File:Parisinus_gr_1397_f.162_pytheas_of_massalia_from_Strabo_7.3.1.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Pytheas
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Pytheas of Massalia (; Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης Pythéās ho Massaliōtēs; Latin: Pytheas Massiliensis; born 350 BC, 320–306 BC) was a Greek geographer, explorer and astronomer from the Greek colony of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France). He made a voyage of exploration to Northern 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.
OverviewAI-generated
Pytheas, born Πυθέας in Massalia, was an Ancient Greek explorer, astronomer, discoverer, and geographer. His dates of birth are recorded as 359 BCE or 349 BCE, while his death is listed as 289 BCE or 284 BCE. He is distinct from the figure Pythias and is identified by the author name Pytheas of Massalia.
His literary output includes four works, with notable titles such as *Pytheae Massiliensis fragmenta*, *Über das Weltmeer*, *L'oceano*, and *On the ocean*. Pytheas wrote in Ancient Greek and was active during the period of 400 BCE to 300 BCE. His significant place of association was Massalia.
Synthesized by Vinony from 24 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Last.fm, Crossref, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 4
Top works
- Pytheae Massiliensis fragmenta
- Über das Weltmeer
- L'oceano
- On the ocean
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 43
- Total plays
- 90
<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Pytheas">Read more on Last.fm</a>
Recent publications · Crossref
3 total works indexed
- Symbolic coding of linear complexity for generic translations on the torus, using continued fractions
· 2024 · cited 4x
- Substitutions par des motifs en dimension 1
· 2007 · cited 1x
- Impact of cryogenic environment on piezoelectric transducers used in SHM applications
· 2024
via Crossref · CC0
Key facts
- Scientist.name
- Pytheas of Massalia
- Scientist.image
- Parisinus gr 1397 f.162 pytheas of massalia from Strabo 7.3.1.jpg
- Scientist.image_size
- 200px
- Scientist.caption
- Pytheas of Massalia (Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης) in the 10th century manuscript of Strabo (Geog.7.3.1) written in Byzantine Greek minuscule.
- Scientist.birth_date
- 350 BC
- Scientist.birth_place
- Massalia
- Scientist.citizenship
- Massaliote
- Scientist.fields
- Geography, exploration, navigation
- Scientist.known_for
- Earliest Greek voyage to Britain, the Baltic, and the Arctic Circle for which there is a record, author of Periplus.
via Wikipedia infobox
~54 min read
Encyclopedic overview
25 sectionsContents
- Record
- Surviving fragments
- Dating the voyage
- Circumstances of the voyage
- Voyage to Britain
- The "circumnavigation"
- Name and description of the British
- The three corners of Britain: Kantion, Belerion and Orkas
- The tin trade
- Scotland
- Thule
- Encounter with drift ice
- Discovery of the Baltic
- Voyage to the Don
- Measurements of latitude
- Latitude by the altitude of the Sun
- Latitude by the elevation of the north pole
- Location of the Arctic Circle
- Latitude by length of longest day, and by Sun's elevation on shortest day
- On the tides
- Literary influence
- See also
- Notes
- Bibliography
- External links
Pytheas of Massalia (; Ancient Greek: Πυθέας ὁ Μασσαλιώτης Pythéās ho Massaliōtēs; Latin: Pytheas Massiliensis; born 350 BC, 320–306 BC) was a Greek geographer, explorer and astronomer from the Greek colony of Massalia (modern-day Marseille, France). He made a voyage of exploration to Northern 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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Pytheas” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.