For the ancient Athenian orator, see Pytheas (Athenian).
Pytheas of Massalia
A statue of Pytheas outside the Palais de la Bourse, Marseille
Born
c. 350 BC[1]
Massalia
Nationality
Greek
Citizenship
Massaliote
Known for
Earliest Greek voyage to Britain, the Baltic, and the Arctic Circle for which there is a record, author of Periplus.
Scientific career
Fields
Geography, exploration, navigation
Pytheas of Massalia (/ˈpɪθiəs/; Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης Pythéas ho Massaliōtēs; Latin: Pytheas Massiliensis; born c. 350 BC, fl. c. 320–306 BC)[2][1][3] was a Greek geographer, explorer and astronomer from the Greek colony of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France).[1][4] He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe in about 325 BC, but his account of it, known widely in 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 and 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 tides is the earliest one known that suggests the moon as their cause.
^ abcKaplan 2013.
^Cunliffe 2002, p. 2.
^Warmington & Spawforth 2015.
^Stein-Hölkeskamp, Elke; Engels, Johannes; Gärtner, Hans Armin; Albiani, Maria Grazia (2006). "Pytheas". Brill's New Pauly. doi:10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e1016010.
Pytheas of Massalia (/ˈpɪθiəs/; Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης Pythéas ho Massaliōtēs; Latin: Pytheas Massiliensis; born c. 350 BC, fl. c. 320–306...
notes that Pytheas says it "is a six days' sail north of Britain, and is near the frozen sea". But he then doubts this claim, writing that Pytheas has "been...
explorer Pytheas of Massalia, who travelled from his home in Hellenistic southern Gaul to Britain in the 4th century BC. The term used by Pytheas may derive...
author to describe the coast of Holland and Flanders was the geographer Pytheas, who noted in c. 325 BC that in these regions, "more people died in the...
Marseille. Its existence has been denied by other scholars.[citation needed] Pytheas Barry Cunliffe, Iron Age Britain, English Heritage, London, 1995, p 38...
The first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Greek sailor Pytheas, who called the northern tip of Britain "Orcas", the source of the name...
London. "Lost Holst manuscripts discovered in New Zealand". Classic FM. Retrieved 23 July 2017. Gustav Holst at Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music...
is an island of immense size called Baltia, which by Pytheas is called Basilia." [...] "Pytheas says that the Gutones, a people of Germany, inhabit the...
which is the modern Ireland. The first known Greek to come to Britain was Pytheas who lived in late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC. He reported its name...
form of the name was the Greek explorer and geographer Pytheas in the 4th century BC. Pytheas referred to Prettanike or Brettaniai, a group of islands...
exploration Phoenician maritime expansion Sardinia Circumnavigation of Africa Pytheas' voyage to Britain Roman circumnavigation of Britain Timeline Military...
καὶ τὰ πέραν τοῦ Ῥήνου τὰ μέχρι Σκυθῶ should be considered unknown, as Pytheas' account of remote nations cannot be trusted. Krahe (1964) claims the hydronym...
Ages". The earliest known reference to the habitants of Britain was by Pytheas, a Greek geographer who made a voyage of exploration around the British...
1st century AD. Various references to the region can also be found in Pytheas, Pomponius Mela, Tacitus, Ptolemy, Procopius and Jordanes, usually in the...
geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe (c. 320 BC), Pytheas of Massalia called the island Iérnē (written Ἰέρνη).[citation needed] In...
Great Britain may have come from 4th century BC records of the voyage of Pytheas, a Greek geographer who made a voyage of exploration around the British...
fascination with geography; he was well-read in the works of Eratosthenes and Pytheas, and perhaps wanted to discover the source of the river, but turned back...
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