[950] Geogr., iv, 5, § 5. Müllenhoff (Deutsche Altertumskunde, i, 1890, p. 393) insists that Strabo’s description must include Thule; for, he says, it compares the observations made by Pytheas in Thule with others, made in more southerly tracts, where wheat was grown and beer brewed. But, as I observe in the text, it is questionable whether Pytheas was ever in Thule.
[951] Geogr., i, 4, § 3.
[952] Ib., ii, 5, § 8. See H. F. Tozer, Hist. of Anc. Geogr., p. 159.
[953] K. Müllenhoff, Deutsche Altertumskunde, i, 1890, p. 389. Cf. Mém. de l’Acad. des inscr., xxxvii, 1724, pp. 436-42.
[954] Müllenhoff (Deutsche Altertumskunde, i, 1890, pp. 386, 401) gives sufficient reasons for rejecting the statement of Cleomedes that there was continuous night in Thule for one month. The statement of Pliny (Nat. Hist., iv, 16 [30], § 104) that the winter night lasted six months needs no refutation.
[955] Strabo, i, 4, § 2.
[956] Elem. astron., ed. C. Manitius, 1898, p. 70 (c. vi, § 9).—ἐπὶ δὲ τοὺς τόπους τούτους δοκεῖ καὶ Πυθέας ... παρεῖναι. φησὶ γοῦν ... ὅτι ‘ἑδείκνυον ἡμῖν οἱ βάρβαροι ὅπου ὁ ἥλιος κοιμᾶται. συνέβαινε γὰρ περὶ τούτους τοὺς τόπους τὴν μὲν νύκτα παντελῶς μικρὸν γίνεσθαι, ὡρῶν οἷς μὲν δύο, οἷς δὲ τριῶν, ὥστε μετὰ τὴν δύσιν μικροῦ διαλείμματος γινομένου ἐπανατέλλειν εἰθέως τὸν ἥλιον.’
[957] See H. Berger, Gesch. der wissenschaftlichen Erdkunde, &c., iii, 1891, pp. 16-7.
[958] Cf. K. Müllenhoff, Deutsche Altertumskunde, i, 1890, pp. 388, 392.
[959] Strabo (ii, 4, § 1) seems to imply that Pytheas avowed that he described Thule from hearsay. He tells us on the authority of Polybius that Pytheas wrote an account of τὰ περὶ τῆς Θούλης καὶ τῶν τόπων ἐκείνων, ἐν οἷς οὔτε γῆ καθ’ αὑτὴν ὑπῆρχεν ἔτι οὔτε θάλαττα, οὔτ’ ἀήρ, ἀλλὰ σύγκριμά τι ἐκ τούτων πλεύμονι θαλαττίῳ ἐοικός, ἐν ᾧ φησι τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν θάλατταν αἰωρεῖσθαι καὶ τὰ σύμπαντα, καὶ τοῦτον ὡς ἂν δεσμὸν εἶναι τῶν ὅλων, μήτε πορευτὸν μήτε πλωτὸν ὑπάρχοντα· τὸ μὲν οὖν τῷ πλεύμονι ἐοικὸς αὐτος ἑωρακέναι, τἆλλα δὲ λέγειν ἐξ ἀκοῆς.