The Unknown Technology in Homer (History of Mechanism and Machine Science, 9)

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 scienti?c 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 ?ve 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, scienti?c knowledge in the Homeric Epics and ?nally 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.

The astonishing accounts of almost modern technological achievements found in the Homeric Epics constitute one of the so-called Homeric Issues. The question is whether such achievements existed in reality or whether they were just poetic conceptions. Both views have their followers and adversaries. For example, robots, either in human form, as the golden girls serving Hephaestus, or in animal form, as the gold and silver mastiffs of King Alcinous, or even the intelligent, self-propelled ships of the Phaeacins, could hardly have existed in an era for which no evidence or even hints of prime movers exist. Even so, such references prove that the Mycenaean people were well aware of the importance of such devices, and this certainly acts as a catalyst for technological progress. On the othe hand, besides the unparallelled building ability of the Mycenaeans, as is the case with the Cyclopean Walls, technology specialists may locate examples of structures so advanced, that they can be considered modern with regard to materials, design and manufacture. Still, these can be well within the possibilities of the era. In fact, one can reasonably state, that, if the Mycenaean Civilisation had not collapsed, the world history of technology would be totally different. From the contents of the present book, a general conclusion can be drawn. The Homeric Epics include scientific and technological knowledge so vast and so diverse that it must be studied by specialists from as many disciplines as possible and also that this search must continue along with progressing science in our time, which will allow for increasingly deeper understanding of the great achievements of Greek Prehistory.

Indexed in the Book Citation Index– Science (BKCI-S)