Pytheas 



Into the Unknown World 



When the Greek explorer Pytheas set out on 

 his famous voyage about 325 B.C., he most 

 likely sailed in a ship resembling the one 

 (above) depicted on this Greek vase dated 

 about 530 B.C. Since no original account of 

 his voyage exists, there are several theories 

 about the route he followed. The map shows 

 routes suggested by different authorities. 



Pytheas, courageous man that he was, sailed beyond the limits 

 of the world known to Greek civilization. By the end of his major 

 voyage the extent of the island of Britain, great stretches of the 

 coast of western Europe, and part of the Arctic regions had been 

 added to the sum total of civilized man's knowledge of the world. 



Because there is no record of the earliest sea explorers, the 

 voyage of Pytheas, about whom we have at least some accounts, 

 is important in the history of sea exploration. The travels of this 

 Greek astronomer, navigator, and inventor have never ceased to 

 be a source of controversy and of interest to geographers. Un- 

 fortunately, Pytheas' own accounts of his travels have long been 

 lost, so we must rely on those early writers who had either seen his 

 book or had some knowledge of it. 



The date of Pytheas' expedition is fairly accurately fixed at about 

 325 B.C., yet his motives for setting out are less certain. Some 

 think that he ventured northward in search of knowledge for its 

 own sake; others, that he set out to investigate a Phoenician 

 blockade; and still others, that Greek merchants encouraged him 

 to search for the source of tin which from time to time appeared in 

 the market place of his native town, Massilia (now Marseilles). 

 Undl that time tin had been filtering down from the north, probably 

 by the overland trade route following the Rhone through Gaul. 

 Whatever Pytheas' modves, he was to venture into the unknown, 

 "haunted" seas and penetrate far beyond the boundary of the 

 Habitable World known to the Greeks. 



Around the time Pytheas set out on his epic voyage there were 

 Phoenician ships blockading the western approach to the Medi- 

 terranean. For hundreds of years the Greeks and Phoenicians had 

 been trade rivals, each seeking fortunes in the Mediterranean, and 

 the Phoenicians outside it, but until Pytheas' time the Phoenicians 

 had managed to keep secret their routes to the rich tin and silver 

 markets discovered by Himilco around 500 B.C. 



Because many of Pytheas' statements about his voyage contra- 

 dicted Greek philosophy and geographical theory of the dme, he 

 became thoroughly discredited - the Miinchhausen of the classical 

 world - and most of the statements attributed to him were chosen 

 by geographers and historians who considered him an exaggerator 

 and liar; Strabo and Polybius, for instance. Yet Diodorus, Timaeus, 



20 



