Pythéas (in Greek old Πυθέας ) is a Greek navigator originating in Massalia (the antique Marseilles) which would have carried out towards 340 - 325 before J. - C. a voyage in the North Sea of Europe. Pythéas is the exploring first of Antiquity to have in particular described the polar phenomena as well as the lifestyle of the tribes Celtes of the Great Britain current and the Germanic tribes of banks of the the North Sea and perhaps the the Baltic. During very a long time, the inhabitants of Marseilles called it “the Liar” because nobody believed in the veracity of his account.

The voyage of Pythéas

Left with only one ship Massalia, it crosses the Pillars of Hercules (strait of Gibraltar), went up towards north while skirting the coasts of the Gaulle, accosted in Great Britain, reached the Shetland Islands and, pushing more in north, reached a country named Thulé which it could not exceed. It returned by the the North Sea; then while descending towards the coasts from the Germanic, it would have reached islands rich their resources Ambre, perhaps the archipelago of Heligoland or the island of Zeeland or the coasts of the the Baltic. It turned over to Massalia, is by taking the same path that with the outward journey, that is to say by borrowing the the Rhine and the the Rhone.

At the most septentrional point of its tour, the duration of the night did not exceed two hours, which makes locate Thulé in Iceland, in Norway or with the Faroe Islands. He recognized the influence of the the Moon on the Marée S. He had also established to fourteen minute S close the Latitude of Marseilles using a Gnomon.

During very a long time, he was regarded as an inveterate liar. It is in particular the opinion of the Greek geographer Strabon, for which it is inconceivable that a sea can be entirely cold. Then the veracity of its tour was recognized, and he is regarded now as one of the first scientific explorers. Since, the astronomers gave his name to a lunar crater .

Discoveries of Pythéas

In front of the richness of its discoveries, and especially their extraordinary aspect, even marvellous for its contemporaries, Pythéas in an account wrote: Of the Ocean ( Περί του Ωκεανού ). This work disappeared with the Bibliothèque from Alexandria, but several ancient authors us transmitted some bits of them, mainly the geographer Strabon who is also the principal detractor, going until showing it plot, but also Pline the Young person, Ératosthène and Polybe.

Pythéas pays of its voyage of many discoveries, in the disorder:

• a maritime exploration in the North Atlantic, exceptional at one time or the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar) mark the Western end of the “civilized” world, of which a geographical and ethnological description detailed of British Isles, including necrophagous Ireland and its habits . It should however be noted that the Carthaginian obviously know at that time the Straits of Gibraltar and the Atlantic Ocean. This exploration is exceptional only for Greek civilization.
• the “discovery” of Cruel people (with the old Greek direction of the term, more advanced than let it still nowadays appear the books of history, describing their habitat, their customs and habits, their food, etc (Celtes of Armorique, Brittons of Albion, Pictes, Goths).
• the description of the phenomenon of the Tide S, unknown of Mediterranean, and their synchronism with the phases of the moon, as well as the influence of the equinoxes on their amplitude. If their synchronism seems to be described to him by the people met, it adds its astronomical knowledge to it to give a precise description of it.
• the description of the polar pack, the Ice-barrier on the surface of the ocean (it is not known too much if it has it itself considering or if it brought only back testimonys of the Scandinavian sailors). Strabon indicates that Pythéas finds Thulé at 6 days of navigation of Brittany. However its starting point is the Islands the Shetland, and it does not take 6 days of navigation at the time to join Norway. It is thus probable to think that it went, (where that he evokes descriptions), in Iceland.
• the proof of the rotundity of the ground, which the majority of the astronomers of the time calculate. Its measurements of latitude are of an astonishing precision for the time, and show at Pythéas a developed scientific spirit. Seventeen centuries advances some over its time, it gives for latitude to Massalia 43°3' NR (instead of 43°17'). Aristote indirectly showed it at the end of front IVe J. - C. by calculation by observing the shade of the ground at the time of a eclipse of the moon. Pythéas confirms it by a statement of the stellar positions, inter alia the displacement of the stellar northern , and by the measurement of the diurnal and night durations.
• the description of the Polar circle and the phenomena which result from this.
• the concept of duration fixes hours. At the time, the day is divided into 2 12 hours periods, the day and the night, the duration of the hours varies according to the season. This system becoming aberrant on the level of the polar circle, Pythéas proposes to conceive one 24 hours day of equal and constant durations, and to vary the duration of the day and the night, rather than that of the hours.
• the calculation of the Obliqueness of the ground, the slope of its axis of rotation compared to the plan of the ecliptic , even if for the Greeks the Héliocentrisme remains an evoked but not acquired concept
• a measurement, very precise for the time, of the circumference of the Ground, estimated with an error of less than 10% of its exact value.

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