Thule - Inhabitants of Thule

Inhabitants of Thule

The inhabitants or people of Thule are described in most detail by Strabo in his Geographica, having preserved fragments of the account of Pytheas who was an alleged eye-witness in the 4th century BC:

...the people (of Thule) live on millet and other herbs, and on fruits and roots; and where there are grain and honey, the people get their beverage, also, from them. As for the grain, he says, since they have no pure sunshine, they pound it out in large storehouses, after first gathering in the ears thither; for the threshing floors become useless because of this lack of sunshine and because of the rains.

Solinus in his Polyhistor repeated these descriptions, noting that the people of Thule had a fertile land where they grew a good production of corn and fruits.

Claudian believed that the inhabitants of Thule were Picts. This is supported by a physical description of the inhabitants of Thule by the Roman poet Silius Italicus, who wrote that the people of Thule were blue painted:

... the blue-painted native of Thule, when he fights, drives around the close-packed ranks in his scythe-bearing chariot.

The Picts are often said to have derived their name from Latin pingere "to paint"; pictus, "painted". Martial talks about "blue" and "painted Britons", just like Julius Caesar.

Eustathius of Thessalonica in his 12th century commentary on the Iliad, wrote that the inhabitants of Thule were at war with a dwarf-like stature tribe only 20 fingers in height. The American classical scholar Charles Anthon believed this legend may have been rooted in history (although exaggerated), if the dwarf or pygmy tribe were interpreted as being a smaller aboriginal tribe of Britain the people on Thule had encountered.