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The Antikythera Machine is so remarkably cool -- it is as complex as any machine humans could create up until the 14th Century. There are tendrils that possibly
by mmanfrin 12y ago
The Antikythera Machine is so remarkably cool -- it is as complex as any machine humans could create up until the 14th Century. There are tendrils that possibly connect it to Archimedes or his School.
Classical Greece was millenia ahead of the rest of the world. Pindar writes of the automata found in Rhodes:
The animated figures stand
Adorning every public street
And seem to breathe in stone, or
move their marble feet.
There was even a working steam engine in Alexandria before it was burned down:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- qwerta 12y ago> it is as complex as any machine humans could create up until the 14th Century. Not really. Romans were quite nifty as well. Byzantine empire had many automatons. There are steam machines used by arabs...
- elliptic 12y agoA more sober translation seems to be: And the gray-eyed goddess herself bestowed on them every art, so that they surpassed all mortal men as the best workers with their hands; and the roads bore works of art like living, moving creatures, and their fame was profound. Which perhaps doesn't carry the same implications as the rather florid translation you quoted.
- duaneb 12y ago> Which perhaps doesn't carry the same implications as the rather florid translation you quoted. Pretty typical of classical greek translations, though, and sometimes it's necessary–see Sappho.
- pjungwir 12y agoLet's see how Hacker News handles Unicode! :-) Pindar's 7th Olympian Ode, lines 50-54: αὐτὰ δέ σφισιν ὤπασε τέχναν πᾶσαν ἐπιχθονίων Γλαυκῶπις ἀριστοπόνοις χερσὶ κρατεῖν. ἔργα δὲ ζωοῖσιν ἑρπόντεσσί θ᾽ ὁμοῖα κέλευθοι φέρον: ἦν δὲ κλέος βαθύ. Your version is pretty exact!
- elliptic 12y agoJust to be clear, it's not my version. I've always wished I could read Classical Greek.
- Terr_ 12y agoFigures that seem like they are moving, or figures that are actually moving? There's a huge difference between a good sculpure vs a simple machine.