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To: Bookshelf; Dr. Sivana

The paperback is coming out this month for a mere $60. :^)

Pytheas’ original text did not alas survive, except as quotes in other authors. Modern commentary on it range from “it never happened” very nearly to “he discovered America”.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pytheas


16 posted on 09/01/2023 7:32:24 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: SunkenCiv

I went down the rabbit hole about Pytheas.

Seems that his almost contemporaries (300 BC) called him a fraud. Scorned as a common person. He was perhaps driven by money to a degree (to find the tin and amber sources), but was mostly a scientific explorer. He had some device to measure latitude, and his measurements confirm where he said he was. (North-south anyway). So it might have been Iceland (which he called Thule), or it was Norway. He even got to the “congealed sea” (frozen/slush).

Pliney and others later on also referenced his work, and based on later discoveries figured Pytheas as reliable.


19 posted on 09/01/2023 3:02:21 PM PDT by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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