The Unknown Technology in Homer / Edition 1

by S. A. Paipetis

Overview

Using such terms as science and technology, which have been relatively - cently adopted, to write about situations and events that occurred 2,500 years ago, may be a paradox. The Homeric Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, refer to the Mycenean Era, a civilisation that—ourished from the 16th to 12th c- tury BCE. The seeming paradox ceases to be one when modern specialists, searching through the ancients texts, discover knowledge and applications so advanced, that can be termed as scientific or technological in the modern sense of the words. The present book is based on extensive research performed by the author and his associates at the University of Patras, along with the presentations of other researchers at two international symposia, which he organized in 1 Ancient Olympia. It consists of five parts, of which Part I is introductory, including such chapters as Homer and Homeric Epics, Troy and the mythological causes of the War, Achilles and his wrath, the siege and fall of Troy, Odysseus’ long way home, the Trojan war and the cultural tradition, scientific knowledge in the Homeric Epics and finally an account on science and technology. Part II includes three chapters on applications of principles of natural s- ence, including chariot racing and the laws of curvilinear motion, creep in wood and hydrodynamics of vortices and the gravitational sling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789048125135
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	06/15/2010
Series:	History of Mechanism and Machine Science , #9
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

Table of Contents

Provisional Table of Contents, April 2008: Preface; PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. HOMER AND HOMERIC EPICS 2. TROY AND THE MYTHOLOGICAL CAUSES OF THE WAR 3. ACHILLES AND THE 'MENIS' 4. THE WAR AND THE FALL OF TROY 5. THE ODYSSEY OF HOMECOMING 6. TROJAN WAR AND CULTURAL TRADITION 7. KNOWLEDGE IN THE HOMERIC EPICS 8. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PART II: PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL SCIENCE 9. CURVILINEAR MOTION 10. CREEP IN WOOD 11. HYDRODYNAMICS OF VORTICES AND THE GRAVITY SLING PART III: AUTOMATION AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 12. HEPHAESTUS' FORGE 12.1 The bellows 12.2 The self-propelled tripods 12.3 The traps 13. THE ROBOTS OF HEPHAESTUS 14. THE PHAEACIAN SHIPS AND THE UAV9s PART IV: DEFENSIVE WEAPONS IN THE EPICS 15. STRUCTURAL MATERIALS IN HOMER AND IN MODERN TIMES 16. THE SHIELD OF ACHILLES 17. THE SHIELD OF AJAX 18. OTHER DEFENSIVE WEAPONRY 18.1 The helmet of Ulysses 18.2 The shield of Hercules according to Hesiode 18.3 The Roman shield according to Polybius PART V: FURTHER ISSUES 19. THE TROJAN HORSE 20. MYCENAEAN BUILDiNG 21. THE ADMIRABLE HOMERIC METER EPILEGOMENON AND CONCLUSIONS APPENDIX: THE FORGE (a literary and symbolic approach)