[62] Cf. Markham, 1893. If the longest day of the year is given in the different authorities (Strabo, Geminus, etc.) at various places as seventeen, eighteen, nineteen hours, etc., after the statements of Pytheas, it must not, of course, be assumed that Pytheas was at each of these places precisely on Midsummer Day. It was only one of the Greek methods of indicating the latitude of places.
[63] The origin of this name for the northernmost or outer sea, which occurs in several authors, is somewhat uncertain. It is usually supposed [cf. Hergt, 1893, p. 71] that it comes from the Greek god “Cronos” (Latin “Saturn”). R. Keyser [1839, p. 396, 1868, p. 165] thought (after Toland in 1725) that it was of Celtic origin and cognate with the Welsh “croni,” to collect together; “Muir-croinn” was supposed still to be Irish for the Polar Sea, and to have some such meaning as the curdled sea; but no such word is to be found in Irish or Old Irish [cf. Müllenhoff, 1870, p. 415].
[64] Hergt [1893, p. 71] lays stress on the use of “ultra” here and not “trans,” and thinks that this does not indicate an immediate connection with Thule, but that we must rather suppose an intervening space (?).
[65] Perhaps it is worth while to remark in this connection that on its second occurrence in the quotation the word is simply “lung” and not “sea-lung.” If this is not to be looked upon merely as an abbreviation, it may indicate that the writer was really thinking of a bodily lung [cf. Hergt, 1893, p. 74].
[66] It has occurred that drift-ice has been brought as far as the neighbourhood of Shetland by the East-Icelandic Polar current; but this is so entirely exceptional that it cannot be argued that Pytheas might have seen drift-ice there.
[67] It is difficult to understand how he was able to converse with the natives; but probably he took interpreters with him. In the south of England, for instance, he may have found people who had come in contact through the tin-trade with the Mediterranean peoples and understood their languages, and who could thus act as interpreters with the Celts. It would not be so easy with the Germanic people of Thule. But in Scotland he may have found Celts who understood the speech of Thule, and who could act as interpreters through the more southern Celtic people.
[68] It has already been mentioned that Avienus ascribes even to Himilco some similar ideas of the extreme parts of the ocean; and that Aristotle thought that the sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules was muddy and shallow and little stirred by the winds.
[69] According to a communication from Professor Moltke Moe.
[70] It has been supposed by some that this name, which may remind one of the “Æstii” (Esthonians) mentioned by Tacitus, is really a clerical error for “Ostimii.”
[71] The more usual spelling “Mentonomon” (after some MSS.) can hardly be right [cf. Detlefsen, 1904, p. 9]. The name may be connected with the Frisian “meden” (Old Frisian “mede” or “medu,” English “meadow”) for low-lying, swampy pasture, and in that case would suit the German North Sea coast well, between the Rhine and Sleswick-Holstein.