Ancient Explorers

The Expedition of Pytheas the Greek

Feb 27, 2009 Lito Apostolakou

In 4th century BC, Greek adventurer Pytheas set out on an expedition to explore the lands beyond the Mediterranean and reached the Arctic limits of the known world.

Pytheas set out from the Greek colony of Masallia (today Marseilles, France) to explore north-western Europe around 325BC. He reached Britain and was the first to describe the midnight sun and the polar ice. The book he wrote about his travels, “On the Ocean” (Peri tou Okeanou), does not survive but has been quoted by famous geographers, Strabo, Pliny and Diodorus.

It is not known where Pytheas’ expedition started from. It is possible that he sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar, since the Carthaginians who controlled them at the time were in friendly terms with the Massaliotes, and he travelled north along the coast of Portugal.

Pytheas' Expedition to Britain or Britannia

Pytheas is said to have “travelled over the whole of Britain that was accessible” but the distance he covered is debatable and is presumed to be between 7,700m and 4,800m approximately. He described the British Isles as “Britannia” or “Bretanike”. Pytheas described the natives of Britannia as people of “simple manners” who built their houses out of reeds or timbers, threshed their grain indoors and used chariots in their wars. Of the inhabitants of Cornwall (Belerion), Pytheas said that they were civilised and hospitable to strangers and were involved in tin mining.

It is said that the ancient explorer visited Stonehenge but the report that reaches us through Diodorus cannot be connected directly to him. According to this report, there was “a stately grove and renowned temple, of round form, a city consecrated to the god whose citizens play on the harp, chant sacred hymns to Apollo in the temple”.

Pytheas in Thule and the Arctic

Continuing with his explorations, Pytheas reached the most northerly part of the British Isles, a place named as Thule – an island six days’ sailing north of Britain, on the “solidified” sea. Thule, thanks to Pytheas, remained a mythical, remote land, on the edge of the imagination. Some say Pytheas’ Thule must have been Shetland or the Faroe Islands, others talk about Norway and Greenland and others still support the theory that Thule must have been Iceland.

Around Thule, Pytheas encountered drift ice and jellyfish – “nor sea nor air but a mixture of these things, like a marine lung, in which is said that earth and water and all things are in suspension”. He was also said to have observed that the sun set only two to three hours.

According to accounts, Pytheas explored the Germanic coast of the Baltic Sea and saw amber washed up by the sea and being used by the natives for fuel. From there, Pytheas sailed back to Marseilles.

Strabo refers to Pytheas’ measurements of latitude. The explorer must have used a gnomon and consulted with the natives to find his way. He also used a method of navigation based on the view of heavenly bodies, passed on to ancient Greeks from Babylonia. Pytheas made some important observations concerning latitudes and was the first to associate the tides to the phases of the moon.

Sources

Barry Cunliffe, The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek, Penguin Books 2002

Wikipedia

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Pytheas' voyage

Pytheas