Pythias, The Greek who discovered British Island
A time and a place three hundred years before Christ. A small Greek cargo ship is moving slowly in favor of the wind. It contained a few cargoes and a handful of sailors. The mats are covered with snow. Pythias looked at everyone. Most are scared. It is getting cold. The vision is getting less and less. The ship has two large oars on either side. The intervals when the oars fall are increased. The rowers are also terrified. Suddenly a voice was heard. The oars have hit something! Pythias looked down. Snowlike pieces of bread! They are floating in the ocean, not one or two! The sky is full of spectacles!
“Hyperboria !!! Shouted one of the sailors.
“Yes, of course, this is a land of giants. Do they see us from the shore? ”
“No. No crying anywhere. It is unlikely. Do not be afraid. ”Pythias calmed them down.
“Pythias, let us go back. Didn’t you see? What do you see in the sky? This is a magical world. Look, it’s been hours since morning. The night is not over yet! It is still dark. If we go further, we will never see the light again! ”
But Pythagoras was adamant. “Excuse me one more day.” They said nothing again. Hours passed. In the distance, a giant island slowly appeared, like a large white flower blooming in the mist.
“Brothers, this is Thule! ‘Ultima Thule’ taught by our fathers! The last island in the world !!!! ”
Grabbed from the oars, they all ran to the side of Pythias. In the distance, they saw it. Yes, they have reached the end of the world! A place where there are no gods! Ultima Thule !!!
Before B. C. E 400, Pythias and his group set out on a voyage to the Arctic Circle. The voyage, made knowingly or unknowingly by the merchant Pythias, was one of the first Arctic voyages in world history. We still do not know anyone who came here before Pythias! Even the name Pythias is derived from many ancient documents scattered throughout ancient world history. We know from the lines of famous world historians, such as “Pythias said, The way Pythias went, in the opinion of Pythias “, that such an adventurer lived on earth, and that he sailed to present-day Iceland in a small Greek cargo ship.
The world beyond was inaccessible to the Greeks at the time, as the Carthaginians occupied the ‘Pillars of Hercules’ (present-day Strait of Gibraltar) by their military power and blocked navigation outside the Atlantic. Beyond it lived Poseidon, the god of the sea. Beyond that lies the Hyperborea, inhabited by giants about ten feet high. One day there are seven days for the Greeks! A man named Pythias traveled to such a place. We have no information as to why he traveled or how he traveled. Not a single piece of his book, ‘On the Ocean’ (Peri tou Okeanou), is been not yet recovered. Or even if there is, we have not found it yet. So Pythias lives on today through the lines that others have written about him.
Strabo, Polybius, Pliny the Elder, and Eratosthenes all tell us through their writings that Pythias lived. The first two of these were his critics. They argued that the stories told by Pytheas were only exaggerated. For that, Strabo took each of the places and descriptions mentioned by Pythias and argued that it was wrong for his own reasons. But in fact, the most authoritative post we have today about Pythias is these criticisms of Strabo! Moreover, the time has proved that many of the statements made by Pythias are true. People laughed when Pythias wrote in his book the Arctic icebergs scattered like a loaf of bread, the lands where the sun had not shone for weeks, and the aurora borealis. When he came back to Greece and told all this, what jokes could have happened? But time has not forgotten the great traveler Pythias. Thousands of years later, Pythias rose to prominence through the lines of his critics!
Pythagoras was the first Greek, Roman, and Arabian historian to visit the present-day British Isles and find out that there is an island here. Researchers now believe that he roamed the entire island. That is, for the Greeks, Romans, and Arabs, the man who discovered Britain was actually Pythias!
We do not know how he got to Britain. He may have crossed the Carthaginian siege by sea, or by land, to Spain or France, and then sailed north to the British Isles, Ireland, and then to Iceland. There is no record of Pythias landing in Iceland. Iceland must have been the largest icy island he had ever seen near the Arctic. But in return, he may have sailed south along the Scandinavian coast. After arriving in France, he may have returned to Greece by land. In any case, his descriptions reached as far as Egypt. Eratosthenes may have received the book from the library in Alexandria. For centuries later, the only source of information about the British Isles and the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans was Pythias’ On the Ocean’ book. Pythias’ book may still be hidden somewhere in the ground, waiting for some archaeologist. That time lost from our hands will then be reborn before modern man! and Pythias will reborn!
NB: The description in the first part is only imaginary. The approximate size of the Greek ship of the time is borrowed from the ancient Greek ship Kyrenia, found in Cyprus. Once the cargo is loaded, there will be room for only ten sailors.
