from,begin bold, Into the Unknown ,end bold,
PYTHEAS THE GREEK SAILS TO ULTIMA THULE, AROUND 340 BC
paragraph 1,We begin more than 2,000 years ago. In a city on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, there lived a Greek explorer named Pytheas. Almost nothing is known of him. Historians cannot say precisely when he lived, what he looked like, or whether he was rich or poor, and they don't even know exactly where he went. All they can say for certain is that he made a remarkable voyage north to a place where he thought the sea looked like curdled milk, and that when he returned home, he wrote about it in a book called ,begin italics,On the Ocean,end italics,.
paragraph 2,Sadly, all copies of Pytheas's account have disappeared. It obviously caused a stir in the classical world, though, because in works that ,begin italics,do,end italics, survive, at least eighteen other writers mention it. One of them, the Greek geographer Strabo, described Pytheas as a fraud and "the worst possible liar." Others believed he was telling the truth—and today most historians agree, which is why he is often called the first great explorer.
paragraph 3,Pytheas's hometown was Massilia, the southern French port we now call Marseilles. Like many other cities around the Mediterranean, it had been founded by Greeks who had left their homeland to better themselves. Their settlements flourished, and by Pytheas's lifetime, in the fourth century BC, Greek civilization was the envy of the Western world. So although Pytheas was not born in Greece, he would have spoken, written, and thought like a Greek—and been proud to do so.
paragraph 4,Using every mention of ,begin italics,On the Ocean,end italics, by those who read it in ancient times, modern scholars have tried to piece together where Pytheas went and why. Like many citizens of Massilia, he was almost certainly a merchant, which means he probably traded in two precious imports: amber and tin. The Greeks used yellow-gold amber to fashion jewelry and ornaments, and they melted down bars of gleaming tin and mixed it with small quantities of copper to make bronze. This attractive metal was tough and non-rusting, and the Ancient Greeks had a hundred and one uses for it.
A map.
Short description, A map., Long description,
The map is titled Modern-Day Map Showing the Journey of Pytheas. A line showing his most likely route starts at Marseilles/Massilia, in southern France. The route follows the coasts of France and Spain, then heads north to the British Isles. The route passes Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Scotland. It continues northwest and ends at Iceland. A different line, labeled Other possible routes, shows Pytheas may have continued north past the Arctic Circle. Another possible route shows that after Scotland, Pytheas may have instead traveled northeast to Norway before continuing north past the Arctic Circle. A line also shows that Pytheas may have crossed France by land instead of following the coasts of France and Spain.
paragraph 5,Since amber and tin came from lands north of the Mediterranean, it seems likely that Pytheas began his journey for reasons of trade. Historians know that he traveled first to southwest Britain, a place where tin was mined. They have no idea how he got there, though. He may have taken a ship of his own, a Mediterranean trading vessel, through the Strait of Gibraltar (which the Greeks called the Pillars of Hercules) to the west coast of Spain. Or he might have sailed on a swift Greek warship to the mouth of the River Aude, then crossed France by riverboat.
paragraph 6,Both journeys would have brought him to the Atlantic coast, where he probably picked up a sturdier Celtic craft to take him to southern Britain. These were tough vessels built to ride out Atlantic storms, with hefty main timbers 12 inches thick. Their strong oak planks and shallow draft allowed them to rest on the bottom of the sea when tides ran low.
paragraph 7,From the tin mines of Cornwall, Pytheas continued north up the west coast of the British Isles. Almost certainly he made this part of his journey in a local boat called a curragh. This craft looked like a sort of giant basket: its hull was woven wickerwork covered with buttered ox hides, sewn together and made waterproof at the joints with pitch. Driven by leather sails or rows of oars, a curragh was light enough to skip over towering waves like a seabird. Ships of this design were still in use in the twentieth century and were said to ride out storms that sank the toughest lifeboats. All that bobbing would have had one major disadvantage, though: Pytheas would probably have been horribly seasick.
paragraph 8,Farther and farther Pytheas sailed, through mists and icy gales—up the Irish Sea, past the Isle of Man, and on to the Western Isles of Scotland. He would have had no map to guide him, but traveling in a northerly direction was not difficult: he simply had to keep the sun at his back by day and follow the North Star by night. Historians know that he didn't just stare at the wild and rocky coast from his vessel, either, but went ashore for weeks on end, writing about the people he met, keeping a record of where he traveled, and estimating distances to figure out how far he had come: as well as being a merchant and explorer, Pytheas was a skilled geographer.
paragraph 9,The Greeks knew that the world was round, and realized that the length of a shadow increases as you go north. To determine how much farther north than Massilia he was, Pytheas used a wooden staff of fixed length called a gnomon. He remembered the length of its midday shadow at certain times of the year back home, and at regular intervals during his journey, he placed his gnomon upright on level ground at noon and measured how long its shadow was.
paragraph 10,Since some of Pytheas's calculations have survived in the writings of others, it should be possible to find out where he took his gnomon readings. Unfortunately, he recorded his position in stades, units of measurement that varied from place to place. Scholars believe he probably made his most northerly gnomon measurement at the farthest tip of Scotland.
paragraph 11,Where did he go after that? In ,begin italics,On the Ocean,end italics,, Pytheas wrote that he reached Ultima Thule—"the most remote of places." No one has been able to figure out for certain where this was. Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer who read ,begin italics,On the Ocean,end italics,, thought it was "at the top of the world . . . six days' voyage to the north of Britain." Some historians think Thule was the Orkney Islands. Others have suggested Norway. The most likely answer seems to be that Pytheas traveled northwest across the stormy Atlantic as far as Iceland.
paragraph 12,From there, Pytheas may have sailed still farther north, into the Arctic. According to the Ancient Greek writer Polybius, Pytheas said that where he went "the earth did not exist on its own, nor sea nor mist, but instead all were mixed together like a marine lung." Wherever this was, the image of the semi-frozen sea breathing like a lung is one of the most powerful in the whole history of exploration. And for Pytheas to have traveled so far from his own civilization was little short of amazing.
(from INTO THE UNKNOWN. Text copyright © 2011 by Stewart Ross. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press on behalf of Walker Books Ltd., London.)
Question 1
This question has two parts. Answer Part A, and then answer Part B.
,begin emphasis,Part A,end emphasis,
How does the author ,begin emphasis,primarily,end emphasis, draw connections between Pytheas and other Ancient Greeks?
Question 1 Answer options with 4 options
1.
The author demonstrates how Pytheas expanded the trade established by other Ancient Greeks.
2.
The author questions the destinations reached by Pytheas by citing the opinions of Ancient Greeks.
3.
The author draws on research and facts known about Ancient Greeks in order to draw conclusions about Pytheas.
4.
The author contrasts the sailing techniques and ships used by Pytheas to those commonly used by other Ancient Greeks.
Question 2
,begin emphasis,Part B,end emphasis,
Which detail from the passage ,begin emphasis,best,end emphasis, supports the correct answer from Part A?
Question 2 Answer options with 4 options
1.
"Using every mention of ,begin italics,On the Ocean,end italics," (Paragraph 4)
2.
"These were tough vessels built to ride out Atlantic storms" (Paragraph 6)
3.
"From the tin mines of Cornwall, Pytheas continued north" (Paragraph 7)
4.
"Farther and farther Pytheas sailed, through mists and icy gales—up the Irish Sea" (Paragraph 8)
Question 1:
The correct answer is 3. The author draws on research and facts known about Ancient Greeks in order to draw conclusions about Pytheas.
Question 2:
The correct answer is 1. "Using every mention of ,begin italics,On the Ocean,end italics," (Paragraph 4)