Pythéas of Marseille

THE PYTHEAS SITE IN MARSEILLE (MASSALIA IN GREEK TIMES)

Pytheas, a name practically unknown in all the history books of our schools, colleges and high schools. And yet Winston Churchill said that "his journey was at least comparable to that of Christopher Columbus"! That's not nothing. Especially when we know that it was accomplished about one thousand eight hundred years before!

It's that, in our world, where our ancestors were the Gauls, Pytheas of Marseille, in the fourth century BC, recognised Brittany with its various islands, Great Britain, Ireland, the islands of northern Scotland, the kingdom of Thule (Iceland) and the Baltic Sea with its various islands, not forgetting his navigation in the frozen sea. In fact, the whole of Northern Europe. If we French know little about Pytheas, that is not the case for the countries of the north, who recognise in him the man who gave birth to them. 

It is a pity that we only have a few snippets of his writings through the intermediary of historians, geographers or scientists who used his work. Some would say that Pytheas was a liar. Well, what a liar! How could he possibly have imagined the British Isles, the frozen sea, Scandinavia and so on? Could he also have invented his astronomical measurements? 

In the following pages,
 you will find two parts: 

Preparing for the trip, 
with what is needed to understand the world at the time of Pytheas: the sciences, the earth, geographical knowledge, the republic of Marseilles - Massalia at the time of Pytheas -, the reasons for his explorations, etc...

Le périple Pytheas, which retraces his tour of northern Europe.

It is preferable to follow these two parts in order to understand more easily the progression of each page, but reading the first part

Enjoy your reading..

Note 1: Another text by W Churchill “Pytheas of Marseille, that great sailor, certainly one of the greatest explorers history has known. He asserted and proclaimed the existence of the British Isles. He was treated as a teller of lies, and it was not until long after the world in which this great explorer had lived had disappeared, that admiration was aroused for the discoveries he had made there.”

Note 2: You'll find cross-references such as (N21) or (A3)... They refer to the ancient texts page. 

Bonne lecture.

Note : Vous trouverez des points de renvois tels que (N21) ou (A3)… Ils concernent la page des textes anciens.