#pytheas

To the north in this image is Mare Imbrium ("Sea of Showers"). Three lunar missions have landed here: the Soviet Luna 17 in 1970, the American Apollo 15 in 1971, and the Chinese Chang'e 3 in 2013. To the south in this image is Mare Insularum ("Sea of Islands").

Separating the two seas is the mountain range Montes Carpatus, named after the Carpathian Mountains in central and southeastern Europe.

There are many craters in this image. The largest one in the center is Copernicus crater named after Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), a Prussian astronomer who's book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium revolutionized modern thinking, placing the Sun at the center of the universe rather than the Earth.

In no particular order, the other craters are:

Lansberg crater, named after Flemish astronomer Johan Philip Lansberge (1561-1632) who published tables predicting planetary positions.

Reinhold crater, named for German astronomer Erasmus Reinhold (1511-1553) who produced a catalog of stars.

Hortensius crater, named for Dutch astronomer Maarten van den Hove (1605-1639) who developed a method for measuring the diameters of the planets from telescopic observations.

Fauth crater, named for German astronomer Philipp Johann Heinrich Fauth (1867-1941) who created detailed maps of the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Gambart crater, named for Jean-Félix Adolphe Gambart (1800-1836) who recorded observations of Jupiter's moons and discovered 13 comets.

Stadius crater, named for Flemish astronomer Jan van Ostaeyen (1527-1579) who published tables of planetary positions.

Eratosthenes crater, named for the ancient Greek astronomer Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276 - 195 BC) who was the first to calculate the Earth's circumference.

Gay-Lussac crater, named for the French physicist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850) who was the person who discovered that water is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen.

Draper crater, named for the American astronomer Henry Draper (1837-1882) who was a pioneer of astrophotography.

Wallace crater, named for the English explorer Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) who independently discovered the theory of evolution and explored the Amazon.

Pytheas crater, named for the Greek geographer Pytheas of Massalia (c. 350 - 306 BC) who explored northern Europe in 325 BC.

Stonehenge is the most famous stone circle in Britain, if not the world. It is a testament to the imagination, ingenuity and sophistication of the Neolithic population of southern England, a manifestation of a religious preoccupation with the sun that still exerts immense power even now: overnight last night and this morning, an estimated 25,000 people gathered to observe the sun rising on the longest day of the year.

Stonehenge is unique, and its uniqueness has meant that explanations of it have been many, various, and sometimes wild. It has been attributed to the Romans, the Danes, the Mycenaeans, aliens, and Druids. Before the invention of radiocarbon dating in the 1940s proved once and for all that it was a prehistoric monument built in several stages over many centuries beginning at least 5000 years ago, the most commonly held theory was that its architectural sophistication – including the famous trilithons – meant that a foreign architect must have instructed the savage Britons in how to build it. Because of superficial similarities with the Lion Gate, that architect was usually thought to have been Mycenaean.

Once radiocarbon dating demonstrated that Stonehenge was many centuries older than Mycenae, this hypothesis had to be abandoned. But there are tantalising connections between the two places that are harder to dismiss: many of the massive trilithons at Stonehenge are decorated with pecked carvings of daggers, and some of those daggers appear to be of Mycenaean type. Conversely, the so-called Wessex Culture that existed in Wiltshire in the centuries around 1600 BC was typified by extraordinarily skilled and beautiful gold working and a very recognisable type of dagger, and one of those daggers has been found in a Mycenaean shaft grave.

The Myth of Apollo at Stonehenge

There is literary evidence that later Greeks knew of and visited Britain. The best source is Pytheas of Massalia, who lived in the second half of the fourth century BC. In around 325 BC he circumnavigated the British Isles and visited several parts of them. But Pytheas is not the only source, and among the other surviving sources are some remarkable myths that link Stonehenge with the worship of Apollo and, by extension, Artemis.

The idea that Apollo was born in the British Isles stems from ancient Greek geographical myths regarding a legendary, paradise-like northern land called Hyperborea (meaning “Beyond the North Wind”). While the mainstream of Greek myth demonstrates that Apollo was born on the Aegean island of Delos, several classical and Hellenistic writers conflated the utopian island of Hyperborea with Britain and the island essentially functioned as Apollo’s ancestral home in the minds of these writers. The primary historical sources that form the backbone of this theory point directly to this connection:

Hecataeus of Abdera (4th Century BC)

The foundational source for this myth is Hecataeus of Abdera, a Greek historian, ethnographer and philosopher. His original work, On the Hyperboreans, is lost, but it is attested in fragments preserved by Diodorus Siculus and Apollonius of Rhodes. Hecataeus was one of the first to clearly describe Hyperborea as a massive, fertile island located in the ocean "opposite the land of the Celts" (which aligns geographically with Britain). He explicitly states that Leto, the mother of Apollo, was born on this island, which is why its inhabitants were said worship Apollo above all other gods. He also noted that the island featured a magnificent, spherical temple dedicated to Apollo—a detail that later antiquaries and archaeologists frequently link to Stonehenge.

Diodorus Siculus (1st Century BC) – Bibliotheca Historica

Diodorus Siculus is the most valuable source because he quotes Hecataeus's lost work directly. In Book II, Chapter 47 of his Library of History, Diodorus lays out the myth in some detail: "Now of those who have written about the myths of the ancients, Hecataeus and certain others say that in the regions beyond the land of the Celts there lies in the ocean an island no smaller than Sicily... Moreover, the following legend is told concerning it: Leto was born on this island, and for that reason Apollo is honoured among them above all other gods; and the inhabitants are looked upon as priests of Apollo, after a manner, since daily they praise this god continuously in song and honour him exceedingly. And there is also on the island both a magnificent sacred precinct of Apollo and a notable temple which is adorned with many votive offerings and is spherical in shape. Furthermore, a city is there which is sacred to this god, and the majority of its inhabitants are players on the cithara; and these continually play on this instrument in the temple and sing hymns of praise to the god, glorifying his deeds" (Diodorus of Sicily II, 38-9).

The Delian Connection: Herodotus (Histories, 5th Century BC)

While Herodotus doesn't explicitly map Hyperborea onto Britain, he provides the religious context that later writers used to make the connection. In Book IV, 33-36 of his Histories, he notes that the people of Delos (Apollo’s official birthplace) received sacred offerings wrapped in wheat straw sent from the Hyperboreans. The offerings travelled along a specific trade route from the far north, across Europe, and down into Greece. When later Greek explorers realized Britain was a major hub for trade (especially tin), writers retroactively assumed Britain was the Hyperborea sending those gifts to Apollo.

How the Myth Evolved in Britain

In later centuries, these classical texts were interrogated by British antiquaries who used them to argue that ancient Britain was the cradle of classical religion:

John Wood (1747): The architect who designed the city of Bath argued passionately in his Choir Gaure, Vulgarly Called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, Described, Restored, and Explainedthat Hecataeus’s "spherical temple" was actually Stonehenge, and that the Druids were the high priests of Apollo.

Edward Davies (1804): In Celtic Researches on the Origin, Traditions & Language of the Ancient Britains, Davies used these exact passages from Diodorus Siculus to assert that Apollo was a British god long before he was adapted by the Greeks.

This connection between Stonehenge and the "spherical temple" described by Diodorus Siculus is one of the most fascinating intersections of classical mythology and British antiquarianism. While Diodorus, following Hecataeus, used the phrase "spherical in shape" (σφαιροειδή), he had no first-hand knowledge of what he might have been describing. 18th-century scholars, on the other hand, noticed that the textual clues matched the famous stone circle perfectly.

The case for Stonehenge being this exact mythical temple rests on three main parallels:

1. The Geometry: "Spherical" vs. Circular

To the ancient Greeks, a round structure was often poetically or loosely described as "spherical" or "dome-like." Stonehenge is defined by its distinct concentric, circular earthworks and stone rings.

Antiquaries like John Wood and William Stukeley argued that a Greek traveller hearing second-hand accounts of a massive, perfectly round stone monument would easily translate "circular open-air structure" into a "spherical temple" in their writings.

That Stonehenge famously incorporates the rising of the midsummer sun and the setting of the sun at midwinter into its architecture makes its identification as a solar temple very obvious.

2. The 19-Year Astronomical Cycle

Another aspect of Diodorus’ account links his description to Stonehenge. He states: “The account is also given that the god visits the island every nineteen years, the period in which the return of the stars to the same place in the heavens is accomplished” (op. cit.). This 19-year cycle of Apollo’s visits matches the Metonic cycle — the time it takes for the phases of the moon to realign precisely with the same days of the solar year.

Archaeoastronomers have found that the rectangular layout of the four Station Stones at Stonehenge track the extreme northern and southern limits of the moonrise, a complex cycle that takes roughly 18.6 years to complete. The fact that the Hyperborean myth explicitly mentions a 19-year celestial alignment centred around this round temple strongly mirrors the actual astronomical functions built into Stonehenge.

What this of course means is that Stonehenge was not only a solar temple dedicated to Apollo, but also a lunar temple dedicated to Artemis, and that Apollo visited the sanctuary every 19th year when his sister was also present.

3. The "Harpers" and the Druids

Diodorus noted that the citizens of the island were "given over to music, continuously harping on the lyre and singing hymns of praise to the god" (op. cit.)

When 18th-century British antiquaries were trying to piece together who built Stonehenge, the classic (and entirely unfounded) theory pointed to the Druids. Because classical writers described Druids as a revered, poetic, and priestly class who studied the stars, British scholars claimed the "Hyperborean harpers" of Apollo were actually the ancient Celtic Druids performing rituals within the stone circles.

The Modern Consensus

No-one actually believes that the Neolithic inhabitants of the British Isles built Stonehenge as an actual temple of Apollo. But what is incontrovertible is that it was a temple dedicated to the worship of the sun, and that – at some point around and after 1600 BC – there were links between southern Britain and mainland Greece.

Although the builders of Stonehenge were long gone by the time of Herodotus, Pytheas, Hecataeus and Diodorus, it seems likely that ancient Greek mariners heard distant, distorted trade-route rumours of a massive, circular, sky-worshipping temple in the far northern mists of Britain. This real monument was then absorbed into Greek mythology, transformed into the legendary "Spherical Temple of Apollo," and populated with idealized utopian citizens.

A note on Albion