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| A voyage to the end of the world | <table of contents> <previous page> <next page> page 1 of 4 |
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| At the very time that the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great reached India with his army at its peak, and was pressing forward into the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, a man at the opposite end of the world was about to embark on a similar adventure. Like the Macedonian, this man came from the Greek culture, and like the power-hungry leader, he was driven by a thirst for knowledge. The comparison ends there however, for the teacher Pytheas was neither powerful, nor was he a man of wealth. He lived in Massalia, present-day Marseille, and in the year 325 BC, he set out on a voyage to the north to reach the end of the world. His home city, one of the several small colonies established by Greek settlers and merchants that ringed the Mediterranean, was bounded to the north by a strange barbarian world. Only a few kilometers further inland there began a territory peopled by tribes that were barbarians in the eyes of the Greeks, tribes referred to as “keltoi,” Celts. To be sure, one could do business with these tribes; they took delight in many luxury items, like Greek wine and fine pottery. But on the other hand, there were whispers that these warlike tribes decapitated their vanquished enemies and decorated not only their homes, but also their sacred temples, with a gallery of skulls. Such thoughts must have crossed his mind as Pytheas prepared his journey to the north into that unknown and mysterious region which yielded Tin, an important ingredient in the production of bronze, and amber, already a favorite for the people to the south. There is no information about the particulars of that journey. But the route ran through the Straits of Gibraltar, at that time called the Columns of Hercules, and then along the Spanish and French coasts and then to the north. For Pytheas, all along the route lie “Keltike,” the lands of the barbarian Celts. He kept detailed astronomical and geographical measurements and observations so that he might, in this way, open up this strange territory to Greek science. |
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