Pytheas
Sea farer from
Massalia (today's Marseille) who lived in the 4th century BC.
Pytheas described a journey along the Atlantic coast of Europe up to the south
coast of Brittany and the island Thule in the north. Thule was supposedly
Scandinavia, and he described its people, its summer solstice and the frozen
sea, as well as what he had heard about Ireland.
According to Pytheas, the world is an island surrounded by a huge ocean. Even
in antiquity he was much criticism and accused of being a liar.
