Editing Pytheas (section)

== Voyage to Britain ==

=== The "circumnavigation" ===
{{stack|[[File:Ptolemy-british-isles.jpg|thumb|350px|A 1490 Italian reconstruction of the map of [[Ptolemy]]. The map is a result of a combination of the lines of roads and of the coasting expeditions during the first century of Roman occupation. One great fault, however, is a lopsided Scotland, which in one hypothesis is the result of Ptolemy using Pytheas' measurements of latitude ([[Pytheas#Pytheas' measurements of latitude|see below]]).<ref>{{cite journal |first=James J. |last=Tierney |title=Ptolemy's Map of Scotland |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=79 |year=1959 |pages=132–148 |doi=10.2307/627926 |jstor=627926|s2cid=163631018 }}</ref>{{pb}}Whether Ptolemy would have had Pytheas' real latitudes at that time is a much debated issue.]]}}
Strabo reported that Pytheas said he "travelled over the whole of Britain that was accessible".<ref name=straboII-4-1>''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2D*.html Book II.4.1].</ref> Because there are scant first-hand sources available regarding Pytheas's journey, historians have looked at the etymology for clues about the route he took up the north Atlantic.  The word ''epelthein'', at root "come upon", does not imply any specific method, and Pytheas did not elaborate.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Pytheas did use the word "whole" and he stated a ''perimetros'' ("perimeter") for Britain of more than 40,000&nbsp;[[Stadion (unit)|stadia]]. Using Herodotus' standard of {{convert|600|feet|}} for one stadium gives {{convert|4545|miles}}; however, there is no way to tell which standard foot was in effect. The English foot is an approximation. Strabo wanted to discredit Pytheas on the grounds that 40,000&nbsp;stadia is outrageously high and cannot be real.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

[[Diodorus Siculus]] gave a similar number:<ref>Book V chapter 21.</ref> 42,500 stadia, about {{convert|4830|miles}}, and explains that it is the perimeter of a triangle around Britain. The consensus has been that he probably took his information from Pytheas through [[Timaeus (historian)|Timaeaus]]. [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] gave the ''circuitus'' reported by Pytheas as 4,875&nbsp;[[Mile#Roman|Roman miles]].<ref>''Natural History'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137&layout=&loc=4.30 Book IV Chapter 30 (16.102)].</ref>

The explorer [[Fridtjof Nansen]] explained this apparent fantasy of Pytheas as a mistake of Timaeus.<ref name=nansen51>{{harvnb|Nansen|1911|p=51}}.</ref> Strabo and Diodorus Siculus never saw Pytheas' work, says Nansen, but they and others read of him in Timaeus. Pytheas reported only days' sail. Timaeus converted days to stadia at the rate of 1,000 per day, a standard figure of the times. However, Pytheas only sailed 560&nbsp;stadia per day for a total of 23,800, which in Nansen's view is consistent with 700&nbsp;stadia per degree.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

Nansen later states that Pytheas must have stopped to obtain astronomical data. Presumably, the extra time was spent ashore. Using the stadia of Diodorus Siculus, one obtains 42.5&nbsp;days for the time that would be spent in circumnavigating Britain. It may have been a virtual circumnavigation;{{clarify|date=January 2015}} see under Thule below.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

The perimeter, according to Nansen based on the 23,800 stadia, was {{convert|2375|miles}}. This number is in the neighborhood of what a triangular perimeter ought to be, but it cannot be verified against anything Pytheas may have said, nor was Diodorus Siculus very precise about the locations of the legs. The "perimeter" is often translated as "coastline", but this translation is misleading. The coastline, following all the bays and inlets, is {{convert|12429|km|mi|order=flip}} (see [[Geography of the United Kingdom#Coastline|Geography of the United Kingdom]]). Pytheas could have travelled any perimeter between that number and Diodorus'. [[Polybius]] added that Pytheas said he traversed the whole of Britain on foot,<ref>Book XXXIV chapter 5, which survives as a fragment in ''Geographica'' [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/2D*.html Book II.4.1].</ref> of which he, Polybius, was skeptical. Despite Strabo's conviction of a lie, the perimeter said to have been given by Pytheas is not evidence of it. The issue of what he did say can never be settled until more fragments of Pytheas's writings are found.{{citation needed|date=April 2024}}

=== Name and description of the British ===
The first known written use of the word Britain was an [[ancient Greek]] [[transliteration]] of the original [[Gallo-Brittonic languages|P-Celtic]] term. It is believed to have appeared within a [[periplus]] by Pytheas, but no copies of this work survive. The earliest existing records of the word are quotations of the periplus by later authors, such as those within Strabo's ''[[Geographica]]'', Pliny's ''[[Naturalis Historia|Natural History]]'' and Diodorus of Sicily's ''[[Bibliotheca historica]]''.<ref>Book I.4.2–4, Book II.3.5, Book III.2.11 and 4.4, Book IV.2.1, Book IV.4.1, Book IV.5.5, Book VII.3.1</ref> According to Strabo, Pytheas referred to Britain as ''Bretannikē'', which shares more similarities with spellings in the modern [[Celtic languages]] than its Classical Latin variants.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ramsay |first1=James Henry |title=The Scholar's History of England |date=1898 |publisher=H. Milford |page=2}}</ref> From this Greek spelling, the name is treated a feminine noun.<ref name=LSJBrettanike>{{LSJ|*bretaniko/s|Βρεττανική|ref}}</ref><ref name=Strabo(1.4.2)>Strabo's ''Geography'' Book I. Chapter IV. Section 2 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0197%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D2 Greek text] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D2 English translation] at the [[Perseus Project]].</ref><ref name=Strabo(4.2.1)>Strabo's ''Geography'' Book IV. Chapter II. Section 1 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0197%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D1 Greek text] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D1 English translation] at the [[Perseus Project]].</ref><ref name=Strabo(4.4.1)>Strabo's ''Geography'' Book IV. Chapter IV. Section 1 [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0197%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D1 Greek text] and [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D4%3Asection%3D1 English translation] at the [[Perseus Project]].</ref>

[[File:Pictish Beast.svg|thumb|200px|A [[Pictish beast]] on an early medieval [[Pictish stone]].]] "Britain" is most like [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''Ynys Prydein'', "the island of Britain", in which is a [[P-Celtic hypothesis|P-Celtic]] [[cognate]] of [[Q-Celtic hypothesis|Q-Celtic]] Cruithne in Irish ''Cruithen-[[Túath|tuath]]'', "land of the Picts". The base word is Scottish/Irish ''cruth'', Welsh ''pryd'', meaning "form". The British were the "people of forms", with the sense of shapes or pictures,<ref>{{cite book | first=Charles | last=Thomas | title=Celtic Britain | url=https://archive.org/details/celticbritain0000thom | url-access=registration | location=London | publisher=Thames and Hudson | date=1997 | page=[https://archive.org/details/celticbritain0000thom/page/82 82] | isbn=9780500279359 | quote=If we seek a meaning, the favoured view is that it arises from an older word implying 'people of the forms, shapes or depictions' (*k<sup>w</sup>rt-en-o-).}}</ref> thought to refer to their practice of tattooing or war painting.<ref>{{cite book | first=Stephen | last=Allen | title=Lords of Battle: The World of the Celtic Warrior | location=Oxford | publisher=Osprey Publishing | date=2007 | page=174 | quote=Pretani is generally believed to mean "painted" or rather "tattooed", likely referring to the use by the Britons of the blue dye extracted from woad.&nbsp;... it is more likely to be a nickname given them by outsiders&nbsp;... It may be compared with the word ''Picti''&nbsp;... which was used by the Romans in the 3rd century AD.}}</ref> The Roman word ''Picti'', "the Picts", means "painted".

This etymology suggests Pytheas most likely did not have much interaction with the Irish as their language was Q-Celtic. Rather, Pytheas brought back the P-Celtic form from more geographically accessible regions where Welsh or Breton are spoken presently.  Furthermore, some proto-Celtic was spoken over all of Greater Britain, and this particular spelling is prototypical of those more populous regions, but there is no evidence that Pytheas distinguished between the peoples of the archipelago.

[[File:St Fagans Celtic Village the main hut.jpg|thumb|A reconstruction of a Celtic thatched hut in [[Wales]].]]
Diodorus – based on Pytheas – reported that Britain is cold and subject to frosts, being "too much subject to the [[Ursa Major|Bear]]", and not "under the Arctic pole", as some translations say.<ref name=diodV>{{cite book|first=Diodori|last=Siculi|title=Bibliothecae Historicae Libri Qui Supersunt: Nova Editio|editor=Peter Wesseling|author2=L. Rhodoman|author3=G. Heyn|author4=N. Eyring|location=Argentorati|date=1798|publisher=Societas Bipontina|language=grc, la|pages=292–297 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YtkPAAAAQAAJ&q=Bibliothecae+Historicae+Libri+Qui+Supersunt | chapter=Book V, Sections 21–22}} The section numeration differs somewhat in different translations; the material is to be found near the end of Book V.</ref> The numerous population of natives, he says, live in [[Thatching|thatched]] cottages, store their grain in subterranean caches and bake bread from it.<ref name=diodV /> They are "of simple manners" (''ēthesin haplous'') and are content with plain fare. They are ruled by many kings and princes who live in peace with each other. Their troops fight from [[chariot]]s, as did the Greeks in the [[Trojan War]].

=== The three corners of Britain: Kantion, Belerion and Orkas ===
Opposite Europe in Diodorus is the promontory (''akrōtērion'') of ''Kantion'' ([[Kent]]), 100 stadia, about {{convert|11|miles}}, from the land, but the text is ambiguous: "the land" could be either Britain or the continent. Four days' sail beyond that is another promontory, ''Belerion'', which can only be [[Cornwall]], as Diodorus is describing the triangular perimeter and the third point is ''Orkas'', presumably the main island of the [[Orkney]] Islands.

=== The tin trade ===
The inhabitants of Cornwall were involved in the manufacture of [[tin ingot]]s. They mined the ore, smelted it and then worked it into pieces in the shape of knuckle-bones, after which it was transported to the island of [[Ictis]] by wagon, which could be done at low tide. Merchants that purchased it there packed it on horses for 30 days to the river [[Rhône]], where it was carried down to the mouth. Diodorus said that the inhabitants of [[Cornwall]] were civilized in manner and especially hospitable to strangers because of their dealings with foreign merchants.

=== Scotland ===
The first written reference to Scotland was in 320 BC by Pytheas, who called the northern tip of Britain "Orcas", the source of the name of the [[Orkney|Orkney islands]].<ref>Forsyth, Katherine (2005). "Origins: Scotland to 1100". In Wormald, Jenny (ed.). Scotland: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199601646.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=[[Aristotle]] or [[Pseudo-Aristotle]] |translator-last1=Forster|translator-first1=E. S.|translator-last2=Furley|translator-first2=D. J.|title=On Sophistical Refutations. On Coming-to-be and Passing Away. On the Cosmos. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/onsophisticalref00arisuoft |publisher = Harvard University Press |chapter=On the Cosmos, 393b12 |pages=360–361|year=1955}} at the [[Open Library]] Project. {{DjVulink}}</ref>