Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/639

Rh PYTHEAS. war, B. c. 322, he joined Antipater (Plut. Dem. 27), and had thus the satisfaction of surviving his great enemy Demosthenes. His hostility to De- mosthenes is frequently mentioned by the ancient writers, who have preserved many of his jests against the great orator. He is said to have been the author of the well-known saying, that the ora- tions of Demosthenes smelt of the lamp. (Aelian, V. H. vii. 7 ; Plut. Dem. 8 ; comp. Athen. ii. p. 44, f.) The titles of two of the orations of Pytheas are preserved by Harpocration, ITpos T-qv evZei^iv d-rroKoyia (s. V. dypa(piov), and Kar' 'ASeifxai^ros (.v. V. d^vOu/biia). Two short extracts from his ora- tions are given in Latin by Rutilius Lupus (i. 11, 14). (Comp. Ruhnken, ad Rutil. Lwp. i. 1 1 ; Westermann, Geschichte der Griech. Beredtsamkeit, § 54.) 5. Boeotarch of Thebes, was, next to Critolaus, the chief instigator of the Achaeans to undertake the fatal war against the Romans, which destroyed for ever the liberties of Greece. He was put to death by Metellus at the beginning of b. c. 146. (Polvb. xl. 1, 3 ; Paus. vii. 14. § 6, vii. 15. § 10.) PY'TIIEAS (Uvdeas), of Massilia, in Gaul, a celebrated Greek navigator, who sailed to the western and northern parts of Europe, and wrote a work containing the results of his discoveries. We know nothing of his personal history, with the ex- ception of the statement of Polybius that he was a poor man [ap. Strab. ii. p. 104). The time at which he lived cannot be determined with accuracy. Bougainville {Mem. de VAcad. des Inscr. vol. xix p. 143) maintained that he lived before Aristotle, but the passage on which he relied (Arist. Met. ii. 5.) is not sufficient to warrant this conclusion. Vossius {de Historicis Graecis, p, 1 25, ed. Wester- mann) places him in the time of Ptolemy Philadel- phus, but this is certainly too late a date. As he is quoted by Dicaearchus, a pupil of Aristotle (Strab. ii. p. 104) and by Tiraaeus (Plin. H.N. xxxvii. 11), he probably lived in the time of Alexander the Great, or shortly afterwards. The works of Pytheas are frequently referred to by the ancient writers. One appears to have borne the title Ilepl tov 'riKfavou {ev to7s irepl rod nol. p. 22), and the other to have been called a Tlep'nrKovs (Marcianus, in Geogr. Min. vol. i. p._ 63, ed. Husdon), or as it is termed by the Scho- liast on Apollonius Rhodius (iv. 761 ), Ttjs TrepfoSos. That he gave an account of the north-western coasts of Europe is evident from Strabo, who refers to his statements respecting Iberia, Gaul, and other countries (Strab. i. p. 64, ii. p. 75, iii. p. 158, iv. p. 195). It would appear from Pytheas' own statement, as related by Polybius {ap. Strab. ii. p. 104), that he undertook two voyages, one in which he visited Britain and Thule, and of which he probably gave an account in his work On tfui Ocean ; and a second, undertaken after his return from his first voyage, in which he coasted along the whole of Europe from Gadeira (Cadiz) to the Tanais, and the description of which probably formed the subject of his Periplus. Some modern writers, however, maintain that the passage in Strabo may be inter- preted to mean that Pytheas undertook only one voyage ; but we think that the words are scarcely susceptible of such an interpretation. The following are the principal particulars which ancient writers have preserved from the works of Pytheas. 1. He related that at the extreme PYTHEAS. 627 west of the inhabited world was a promontory of the. Ostidamnii, called Calbion, and that islands lay to the west of it, the furthest of which named Uxisama was a three days' sail (Strab. i. p. 64). Strabo treats all this as the pure invention of Pytheas. 2. He further related that he visited Britain, and travelled over the whole of the island as far as it was accessible ; and he said that it was 40,000 stadia in circumference. As to Thule and those distant parts he stated that there was neither earth, sea, nor air, but a sort of mixture of all these, like to the mollusca, in which the earth and the sea and every thing else are suspended, and which could not be penetrated either by land or by sea. The substance like the mollusca Pytheas had seen himself, but the other part of the account he gave from hearsay (Polyb. ap. Strab. ii p. 104). Pytheas made Thule a six days' sail from Britain ; he said that the day and the night were each six months long in Thule (Strab. L p. 63 ; Plin. H.N. ii. 77). 3.. He spoke of a people called Guttones, bordering upon Germany, and dwelling upon a gulf of the sea called Mentonomon, in a space of 6000 stadia. He added that at the distance of a day's sail there was an island named Abalus, to which amber was brought by the waves in spring ; that the inhabitants used it instead of firewood, and sold it to the neighbouring Teutoni. Timaeus gave credit to this account, but called the island Basilia. (Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 11.) The credibility of the statements of Pytheas was differently estimated by the ancient writers. Era- tosthenes and Hipparchus refer to them as worthy of belief ; but other writers, especially Polybius and Strabo, regard them as of no value at all. Po- lybius says that it is incredible that a private man, and one who was also poor, could have undertaken such long voyages and journeys {ap. Strab. ii. p. 104) ; and Strabo, on more than one occasion, calls him a great liar, and regards his statements as mere fables, only deserving to be classed with those of Euhemerus and Antiphanes (Strab. i- p. 63, ii. p. 102, iii. pp. 148, 157,158). Most modern writers, however, have been disposed to set more value upon the narrative of Pytheas. In reply to the ob- jection of Polybius it has been urged that he may have been sent on a voyage of discovery by the Massilians, at the public expence, in order to become acquainted with the country from which the Car- thaginians procured amber. There seems no reason to doubt that he did go on a voyage to the northern parts of Europe ; but the reasons for his undertak- ing it must be left in uncertainty. It would appear from the extracts which have been preserved from his works, that he did not give simply the results of his own observations, but added all the reports which reached him respecting distant countries, without always drawing a distinction between what he saw himself and what was told him by others. His statements, therefore, must be received with caution and some mistrust. It is equally uncertain how far he penetrated. Some modern writers have regarded it as certain that he must have reached Iceland in consequence of his remark that the day was six months long at Thule, while others have supposed that he advanced as far as the Shetland Islands. But either supposition is very improbable, and neither is necessary ; for reports of the great length of the day and night in the northern parts of Europe had already reached the Greeks, before the time of Pytheas. There lias been like- s 8 2
 * nK€apoO, Geminus, Elem. Astron. in Petav. Ura-