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Pytheas had all this and more to report as he returned to his home port of Massalia. He wrote about his great trip, but, for the most part, antiquity looked upon his work as pure fantasy. Some scholars, however, quoted his work, and it is from their works that we have what remains of the words of Pytheas. But much of what the Greek scholars have transmitted to us cannot be confirmed and the places visited cannot be identified with certainty. What is certain is that Pytheas’ trip took him to Northern Europe.

If one had asked Pytheas what barbarian tribes he had visited, and to what people they ere to be assigned, he would have identified the Keltoi, who were rich in tribes and nations that extended almost to the safety of the Mediterranean sea coast. In general, the Greek understanding of the northern barbarians was quite simple: In the west, one had to deal with the Celts, in the east, the Scythians. Tribes that settled between these two groups and who were not classified as one or the other, were classified as Celtic-Scythians. This belief lasted for two hundred years until another scholar spoke of a large group that lived between the Celts and the Scythians: the Germanic tribes.

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