The Forgotten Voyage to the End of the World | Unveiling Pytheas of Massalia's Extraordinary Journey

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Pytheas of Massalia's voyage took him to the most remote parts of Europe, where he saw things that no one from the classical world had ever witnessed before. In this video we will retrace his journey, which will take us to the tin mines of Britain, the mysterious Island of Thule, the frozen sea of the Arctic and the source of Amber in the Baltic.

Pytheas and his journey is not talked about much but in my opinion, it is one of the most interesting voyages from Antiquity. He set sail to regions of the world that were unknown to his people, and, not to mention were considered to be uninhabitable. The only things he would be expected to find there was the stuff of myths and legends. He took it upon himself to investigate these strange lands and what he found there will be revealed in this video.

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‪@AncientAmericas‬
‪@CasualHistorian‬
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‪@HistoryandHeadlines‬
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The art in the thumbnail is by JFoliveras
on DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/jfoliveras
The maps were taken from Barry Cunliffe's book "The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek"


Classical Music: Orpheus Odyssey - Legends on Strings

Celtic/Fantasy Music by Vinsvept
   / vindsvept  
Song Titles (by chapter):
Massalia to Britain: Journey to the Middle of Nowhere
Cornwall: Night of the Fae
Middle Britain: Glimmerwood
North Britain: Voyage to Nowhere
Thule: Deep Sleep of the Elven King
Amber Coasts: A Storm in Time


00:00:00 Introduction
00:02:46 Classical Sources
00:06:46 State of the World
00:10:05 Who was Pytheas?
00:12:02 Setting Off From Massalia
00:13:42 Reaching the Atlantic
00:18:31 Along the Armorican Coast [Brittany]
00:20:26 Sun Height Measurements
00:23:36 On Armorican Soil [Brittany]
00:24:46 Crossing to Britain
00:25:15 The Tin Industry of Belerion [Cornwall]
00:32:23 The Corners of Albion
00:33:43 Origin of the Name Britain
00:35:43 The Inhabitants of Britain
00:39:07 The Irish Sea & Monopia [Isle of Mann]
00:42:15 Wild Northern Coasts [Scotland]
00:47:12 Where is Thule?
00:56:03 The Discovery of Iceland
00:57:47 The Mysterious Island of Thule
01:00:40 The Congealed Sea [The Arctic]
01:03:05 Why No Others Found Thule
01:05:37 The Amber Coasts
01:17:10 Returning Home


Ancient Sources:
Strabo, Geography
Pliny the Elder, Natural History
Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica
Geminus of Rhodes, Introduction to Celestial Phenomena
Gaius Julius Caesar, The Conquest of Gaul
Pomponius Mela, Description of the World

Modern Sources:
Cunliffe, B. The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek. Penguin Books, 2003.

Tozer, Henry Fanshawe (1897). A History of Ancient Geography (https://archive.org/details/b24876628...)

Roseman, C. H. Pytheas of Massalia. Ares Pub, 1994.

Stefansson, V. Ultima Thule. Macmillan, 2017.

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https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7834/...

https://biography.yourdictionary.com/...

https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwik...

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/...

Whitaker, Ian (December 1982 – January 1982). "The Problem of Pytheas' Thule". The Classical Journal. 77 (2): 148–164 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3296920)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ictis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pytheas

https://explorerspodcast.com/pytheas/

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