was the inventor of the first steam engine Egyptian or Greek? Posted by Djehuti (Member # 6698) on :
^ Good question. Unfortunately there are no surviving records of his personal life including parentage, siblings, or any marriage. It's presumed that he was Greek but it is just as likely he was a Hellenized Egyptian or of mixture of both ancestries.
It's the same question regarding the female mathematician and inventor Hypatia several centuries after Heron.
Posted by Elite Diasporan (Member # 22000) on :
I think she was Greek. Can be wrong.
Posted by Djehuti (Member # 6698) on :
^ Click on the Hypatia link and read about her. Again, we don't know for certain her ancestry. Hypatia's father was the reknowned philosopher and mathematician Theon of Alexandria. While we aren't certain about his ancestry either, presuming that he was Greek there still remains the question about her mother who is unnamed.
Posted by Elite Diasporan (Member # 22000) on :
^Just did and thanks.
Posted by Djehuti (Member # 6698) on :
A note to everyone in here. Just because a person living in Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman eras had Greek names does not necessarily mean they were Greek or at least had only Greek.
A perfect example of this would be Cleopatra and her sisters.
Posted by the questioner (Member # 22195) on :
