Th e Scandinavians were restless people, exploring along
the coasts of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. It is probable
that they sailed south along the coast of continental Europe
or out to Britain as well. Th eir motives were probably similar
to those of the Vikings centuries later: Th ey looked for new
places to live and prosper, they looked for rich lands to loot,
and they wanted the glory of discovering new lands. Sailing
all the way to the Mediterranean would have taken great dar-
ing, but if they did as the Phoenicians usually did and stayed
close to the coastline, they would have eventually discovered
places to land and trade as well as the source of Mycenaean
commerce. Th ey may have also reached the Aegean by an
overland route. Th ere are only hints of what the ancient Scan-
dinavians achieved because they were an illiterate people;
however, they may have traveled as the Vikings did during
medieval times, who would row or sail along a river until it
became too shallow, then haul their longboats overland to an-
other river and continue their journey.
Aggression was another motive for exploration. Th e Ger-
manic and Celtic peoples of Europe were warrior cultures,
and warriors were the elite social class. For the Celts, war was
a matter of earning honor. Th e taking of booty was oft en a
secondary consideration. On the other hand, war was some-
times viewed as a necessity, as one tribe needed to move from
bad lands and dangerous circumstances to good lands and
safety. Sometimes they seemed to explore alone or in small
groups into territories where there might be a military weak-
ness on which they could capitalize.
Th e Greek-Syrian explorer Posidonius (ca. 135–ca. 51
b.c.e.) lived among the Celts and noted that he was treated
fairly well as an outsider. He had no merchandise to trade,
which made him less interesting to his hosts than he might
have been, but he was made a guest at meals given by chiefs
and served as a curiosity for other visitors. He was not ex-
pected to behave like the Celts. Other explorers did not neces-
sarily fare so well. By Posidonius’s era, Germanic people were
regarded with suspicion by Celts because the Germanic peo-
ples oft en made war on the Celts. On the other hand, Celtic
explorers from other tribes could fi nd themselves guests and
would be expected to give accounts of the lands they had
visited. Such Celtic explorers were frequently restless young
men sent abroad by their elders before they could make trou-
ble for the rulers of their tribes. Singly or in small groups,
these young men might kill, loot, or steal, or they might fi nd
a chief who wanted them to join his or her retainers. Among
the Germanic peoples, this process was common as well, with
chiefs taking in newcomers who pledged themselves to their
service. Th is practice would later be part of the premise for
the epic Beowulf.
While at times welcomed, a Celtic explorer could expect
to be looked upon with suspicion, especially if it was plain
that he was not a trader. When caught, spies would oft en be
challenged to combat, with their severed heads being adding
to the collections of those who killed them. Oft en young ex-
plorers were very unwelcome because the local tribal leaders
already had too many hot-blooded young warriors to worry
about, and the young explorers would be chased away. Still,
for these voyagers, their journeys off ered adventure, new and
exciting experiences, and the chance to win honor in the ser-
vice of the chiefs they met.GREECE
BY CHRISTOPHER BLACKWELL
Th e earliest Greek explorers were the anonymous men and
women who sailed off the coast of the European mainland
and settled the islands of the Aegean Sea, eventually building
the Bronze Age civilizations that archaeologists have found
on Crete and neighboring islands. From there, early explor-
ers made contact with the vastly more ancient civilization of
Egypt as well as the empires of Asia Minor.
Th e earliest literary evidence for exploration is the Ho-
meric Odyssey, a work of fi ction and fantasy but one that re-
fl ects a resurgence of travel by sea at the end of the Greek
dark ages around 800 b.c.e. Odysseus, on his 10-year journey
home from the Trojan War, fi nds his way to Sicily, the Aeoliae
Insulae (modern-day Lipari Islands), and other more obvi-
ously mythological locations. Th rough incidental details in
this poem, it is possible to see past the fi ction to a historical
reality that involved adventurous Greeks going abroad to new
places for trade and war. When Odysseus meets people on his
journeys they invariably ask him, “Are you here for trade, or
are you a pirate?” as if these were the two most likely profes-
sions of a stranger met on the beach.
During the eighth and seventh centuries b.c.e. trade be-
tween Greek cities and the rest of the world expanded greatly.
Greek pottery is found throughout the Mediterranean and as
far north in Europe as Sweden, although who brought it there
is unknown. What is known of ancient Greek exploration has
to be sift ed from fragmentary accounts of voyages, some per-
haps historical and some almost certainly fi ctional, that ap-
pear in works of authors who may have lived centuries aft er
the events they describe. But accounts of journeys were com-
mon enough to be a named genre, periplous, meaning “voyage
of discovery.” Th e earliest is a narrative known to the Greeks
of a voyage by Hanno, a Greek-speaking Carthaginian navi-
gator from North Africa (in modern Tunisia). Around 480
b.c.e., when the Greek world was involved in its great war
with Persia, Hanno journeyed past the Straits of Gibraltar
(which the ancients called the “Pillars of Hercules”) and into
the Atlantic. Th is journey took him down the western coast
of what is now Morocco. He records founding settlements of
Carthaginians at Essaouira (formerly Mogador) and Agadir,
and traveling south past Lixus. He also mentions seeing vol-
canoes and describes gorillas.
Another “voyage of discovery,” known to the Greeks of
the fi ft h century b.c.e. was that of Scylax, who was satrap,
or governor, of the Caryanda, part of the Persian Empire of
Darius the Great (r. 522–486 b.c.e.). Scylax is said to have
sailed down the Indus River from near the Karakoram Range442 exploration: Greece