Hyperboreans]]'' may have been inspired by Pytheas is not known.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roller |first=Duane W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMPjAyyz1W4C |title=Through the Pillars of Herakles: Greco-Roman Exploration of the Atlantic |date=2006 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-37287-9 |pages=66 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Charles Elton (lawyer)|Elton]] (1890) summarises the method of dating as:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elton |first=Charles Isaac |url=http://archive.org/details/originsofenglis00elto |title=Origins of English history |date=1890 |publisher=London : B. Quaritch |others=Robarts - University of Toronto |pages=7}}</ref><blockquote>"The exact date cannot be ascertained, but is found approximately by the facts that the astronomical discoveries of Pytheas were not mentioned by [[Aristotle]], but were controverted on some points by [[Dicaearchus]], the pupil of Aristotle, whose writings were published not long after the famous philosopher’s death."</blockquote>With which Roller (2006) agrees:<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=w. Roller |first1=Duane |date=2013-01-11 |title=Through the Pillars of Herakles : Greco-Roman Exploration of the Atlantic |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203962473/pillars-herakles-duane-roller |journal=Taylor & Francis |language=en |pages=64–65 |doi=10.4324/9780203962473 |isbn=978-1-134-19233-5 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20240417164320/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203962473/pillars-herakles-duane-roller |archive-date=2024-04-17|url-access=subscription }}</ref> <blockquote>The most that can be said with certainty is that Pytheas’ journey and the research performed during it, which resulted in the treatise ''On the Ocean'', occurred probably in the 320s BC or very shortly thereafter, since it was unknown to (yet based on) [[Aristotle]], and first quoted by Aristotle’s student [[Dicaearchus|Dikaiarchos]].</blockquote>

== Circumstances of the voyage ==
{{further|Greeks in pre-Roman Gaul}}
Pytheas was the first documented Mediterranean mariner to reach the British Isles.

The start of Pytheas's voyage is unknown. The [[Carthage|Carthaginians]] had closed the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] to all ships from other nations. Some historians, mainly of the late 19th century and early, speculated that he must have traveled overland to the mouth of the [[Loire]] or the [[Garonne]]. Others believed that, to avoid the Carthaginian blockade, he may have stayed close to land and sailed only at night, or taken advantage of a temporary lapse in the blockade.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Problem of Pytheas' Thule|first=Ian|last=Whitaker|journal=The Classical Journal|volume=77|issue=2|date=December 1981 – January 1982|pages=148–164|jstor=3296920}}</ref>

An alternate theory is that by the 4th century BC, the western Greeks, especially the Massaliotes, were on amicable terms with Carthage. In 348&nbsp;BC, Carthage and Rome came to terms over the [[Sicilian Wars]] with a treaty defining their mutual interests. Rome could use Sicilian markets, Carthage could buy and sell goods at Rome, and slaves taken by Carthage from allies of Rome were to be set free. Rome was to stay out of the western Mediterranean, but these terms did not apply to Massalia, which had its own treaty. During the second half of the 4th century BC, the time of Pytheas' voyage, Massaliotes were presumably free to operate as they pleased; there is, at least, no evidence of conflict with Carthage in any of the sources that mention the voyage.<ref>{{cite book|title=Transalpine Gaul: The Emergence of a Roman Province|first=Charles|last=Ebel|location=Leiden|date=1976|isbn=978-90-04-04384-8|pages=9–15|publisher=Brill Archive}}</ref>

The early part of Pytheas' voyage was outlined by statements of [[Eratosthenes]] that Strabo said are false because they were taken from{{clarify|date=January 2015}} Pytheas.<ref>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/3B*.html III.2.11].</ref> Apparently, Pytheas said that tides ended at the "sacred promontory" (''Hieron akrōtērion'', or [[Sagres Point]]), and from there to [[Cádiz|Gades]] is said to be 5 days' sail. Strabo complained about this distance, and about Pytheas' portrayal of the exact location of [[Tartessos]]. Mention of these places in a journal of the voyage indicates that Pytheas passed through the [[Straits of Gibraltar]] and sailed north along the coast of [[Portugal]].

== Voyage to Britain ==

=== The "circumnavigation" ===
{{stack|[[File:Ptolemy-british-isles.jpg|thumb|350px|A 1490 Italian reconstruction of the map of [[Ptolemy]]. The map is a result of a combination of the lines of roads and of the coasting expeditions during the first century of Roman occupation. One great fault, however, is a lopsided Scotland, which in one hypothesis is the result of Ptolemy using Pytheas' measurements of latitude ([[#Pytheas' measurements of latitude|see below]]).<ref>{{cite journal |first=James J. |last=Tierney |title=Ptolemy's Map of Scotland |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=79 |year=1959 |pages=132–148 |doi=10.2307/627926 |jstor=627926|s2cid=163631018 }}</ref>{{pb}}Whether Ptolemy would have had Pytheas' real latitudes at that time is a much debated issue.]]}}
Strabo reported that Pytheas said he "travelled over the whole of Britain that was accessible".<ref name=straboII-4-1>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2D*.html Book II.4.1].</ref> Because there are scant first-hand sources available regarding Pytheas's journey, historians have looked at the etymology for clues about the route he took up the north Atlantic.  The word ''epelthein'', at root "come upon", does not imply any specific method, and Pytheas did not elaborate.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Pytheas did use the word "whole" and he stated a ''perimetros'' ("perimeter") for Britain of more than 40,000&nbsp;[[Stadion (unit)|stadia]]. Using Herodotus' standard of {{convert|600|feet|}} for one stadium gives {{convert|4545|miles}}; however, there is no way to tell which standard foot was in effect. The English foot is an approximation. Strabo wanted to discredit Pytheas on the grounds that 40,000&nbsp;stadia is outrageously high and cannot be real.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

[[Diodorus Siculus]] gave a similar number:<ref>Book V chapter 21.</ref> 42,500 stadia, about {{convert|4830|miles}}, and explains that it is the perimeter of a triangle around Britain. The consensus has been that he probably took his information from Pytheas through [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeaus]]. [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] gave the ''circuitus'' reported by Pytheas as 4,875&nbsp;[[Mile#Roman|Roman miles]].<ref>''Natural History'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137&layout=&loc=4.30 Book IV Chapter 30 (16.102)].</ref>

The explorer [[Fridtjof Nansen]] explained this apparent fantasy of Pytheas as a mistake of Timaeus.<ref name=nansen51>{{harvnb|Nansen|1911|p=51}}.</ref> Strabo and Diodorus Siculus never saw Pytheas' work, says Nansen, but they and others read of him in Timaeus. Pytheas reported only days' sail. Timaeus converted days to stadia at the rate of 1,000 per day, a standard figure of the times. However, Pytheas only sailed 560&nbsp;stadia per day for a total of 23,800, which in Nansen's view is consistent with 700&nbsp;stadia per degree.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Nansen later states that Pytheas must have stopped to obtain astronomical data. Presumably, the extra time was spent ashore. Using the stadia of Diodorus Siculus, one obtains 42.5&nbsp;days for the time that would be spent in circumnavigating Britain. It may have been a virtual circumnavigation;{{clarify|date=January 2015}} see under Thule below.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

The perimeter, according to Nansen based on the 23,800 stadia, was {{convert|2375|miles}}. This number is in the neighborhood of what a triangular perimeter ought to be, but it cannot be verified against anything Pytheas may have said, nor was Diodorus Siculus very precise about the locations of the legs. The "perimeter" is often translated as "coastline", but this translation is misleading. The coastline, following all the bays and inlets, is {{convert|12429|km|mi|order=flip}} (see [[Geography of the United Kingdom#Coastline|Geography of the United Kingdom]]). Pytheas could have travelled any perimeter between that number and Diodorus'. [[Polybius]] added that Pytheas said he traversed the whole of Britain on foot,<ref>Book XXXIV chapter 5, which survives as a fragment in ''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2D*.html Book II.4.1].</ref> of which he, Polybius, was skeptical. Despite Strabo's conviction of a lie, the perimeter said to have been given by Pytheas is not evidence of it. The issue of what he did say can never be settled until more fragments of Pytheas's writings are found.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

=== Name and description of the British ===
The first known written use of the word Britain was an [[ancient Greek]] [[transliteration]] of the original [[Gallo-Brittonic languages|P-Celtic]] term. It is believed to have appeared within a [[periplus]] by Pytheas, but no copies of this work survive. The earliest existing records of the word are quotations of the periplus by later authors, such as those within Strabo's ''[[Geographica]]'', Pliny's ''[[Naturalis Historia|Natural History]]'' and Diodorus of Sicily's ''[[Bibliotheca historica]]''.<ref>Book I.4.2–4, Book II.3.5, Book III.2.11 and 4.4, Book IV.2.1, Book IV.4.1, Book IV.5.5, Book VII.3.1</ref> According to Strabo, Pytheas referred to Britain as ''Bretannikē'', which shares more similarities with spellings in the modern [[Celtic languages]] than its Classical Latin variants.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ramsay |first1=James Henry |title=The Scholar's History of England |date=1898 |publisher=H. Milford |page=2}}</ref> From this Greek spelling, the name is treated a feminine noun.<ref name=LSJBrettanike>{{LSJ|*bretaniko/s|Βρεττανική|ref}}</ref><ref name=Strabo(1.4.2)>Strabo's ''Geography'' Book I. Chapter IV. Section 2 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0197%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D2 Greek text] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D2 English translation] at the [[Perseus Project]].</ref><ref name=Strabo(4.2.1)>Strabo's ''Geography'' Book IV. Chapter II. Section 1 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0197%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D1 Greek text] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D1 English translation] at the [[Perseus Project]].</ref><ref name=Strabo(4.4.1)>Strabo's ''Geography'' Book IV. Chapter IV. Section 1 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0197%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D1 Greek text] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D1 English translation] at the [[Perseus Project]].</ref>

[[File:Pictish Beast.svg|thumb|200px|A [[Pictish beast]] on an early medieval [[Pictish stone]].]] "Britain" is most like [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''Ynys Prydein'', "the island of Britain", in which is a [[P-Celtic hypothesis|P-Celtic]] [[cognate]] of [[Q-Celtic hypothesis|Q-Celtic]] Cruithne in Irish ''Cruithen-[[Túath|tuath]]'', "land of the Picts". The base word is Scottish/Irish ''cruth'', Welsh ''pryd'', meaning "form". The British were the "people of forms", with the sense of shapes or pictures,<ref>{{cite book | first=Charles | last=Thomas | title=Celtic Britain | url=https://archive.org/details/celticbritain0000thom | url-access=registration | location=London | publisher=Thames and Hudson | date=1997 | page=[https://archive.org/details/celticbritain0000thom/page/82 82] | isbn=9780500279359 | quote=If we seek a meaning, the favoured view is that it arises from an older word implying 'people of the forms, shapes or depictions' (*k<sup>w</sup>rt-en-o-).}}</ref> thought to refer to their practice of tattooing or war painting.<ref>{{cite book | first=Stephen | last=Allen | title=Lords of Battle: The World of the Celtic Warrior | location=Oxford | publisher=Osprey Publishing | date=2007 | page=174 | quote=Pretani is generally believed to mean "painted" or rather "tattooed", likely referring to the use by the Britons of the blue dye extracted from woad.&nbsp;... it is more likely to be a nickname given them by outsiders&nbsp;... It may be compared with the word ''Picti''&nbsp;... which was used by the Romans in the 3rd century AD.}}</ref> The Roman word ''Picti'', "the Picts", means "painted".

This etymology suggests Pytheas most likely did not have much interaction with the Irish as their language was Q-Celtic. Rather, Pytheas brought back the P-Celtic form from more geographically accessible regions where Welsh or Breton are spoken presently.  Furthermore, some proto-Celtic was spoken over all of Greater Britain, and this particular spelling is prototypical of those more populous regions, but there is no evidence that Pytheas distinguished between the peoples of the archipelago.

[[File:St Fagans Celtic Village the main hut.jpg|thumb|A reconstruction of a Celtic thatched hut in [[Wales]].]]
Diodorus – based on Pytheas – reported that Britain is cold and subject to frosts, being "too much subject to the [[Ursa Major|Bear]]", and not "under the Arctic pole", as some translations say.<ref name=diodV>{{cite book|first=Diodori|last=Siculi|title=Bibliothecae Historicae Libri Qui Supersunt: Nova Editio|editor=Peter Wesseling|author2=L. Rhodoman|author3=G. Heyn|author4=N. Eyring|location=Argentorati|date=1798|publisher=Societas Bipontina|language=grc, la|pages=292–297 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YtkPAAAAQAAJ&q=Bibliothecae+Historicae+Libri+Qui+Supersunt | chapter=Book V, Sections 21–22}} The section numeration differs somewhat in different translations; the material is to be found near the end of Book V.</ref> The numerous population of natives, he says, live in [[Thatching|thatched]] cottages, store their grain in subterranean caches and bake bread from it.<ref name=diodV /> They are "of simple manners" (''ēthesin haplous'') and are content with plain fare. They are ruled by many kings and princes who live in peace with each other. Their troops fight from [[chariot]]s, as did the Greeks in the [[Trojan War]].

=== The three corners of Britain: Kantion, Belerion and Orkas ===
Opposite Europe in Diodorus is the promontory (''akrōtērion'') of ''Kantion'' ([[Kent]]), 100 stadia, about {{convert|11|miles}}, from the land, but the text is ambiguous: "the land" could be either Britain or the continent. Four days' sail beyond that is another promontory, ''[[Belerion]]'', which can only be [[Cornwall]], as Diodorus is describing the triangular perimeter and the third point is ''Orkas'', presumably the main island of the [[Orkney]] Islands.

=== The tin trade ===
The inhabitants of Cornwall were involved in the manufacture of [[tin ingot]]s. They mined the ore, smelted it and then worked it into pieces in the shape of knuckle-bones, after which it was transported to the island of [[Ictis]] by wagon, which could be done at low tide. Merchants that purchased it there packed it on horses for 30 days to the river [[Rhône]], where it was carried down to the mouth. Diodorus said that the inhabitants of [[Cornwall]] were civilized in manner and especially hospitable to strangers because of their dealings with foreign merchants.

=== Scotland ===
The first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Pytheas, who called the northern tip of Britain "Orcas", the source of the name of the [[Orkney|Orkney islands]].<ref>Forsyth, Katherine (2005). "Origins: Scotland to 1100". In Wormald, Jenny (ed.). Scotland: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199601646.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=[[Aristotle]] or [[Pseudo-Aristotle]] |translator-last1=Forster|translator-first1=E. S.|translator-last2=Furley|translator-first2=D. J.|title=On Sophistical Refutations. On Coming-to-be and Passing Away. On the Cosmos. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/onsophisticalref00arisuoft |publisher = Harvard University Press |chapter=On the Cosmos, 393b12 |pages=360–361|year=1955}} at the [[Open Library]] Project. {{DjVulink}}</ref>

== Thule ==
Strabo, taking his text from Polybius, related that "Pytheas asserts that he explored in person the whole northern region of Europe as far as the ends of the world."<ref name=straboII-4-2>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2D*.html II.4.2].</ref> Strabo did not believe it but he explained what Pytheas meant by the ends of the world.<ref name=straboII-5-8>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2E1*.html II.5.8].</ref> ''Thoulē'', he said (now spelled [[Thule]]; [[Pliny the Elder]] uses ''Tyle''; [[Vergil]] references ''ultima Thule'' in [[Georgic]] I, Line 30, where the ''ultima'' refer to the end of the world<ref>{{harvnb|Burton|1875|p=2}}</ref>) is the most northerly of the British Isles. There the circle of the summer tropic is the same as the Arctic Circle (see below on Arctic Circle). Moreover, said Strabo, none of the other authors mention Thule, a fact which he used to discredit Pytheas, but which to moderns indicates Pytheas was the first explorer to arrive there and tell of it.

Thule was described as an island six days' sailing north of Britain, near the frozen sea (''pepēguia thalatta'', "solidified sea").<ref name=straboI-4-2>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/1D*.html I.4.2].</ref> [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] added that it had no nights at midsummer when the sun was passing through the sign of the [[Cancer (constellation)|Crab]] (at the summer solstice),<ref name=plinyIV-30 /> a reaffirmation that it is on the Arctic Circle. He added that the crossing to Thule started at the island of ''Berrice'', "the largest of all", which may be [[Isle of Lewis|Lewis]] in the outer [[Hebrides]]. If ''Berrice'' was in the outer Hebrides, the crossing would have brought Pytheas to the coast of [[Møre og Romsdal]] or [[Trøndelag]], [[Norway]], explaining how he managed to miss the [[Skagerrak]]. If this is his route, in all likelihood he did not actually circumnavigate Britain, but returned along the coast of Germany, accounting for his somewhat larger perimeter.

Concerning the location of Thule, a discrepancy in data caused subsequent geographers some problems, and may be responsible for [[Ptolemy]]'s distortion of [[Scotland]]. Strabo reported that [[Eratosthenes]] places Thule at a parallel 11500&nbsp;stadia (1305&nbsp;miles, or 16.4°) north of the mouth of the [[Borysthenes]].<ref name=straboI-4-2 /> The parallel running through that mouth also passes through Celtica and is Pytheas' base line. Using 3700 or 3800 stadia (approximately 420–430&nbsp;miles or 5.3°–5.4°) north of [[Marseille]] for a base line obtains a latitude of 64.8° or 64.9° for Thule, well short of the Arctic Circle. It is in fact the latitude of [[Trondheim]], where Pytheas may have reached land.

A statement by [[Geminus of Rhodes]] quotes ''On the Ocean'' as saying:<ref>{{harvnb|Nansen|1911|p=53}}; Geminus, ''Introduction to the Phenomena'', vi.9.</ref>
<blockquote>
... the Barbarians showed us the place where the sun goes to rest. For it was the case that in these parts the nights were very short, in some places two, in others three hours long, so that the sun rose again a short time after it had set.
</blockquote>

Nansen claimed that according to this statement, Pytheas was there in person and that the 21- and 22-hour days must be the customary statement of latitude by length of longest day. He calculates the latitudes to be 64°&nbsp;32′ and 65°&nbsp;31′, partially confirming Hipparchus' statement of the latitude of Thule. And yet Strabo said:<ref name=straboII-5-8 /> <blockquote>
Pytheas of Massalia tells us that Thule&nbsp;... is farthest north, and that there the circle of the summer tropic is the same as the Arctic<ref>Page 54.</ref> Circle.
</blockquote>

Eratosthenes extended the latitudinal distance from Massalia to Celtica to 5000 stadia (7.1°), placing the base line in [[Normandy]]. The northernmost location cited in Britain at the Firth of Clyde is now northern Scotland. To get this country south of Britain to conform to Strabo's interpretation of Pytheas, [[Ptolemy]] has to rotate Scotland by 90°.

The 5000 stadia must be discounted: it crosses the Borysthenes upriver near [[Kyiv]] rather than at the mouth.<ref>The mouth was further north than it is today; even so, 48.4° is near [[Dnipro]]. The Greeks must be allowed some inaccuracy for their measurements. In any case damming has changed the river a great deal and a few thousand years has been enough to change the courses of many rivers.</ref> It does place Pytheas on the Arctic Circle, which in Norway is south of the [[Lofoten islands]]. It seems that Eratosthenes altered the base line to pass through the northern extreme of Celtica. Pytheas, as related by Hipparchus, probably cited the place in Celtica where he first made land. If he used the same practice in Norway, Thule is at least somewhere on the entire northwest coast of Norway from [[Møre og Romsdal]] to the Lofoten Islands.

In his study of Thule, the explorer [[Richard Francis Burton]] stated that it had had many definitions over the centuries. Many more authors have written about it than remembered Pytheas. The question of the location of Pytheas' Thule remains. The latitudes given by the ancient authors can be reconciled. The missing datum required to fix the location is [[longitude]]: "Manifestly we cannot rely upon the longitude."<ref>{{harvnb|Burton|1875|p=10}}.</ref>

Pytheas crossed the waters northward from Berrice, in the north of the British Isles, but whether to [[Port and starboard|starboard, port]], or straight ahead is not known. From the time of the Roman Empire all the possibilities were suggested repeatedly by each generation of writers: [[Iceland]], [[Shetland]], the [[Faroe Islands]], [[Norway]] and later [[Greenland]]. A manuscript variant of a name in Pliny has abetted the Iceland theory: ''Nerigon'' instead of ''Berrice'', which sounds like Norway. If one sails west from Norway one encounters Iceland. Burton himself espoused this theory.

The standard texts have ''Berrice'' presently, as well as ''Bergos'' for ''Vergos'' in the same list of islands. The ''Scandiae'' islands are more of a problem, as they could be Scandinavia, but other islands had that name as well. Moreover, [[Procopius]] says (''De Bello Gothico'', Chapter 15) that the earlier name of Scandinavia was Thule and that it was the home of the [[Goths]]. The fact that Pytheas returned from the vicinity of the Baltic favors Procopius's opinion. The fact that Pytheas lived centuries before the colonization of Iceland and Greenland by European agriculturalists makes them less likely candidates, as he stated that Thule was populated and its soil was tilled.

Concerning the people of Thule Strabo says of Pytheas, but grudgingly:<ref>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/4E*.html IV.5.5].</ref>
<blockquote>
... he might possibly seem to have made adequate use of the facts as regards the people who live close to the frozen zone, when he says that,&nbsp;... the people live on millet and other herbs, and on fruits and roots; and where there are grain and honey, the people get their beverage, also, from them. As for the grain, he says,&nbsp;– since they have no pure sunshine&nbsp;– they pound it out in large storehouses, after first gathering in the ears thither; for the threshing floors become useless because of this lack of sunshine and because of the rains.
</blockquote>

What he seems to be describing is an agricultural country that used [[barn (building)|barns]] for threshing grain rather than the Mediterranean outside floor of sun-baked mud and manufactured a drink, possibly [[mead]].<ref>Nelson points out that this passage in Strabo contains "ambiguity": he could mean either one drink made from grain and honey, in which case it would have to be mead unless one classified it as a combination of mead and beer, or two drinks, mead and beer. Strabo used the singular ''pōma'' for "beverage" but the neuter singular does not exclude a type of which there are two specifics. Some mead also is and was made with hops and is strained briefly through grain (see [[mead]]) The issue remains. See {{cite book|first=Max|last=Nelson|title=The Barbarian's Beverage: A History of Beer in Ancient Europe|publisher=Routledge|date=2005|isbn=0-415-31121-7|page=64}}</ref>

== Encounter with drift ice ==
[[File:Islossning (119329313).jpg|thumb|[[Pancake ice]] in the Baltic in spring near the [[Sweden|Swedish]] coast.]]
After mentioning the crossing (''navigatio'') from ''Berrice'' to ''Tyle'', [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] made a brief statement that:
<blockquote>
''A Tyle unius diei navigatione mare concretum a nonnullis Cronium appellatur'' . [One day's sail from Thule is the frozen ocean, called by some the Cronian Sea.]</blockquote>

The ''mare concretum'' appears to match Strabo's ''pepēguia thalatta'' and is probably the same as the ''topoi'' ("places") mentioned in Strabo's apparent description of spring drift ice, which would have stopped his voyage further north and was for him the ultimate limit of the world. Strabo says:<ref name=straboII-4-1 /><ref>Translation from {{harvnb|Chevallier|1984}}.</ref>

<blockquote>
Pytheas also spoke of the waters around Thule and of those places where land properly speaking no longer exists, nor sea nor air, but a mixture of these things, like a "marine lung", in which it was said that earth and water and all things are in suspension as if this something was a link between all these elements, on which one can neither walk nor sail.
</blockquote>

The term used for "marine lung" (''pleumōn thalattios'') appears to refer to [[jellyfish]] of the type the ancients called sea-lung. The latter are mentioned by [[Aristotle]] in ''On the Parts of Animals'' as being free-floating and insensate.<ref>IV.5.</ref> They are not further identifiable from what Aristotle says but some ''pulmones'' appear in Pliny as a class of insensate sea animal;<ref>''Natural History'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+9.71&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137 IX.71].</ref> specifically the ''halipleumon'' ("salt-water lung").<ref>''Natural History'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D32%3Achapter%3D32 XXXII.32].</ref> William Ogle, a major translator and annotator of Aristotle, attributes the name sea-lung to the lung-like expansion and contraction of the [[Jellyfish|Medusae]], a kind of [[Cnidaria]], during locomotion.<ref>{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/aristotleonparts00arisrich/page/226 226]|author=Aristotle|author2=William Ogle |title=On the Parts of Animals|publisher=Kegan, Paul, French & Co | location=London | date=1882 | url=https://archive.org/details/aristotleonparts00arisrich|quote=On the Parts of Animals.}}</ref> The ice resembled floating circles in the water. The modern English term for this phenomenon is [[pancake ice]].

The association of Pytheas' observations with [[drift ice]] has long been standard in navigational literature, including [[Bowditch's American Practical Navigator|Nathaniel Bowditch's ''American Practical Navigator'']], which begins Chapter 33, ''Ice Navigation'', with Pytheas.<ref>{{cite book|title=The American Practical Navigator: an Epitome of Navigation|first=Nathaniel|last=Bowditch|author-link=Nathaniel Bowditch|publisher=National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency |date=2002 | edition=Bicentennial  |url=http://msi.nga.mil/MSISiteContent/StaticFiles/NAV_PUBS/APN/Chapt-34.pdf |access-date=7 June 2012}}</ref> At its edge, sea, [[slush]], and [[ice]] mix, surrounded by [[fog]].

== Discovery of the Baltic ==
[[File:Amber hg.jpg|thumb|[[Amber]]]]
Strabo said that Pytheas gave an account of "what is beyond the [[Rhine]] as far as Scythia", which he, Strabo, thought was false.<ref name=straboI-4-3>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/1D*.html I.4.3].</ref> In the geographers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire, such as [[Ptolemy]], Scythia stretched eastward from the mouth of the river [[Vistula]]; thus Pytheas must have described the Germanic coast of the [[Baltic Sea]]; if the statement is true, there are no other possibilities. As to whether he explored it in person, he said that he explored the entire north in person (see under Thule above). As the periplus was a sort of ship's log, he probably did reach the Vistula.

According to ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|The Natural History]]'' by Pliny the Elder:<ref name=pliny37-11 /><blockquote>Pytheas* speaks of an estuary of the Ocean named Metuonis and extending for 750 miles, the shores of which are inhabited by a German tribe, the Guiones. From here it is a day's sail to the Isle of Abalus, to which, he states, [[amber]] is carried in spring by currents, being an excretion consisting of solidified brine. He adds that the inhabitants of the region use it as fuel instead of wood and sell it to the neighbouring [[Teutones]]. His belief is shared by Timaeus, who, [c. 356-260] however, calls the island Basilia. Philemon denies the suggestion that amber gives off a flame.</blockquote>

The "Guiones" who Pliny places in [[Germania]] (and not [[Scythia]]), are sometimes reinterpreted by modern editors to be [[Gutones]], who are in turn generally seen as predecessors of the later [[Goths]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Winfred P.|last=Lehmann|author-link=Winfred P. Lehmann|author2=Helen-Jo J. Hewitt |title=A Gothic Etymological Dictionary|publisher=E.J. Brill|date=1986|location=Leiden|isbn=9789004081765|page=164}}</ref> An alternative interpretation is that Pliny was referring to the [[Inguaeones]], as he does in a related geographical passage about the Germanic part of the northern Oceanic coasts.<ref>{{harvtxt|Christensen|2002|pp=25–31}} citing Pliny, [https://archive.org/details/natural-history-in-ten-volumes.-vol.-2-libri-ii-vii-loeb-352/page/195/mode/2up Book 4]</ref> "Mentonomon" is unambiguously stated to be an ''aestuarium'' or "estuary" of 6000 stadia, which using the Herodotean standard of {{convert|600|feet}} per stadium is {{convert|681|miles}}. Although it is most often considered to be on the Baltic coast, it has also been argued that Pliny is referring to the North Sea coast, west of present day Denmark.{{sfn|Christensen|2002|pp=25-31}} 
[[File:Olive Carleton Smyth - e8syymayx4.jpg|thumb|"Pytheas Buys Amber", by [[Olive Carleton Smyth]]]]

In the passage about the northern Ocean coasts Pliny also mentioned that [[Xenophon of Lampsacus]] and Pytheas described a very large island which lay three days' sail from the Scythian coast called [[Baltia|Balcia]] by Xenophon and Basilia by Pytheas.<ref name=P4.27.13>''Natural History'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+4.27.13&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137 IV.27.13] or IV.13.95 in the Loeb edition.</ref> Modern scholars note that Pytheas gives this Scythian island the same name that Timaeus later gave to Pytheas's Abalus which Pliny placed in Germania. This raises doubts about the reliability of Pliny's interpretation of older geographers of this region, but it also makes it clear that Pytheas distinguished two large islands.{{sfn|Christensen|2002|p=30}}

== Voyage to the Don ==
Pytheas claimed to have explored the entire north; however, he turned back at the mouth of the Vistula, the border with [[Scythia]]. If he had gone on he would have discovered the ancestral [[Balts]]. They occupied the lands to the east of the Vistula. In the west they began with the people living around [[Frisches Haff]], Lithuanian Aismarės, "sea of the [[Aesti|Aistians]]", who in that vicinity became the Baltic Prussians.<ref>{{harvnb|Gimbutas|1967|p=22}}.</ref> On the east [[Herodotus]] called them the ''Neuri'', a name related to Old Prussian ''narus'', "the deep", in the sense of water country. Later Lithuanians would be "the people of the shore". The Vistula was the traditional limit of Greater Germany. Place names featuring *''ner''- or *''nar''- are wide-ranging over the vast [[Proto-Baltic language#Proto-Baltic area|Proto-Baltic homeland]], occupying western Russia before the Slavs.<ref>{{harvnb|Gimbutas|1967|p=101}}.</ref>

Herodotus said that the Neuri had Scythian customs, but they were at first not considered Scythian.<ref>Herodotus IV.105.</ref> During the war between the Scythians and the Persian Empire, the Scythians came to dominate the Neuri. Strabo denied that any knowledge of the shores of the eastern Baltic existed. He had heard of the Sauromatai, but had no idea where to place them.<ref>7.2.4.</ref>

Herodotus had mentioned these Sauromatai as a distinct people living near the Neuri. [[Pliny the Elder]], however, was much better informed. The island of Baunonia ([[Bornholm]]), he said lies a days' sail off Scythia, where amber is collected.<ref name=P4.27.13 /> To him the limit of Germany was the Vistula. In contrast to Strabo, he knew that the Goths live around the Vistula, but these were definitely Germans.

By the time of Tacitus, the [[Aestii]] had emerged.<ref>''Germania'', 45.</ref> The former Scythia was now entirely Sarmatia. Evidently the Sarmatians conquered westward to the Vistula. The Goths moved to the south. That the Balts lived east of the Vistula from remote prehistoric times is unquestioned. The Baltic languages, however, are only known from the 2nd millennium AD. They are known to have developed in tribal contexts, as they were originally tribal. The first mention of any tribes is in Ptolemy's description of European Sarmatia, where the main Prussian tribes are mentioned for the first time.<ref>III.5.</ref>

In Tacitus, only the language of the Aestii is mentioned. Strabo distinguished the [[Vistula Venedi|Venedi]], who were likely [[Slavs]]. From these few references, which are the only surviving evidence apart from glottochronology<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/33282694/Glottochronology-and-It-s-Application-to-the-Balto-Slavic-Languages-Part-1 |title=Glottochronology and Its Application to the Balto-Slavic Languages |last=Novotná |first=Petra |access-date=18 February 2017}}</ref> and place name analysis, it would seem that the Balts of Pytheas' time were well past the Common [[Balto-Slavic]] stage, and likely spoke a number of related dialects. By turning back at what he thought was the limit of Germany, he not only missed the Balts, but did not discover that more Germans, the Goths, had moved into the Baltic area.

[[Polybius]] related: "... on his return thence (from the north), he traversed the whole of the coast of Europe from [[Cádiz|Gades]] to the [[Don (river)|Tanais]]."<ref>Polybius XXXIV.5.</ref> Some authors consider this leg a second voyage, as it does not seem likely he would pass by Marseille without refitting and refreshing the crew. It is striking that he encountered the border of Scythia, turned around, and went around Europe counter-clockwise until he came to the southern side of Scythia on the [[Black Sea]]. It is possible to speculate that he may have hoped to circumnavigate Europe, but the sources do not say. In other, even more speculative interpretations, Pytheas returned north and the Tanais is not the Don but is a northern river, such as the [[Elbe]].<ref name=smithpyth>{{harvnb|Smith|1880|loc=Pytheas}}.</ref>

== Measurements of latitude ==

=== Latitude by the altitude of the Sun ===
In discussing the work of Pytheas, Strabo typically used direct discourse: "Pytheas says&nbsp;..." In presenting his astronomical observations, he changed to indirect discourse: "[[Hipparchus]] said that Pytheas says&nbsp;..." either because he never read Pytheas' manuscript (because it was not available to him) or in deference to Hipparchus, who appears to have been the first to apply the Babylonian system of representing the sphere of the Earth by 360°.<ref>{{cite book|title=Surveying Instruments of Greece and Rome|first=Michael Jonathan Taunton|last=Lewis|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2001|location=Cambridge, New York|isbn=978-0-521-79297-4|pages=26–27}}</ref>

Strabo used the degrees, based on Hipparchus.<ref>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2E2*.html II.5.34]: "If, then, we cut the greatest circle of the Earth into three hundred and sixty sections, each of these sections will have seven hundred stadia."</ref> Neither say that Pytheas did. Nevertheless, Pytheas did obtain latitudes, which, according to Strabo, he expressed in proportions of the gnōmōn ("index"), or trigonometric [[Trigonometric functions|tangents]] of angles of elevation to celestial bodies. They were measured on the gnōmōn, the vertical leg of a right triangle, and the flat leg of the triangle. The imaginary hypotenuse looked along the line of sight to the celestial body or marked the edge of a shadow cast by the vertical leg on the horizontal leg.

Pytheas took the altitude of the Sun at Massalia at noon on the longest day of the year and found that the tangent was the proportion of 120 (the length of the gnōmōn) to 1/5 less than 42 (the length of the shadow).<ref>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2E2*.html II.5.41].</ref> Hipparchus, relying on the authority of Pytheas (says Strabo<ref>II.1.12 and again in II.5.8.</ref>), states that the ratio is the same as for [[Byzantium]] and that the two therefore are on the same parallel. Nansen and others prefer to give the [[cotangent]] 209/600,<ref name=nansen46>{{harvnb|Nansen|1911|p=46}}.</ref> which is the inverse of the tangent, but the angle is greater than 45° and it is the tangent that Strabo states. His number system did not permit him to express it as a decimal but the tangent is about&nbsp;2.87.

It is unlikely that any of the geographers could compute the [[arctangent]], or angle of that tangent. Moderns look it up in a table. Hipparchos is said to have had a table of some angles. The altitude, or angle of elevation, is 70°&nbsp;47′&nbsp;50″<ref name=nansen46 /> but that is not the [[latitude]].

At noon on the longest day the plane of longitude passing through Marseille is exactly on edge to the Sun. If the Earth's axis were not tilted toward the Sun, a vertical rod at the [[equator]] would have no shadow. A&nbsp;rod further north would have a north–south shadow, and as an elevation of 90° would be a zero latitude, the [[Complementary angles|complement]] of the elevation gives the latitude.{{Citation needed|reason=Either explain better or cite someone who does.|date=December 2023}} The Sun is even higher in the sky due to the tilt. The angle added to the elevation by the tilt is known as the [[Axial tilt#Obliquity|obliquity of the ecliptic]] and at that time was 23°&nbsp;44′&nbsp;40″.<ref name=nansen46 /> The [[complementary angles|complement]] of the elevation less the obliquity is 43°&nbsp;13′, only 5′ in error from Marseille's latitude, 43°&nbsp;18′.<ref>Most students of Pytheas presume that his differences from modern calculations represent error due to primitive instrumentation. Rawlins assumes the opposite, that Pytheas observed the sun correctly, but his observatory was a few miles south of west-facing Marseille. Working backward from the discrepancy, he arrives at Maire Island or Cape Croisette, which Pytheas would have selected for better viewing over the south horizon. To date there is no archaeological or other evidence to support the presence of such an observatory; however, the deficit of antiquities does not prove non-existence. {{cite journal|title=Pytheas' Solstice Observation Locates Him|first=Dennis|last=Rawlins | journal=DIO & the Journal for Hysterical Astronomy | volume=16 | date=December 2009 | pages=11–17 | url=http://www.dioi.org/vols/wg0.pdf}}</ref>

=== Latitude by the elevation of the north pole ===
A second method of determining the latitude of the observer measures the angle of elevation of a [[celestial pole]], north in the northern hemisphere. Seen from zero latitude the north pole's elevation is zero; that is, it is a point on the horizon. The [[declination]] of the observer's [[zenith]] also is zero and therefore so is their latitude.

As the observer's latitude increases (traveling north) so does the declination. The pole rises over the horizon by an angle of the same amount. The elevation at the terrestrial [[North Pole]] is 90° (straight up) and the celestial pole has a declination of the same value. The latitude also is 90.<ref>{{cite book|title=The American Practical Navigator: an Epitome of Navigation|first=Nathaniel|last=Bowditch|author-link=Nathaniel Bowditch|publisher=National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency |date=2002 | edition=Bicentennial  |url=http://msi.nga.mil/MSISiteContent/StaticFiles/NAV_PUBS/APN/Chapt-15.pdf |page=243 |quote=That is, the altitude of the elevated pole is equal to the declination of the zenith, which is equal to the latitude|access-date=7 June 2012}}</ref>

Moderns have [[Polaris]] to mark the approximate location of the North celestial pole, which it does nearly exactly. This was not the case in Pytheas' time, due to the [[precession of the equinoxes]]. Pytheas reported that the pole was an empty space at the corner of a quadrangle, the other three sides of which were marked by stars.<ref>The report survives in the ''Commentary on the Phainomena of Aratos and Eudoxos'', 1.4.1, fragments of which are preserved in [[Hipparchos]].</ref> Their identity has not survived but based on calculations these are believed to have been α and κ in [[Draco (constellation)|Draco]] and β in [[Ursa Minor]].<ref>{{cite web | first=T.E. | last=Rihll | title=Greek and Roman Science and Technology, V3; Specific subjects; Astronomy | url=http://www.swan.ac.uk/grst/Home%20Page%20G&RS&T.htm | publisher=Swansea University | access-date=7 June 2012 | location=Note 14 | archive-date=6 July 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120706153833/http://www.swan.ac.uk/grst/Home%20Page%20G%26RS%26T.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Pytheas sailed northward with the intent of locating the Arctic Circle and exploring the "frigid zone" to the north of it at the extreme of the Earth. He did not know the latitude of the circle in degrees. All he had to go by was the definition of the frigid zone as the latitudes north of the line where the celestial arctic circle was equal to the celestial Tropic of Cancer, the ''tropikos kuklos'' (refer to the next subsection). Strabo's angular report of this line as being at 24° may well be based on a tangent known to Pytheas, but he did not say that. In whatever mathematical form Pytheas knew the location, he could only have determined when he was there by taking periodic readings of the elevation of the pole (''eksarma tou polou'' in Strabo and others).{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

Today the elevation can be obtained easily on ship with a [[Quadrant (instrument)|quadrant]]. Electronic navigational systems have made even this simple measure unnecessary. Longitude was beyond Pytheas and his peers, but it was not of as great a consequence, because ships seldom strayed out of sight of land. East–west distance was a matter of contention to the geographers; they are one of Strabo's most frequent topics. Because of the [[Gnomon|gnōmōn]] north–south distances were accurate often to within a degree.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

It is unlikely that any gnōmōn could be read accurately on the pitching deck of a small vessel at night. Pytheas must have made frequent overnight stops to use his gnōmōn and talk to the natives, which would have required interpreters, probably acquired along the way. The few fragments that have survived indicate that this material was a significant part of the ''periplus'', possibly kept as the ship's log. There is little hint of native hostility; the Celts and the Germans appear to have helped him, which suggests that the expedition was put forward as purely scientific. In any case all voyages required stops for food, water and repairs; the treatment of voyagers fell under the special "guest" ethic for visitors.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}

=== Location of the Arctic Circle ===
The ancient Greek view of the heavenly bodies on which their navigation was based was imported from [[Babylonia]] by the [[Ionia]]n Greeks, who used it to become a seafaring nation of merchants and colonists during the [[Archaic period in Greece]]. Massalia was an Ionian colony. The first Ionian philosopher, [[Thales]], was known for his ability to measure the distance of a ship at sea from a cliff by the very method Pytheas used to determine the latitude of Massalia, the trigonometric ratios.

The astronomic model on which ancient Greek navigation was based, which is still in place today, was already extant in the time of Pytheas, the concept of the degrees only being missing. The model<ref>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2E1*.html II.5.3].</ref> divided the universe into a celestial and an earthly sphere pierced by the same poles. Each of the spheres were divided into zones (''zonai'') by circles (''kukloi'') in planes at right angles to the poles. The zones of the [[celestial sphere]] repeated on a larger scale those of the terrestrial sphere.

The basis for division into zones was the two distinct paths of the heavenly bodies: that of the stars and that of the Sun and Moon. Astronomers know today that the Earth revolving around the Sun is tilted on its axis, bringing each hemisphere now closer to the Sun, now further away. The Greeks had the opposite model, that the stars and the Sun rotated around the Earth. The stars moved in fixed circles around the poles. The Sun moved at an oblique angle to the circles, which obliquity brought it now to the north, now to the south. The circle of the Sun was the [[ecliptic]]. It was the center of a band called the [[zodiac]] on which various constellations were located.

The shadow cast by a vertical rod at noon was the basis for defining zonation. The intersection of the northernmost or southernmost points of the ecliptic defined the axial circles passing through those points as the two tropics (''tropikoi kukloi'', "circles at the turning points") later named for the zodiacal constellations found there, [[Tropic of cancer|Cancer]] and [[Tropic of Capricorn|Capricorn]]. During noon of the [[summer solstice]] (therinē tropē) rods there cast no shadow.<ref>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2E1*.html II.5.7].</ref> The latitudes between the tropics were called the torrid zone (''diakekaumenē'', "burned up").

Based on their experience of the Torrid Zone south of [[Egypt]] and [[Libya]], the Greek geographers judged it uninhabitable. Symmetry requires that there be an uninhabitable Frigid Zone (''katepsugmenē'', "frozen") to the north and reports from there since the time of [[Homer]] seemed to confirm it. The edge of the Frigid Zone ought to be as far south from the [[North Pole]] in latitude as the Summer Tropic is from the [[Equator]]. Strabo gives it as 24°, which may be based on a previous tangent of Pytheas, but he does not say. The Arctic Circle would then be at 66°, accurate to within a degree.<ref>Strabo's extensive presentation of the geographic model including the theory of the Arctic is to be found in [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2E1*.html Book II Chapter 5].</ref>

Seen from the equator the celestial North Pole (''boreios polos'') is a point on the horizon. As the observer moves northward the pole rises and the [[circumpolar stars]] appear, now unblocked by the Earth. At the Tropic of Cancer the radius of the circumpolar stars reaches 24°. The edge stands on the horizon. The [[constellation]] of ''mikra arktos'' ([[Ursa Minor]], "little bear") was entirely contained within the circumpolar region. The latitude was therefore called the ''arktikos kuklos'', "circle of the bear". The terrestrial Arctic Circle was regarded as fixed at this latitude. The celestial Arctic Circle was regarded as identical to the circumference of the circumpolar stars and therefore a variable.

When the observer is on the terrestrial Arctic Circle and the radius of the circumpolar stars is 66° the celestial Arctic Circle is identical to the celestial [[Tropic of Cancer]].<ref>{{harvnb|Nansen|1911|p=53}}.</ref> That is what Pytheas means when he says that Thule is located at the place where the Arctic Circle is identical to the [[Tropic of Cancer]].<ref name=straboII-5-8 /> At that point, on the day of the [[Summer Solstice]], the vertical rod of the [[Gnomon|gnōmōn]] casts a shadow extending in theory to the horizon over 360° as the Sun does not set. Under the pole the Arctic Circle is identical to the Equator and the Sun never sets but rises and falls on the horizon. The shadow of the gnōmōn winds perpetually around it.

=== Latitude by length of longest day, and by Sun's elevation on shortest day ===
Strabo used the astronomical cubit (''pēchus'', the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the little finger) as a measure of the elevation of the Sun. The term "cubit" in this context is obscure; it has nothing to do with distance along either a straight line or an arc, does not apply to celestial distances, and has nothing to do with the gnōmōn. [[Hipparchus]] borrowed this term from [[Babylonia]], where it meant 2°. They in turn took it from ancient [[Sumer]] so long ago that if the connection between cubits and degrees was known in either Babylonia or Ionia it did not survive. Strabo stated degrees in either cubits or as a proportion of a [[great circle]]. The Greeks also used the length of day at the summer solstice as a measure of latitude. It is stated in equinoctial hours (''hōrai isēmerinai''), one being 1/12 of the time between sunrise and sunset on an [[equinox]].

Based partly on data taken from Pytheas, Hipparchus correlated cubits of the Sun's elevation at noon on the winter solstice, latitudes in hours of a day on the summer solstice, and distances between latitudes in stadia for some locations.<ref>{{harvnb|Nansen|1911|p=52}}.</ref> Pytheas had proved that Marseille and Byzantium were on the same parallel (see above). Hipparchus, through Strabo,<ref>Strabo [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2A1*.html II.1.12,13].</ref> added that Byzantium and the mouth of the Borysthenes, today's [[Dnieper]], were on the same [[Meridian (geography)|meridian]] and were separated by 3700 stadia, 5.3° at Strabo's 700&nbsp;stadia per a degree of [[meridian arc]]. As the [[Circle of latitude|parallel]] through the river-mouth also crossed the coast of "Celtica", the distance due north from Marseille to Celtica was 3700 stadia, a baseline from which Pytheas seems to have calculated latitude and distance.<ref>However, Srabo [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2A1*.html II.1.18] implied 3800, still attributed to Hipparchus. [[Eratosthenes]] has quite a different view. See under [[Thule]].</ref>

Strabo said that Ierne (written Ἰέρνη, meaning Ireland<ref>[[Éire#Etymology]]</ref>) is under 5000 stadia (7.1°) north of this line. These figures place Celtica around the mouth of the [[Loire]], an emporium for the trading of British tin. The part of Ireland referenced is the vicinity of [[Belfast]]. Pytheas then would either have crossed the [[Bay of Biscay]] from the coast of Spain to the mouth of the Loire, or reached it along the coast, crossed the [[English Channel]] from the vicinity of [[Brest, France]] to [[Cornwall]], and traversed the [[Irish Sea]] to reach the [[Orkney]] Islands. A statement of Eratosthenes attributed by Strabo to Pytheas, that the north of the [[Iberian Peninsula]] was an easier passage to Celtica than across the Ocean,<ref>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/3B*.html Strabo III.2.11].</ref> is somewhat ambiguous: apparently he knew or knew of both routes, but he does not say which he took.

At noon on the [[winter solstice]] the Sun stands at 9 cubits and the longest day on the [[summer solstice]] is 16 hours at the baseline through Celtica.<ref>Strabo II.1.18. The notes of the Loeb Strabo summarized and explained this information.</ref> At 2500&nbsp;stadia, approximately 283 miles, or 3.6°, north of Celtica, are a people Hipparchus called Celtic, but whom Strabo thought were the British, a discrepancy he might not have noted if he had known that the British were also Celtic. The location is Cornwall. The Sun stands at 6&nbsp;cubits and the longest day is 17&nbsp;hours. At 9100&nbsp;stadia, approximately 1032&nbsp;miles, north of Marseille, 5400 or 7.7° north of Celtica, the elevation is 4&nbsp;cubits and the longest day is 18&nbsp;hours. This location is in the vicinity of the [[Firth of Clyde]].

Here Strabo launched another quibble. Hipparchus, relying on Pytheas, according to Strabo, placed this area south of Britain, but he, Strabo, calculated that it was north of Ireland (Ierne/Ἰέρνη). Pytheas, however, rightly knew what is now [[Scotland]] as part of Britain, land of the [[Picts]], even though north of Ireland/Ierne. North of southern Scotland the longest day is 19 hours. Strabo, based on theory alone, states that Ierne is so cold<ref name=straboII-5-8 /> that any lands north of it must be uninhabited. In the hindsight given to moderns Pytheas, in relying on observation in the field, appears more scientific than Strabo, who discounted the findings of others merely because of their strangeness to him. The ultimate cause of his skepticism is simply that he did not believe Scandinavia could exist. This disbelief may also be the cause of alteration of Pytheas' data.

== On the tides ==
Pliny reported that "Pytheas of Massalia informs us, that in Britain the tide rises 80&nbsp;cubits."<ref>''Natural History'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D99 Book II Chapter 99]</ref> The passage does not give enough information to determine which cubit Pliny meant; however, any cubit gives the same general result. If he was reading an early source, the cubit may have been the [[Cubit#Other systems|Cyrenaic]] cubit, an early Greek cubit, of 463.1&nbsp;mm, in which case the distance was {{convert|37|m|ft}}. This number far exceeds any modern known tides. The [[National Oceanography Centre]], which records tides at tidal gauges placed in about 55&nbsp;ports of the UK Tide Gauge Network on an ongoing basis, records the highest mean tidal change between 1987 and 2007 at [[Avonmouth]] in the [[Severn Estuary]] of {{convert|6.955|m|ft|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web | title=Harmonic Constants | publisher=National Oceanography Centre | date=3 July 2012 | url=http://www.pol.ac.uk/ntslf/constants2.php | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703100723/http://www.pol.ac.uk/ntslf/constants2.php | archive-date=3 July 2012 }}</ref>

The highest spring [[tide]] between 2008 and 2026 at that location would be {{convert|14.64|m|ft|abbr=on}} on 29 September 2015.<ref>{{cite web | title=Highest & lowest predicted tides | publisher=National Oceanography Centre | date=3 July 2012 | url=http://www.pol.ac.uk/ntslf/hilo.php?port=avonmouth | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703100710/http://www.pol.ac.uk/ntslf/hilo.php?port=avonmouth | archive-date=3 July 2012 }}</ref> Even allowing for geologic and climate change, Pytheas' 80 cubits far exceeds any known tides around Britain. One well-circulated but unevidenced answer to the paradox is that Pytheas was referring to a storm surge.<ref name=Tozer2>{{cite book|last=Tozer|first=Henry Fanshawe|title=A History of Ancient Geography|year=1897|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambriddge University Press|pages=225|url=https://archive.org/details/b24876628/page/225/mode/2up/search/storm}}.</ref> Despite the modern arguments, the fact remains that Pytheas experienced tides that exceeded by far the usual tides in the Mediterranean, and particularly those at Massilia.

Matching fragments of [[Aetius (philosopher)|Aëtius]] in pseudo-[[Plutarch]] and [[Stobaeus]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Doxographi Graeci|url=https://archive.org/details/doxographigraec01dielgoog|editor-first=Hermann|editor-last=Diels|editor-link=Hermann Diels|publisher=G. Reimer|date=1879|location=Berlin|pages=[https://archive.org/details/doxographigraec01dielgoog/page/n397 383]|language=grc}} [https://archive.org/details/doxographigraec01dielgoog <!-- quote=Doxographi Graeci. --> Downloadable Internet Archive]. Diels includes two matching fragments of [[Aetius (philosopher)|Aëtius]]' ''Placita'', one from Pseudo-[[Plutarch]] ''Epitome'' Book&nbsp;III Chapter&nbsp;17 often included in ''[[Moralia]]'' and the other from [[Stobaeus]]' ''Extracta'' Book&nbsp;I Chapter&nbsp;38&nbsp;[33].</ref> attribute the flood tides ({{lang|grc|πλήμμυραι}} ''plēmmurai'') to the "filling of the moon" ({{lang|grc|πλήρωσις τῆς σελήνης}} ''plērōsis tēs sēlēnēs'') and the ebb tides ({{lang|grc|ἀμπώτιδες}} ''ampōtides'') to the "lessening" ({{lang|grc|μείωσις}} ''meiōsis''). The words are too ambiguous to make an exact determination of Pytheas' meaning, whether diurnal or [[Tide#Range variation: springs and neaps|spring and neap tides]] are meant, or whether full and new moons or the half-cycles in which they occur. Different translators take different views.

That daily tides should be caused by full moons and new moons is manifestly wrong, which would be a surprising view in a Greek astronomer and mathematician of the times. He could have meant that spring and neap tides were caused by new and full moons, which is partially correct in that spring tides occur at those times. A gravitational theory (objects fall to the center) existed at the time but Pytheas appears to have meant that the phases themselves were the causes (αἰτίαι ''aitiai''). However imperfect or imperfectly related the viewpoint, Pytheas was the first to associate the tides to the [[Moon#Tidal effects|phases of the moon]].

== Literary influence ==
[[File:Pythéas.jpg|thumb|Statue of Pythéas made by [[Auguste Ottin]] (1811-1890) and placed on the facade of the [[Palais de la Bourse (Marseille)|Palais de la Bourse]] in [[Marseille]].]]
Pytheas was a central source of information on the North Sea and the subarctic regions of western Europe to later periods, and possibly the only source. The only ancient authors we know by name who certainly saw Pytheas' original text were [[Dicaearchus]], [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeus]], [[Eratosthenes]], [[Crates of Mallus]], [[Hipparchus]], [[Polybius]], [[Artemidorus Ephesius|Artemidorus]] and [[Posidonius]].<ref>Lionel Pearson, review of Hans Joachim Mette, ''Pytheas von Massalia'' (Berlin: Gruyter) 1952, in ''Classical Philology'' '''49'''.3 (July 1954), pp.&nbsp;212–214.</ref> Notably the list does not include [[Strabo]] or [[Tacitus]], though Strabo discussed him and Tacitus may likely have known about his work. Either of the two could have known him through other writers or could have read his work in the original.

Strabo, citing [[Polybius]], accused Pytheas of promulgating a fictitious journey he could never have funded, as he was a private individual (''idiōtēs'') and a poor man (''penēs'').<ref name=straboII-4-2 /> Markham proposes a possible answer to the funding question:<ref>{{harvnb|Markham|1893|p=510}}.</ref> seeing that Pytheas was known as a professional geographer and that north Europe was as yet a question mark to Massalian merchants, he suggests that "the enterprise was a government expedition of which Pytheas was placed in command." In another suggestion the merchants of Marseille sent him out to find northern markets. These theories are speculative but perhaps less so than Strabo's contention that Pytheas was a charlatan just because a professional geographer doubted him.<ref>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2C*.html II.3.5].</ref>

Strabo did explain his reasons for doubting Pytheas' veracity. Citing numerous instances of Pytheas apparently being far off the mark on details concerning known regions, he said: "however, any man who has told such great falsehoods about the known regions would hardly, I imagine, be able to tell the truth about places that are not known to anybody."<ref name=straboI-4-3 /> As an example he mentioned that Pytheas says [[Kent]] is several days' sail from Celtica when it is visible from Gaul across the channel. If Pytheas had visited the place he should have verified it personally.

The objection although partially true is itself flawed. Strabo interjected his own view of the location of Celtica, that it was opposite to Britain, end to end.<ref name=straboI-4-3 /> Pytheas, however, places it further south, around the mouth of the Loire (see above), from which it might justifiably be several days' sail.<ref>{{cite magazine | first=Thomas H.B. | last=Graham | title=Thule and the Tin Islands | magazine=The Gentleman's Magazine | volume=CCLXXV | date=July–December 1893 | pages=179 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7eIIAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA191}}</ref> The people across from Britain in Caesar's time were the [[Germanic peoples|Germani]] in the north and the [[Belgae]] in the south. Still, some of the Celtic lands were on the channel and were visible from it, which Pytheas should have mentioned but Strabo implies he did not.

Strabo's other objections are similarly flawed or else completely wrong. He simply did not believe the earth was inhabited north of Ierne. Pytheas however could not then answer for himself, or protect his own work from loss or alteration, so most of the questions concerning his voyage remain unresolved, to be worked over by every generation. To some he was a daring adventurer and discoverer;<ref>{{cite book | title=Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece | first=Georg | last=Sarton | publisher=Courier Dover Publications | date=1993 | isbn=978-0-486-27495-9 | location=New York | pages=524–525 |quote=His fate was comparable to that of [[Marco Polo]] in later times; some of the things that they told were so extraordinary, so contrary to common experience, that wise and prudent men could not believe them and concluded they were fables}}</ref> to others, a semi-legendary blunderer or prevaricator.

The logical outcome of this tendency is the historical novel with Pytheas as the main character and the celebration of Pytheas in poetry, beginning as far back as [[Virgil]]. The process continues into modern times; for example, Pytheas is a key theme in [[Charles Olson]]'s ''Maximus Poems''.  Details of Pytheas' voyage also serve as the backdrop for Chapter I of [[Poul Anderson]]'s science fiction novel, ''[[The Boat of a Million Years]]''. The Stone Stories trilogy by [[Mandy Haggith]] (''The Walrus Mutterer'', 2018; ''The Amber Seeker'', 2019; ''The Lyre Dancers'', 2020) revolve around Pytheas of Massalia's journeys.

== See also ==
* [[Britain (place name)]]
* [[Cruthin]]
* [[Euthymenes]]
* [[Mining in Cornwall]]
* [[Prydain]]
* [[Scythia]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book| first=Richard F.|last=Burton|author-link=Richard Francis Burton|title=Ultima Thule; or, A Summer in Iceland|publisher=William P. Nimmo | location=London and Edinburgh|date=1875 | url=https://archive.org/details/ultimathuleoras00burtgoog| quote=Ultima Thule; or, A Summer in Iceland. }}
* {{cite journal| last=Chevallier|first=R.|date=December 1984|title=The Greco-Roman Conception of the North from Pytheas to Tacitus|journal=Arctic|volume=37|issue=4|pages=341–346|doi=10.14430/arctic2217|jstor=40510297|hdl=10515/sy5tb0xz8|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book |last1=Christensen |first1=Arne Søby |author-link1=Arne Søby Christensen |translator-last1=Flegal |translator-first1=Heidi |year=2002 |title=Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths: Studies in a Migration Myth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AcLDHOqOt4cC |publisher=[[Museum Tusculanum Press]] |isbn=87-7289-7104 }}
* {{cite book| first=Barry|last=Cunliffe|author-link=Barry Cunliffe|date=2002|title=The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek: The Man Who Discovered Britain (Revised ed.)|publisher=Walker & Co, Penguin|isbn=0-14-200254-2}}
* {{cite book| title=North to Thule: an imagined narrative of the famous "lost" sea voyage of Pytheas of Massalia in the fourth century B.C|first=John|last=Frye|author2=Harriet Frye|location=Chapel Hill, NC|publisher=Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill|date=1985|isbn=978-0-912697-20-8}}
* {{cite book | title=The Balts | first=Marija | last=Gimbutas | series=Ancient Peoples and Places | editor-first=Glyn | editor-last=Daniel | date=1967 | location=New York | publisher=Frederick A. Praeger}}
* {{cite book| last=Hawkes|first=C.F.C.|date=1977|title=Pytheas: Europe and the Greek Explorers|location=Oxford|publisher=Blackwell, Classics Department for the Board of Management of the Myres Memorial Fund|id=090356307X}}
* {{cite book| last=Herbaux|first=François|date=2024|title=Pythéas, explorateur du Grand Nord|publisher=Les Belles Lettres|isbn=9782251455280}}.
* {{Cite book|last=Kaplan|first=Philip G.|title=The Encyclopedia of Ancient History|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|year=2013|isbn=978-1-4051-7935-5|editor-last=Bagnall|editor-first=Roger S|chapter=Pytheas of Massalia|page=1|doi=10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah21281.pub2}}
* {{cite journal | first=Clements R.| last=Markham |author-link=Clements Markham | title=Pytheas, The Discoverer of Britain | journal=The Geographical Journal | publisher=The Royal Geographical Society | volume=1 | issue=6 |date=June 1893 | location=London | pages=504–524 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L1gMAAAAIAAJ&q=Pytheas,+The+Discoverer+of+Britain&pg=PA519 | doi=10.2307/1773964 |jstor=1773964| bibcode=1893GeogJ...1..504M }}
* {{cite book | title=In Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times | volume=I | first=Fridtjof | last=Nansen | author-link=Fridtjof Nansen | others=Translated by Arthur G. Chater | publisher=Frederick A. Stokes Co. | date=1911 | location=New York | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=01IQwNVWzoYC&pg=PR5}}
* {{cite book| last=Roller|first=Duane W.|title=Through the Pillars of Herakles: Greco-Roman Exploration of the Atlantic|location=London, New York|publisher=Routledge|date=2006|isbn=978-0-415-37287-9}}
* {{cite book| last=Roseman|first=Christina Horst|date=1994|title=Pytheas of Massalia: On the ocean: Text, translation and commentary|publisher=Ares Publishing|isbn=0-89005-545-9}}
* {{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology | volume=III | first=William | last=Smith | location=London | publisher=J. Murray | date=1880 | title=Pytheas | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f-5WAAAAMAAJ&q=Pytheas+William+Smith&pg=PA628}}
* [[Arnolds Spekke|Spekke, Arnolds]] (1957) ''The ancient amber routes and the geographical discovery of the Eastern Baltic''. Stockholm: Goppers.
* {{cite book| title=Ultima Thule: further mysteries of the Arctic|first=Vilhjalmur|last=Stefansson|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan Co|date=1940}}
* John Taylor, ''[https://www.academia.edu/26576329/Albion_the_earliest_history Albion: the earliest history]'' (Dublin, 2016)
* {{cite book| author-link=Henry Fanshawe Tozer | first=Henry Fanshawe | last=Tozer | title=History of Ancient Geography | location=Cambridge|date=1897|publisher=University Press | url=https://archive.org/details/b24876628| quote=History of Ancient Geography. }}
* {{cite book|last1=Warmington|first1=Eric Herbert|last2=Spawforth|first2=Antony|year=2015|chapter=Pytheas, Greek navigator, c. 310–306 BCE|title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5459|isbn=978-0-19-938113-5}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Pytheas
  |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Pytheas|volume=22|first1= Edward Herbert |last1 =Bunbury |author1link= Edward Herbert Bunbury|first2=Charles Raymond|last2=Beazley|authorlink2=Raymond Beazley|pages=703–704 |short=1}}
* {{cite web |first=Adrian |last=Darbyshire |title=Pytheas visited the Isle of Man in 300 BC – claim |publisher=Isle of Man Today |date=8 April 2008 |access-date=30 June 2012 |url=http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/pytheas-visited-the-isle-of-man-in-300bc-claim-1-1772539 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130108040127/http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/pytheas-visited-the-isle-of-man-in-300bc-claim-1-1772539 |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 January 2013 }}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.q-mag.org/pytheas-megaliths-and-the-tides.html |title=Pytheas, megaliths and the tides |first=Jean |last=Deruelle |work=from: L'Atlantide des Mégalithes |publisher=Editions France-Empire, 1999}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/pytheas.html |title=Pytheas |first=Andre |last=Engels |work=Discoverer's Web |publisher=Technische Universiteit Eindhoven |access-date=20 September 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918073035/http://www.win.tue.nl/~engels/discovery/pytheas.html |archive-date=18 September 2008 }}
* {{cite web |title=The Northern Lights Route: The Voyage of Pytheas to Thule |date=1999 |publisher=University Library of Tromsø |url=http://www.ub.uit.no/northernlights/eng/pytheas.htm |access-date=5 November 2008}}

{{Ancient Greek astronomy}}
{{Polar exploration |arctic |state=collapsed}}
{{Ancient seafaring}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:350s BC births]]
[[Category:4th-century BC Greek people]]
[[Category:4th-century BC geographers]]
[[Category:3rd-century BC geographers]]
[[Category:Ancient explorers]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek astronomers]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek explorers]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek geographers]]
[[Category:Ancient Massaliotes]]
[[Category:Explorers of Europe]]
[[Category:Explorers of the Arctic]]
[[Category:Iron Age Britain|Prehistoric Britain]]
[[Category:Peripluses]]
[[Category:Thule]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]