Pytheas in a sentence

In fact, the Germanic tribes are hard to distinguish from the Celts on many accounts simply based on archaeological records.sfn Pytheas The first news about the Germanic world are contained in the lost Pytheas work.

Moreover, says Strabo, none of the other authors mention Thule, a fact which he uses to discredit Pytheas, but which to moderns indicates Pytheas was the first explorer to arrive there and tell of it.

Since we have only Pliny's report of what Pytheas said about the Gutones, and not Pytheas's report itself, the 4th century BC date is unconfirmed, but not necessarily invalid.

About 325 BC, the Greek explorer Pytheas possibly visited Estonia.

A gravitational theory (objects fall to the center) existed at the time but Pytheas appears to have meant that the phases themselves were the causes (αἰτίαι aitiai).

Apparently, Pytheas said that tides ended at the "sacred promontory" (Hieron akrōtērion, or Sagres Point ), and from there to Gades is said to be 5 days' sail.

As an example he mentions that Pytheas says Kent is several days' sail from Celtica when it is visible from Gaul across the channel.

Assuming that Ictis, Mictis and Corbulo are the same, Diodorus appears to have read Timaeus, who must have read Pytheas, whom Polybius also read.

As the parallel through the river-mouth also crossed the coast of "Celtica", the distance due north from Marseilles to Celtica was 3700 stadia, a baseline from which Pytheas seems to have calculated latitude and distance.

Based partly on data taken from Pytheas, Hipparchus correlated cubits of the sun's elevation at noon on the winter solstice, latitudes in hours of a day on the summer solstice, and distances between latitudes in stadia for some locations.

Despite Strabo's conviction of a lie, the perimeter said to have been given by Pytheas is not evidence of it.

Diodorus does not mention Pytheas by name.

Earlier Pliny says that a large island of three days' sail from the Scythian coast called Balcia by Xenophon of Lampsacus is called Basilia by Pytheas.

If Pytheas had visited the place he should have verified it personally.

In the hindsight given to moderns Pytheas, in relying on observation in the field, appears more scientific than Strabo, who discounted the findings of others merely because of their strangeness to him.

In whatever mathematical form Pytheas knew the location, he could only have determined when he was there by taking periodic readings of the elevation of the pole (eksarma tou polou in Strabo and others).

Literary influence Pytheas was a central source of information on the North Sea and the subarctic regions of western Europe to later periods, and possibly the only source.

Longitude was beyond Pytheas and his peers, but it was not of as great a consequence, because ships seldom strayed out of sight of land.

Most students of Pytheas presume that his differences from modern calculations represent error due to primitive instrumentation.

Nansen goes on to point out that Pytheas must have stopped to obtain astronomical data; presumably, the extra time was spent ashore.