Essays

Waar de zon slaapt. Over de ligging van Pytheas’ Thule

---

Abstract

Pytheas of Massalia (Marseille) was a Greek explorer in the fourth century B.C. He is well-known for making a big journey to the north of Europe, where he discovered an island he called Thule. A lot of research has been done to solve the question where Thule might have been located. Until now four possible locations have been suggested: the Shetland Islands, Greenland, Iceland and Norway. In this article the author examines the ancient text-fragments in which Pytheas is mentioned (nothing of his own writings has been preserved) and she discusses the different theories concerning the location of Thule. Thule must be located between 63° and 66° north latitude - information one can find in text-fragments that curiously enough consistently have been overlooked by all researchers until now. Since the fragments also show that there were people living on Thule in the fourth century B.C., and we know that Iceland was uninhabited until the eight century A.D., Thule must be identified as Norway (which was considered to be an island until the eleventh century A.D.).

How to Cite:

Hertmans, H., (1999) “Waar de zon slaapt. Over de ligging van Pytheas’ Thule”, Tetradio 8(1): 12, 205–218. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tetradio.91943