Thomas Zhan, Jeju
Pytheas, a mythical figure of ancient Greece, is known as the first Greek to ever visit and describe the British Isles as well as to visit the Arctic.
Heading to the unknown
Around 330 BCE, Pytheas, a Greek merchant from Massilia, Greece started his journey. He was sent out by the merchants of his native city to find a route to the tin mines of southern Britain. Although tin was extremely valuable at the time, it can still be obtained through trades. However, the Carthaginians controlled the tin-trade, and the Greeks would be glad to break their monopoly. He sailed west through the Pillars of Hercules and pushed out into the Atlantic. After stopping at the Phoenician city Gades, he sailed along the western coasts of Spain and France, and after making another stop at the tip of Brittany, France, he finally reached Belerium, Britain.
First arrival at Great Britain
After arriving on the lands of Britain, he visited the tin mines, one of his major goals for the voyage. He described what he found: "The inhabitants of Britain who dwell about the headland of Belerium are unusually hospitable and have adopted a civilized manner of life because of their intercourse with foreign traders. It is they who work the tin, extracting it by an ingenious process. The bed itself is of rock but between are pieces of earth which they dig out to reach the tin. Then they work the tin into pieces the size of knuckle bones and carry it to an island that lies off Britain and is called Ictis (St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall); for at the time of ebb tide the space between this island and the mainland becomes dry, and they can take the tin in large quantities over to the island on their wagons."
He claimed to have explored a large part of Britain on foot, accurately estimating it’s circumference at 4000 miles (6400km). He also gave quite an accurate estimation of the distance between north Britain and Massalia at 1050 miles (1690km), with the actual distance being 1120 miles (1800km). The time he took for his assumed exploration of Britain was unknown, and how much of his journey was spent on the land itself versus how much was by sailing was also unknown.
Although there is not an academic agreement about whether he explored Britain on foot or not, what is not in doubt is that he did arrive in Britain by sea. His epic journey was often referenced by later ancient writers, although his journey is not well known nowadays. Furthermore, although the evidence of him actually touring on the lands of Britain are unclear and debatable, it is widely believed that he was the first to reach and sail around the isle, and also the person responsible for the first written mention of the word “Britain”. In his work “Periplus” “circumnavigation”, and the quotes from this work in several other sources written by later writers (“Strabo’s Geographica, Pliny’s Natural History and Diodorus of Sicily’s Bibliotheca historica”), he uses the epithet ”Bretannike'' (Βρεταννική), Greek for ”Britannic.”
Thule : the end of the world
Reaching Britain stopped neither his courage nor his determination. He sailed further north, and eventually reached the island of “Thule”. It was described as six days’ sail north of Britain, near the “pepēguia thalatta ”, “frozen sea”, indicating that it is somewhere around the arctic. Greek geographer Strabo wrote in his work Polybius, “Pytheas asserts that he explored in person the whole northern region of Europe as far as the ends of the world.”, “ends of the world” referring to Thule here (Fun fact: In classical and medieval literature, ultima Thule (Latin "farthermost Thule") acquired a metaphorical meaning of any distant place located beyond the "borders of the known world"). Overall, it can be concluded that Thule was an island far north of Europe (another fun fact: the far northern extremes of the earth have now had the poetic name of Thule, due to Pytheas’ discovery. It is now given to the northernmost town in Greenland), close to or inside the arctic circle. There are debates over the exact location of Thule, some say it is Iceland, others argue that it might be the western coast of Norway.
Pytheas made some fascinating observations of Thule: the sun retires to its resting place for only two or three hours in midsummer, the inhabitants lived on wild berries and "millet" (probably oats in this case) and made drinks from wild honey called “mead”. North of Thule he was told of a land where the sea became solid and the sun never set in summertime, which according to modern day knowledge is likely to be the arctic circle.
Journey back home
From Thule, Pytheas sailed back to Britain and further sailed down its Eastern coast, achieving a circumnavigation of the island. However instead of heading straight home west, there is evidence that Pytheas turned east and sailed along the northern coast of Europe. After reaching the Frisian Islands (part of modern day Denmark) Pytheas turned around and sailed back along the coast of Europe. On the way he encountered the island of Heligoland, an island off the coast of Germany. He called it Abalus - his original quote of the observations of the island is :”In the spring the waves wash up amber on the shores of this island. The inhabitants use it as fuel instead of wood … and also sell it to their neighbors the Teutons." After this Pytheas sailed back home the way he came. His story seemed unbelievable to the people at the time: however his epic journey has gone down in history and stands as an example of resilience and fortitude.
Bibliography
https://biography.yourdictionary.com/pytheas https://greekreporter.com/2019/11/24/pytheas-of-massalia-the-first-greek-to -reach-britain-and-the-arctic/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pytheas#The_tin_trade https://www.ancient.eu/article/1078/on-the-ocean-the-famous-voyage-of-pyth eas/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pytheas
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