History of Britain, I: Hail Prettanike! Early References to the British Isles

[@dzhang4459]

Uninhabited or swarming with giant bees is what I've always assumed about any place I've never been to. Now I know who started that trend.

[@danman101stefan]

Already great to be early for a Thersites drop

[@ClumpyLemons]

Pour one out for the giant bees of northern Europe 🐝

[@kaloarepo288]

Giant bees were probably a species of bird or bats? There's often an explanation for some of these legends and misconceptions.

[@kaloarepo288]

Even Christopher Marlowe, a writer contemporary to Shakespeare, in his play "Tamburlaine" describes that 14th century Turco-Mongol conqueror as "Son of a Scythian shepherd."

[@luccalannes1870]

I ‘ d like to thank you for sharing your knowledge !!!!!!!

[@konst80hum]

Thank you for making this content! Great as always! Also no ice in greek seas.

[@Kwodlibet]

Greece is mountainous. It snows there regularly every winter, even on Crete they get snow and ice. I cannot imagine they would be missing a word for "ice"... Whatever that magical, mystical substance of Pytheas was, it sounds like a bit of an exaggeration.

[@qboger]

I googled it: The Ancient Greek word for snow is νίφα (accusative singular). Apparently it’s such a rare word that the expected nominative single form *νίψ is unattested. However we know it is an inherited word rather than a borrowed word because it follows the expected sound changes from the proto indo European word for snow: *sníghws. The initial /s/ in consonant clusters often drops in older Indo-European languages due to it being confused for a final /s/ from a preceding word, because like 60% of words end in /s/. The /ghw/ sound predictably would have become /khw/ in Mycenaean Greek, and the /khw/ sound later turned into /ph/ in in most conditions in Ionic and Attic Greek. English “Snow” comes from a thematic declension version of the same root: *snoyghwos->*snaiwaz-snāw->snow.

[@ImprobableMatter]

That's pretty crazy. There is snow sometimes even today in Greece, certainly in places like Massilia, their colonies in Crimea/Black Sea, and not to mention the many mountains (not permanent glaciation, but it's still colder in winter) in Greece, Asia Minor and so on.

[@dzhang4459]

@@ImprobableMatter The white stuff on the mountains? We don't know what that is. Some claim that it's the magical jelly substance known as snow. But where is the proof? Its very convenient that all the samples that snow-believers have collected from the mountain tops just disappear into nothing before they can show it to everyone? Snow isn't real.

[@dzhang4459]

@@ImprobableMatter There's no proof that the white stuff on mountains is snow. Everyone who claims to have climbed up and gotten a sample always return with a wet rag in their pockets. Note: KZbin shadow-deleted the first version of this comment. I was being sarcastic but now I think there might actually be something to this...guys is snow really real? Thanks KZbin for helping to show me the truth.

[@dzhang4459]

@@ImprobableMatter There's no proof that the white stuff on mountains is snow. Everyone who claims to have climbed up and gotten a sample always return with a wet rag in their pockets.

[@dzhang4459]

@@ImprobableMatter Everyone who claims to have climbed up and gotten a sample always return with a wet rag in their pockets.

[@Lomiei]

God blesses us with more content from this wonderful historian

[@geesixnine]

Gotta love Pytheas

[@lt8395]

yeah I hope they find his book!

[@yorkshirepudding9860]

Yeah, Britain content!

[@jurb2941]

Did Greeks trade a lot of wax with northern Europeans at the time? Only reason why they might associate northern Europe with bees I can think of.

[@Brandon-yg7mw]

Sumerian swords had British metal in them? That's freaking cool

[@Aliexei]

Weird Greeks thinking that Earth is round.

[@justinogle150]

i am jazzed for this

[@YTuseraL2694]

Good video, but I long for the continuation of the Byzantine emperors series...

[@asac_onvenient]

Whoa whoa, Herodutus's siganture on the top of a Pyramid? Imma have to tell TreyTheExplainer to take down his video if thats true my dog, you got a souce?

[@Jason-fm4my]

3:33 Was linear B translated?

[@Ario-yt8ou]

yes

[@kaloarepo288]

Surely Greek has a word for "snow" as it can snow as far south as Crete -I've seen photos of Crete covered in snow and of course the snow covered mountains like Mt Olympus. Greeks are also supposed to not have had a word for "blue" as well.

[@gequitz]

Probably, although maybe not everyone knew the word for snow (especially commoners). It's possible they had a word for snow but not ice

[@kaloarepo288]

@@gequitz Just checked -the word for ice was "kruon" from which we get the word "cryogenics' as in freezing the bodies in the hope of one day reviving them and the ancient Greek word for snow was "chion" which was related to the word for "winter'. To think that a people who live in a country that becomes extremely cold in winter, where like I said, it can snow in Crete and that the summit of Mt Olympus is always snow covered, and not have a word for ice and snow is beyond silly! The word "crystal" also comes from "kruon." Greeks may not have as many words as the eskimoes for the things relating to cold, to ice and to snow, but they would have had the basic words -surely!

[@Moredread25]

Source for Herodotus's signature on the great pyramids?

[@Ogrem]

What a day! A wonderful day!

[@Ogrem]

Wonderful!

[@josephmasten7588]

Greeks were speculators, the Roman's were discoverers. Not afraid to Fafo

[@Kevin-hm2di]

first like and comment letsgoooo. ty for the content during the 2025 blizzard

[@WorthlessWinner]

Britain is kinda a triangle tho More so than Sicily!

[@Moredread25]

This video does not have an outro. When it ended, I thought I had missed something. I know it's formulaic, but videos really do benefit from having a standard "thanks for watching, see you next time, like, subscribe, etc." as an outro.

[@johngamba4823]

Civilization comes from the Latin civitas and means living in cities. I think you are confusing civilization with culture or sophisticated culture more generally.

[@Westernman1415]

Words take on new meanings throughout history

[@brian5001]

How and why would you separate culture and civilization? Does one happen without the other?

[@johngamba4823]

@ Because they mean slightly different things. They aren’t synonyms. Not every culture has cities and the degree of urbanisation can also differ.

[@OGDeepStroke]

No, he is not.

[@jam1087]

Karen

[@aclockworkcranberry]

Oi mate let me just get my tea mate wot wot and all that