THE CONCEPT OF FLIGHT IN THE ANCIENT GREEK THOUGHT

The desire to fly came on very early in human history, as shown in the various mythologies around the globe. The skies of Greece may have inspired its inhabitants a bit more. We often come across it in the rich ancient mythology, where gods and various other creatures usually fly, either with the help of some magical power or with the help of some technical means. The gods of Olympus were the first to fly, afterwards came some beings carrying messages, and so we come to Daedalus and Icarus and finally to the first improvised airplane, the flying machine of Archytas! Then Alexander “flew”, feeding the novels of Hellenistic literature, and then came the unsurpassed Lucian with his heroes flying through space. Before we get to the first airplanes, in 1912, we take a glimpse at Byzantine flying and then the precursor air balloons of the Turkish Empire; we know how this dream of flight influenced literature and laid the foundations for science fiction. Let us embark, then, on the journey of Greek thought in the skies…