Pythaeus was one of the ancient Greek explorers of the ocean. He lived between approximately 380 and 310 BC. e. The future navigator was born in the colony Massalia (today it is the French city of Marseille). Therefore, it is not surprising that his life was connected with travels and discoveries.
Pifey swimming
In 325 BC e. the adventurous Hellen went on his most famous and important voyage. What Pythaeus discovered was outside the then known world of the Greeks. He left behind the pillars of Hercules - the iconic heights that frame the Strait of Gibraltar. Once in the Atlantic Ocean, the ships of Pifey headed north. So the ancient sailors discovered Britain.
Everything that Pythaeus discovered was recorded in his written works (“On the Ocean” and “Geography”), which, unfortunately, did not reach us. However, scholars such as Polybius and Strabo allude to it. These historians were distrustful of the discoveries of the “northern land”. Rumors and myths about Britain were confirmed only during the time of the Roman ruler Julius Caesar in the 1st century. BC e. All information about the island up to this time one way or another went back to the writings of Pifey. Thanks to the remaining cited confusing passages, we can conclude that this traveler first reached the shores of Britain, then visited the legendary island of Thule and finally found himself on the shores of the Baltic Sea, where local tribes mined precious amber. What Pythaeus discovered astounded the imagination of his contemporaries, so many did not believe his stories.
Thule Island
The legendary island of Thule, described by a sailor, is mentioned in his essay “On the Ocean”. So for certain it is not known what land Pythaeus spoke of. Later, Thule was often associated with Iceland or other archipelagos of the northern seas (Faroe, Orkney, Shetland or Hebrides). This place was considered the edge of the universe, beyond which a person simply cannot get.
Some scholars, including Strabo, have blamed Pifey that all his stories about Tula are fiction. But the famous polar explorer Nansen already in the XX century believed that the ancient Greek navigator visited the shores of his native Norway. This assumption also has a right to exist. The expeditions of Pithea encountered such unprecedented phenomena as the polar day and the aurora. The inhabitants of the Mediterranean have not seen anything like it yet. These natural phenomena are characteristic of latitudes beyond the Arctic Circle. Therefore, Nansen could be right in his assumption of Norway. In addition, Scandinavia until the Middle Ages was considered an island (as well as Thule). The eternal ice, which was the natural boundary of the northern seas, was accepted by the ancient Greeks as the other world and kingdom of the god Kronos.
Expedition organization
What Pythaeus discovered also had practical value for the inhabitants of Massalia. They wanted to find the shortest path to British tin and Baltic amber. These products were highly regarded in the antique market. It affected the competition between the numerous Greek and Phoenician colonies in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. So it would be wrong to think that Pythaeus was an adventurer and a poor man. He carried out a matter of national importance, which concerned the influence and power of one of the largest colonial centers.
Of course, Pythaeus possessed wide knowledge in geography and astronomy. He managed to determine the breadth of his hometown. His research and calculations have been used by many scientists. For example, among them was the astronomer and mathematician Hipparchus of Nicaea, who lived in the 2nd century BC. e. To calculate the latitude, Pythaeus also determined the height of the Sun at noon.
However, in order to organize such a long journey, the knowledge of the ancient Greek navigator was clearly not enough. He had to face the resistance of the Phoenicians. They controlled the pillars of Hercules and guarded the shores of Iberia (modern Spain), where strangers were not allowed. Due to the fragmentary and incomplete sources, it remained unclear how Pifey managed to overcome this problem.
The shores of France and Britain
But then his descriptions of the Celtics came to us. So in antiquity was called France. The route of Pifey passed along the coasts inhabited by Ostimia. The researcher described Britain, which he mistook for a triangular island, as well as the mining of tin by local tribes. The southwestern extremity of this land corresponded to the cape that he called Belerion. Today is Cornwall.
Baltic Sea
The Greeks believed that the Baltic coast, which ended the journey of Pifey, is mythical land. The Eridan River, where amber was mined, was unattainable for the inhabitants of the Mediterranean. She was also associated with wild Scythia. These discrepancies between the sources cause confusion, because of which it is difficult to understand where Pythaeus got to. The geographical discoveries of the Greek could include the Jutland peninsula. This land was a natural border between the North and Baltic Seas.
Tanais
Interestingly, the Tanais River, which is described by Pythaeus, also appears in the sources. The geographic discoveries of his expedition could not affect this region, because the Greeks called the modern Don in the Black Sea steppes with this word. The confusion is due to the fact that the Greeks had a distant idea of where Scythia ends. Most likely, Pifey called Tanais Elba, where he could visit during his trip to the Baltic Sea. In any case, the significance of his discoveries is difficult to overestimate, since they expanded the Greeks' ideas about the world around them.