What did Pipheus discover during his travels?

Pifeus was one of the ancient Greek explorers of the ocean. He lived approximately between 380 and 310 BC. E. The future navigator was born in the colony of Massalia (today it is the French city of Marseilles). Therefore it is not surprising that his life was connected with travel and discoveries.

Swimming Pythia

In 325 BC. E. The enterprising Hellenist went to his most famous and important voyage. What Pifeius discovered was outside the then known to the Greeks of the world. He left behind the Herculean pillars - the landmark heights that surround the Strait of Gibraltar. Once in the Atlantic Ocean, the ships of Pythia headed north. So the ancient navigators discovered Britain.

Everything that Pifei discovered was recorded in his written works ("On the Ocean" and "Earth Description"), which, unfortunately, did not reach us. However, he is referred to by such scientists as Polybius and Strabo. These historians distrusted the discoveries of the "northern land". Rumors and myths about Britain were confirmed only in the time of the Roman ruler Julius Caesar in the first century. BC. E. All information about the island up to this time, one way or another, went back to the works of Pythia. Thanks to the remaining quoted inconsistencies, it can be concluded that this traveler first reached the shores of Britain, then visited the legendary island of Thule and finally found himself on the shores of the Baltic Sea, where local tribes mined precious amber. What Pifei discovered was amazing to his contemporaries, so many did not believe his stories.

Thule Island

The legendary island of Tula, described by the seaman, is mentioned in his essay "On the Ocean". So for certain it is not known what land Pipheus spoke of. Later, Thule was often associated with Iceland or other archipelagoes of the northern seas (Faroe, Orkney, Shetland or Hebrides). This place was considered the edge of the universe, beyond which a person can not simply get into.

Some researchers, including Strabo, accused Pifei of the fact that all his stories about Tula are fiction. But the famous polar explorer Nansen already in the XX century believed that the ancient Greek navigator visited the shores of his native Norway. This assumption also has a right to exist. Expeditions of Pythia faced such unprecedented phenomena as the polar day and the aurora borealis. Nothing like the inhabitants of the Mediterranean have not yet seen. These natural phenomena are characteristic of latitudes that are beyond the Arctic Circle. Therefore Nansen could be right in his assumption about Norway. In addition, Scandinavia until the Middle Ages was considered an island (as well as Thule). The eternal ice, which was the natural boundary of the northern seas, was accepted by the ancient Greeks for the otherworldly world and the kingdom of the god Kronos.

Organization of the expedition

What Pifeius discovered was of practical value to the inhabitants of Massalia. They wanted to find the shortest path to British tin and Baltic amber. These goods were highly valued in the antique market. Here the competition between the numerous Greek and Phoenician colonies in the Mediterranean and Black seas affected. So it would be wrong to think that Pifeus was an adventurer and a poor man. He carried out a matter of national importance, which concerned the influence and power of one of the largest colonial centers.

Of course, Pifei had a wide knowledge of geography and astronomy. He managed to determine the breadth of his native city. His research and calculations were used by many scientists. For example, among them was an astronomer and mathematician Hipparchus of Nicaea, who lived in the II century BC. E. To calculate the latitude, Pifeius also determined the height of the Sun at noon.

However, in order to organize such a distant journey, the knowledge of the ancient Greek navigator was clearly not enough. He had to face the resistance of the Phoenicians. They controlled the Hercules pillars and protected the coasts of Iberia (modern Spain), where strangers were not allowed. Because of the fragmentary and incomplete sources, it remained unclear how Pifei managed to overcome this problem.

The coasts of France and Britain

But we have reached his descriptions of Celtic. So in Antiquity was called France. Pifei's route passed along the coasts inhabited by ostymia. The researcher described Britain, which he adopted as a triangular island, as well as the extraction of tin by local tribes. The south-western extremity of this land corresponded to the cape, which he called Belerion. Today it's Cornwall.

Baltic Sea

The Greeks believed that the Baltic coast, on which Pifei's travels ended, is a mythical land. The Eridan River, where amber was mined, was unattainable for the inhabitants of the Mediterranean. She was also associated with the wild Scythia. These discrepancies between the sources cause confusion, because of which it is difficult to understand where Piphey got to. Geographical discoveries of the Greek could include the peninsula of Jutland. This land was a natural boundary between the North and Baltic seas.

Tanais

It is interesting that the sources include the Tanais River, which is described by Pifej. The geographical discoveries of his expedition could not affect this region, because by this word the Greeks called the modern Don in the Black Sea steppes. Confusion is due to the fact that the Greeks had a distant idea of where Scythia ends. Most likely, Pifei called Tanais Elbe, where he could visit during his trip across the Baltic Sea. In any case, the significance of his discoveries can not be overestimated, as they broadened the Greeks' ideas about the world around them.