Pytheas of Massalia and his Voyage to the North Atlantic in the Light of Onomastics

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to review the voyage of Pytheas of Massalia in northern waters of the Atlantic Ocean, as well as to give a structural and etymological analysis of some island names which probably appeared in Pytheas’ work On the Ocean for the first time. The Arctic Ocean was known as the “Cronian Sea; Sea of Cronos” (Gk. Kρόνιον, Lat. Cronium) or as the “Congealed Sea” (Gk. πεπηγυῖα θάλαττα, Lat. mare concretum). All the islands located north to Great Britain demonstrate names of Greek origin or with an obvious Hellenic structure (e.g. the Greek suffix -άς, pl. -άδες, hence Lat. -ades; the Greek ending -η, hence Lat. -ē). The following nesonyms of the Northern Atlantic are thoroughly discussed: the Orkneys (Gk. Ὀρκάδες, Lat. Orcades), the Shetlands (Gk. *Αἱμῶδαι, Lat. Haemodae), the Hebrides (Gk. Ἔβουδαι or Αἰβοῦδαι, Lat. Hebudes or Ebudes), the Faeroes (Gk. *Βέργοι, Lat. Bergi), Streymoy, the largest island of the Faeroe archipelago (Gk. *Βερρική, Lat. Berricē) and Iceland (Gk. Θούλη or *Θύλη, Lat. Thulē, Thylē, Tylē). The toponymic nomenclature of the North Atlantic used by Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder and other Roman and Greek geographers evidently derives from Pytheas’ work.