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Science and Technology in Homeric Epics

  • Book
  • © 2008

Overview

Editors:
  1. S. A. Paipetis

    1. Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

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  • Selected papers from a unique conference that appeals to a very wide range of readers
  • During the week that the Symposium took place in August 2006 in Ancient Olympia, practically all daily papers of Athens and the provincial press were reporting on the presentations with full-page or front page reports

Part of the book series: History of Mechanism and Machine Science (HMMS, volume 6)

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Table of contents (41 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
    Download chapter PDF

  2. General Themes

    1. Mycenaean Technology

      • T. P. Tassios
      Pages 3-33

    2. Autagreton

      • Emmanuel Mikrogiannakis
      Pages 35-39

  3. Mathematics and Physics

    1. Archimedes' Count of Homer's Cattle of the Sun

      • Chris Rorres
      Pages 43-66

    2. Vortices in Homer's Odyssey — A Scientific Approach

      • Georgios H. Vatistas
      Pages 67-75

    3. The Homeric Automata and Their Implementation

      • D. Kalligeropoulos, S. Vasileiadou
      Pages 77-84

    4. The River Ocean: Homer's Cosmogony

      • Taha Showleh
      Pages 85-91

    5. The Laws of Curvilinear Motion in the Iliad

      • S. A. Paipetis
      Pages 93-100

  4. Materials

    1. Iron in the Homeric Epics & Homer, a Sensible Ecologist

      • George Varoufakis
      Pages 103-111

    2. Early Bronze Technology at Land's End, North Western Iberia

      • Beatriz Comendador-Rey, Susana Reboreda-Morillo, Winfried Kockelmann, Mike Macdonald, Tony Bell, Manolis Pantos
      Pages 113-131

    3. Porphyra: In Search of Dyeing Methods in Ancient Greece

      • Wako Nishiyama
      Pages 133-138

    4. Technology Transfer in the Bronze Age: The Case of a Faience-Like Blue Glaze Produced at Bread-Oven Temperatures

      • E. Pantos, J. Davidovits, M. Gelfi, G. Cornacchia, E. Bontempi, P. Colombi et al.
      Pages 139-164

  5. DefensiveWeapons

    1. From Homer to Hoplite: Scientific Investigations of Greek Copper Alloy Helmets

      • Panagiota Manti, David Watkinson
      Pages 167-179

    2. Defensive Weapons in Homer

      • S. A. Paipetis, V. Kostopoulos
      Pages 181-203

    3. How the Greeks Got Ahead: Technological Aspects of Manufacture of a Corinthian Type Hoplite Bronze Helmet from Olympia

      • A. J. N. W. Prag, R. Garner, E. Pantos, S. L. Bennett, J. F. W. Mosselmans, M. J. Tobin et al.
      Pages 205-220

  6. Telecommunications

    1. Theoretical Analysis of Telecommunication through “Friktories”

      • Nikolaos Uzunoglu
      Pages 223-229

  7. Geology — Geomechanics

    1. Elements of Engineering Geology and Geotechnical Engineering in the Homeric Poems

      • Dimitrios Zekkos, George Athanasopoulos, Adda Athanasopoulos Zekkos, Ioannis Manousakis
      Pages 233-242

    2. Geological Knowledge of Greeks in the Era of Trojan War

      • Ilias D. Mariolakos
      Pages 243-255

    3. Static and Dynamic Analysis of the Atreus Vaulted Tomb in Mycenae

      • P. K. Askouni, H. A. Agelopoulou, M. G. Sfakianakis, D. E. Beskos
      Pages 257-265

  8. Medicine

    1. Homeric Injury Scenes on Ancient Greek Pottery Reveal Medical Knowledge

      • S. Geroulanos, A. Tasouli, E. Lymberopoulou, K. Papadopoulos
      Pages 269-274
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Keywords

About this book

In the Homeric Epics, important references to specific autonomous systems and mechanisms of very advanced technology, such as automata and artificial intelligence, as well as to almost modern methods of design and production are included. Even if those features of Homeric science were just poetic concepts (which on many occasions does not explain the astonishing details of design and manufacture, like the ones included in the present volume), they seem to prove that these achievements were well within human capability. In addition, the substantial development of machine theory during the early post-Homeric age shows that the Homeric descriptions were a kind of prophetic conception of these machines, and scientific research must be a quest for the fundamental principles of knowledge available during the Late Bronze Age and the dawn of the Iron Age.

Such investigations must of necessity be strongly interdisciplinary and also proceed continuously in time, since, as science progresses, new elements of knowledge are discovered in the Homeric Epics, amenable to scientific analysis.

This book brings together papers presented at the international symposium Science and Technology in Homeric Epics, which took place at Ancient Olympia in 2006. It includes a total of 41 contributions, mostly original research papers, covering diverse fields of science and technology, in the modern sense of these words.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    S. A. Paipetis

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Science and Technology in Homeric Epics

  • Editors: S. A. Paipetis

  • Series Title: History of Mechanism and Machine Science

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8784-4

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Engineering, Engineering (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-8783-7Published: 22 October 2008

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-94-017-8531-0Published: 20 September 2014

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-4020-8784-4Published: 20 October 2008

  • Series ISSN: 1875-3442

  • Series E-ISSN: 1875-3426

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XX, 536

  • Topics: Engineering Design, History of Science, History, general

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