The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek: The Man Who Discovered Britain

Prof. Cunliffe uses the travels of Pytheas to Britain and beyond as a framework for a lively discussion of the general state of geographic knowledge and above all trade in Western Europe in the 3rd century b.c. He explains how there was a continual flow of manufactured goods from the South being exchanged for prized tin and amber from the North. Some of this was probably through long chains of intermediaries, but Pytheas reported that tin traders took their pack horses from the Channel to the Rhone in only thirty days, so it is not too surprising that occasional brave individuals were able to make the same journey. Pytheas himself seems to have traveled almost like a modern back-packer, tagging along with traveling merchants rather than leading an expedition of his own. Cunliffe is Professor of European Archaeology at Oxford, so he knows the archeological record well and he discusses various sites that are representative of the areas Pytheas visited. He also carefully evaluates and explains the potential biases and distortions in the surviving commentaries on Pytheas's travels. For example, some later scholars refused point-blank to accept that humans could survive in such cold climates. I was initially surprised by the claimed extent of Pytheas's travels, but by the end I was convinced that Pytheas did indeed reach the far North (almost certainly Iceland) and record its short summer nights and high latitude for future geographers. An amazing tale, well told. Despite being scholarly, Cunliffe's account is consistently well written, entertaining and enlightening.

Native Americans and Pacific Islanders who get annoyed by stories of their countries being "discovered" might feel vindicated by this account of the first civilized explorer of the British Isles, where he encountered cannibals who "openly have intercourse not only with other women but with their mothers and sisters"which Cunliffe thinks may be "accurate anthropological observation." No full copy of Pytheas's book survives so his voyage has to be reconstructed from quotations in other writers. These seem consistent enough and to contain enough valid observations about tides and sun movements to indicate that there was some truth in his story. The material is so sparse that in order to fill his book Cunliffe fleshes it out with a lot of speculation and archeological data. He is evidently an authority in many fields. For example he is able to detect that Polybius's attack on Pytheas "has all the hallmarks of intense academic jealousy." (Cunfiffe is a professor of European archeology at Oxford). An interesting speculation is whether Pytheas reached Iceland. Cunliffe thinks he did, and presents interesting evidence. It does appear likely that Iceland was inhabited before the Vikings got there.

The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek is a wonderful examination of life along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe during the Greco-Roman period. Essentially it's a much more readable version of Cunliffe's book Facing the Ocean, and the reader of the latter will find familiar passages throughout the volume. While the focus and time period of Facing the Ocean is much broader than that of The ExtraordinaryVoyage, the narrower time period of the latter makes the ancient world come more alive for the reader. On the Ocean, written by the fourth century B.C. explorer Pytheas of Massalia (modern day Marseille in France) is itself lost to modern day scholarship, but it does exist in short excerpts found in the works of later authors. Professor Cunliffe is both an archaeologist as well as an historian of the period and is able to use his understanding of the cultural remains of the period and of the region in which Pytheas traveled to verify many of the traditions surrounding the great adventurer's voyage. In essence, he uses both Pytheas and his travels to create the structure and theme of his own work on life and trade along the Atlantic coasts during the fourth century. For those with a general knowledge of Greco-Roman history, this book adds detail to the image of the ancient world. Many of the more general texts of the period, while discussing the colonization period of ancient Greece, fail to really give more than a gloss-over of the cultural phenomenon that restructured the Mediterranean world and led to the more widely known events of the Roman Republic and Imperial periods, with its cast of characters made popular in literary form from Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra and Julius Caesar to Ridley Scott's Gladiator. The book takes the reader to the ends of the earth from the point of view of the contemporary Mediterranean world and provides a personality whose adventures match those of the great explorers of the fourteenth and fifteenth century A.D. The book is brief and concise, and would be understandable to most readers from junior high level and beyond with an interest in history. The bibliography contains a number of references that would provide further reading sources. Most of these are a little old, 1893-1994, and some are in French or German, but several of the general sources are more recent and in English.

I liked this book so much that I bought a copy for my Dad and one for my brother. Cunliffe does a splendid job of giving us a narrative that makes sense of Pytheas, a figure who has hitherto been quite mysterious. The idea of England being "discovered" is entertaining, and Cunliffe neatly presents Pytheas' journey from an ancient Greek world view.Buy this book!

Perhaps, Barry Cunliffe didn't name this book "What Little is Known About the Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek" because then the title might compete for length with the content. Granted, Pytheas' journey occured some 2,300 years ago so source material is spotty. However, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed in the lack of narrative one expects given the title Cunliffe did bestow on his effort.To Cunliffe's credit, he admits as much and attempts to draw the reader in through an archaeological perspective of the people and places Pytheas might have encountered. And, since Pytheas' own writings are long since lost, Cunliffe spends much time on the works of his near contemporaries; portions of which are still surviving.A lack of source material is something with which all books of ancient history must contend. Nevertheless, Cunliffe's enthusiasm for his subject is palpable and this brings it's own level of enjoyment to the reader. Cunliffe is careful to separate theory from fact and though this is, in itself, the prime reason that a narrative never really appears, one has to admire his integrity.Bottom line, The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek is an analytical, clinical, dissection of what little is known of a Greek wanderer who stretched the envelope of the known world. It is short, informative, and, in the end, worthy of the reader's time.