Ancient Greek Inventions

Michael Lahanas

Εφευρέσεις των αρχαίων Ελλήνων

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Griechische Erfindungen

The most important Ancient Greek invention was the invention of True and not only Applied Science around 600 BC with Thales.

But as more arts were invented, and some were directed to the necessities of life, others to recreation, the inventors of the latter were naturally always regarded as wiser than the inventors of the former, because their branches of knowledge did not aim at utility. Hence when all such inventions were already established, the sciences which do not aim at giving pleasure or at the necessities of life were discovered, and first in the places where men first began to have leisure. This is why the mathematical arts were founded in Egypt; for there the priestly caste was allowed to be at leisure. Aristotle Metaphysics

The Invention of Knowledge (HTML) or (PDF 2MB)

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Promotion of Inventions

COINED Money

It must have been assisted by the great discovery of the early part of the former century, the invention of coined money. To the Lydians, rather than the Greeks, belongs the credit of the discovery; but it was the genius of the latter race that divined the importance of the invention and spread its use. The coinage of the Ionian towns goes back to the reign of Gyges (c. 675 B.C.). And it is in Ionia that commercial development is earliest and greatest. In the most distant regions the Ionian is first in the field. Egypt and the Black Sea are both opened up to Greek trade by Miletus, the Adriatic and the Western Mediterranean by Phocaea and Samos. It is significant that of the twelve states engaged in the Egyptian trade in the 6th century all, with the exception of Aegina, are from the eastern side of the Aegean (Herod. ii. 178). On the western side the chief centres of trade during these centuries were the islands of Euboea and Aegina and the town of Corinth. The Aeginetan are the earliest coins of Greece proper (around 650 BC); Ancient History Sourcebook: 11th Brittanica: History of Ancient Greece

Jacob's staff

Developed from Ptolemy's Triquetrum

Der Jakobsstab, Winkelmessinstrument der alten Seefahrer (German)

Maps

Although some believe that maps were produced first around 6200 BC the first reference in Western literature of a map is from Herodotus account of the interview between Aristagorous, tyrant of Miletus, and the Spartans. The first Greek assumed to have produced maps was Anaximander (c. 610-546 BC). Dikaiarch of Messina (350-290 BC) a Greek geographer introduces to the map making world the notion of latitude and longitude. Later Eratosthenes and Strabo produced the first Maps of the entire known World. Claudius Ptolemy who lived and worked in Alexandria, Egypt during the first half of the second century AD created a system of geographical knowledge (Guide to Geography c. 140 AD) that dominated the field for a millennium and a half.

He produced a world map with 26 regional maps and 67 local maps (all lost). Eight books in all.
He used a regular grid of parallels and meridians, i.e. a coordinate system (before Descartes).
Supported corrections of scale distortions in other maps, i.e. introduced map projections.
Mentions use of gnomon and astrolabe for pole star & sun.
Discounts travel stories.
Included a gazeteer (data bank) of about 8000 localities with their supposed longitudes and latitudes, and even appropriate captions for the maps. By 1740, only 116 places known.
See: Ptolemy the Geographer and his Maps

Thermometer

"The Greeks of Alexandria knew that air expanded as it was heated, and Philo of Byzantium, who was alive at the time of the birth of Christ, made a 'thermoscope' that must have been very like Galileo's air thermometer. But it was Galileo who, in 1592, was the first to put a scale besie the tube. This at once converted the device into a scientific instrument and made it possible to distinguish between temperature and heat. The study of heat as a form of energy depended on this distinction." Solutions to "A Millennium of Inventions

Tumbler Lock

Keys, Locks Dion Museum

Invented probably in Iraq, and Egypt around 1000 BC. In Greece it was greatly improved compared to the previous locks, which were simply a board drawn across a door. From Greece the lock moved into Europe.

Homer Odyssey 21:

She quickly took the looped thong from its hook,
put in the key, and with a push shoved back the bolt.
Just as a bull grunts when it grazes in a meadow,
that how the key's force made the fine door creak,   
and it quickly swung ajar.

References

HISTORY OF LOCKS

Mara Bishop and Amanda Payne Burton (Museum of Inventions)

Central Heating

Central heating appears to have been invented in ancient Greece, but it was the Romans who became the supreme heating engineers of the ancient world with their hypocaust system. Central heating was adopted for use again in the early 19th century when the Industrial Revolution caused an increase in the size of buildings for industry, residential use, and services." - Britannica

Inventions Painting, Sculture, Music

Chelys-Lyra, Greece, 400 BC

Frame Harp (400 AD)

See Inventions in Sikyon

Comments by Ancient Greeks about Inventions