Hephaistos returning from exile in a winged cart
Now that the Antikythera Device has been virtually re-established and has been shown to be an extremely complex instrument used to predict various astronomic events, it reminds me that I am glad that when I studied Ancient Greek Philosophy, I became an adherent of Felix Cleve and his mentor, Adolf Stöhr.
They are not the foremost names one sees in conjunction with studies about Ancient Greek Philosophy, but to me they were the real deal, metaphysically speaking.
Their approach to Pythagoras was exemplary: a geometrical intensive approach which was fully in keeping with the nature of Pythagoras and his philosophy, and much more mathematically focused than the works of other scholars, who were great friends of Demosthenes (i.e., their Greek was superb) but not too friendly with Euclid (not sharp in mathematics).
As I have said before, I was mightily impressed by the fact that Homer's Iliad contains references to golden robotic maidens and self-propelled tripods that are in the realm of Hephaistos, the god of craft and cunning, fire and metal-working.
(Gods were Powers, object of the universe. Hephaistos and Athena were the powers of craft and created Pandora, the first woman, establishing a connection between themselves and the ancient Egyptian god of Craft and Technology, Khnum.)
Then there was the story of Talos, a statue that had motion and guarded his island from intruders. He was immobolized by a hero opening a pin in his ankle and letting his "life force" drain out: suspiciously redolent of a hydraulic device that had a hydraulic fluid reservoir at its lowest point.
And we are now at an age where all the ancient stone mazes and henges are accepted as sundials or observatories, pointing at the sun and the planets, buildings built to discover and archive the important knowledge of the passage of time.
Perhaps there is a gift from antiquity yet to come.
Short Video (without sound) of the workings of the Antikythera device
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2 comments:
Sometimes I am just awed by the stuff you know. How in heaven's name do you remember all this stuff? I remember only that I used to know it most of the time.
I know. I can feel for people who sit down in front of the computer and struggle to come up with something. I frequently just sit down and start typing and things just take over.
I struggle trying to get away from the keyboard. "Enough!" I cry. "You aren't that interesting! Stop now!"
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